The accolades come at the end of a year which saw her win three gold medals at both of the disciplines' World Championships.

At the World Orienteering Championships in Estonian city Tartu, Alexandersson defended her women's middle-distance and long-distance titles before helping her country to claim the women's relay crown for the first time since 2004.

Her victory in the middle-distance event also secured her a fourth-straight victory in the overall World Cup.

"The terrain in Estonia suited me really well," Alexandersson said.

"I found the flow in my orienteering.

"I made hardly any mistakes at all and that pays off extra in this type of terrain.

"That was one of the reasons for the quite-big victory margins."

A few months prior to her triple success in Tartu, Alexandersson secured a hat-trick of gold medals at the World Ski Orienteering Championships in Krasnoyarsk in Russia. 

She partnered Erik Rost to victory in the sprint relay and went on to triumph in the sprint and middle-distance events.  

"They were almost perfect races for me," said Alexandersson, who also won four medals at this year's European Ski Orienteering Championships, including two golds.

"I didn't make any mistakes at all.

"I think they were my best-ever races in ski orienteering.

"Unfortunately the last part of the adventure in Russia wasn't what I wanted.

"My room-mate Magdalena Olsson got the flu the day before the long-distance.

"I was uncertain before the start and I decided that if I should feel anything strange in my body during the race I would retire from the competition immediately, and that was the case."