Laura Dahlmeier (; born 22 August 1993) is a retired German

biathlete The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not time ...

. Dahlmeier started in her first world cup races in the 2012/13 season. In 2014, she participated in the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

. She won a record of five gold medals at the World Championships of 2017. In 2018 she became the first woman to win the biathlon sprint and pursuit in the same Olympics. During her career she has won a total of two golds and one bronze at the Olympics, seven gold medals, three silver medals and five bronze medals at World Championships, one overall World Cup and two discipline World Cup titles. Dahlmeier announced her retirement from competition in May 2019, at the age of 25. In October 2019, she released a children's book.

Career

Biathlon career

At the 2013 Biathlon Junior World Championships in

Obertilliach Obertilliach is a municipality in the district of Lienz, in the Austrian state of Tyrol. Geography It is located in East Tyrol, in a high valley of the upper Gail River east of the Kartitsch Saddle known as Lesachtal, between the Gailtal Alps ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, Dahlmeier took three gold medals in the individual, sprint and relay, as well as a silver in the pursuit. Following this, she was selected for the German team in the women's relay at the 2013 Biathlon World Championships: racing in the third leg, she shot clean and overcame a 38 second deficit to hand over with Germany in the lead. Dahlmeier completed her first full World Cup campaign the following season: she enjoyed further success in World Cup relays, however she was unable to secure a solo podium finish, and did not make an impact at the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Dahlmeier's start to her 2014–15 season was delayed due to injury, and she made her World Cup season debut at

Pokljuka The Pokljuka Plateau () is a forested karst plateau at an elevation of around , located in the Julian Alps in northwestern Slovenia. The plateau is known for its forests, mountain pastures (Javornik, Lipanca, Uskovnica, Zajamniki, etc.), and w ...

in December 2014. Two months later she took her first World Cup win in

Nové Město na Moravě Nové Město na Moravě (; german: Neustadt in Mähren) is a town in Žďár nad Sázavou District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,800 inhabitants. It is known as a winter sports resort. The historic town centre is wel ...

, following which she took another six podiums, including a second win, and her first two senior World Championship medals, a silver in the pursuit and a gold in the women's relay. In 2015–16 she took five World Cup wins, and at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

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she took her first solo gold medal in the pursuit along with a silver in the

mass start {{refimprove, date=February 2018 Mass start is a format of starting in some racing sports such as long-distance running in sport of athletics, speed skating, long-distance cross-country skiing and biathlon. There are usually many competitors in ...

and bronzes in the sprint,

individual An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own Maslow ...

and women's relay. Dahlmeier enjoyed her best season in 2016–17, winning the overall World Cup and winning five golds and a silver at the

Hochfilzen Hochfilzen is a town and municipality in the Kitzbühel district of the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is located in the Pillersee valley 5 km east of Fieberbrunn. Population was 1,147 in 2016. It is a popular winter sports resort, especially f ...

, missing out on a sixth gold by four seconds in the sprint to

Gabriela Koukalová Gabriela may refer to: * Gabriela (given name), a Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian feminine given name * ''Gabriela'' (1942 film), a Czech film * ''Gabriela'' (1950 film), a German film * ''Gabriela'' (1983 film), a Brazilian film * ''Gabriela' ...

. She became the first woman in biathlon history to win five gold medals at a World Championships. The following season Dahlmeier's focus was on the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...

: at the Games she became the second German woman to take the Olympic gold in the sprint, shooting clean as one of only three competitors to hit all targets in windy conditions, before doubling up with a second title in the pursuit and additionally taking a bronze in the

. Dahlmeier's 2018–19 season was disrupted by illness, however she took a World Cup race win at Antholz in January 2019 before going on to take two bronzes at the 2019 World Championships in

Östersund Östersund (; sma, Staare) is an urban area (city) in Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth-largest lake, Storsjön, ...

in the sprint and the pursuit. After the end of the season, in May 2019 she announced her retirement from competition, stating that she no longer feels the 100% passion necessary for professional biathlon.

Post-biathlon career

On 18 October 2019, Dahlmeier released the children's book ''Die Klima Gang: Laura Dahlmeier und Freunde im Einsatz für die Natur'', which she co-authored. For the 2019-2020 Biathlon World Cup season, she served as an expert commentator for the German broadcaster ZDF. Since retiring from competitive biathlon Dahlmeier has competed in mountain running. In June 2019 she won the 39-kilometer Basetrail XL race of the Zugspitz Ultratrail in

Grainau Grainau is a municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in southern Bavaria, Germany. It is located at the foot of the Zugspitze mountain, the tallest mountain in Germany in the sub-mountain range of the Wetterstein Alps which is a b ...

, Germany. In September 2019 she won and set a new women's course record in the 52-kilometer Karwandelmarsch race from

Scharnitz Scharnitz is a municipality in the district of Innsbruck-Land in the Austrian state of Tyrol located north of Innsbruck and from Seefeld in Tirol on the German border. It is one of the largest municipalities and has 10 parts: Au, Eisack, Gieße ...

Pertisau Pertisau is a small village on the Achensee Lake in the Tyrol region of Austria. Pertisau is in the Schwaz (district). It is located in the Karwendel Alpine Park, one of the oldest, cross-border, protected areas of the Eastern Alps. The town was ...

in Austria. In November of that year she placed 27th at the 2019 World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships in Argentina.

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the

International Biathlon Union The International Biathlon Union (IBU; german: Internationale Biathlon-Union) is the international governing body of biathlon. Its headquarters were in Salzburg, Austria, until May 2020, when the Federation moved to Anif, on the outskirts of the ...

.International Biathlon Union
Laura Dahlmeier
IBU Datacenter. Retrieved 17 April 2016. On 17 May 2019, she announced her retirement from biathlon.

Olympic Games

''3 medals (2 gold, 1 bronze)'' :''*The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.''

World Championships

''15 medals (7 gold, 3 silver, 5 bronze)'' :''*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.'' :''**The single mixed relay was added as an event in 2019.''

Junior World Championships

European Youth Olympic Winter Festival

World Cup

Individual victories

* 22 victories – (4 , 11 , 3 , 4 ) :''*Results are from IBU races which include the

Biathlon World Cup The Biathlon World Cup is a top-level biathlon season-long competition series. It has been held since the winter seasons of 1977–78 Biathlon World Cup, 1977–78 for men and 1982–83 Biathlon World Cup, 1982–83 for women. The women's seasons ...

Biathlon World Championships The first Biathlon World Championships (BWCH) was held in 1958, with individual and team contests for men. The number of events has grown significantly over the years. Beginning in 1984, women biathletes had their own World Championships, and fina ...

and the

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were he ...

.''

Relay victories

Overall record

:''* Results in IBU World Cup races, Olympics and World Championships.''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dahlmeier, Laura 1993 births Living people Biathletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics Biathletes at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic biathletes for Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in biathlon Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics German female biathletes Sportspeople from Garmisch-Partenkirchen Biathlon World Championships medalists 21st-century German women