Mark Kirchner (born 4 April 1970) is a German former

biathlete The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing (sport), cross-country skiing and shooting sports, rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into sh ...

Life and career

Kirchner won gold in the 10 km sprint at the

Albertville Albertville (; Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile'') is a subprefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France. It is best known for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. In 2018, the commune had ...

Olympics in 1992 and followed that up by taking silver in the 20 km individual and gold in the relay. An out-of-the-blue win by Eugeni Redkine of the Unified Team in the 20 km individual prevented him taking honours as the absolute champion of these Games. In 1994 in

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

, he was his country's flag bearer and was part of the gold-medal winning relay team. He was the youngest ever triple Olympic Champion in biathlon, at the age of just 23 years and 10 month. Kirchner came second in the overall World Cup standings twice, behind

Sergei Tchepikov Sergei Vladimirovich Tchepikov (russian: Серге́й Влади́мирович Че́пиков; born 30 January 1967) is a Russian politician and a former Soviet-Russian biathlete and cross-country skier who competed at six Winter Olympics, ...

of the USSR in the 1990–91 season and behind

Mikael Löfgren Mikael Löfgren (born 2 September 1969) is a former Swedish biathlete. He became the Junior World Champion in 1986, aged 17. At the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, he won two bronze medals, one in the 4 × 7.5 km relay and one in the 20 ...

of Sweden in 1992–93. In addition Kirchner became

World Champion 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, ...

multiple times. He retired relatively early, at the age of 28, in 1998. Subsequently, Kirchner was employed as an assistant to

Frank Ullrich Frank Ullrich (, ; born 24 January 1958) is a German politician of the SPD and former biathlete and trainer of the German national team. Since 2021, he has been a member of the Bundestag. Career Biathlon was in Ullrich's family as his fathe ...

, the German biathlon male team head coach, with responsibilities including youth development. In April 2014, he was appointed as men's coach for the national team.

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 ...

Olympic Games

''4 medals (3 gold, 1 silver)''

World Championships

''10 medals (7 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)'' :''*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.'' :''**Pursuit was added as an event in 1997.''

Individual victories

''11 victories (6 In, 5 Sp)'' :''*Results are from UIPMB and 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 ...

.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirchner, Mark 1970 births Living people People from Neuhaus am Rennweg Sportspeople from Thuringia German male biathletes Biathletes at the 1992 Winter Olympics Biathletes at the 1994 Winter Olympics Olympic biathletes of Germany Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in biathlon Olympic silver medalists for Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany Biathlon World Championships medalists Holmenkollen Ski Festival winners German cross-country skiing coaches 20th-century German people People from Bezirk Suhl East German male biathletes