Michael Rösch (born 4 May 1983) is a German and Belgian (since 2014) 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

He is the son of the former biathlete

Eberhard Rösch Eberhard Rösch (born 9 April 1954) is a former East German biathlete. Rösch finished third overall in the World Cup in the 1977–78 and 1979–80 seasons. He worked for 17 years as a Stasi informer. He is the father of the currently active ...

. He was junior world champion four times, three times in the relay and once in the sprint distance in 2003. On 16 December 2005 Rösch took his first official world cup podium with a second in the 10 km sprint, and on 15 January 2006 he won his first world cup victory in

Ruhpolding Ruhpolding is the municipality with the biggest area of the Traunstein district in southeastern Bavaria, Germany. It is situated in the south of the Chiemgau region in the Alps and next to the Austrian border. Ruhpolding has a biathlon track. ...

when he beat

Raphaël Poirée Raphaël Poirée (born 9 August 1974) is a retired French biathlete who was active from 1995 to 2007. With his 44 World Cup victories and several World Championship medals he ranks among the most successful biathletes ever. Sports career Poi ...

. In 2006, he won an Olympic gold medal with the German team in the relay. In addition, Rösch finished fifth in the overall standings in the

2005–06 Biathlon World Cup The 2005–06 Biathlon World Cup was a multi-race tournament over a season of biathlon, organised by the International Biathlon Union. The 2006 Winter Olympics were part of the Biathlon World Cup. The season lasted from 26 November 2005 to 26 Marc ...

. He also took three World Championship bronze medals in relays and two race wins in 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 ...

. However, in subsequent years Rösch suffered a dip in form, which led to him not being selected for the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

. The decline in Rösch's results saw him being dropped by the

German Ski Association The German Ski Association (german: Deutscher Skiverband or DSV) is the national governing body for skiing in Germany. The organisation was founded in 1905 among local ski clubs. The German Ski Association represents international interests of th ...

(DSV) from international competition, both from the World Cup and the second-tier

IBU Cup The IBU Cup in biathlon has been held since the winter seasons of 1982–83 and 1988–89, for women and men, respectively. Until the 2007–08 season this competition was called European Cup. It is the second-rank competition in biathlon after th ...

. When his improved performances saw him set to be picked for the 2012 Biathlon World Championships, the DSV did not select him, escalating disputes between himself and the Association and eventually leading him to switch nationalities and apply for

Belgian citizenship Belgian nationality law provides for the conditions in which a person holds Belgian nationality and is based on a mixture of the principles of ''jus sanguinis'' and ''jus soli''. Belgian nationality is the status of being a citizen of Belgium. N ...

. However, Rösch's naturalisation was not completed until January 2014, leaving him without enough time to qualify for 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 ...

. During this period, in order to rebuild his sporting career, he resigned from his position in the police force in Germany, and moved back in with his parents. Whilst competing for Belgium, Rösch initially trained with

Alexander Os Alexander Os (born 21 January 1980) is a former Norwegian 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 dist ...

and Lars Berger, who had similarly been dropped by the

Norwegian Biathlon Association The Norwegian Biathlon Association ( no, Norges Skiskytterforbund) (NSSF) was founded 10 December 1983 and is a Norwegian association for biathlon, and is a member of the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports and th ...

, in a training group they humorously nicknamed the "Feskslog" - Norwegian for "fish waste". He later switched to training with the Swiss biathlon squad. He made his debut for Belgium at an IBU Cup meeting in Martell, Italy in March 2014, taking two top 20 finishes in the sprint and pursuit there. These performances earned him a wild card for the 2014-15 World Cup season. After switching countries, in August 2014 he became the first Belgian biathlete to win a global title when he took the gold medal in the pursuit at the Summer Biathlon World Championships in

Tyumen Tyumen ( ; rus, Тюмень, p=tʲʉˈmʲenʲ, a=Ru-Tyumen.ogg) is the administrative center and largest city of Tyumen Oblast, Russia. It is situated just east of the Ural Mountains, along the Tura River. Fueled by the Russian oil and gas indu ...

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 ...

, having already taken a silver in the sprint the previous day. Rösch also led the first Belgian World Cup relay team. In December 2016, he finished sixth in the pursuit at the Pokljuka World Cup meeting - his first top ten World Cup finish in solo competition since 2009: Rösch subsequently said that this result was "a bigger success than the Olympic gold medal. There was a lot more in it after all the setbacks". In a tearful interview by the finish line, he dedicated the result to his late former coach,

Klaus Siebert Klaus Siebert (29 April 1955 – 24 April 2016) was a German biathlete and biathlon coach who raced for East Germany. Career At the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, Siebert won a silver medal on the relay with the East German relay team ...

. He also became the first Belgian to take a podium in the top two tiers of biathlon competition when he finished second in an IBU Cup race. In 2018, he competed at his second Olympics, twelve years after his first, after

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

the equivalent of over US$28,500 to enable him to do so. He finished in 23rd position in the pursuit, 38th in the sprint and 75th in the

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 ...

. In January 2019, at the Oberhof

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

meeting, Rösch announced that he would retire from competition after the next weekend's following World Cup round in

, explaining that he felt it was the right time to retire as he was expecting to become a father for the first time, with his girlfriend being due to give birth in March.

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

''1 medals (1 gold)''

World Championships

''3 medals (3 bronze)'' :''*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.'' :''**In 2005 the mixed relay, contested for the first time in the World Championships, was held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.''

Individual victories

''2 victories (1 Sp, 1 Pu)'' :''*Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the

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

Official homepage of Michael Rösch
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosch, Michael 1983 births German male biathletes Living people Olympic biathletes for Germany Olympic biathletes for Belgium Biathletes at the 2006 Winter Olympics Biathletes at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in biathlon Biathlon World Championships medalists Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Belgian male biathletes Naturalised citizens of Belgium People from Pirna Sportspeople from Saxony People from Bezirk Dresden