Wolfgang Pichler (born 23 January 1955 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. ...

) is a German

biathlon 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 tim ...

and

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

coach. Wolfgang Pichler formerly trained

Magdalena Forsberg Magdalena "Magda" Forsberg (née Wallin; born 25 July 1967) is a Swedish former cross-country skier and biathlete. She was the dominating female biathlete from 1997 to 2002, when she retired, winning the Biathlon World Cup for six years straight. ...

, and won with her six World Biathlon Championships and six

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 ...

titles. After her retirement, Pichler coached the Swedish biathlon team, both men and women, guiding the likes of

Helena Ekholm Helena Ekholm (née Helena Jonsson) (born September 6, 1984 in Sollefteå Municipality, Helgum) is a former Sweden, Swedish biathlon, biathlete. She was born in Helgum, Sollefteå Municipality. She is the 2009 world champion in pursuit and the 20 ...

Anna-Carin Olofsson Anna Carin Helena Cecilia Zidek (née Olofsson, born 1 April 1973) is a Swedish former biathlete who won a silver medal in the 7.5 km sprint and a gold medal in the 12.5 km mass start event at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Originally a cro ...

and

Björn Ferry Björn Ferry (born 1 August 1978 in Stensele, Storuman Municipality, Storuman, Västerbotten County, Västerbotten) is a former Sweden, Swedish biathlete and medal winning Olympian. He began competing internationally in World Cup competitions in ...

to Olympic and World Championship medals. He coached Sweden at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

successfully. Olofsson won the silver medal in sprint behind

Kati Wilhelm Kati Wilhelm (; born 2 August 1976 in Schmalkalden) is a German former professional biathlete. Like most German biathletes she is also a member of the German Armed Forces (''Bundeswehr'') with the rank of master sergeant (''Hauptfeldwebel''). Wi ...

. She then won a gold medal in mass start, the first for Sweden since 1960. Pichler coached the Russian female biathlon team in the season 2011/2012. After acting as a consultant to the Swedish biathlon team in the 2014-15 season, in April 2015 the

Swedish Biathlon Federation The Swedish Biathlon Federation ( sv, Svenska Skidskytteförbundet) is a special sports association for biathlon in Sweden. It was established in 1986. In November 1987 it was appointed into the Swedish Sports Confederation from 1 July 1988. Its ...

announced that Pichler had been re-appointed as the team's head coach. During this spell with the team he guided

Hanna Öberg Hanna Öberg (born 2 November 1995) is a Swedish biathlete. Career In 2017 she won the IBU Female Rookie of the Year Award for her World Cup debut season, with the male counterpart being awarded to her fellow Swede Sebastian Samuelsson. At th ...

and

Sebastian Samuelsson Sebastian Samuelsson (born 28 March 1997) is a Swedish biathlete who competes internationally. He participated in the 2018 Winter Olympics. There he won a silver medal in the 12.5 km pursuit event as well as the gold medal in the relay. He bec ...

to Olympic and World Championship medals. In addition at this time he coached British biathlete

Amanda Lightfoot Amanda Lightfoot (born 30 January 1987) is a British biathlete who competes in the IBU Cup. Lightfoot was born in Coventry. She took up the sport after first learning to ski at the age of nineteen. She is a Sergeant clerk in the Adjutant Gener ...

. Wolfgang's brother, Claus Pichler, is a

Social Democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

politician who was elected mayor of the brothers' home town of

. Walter Pichler, a fellow coach and former biathlete who took a bronze medal at the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

, is a cousin of the brothers. In January 2019, he announced he would resign from the position as Swedish national team coach following the 2018–2019 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pichler, Wolfgang 1955 births Living people German cross-country skiing coaches People from Traunstein (district) Sportspeople from Upper Bavaria