Marc-André Bedard (born February 19, 1986) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

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 ti ...

. Bédard was born in

Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier () is a municipality in the Capitale-Nationale region of Quebec, Canada, located in the Jacques-Cartier River valley. It has been home to the Canadian Forces Base Valcartier since World War I. History In 1647, Robert ...

Québec Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...

and started cross-country skiing as a child. At the age of fourteen he changed to biathlon. His role-model is Olympic gold medalist Myriam Bédard. In an interview he once stated, that it was his dream to finish as the winner in an Olympic race like she had in the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...

, 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 munici ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Since 2004 he has started in European races regularly. He competes in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

and in European continental championships. His first appearance was in a relay event, the first race as a single starter was in 2006. Still in cadet's age he also competed at the Junior World Championships in 2004, 2005 and 2007, winning two silver and a bronze medal with the Canadian relay team with teammates

Jean-Philippe Leguellec Jean-Philippe Le Guellec (born 31 July 1985) is a former Canadian biathlete. Le Guellec began competing in the biathlon in 1999, and joined the national team in 2003. He had significant success at the Junior World Championships, winning two med ...

and François Leboeuf as well as Maxime Leboeuf,

Brendan Green Brendan Green (born November 4, 1986) is a Canadian biathlete and cross-country skier. He began skiing at three years of age and began competition under coach Pat Bobinski. He won Biathlon Canada's Myriam Bedard Award. Brendan competed for Cana ...

and Yannick Letailleur respectively. He became Canadian champion in the sprint competition 2004 through 2006, and finished among the top three in almost every other Canadian championship race. In 2006 Bédard finished third in the North-American championships in the pursuit event. His first win was in a European Cup race which came on March 12, 2008 when he finished the sprint event in first place. The base for the win was laid in the shooting range clearing all targets. He became only the third Canadian biathlete to win an international competition after

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

and

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 ...

Myriam Bédard and Sandra Keith, who had won a European Cup race earlier in 2003. He competed at the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

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* * * 1986 births Living people Canadian male biathletes Canadian male sport shooters

Sportspeople from Quebec An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

Olympic biathletes for Canada Biathletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics 21st-century Canadian sportsmen {{Canada-biathlon-bio-stub