Mark Kirchner

Mark Kirchner
Personal information
Full name Mark Kirchner
Born (1970-04-04) 4 April 1970
Neuhaus am Rennweg, Thuringia, East Germany
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Professional information
Sport Biathlon
World Cup debut 14 December 1989
Olympic Games
Teams 2 (1992, 1994)
Medals 4 (3 gold)
World Championships
Teams 6 (1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997)
Medals 10 (7 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 9 (1989/90–1997/98)
Individual victories 7
Individual podiums 12
Discipline titles 1:
1 Individual (1990–91)

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

Life and career

Kirchner won gold in the 10 km sprint at the Albertville Olympics in 1992 and followed that up by taking silver in the 20 km individual and gold in the relay.[1] Therefore, the only race he could not claim a gold medal in was the 20 km individual where the out-of-the-blue win by Eugeni Redkine of Russia prevented him from becoming an absolute champion of these Games.

In 1994 in Lillehammer, he was his country's flag bearer and was part of the gold-medal winning relay team. He made the youngest triple Olympic Champion in biathlon ever as by February 1994 he was just 23 years and 10 months old.

Kirchner came second in the overall World Cup standings twice which happened in the two consecutive seasons of 1990–91 and 1991–92 the former behind Sergei Tchepikov of the USSR and the latter behind Mikael Löfgren of Sweden.

In addition Kirchner became World Champion multiple times.

He retired relatively early in 1998 at the age of 28.

Subsequently, Kirchner was employed as an assistant of Frank Ullrich, 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.[2]

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.[3]

Olympic Games

4 medals (3 gold, 1 silver)

Event Individual Sprint Relay
France 1992 Albertville Silver Gold Gold
Norway 1994 Lillehammer 7th 12th Gold

World Championships

10 medals (7 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Team Relay
Soviet Union 1990 Minsk 13th Gold N/A Gold Bronze
Finland 1991 Lahti Gold Gold N/A — Gold
Bulgaria 1993 Borovets 20th Gold N/A — Bronze
Italy 1995 Antholz-Anterselva 15th 52nd N/A — Gold
Germany 1996 Ruhpolding — 36th N/A 6th —
Slovakia 1997 Brezno-Osrblie 43rd 32nd 14th Silver —
*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)

Season Date Location Discipline Level
1989–90
1 victory
(1 Sp)		10 March 1990Norway Oslo Holmenkollen10 km sprintBiathlon World Championships
1990–91
4 victories
(3 In, 1 Sp)		31 January 1991Germany Oberhof20 km individualBiathlon World Cup
19 February 1991Finland Lahti10 km sprintBiathlon World Championships
24 February 1991Finland Lahti20 km individualBiathlon World Championships
7 March 1991Norway Oslo Holmenkollen20 km individualBiathlon World Cup
1991–92
2 victories
(1 In, 1 Sp)		12 February 1992France Albertville10 km sprintWinter Olympic Games
10 March 1992Norway Skrautvål20 km individualBiathlon World Cup
1992–93
3 victories
(1 In, 2 Sp)		19 December 1992Slovenia Pokljuka10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
13 February 1993Bulgaria Borovets10 km sprintBiathlon World Championships
11 March 1993Sweden Östersund20 km individualBiathlon World Cup
1996–97
1 victory
(1 In)		6 March 1997Japan Nagano20 km individualBiathlon World Cup
*Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.

References

  1. ↑ "PROFILE - MARK KIRCHNER (GER)". International Biathlon Union. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "Coaching Changes in Germany and Austria". International Biathlon Union. 8 April 2014. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "Mark Kirchner". IBU Datacenter. International Biathlon Union. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
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