Raphaël Poirée

2 (2005/ 2006) 3 (2004/ 2005, 2006 /2007)

Raphaël Poirée ( born August 9, 1974 in Rives, Isère, France ) is a former French biathlete.

Biathlon career

Rise

Raphaël Poirées international biathlon career began in 1994 by winning two Junior World Champion titles. In the Biathlon World Cup, he first appeared in the 1995/96 season appreciably in appearance, when he finished at the end of the season 17th in the overall World Cup. His first World Cup win was Poirée in the 1997/98 season on 8 January 1998 in the sprint in Ruhpolding, with fifth place in the overall World Cup reached Poirée his first top- 10 ranking. In March 1998, he also won his first medal at the World Championships, the pursuit race in Slovenian Pokljuka he won bronze. In the following season, he finished as last season in fifth place in the overall World Cup.

Successful years

With the start of season 1999 /00 the years in which developed Poirée one of the dominant athletes of Biathlon started. He won three consecutive overall World Cup and was a long-time rival of the Norwegian Ole Einar Bjørndalen. Also at the World Championships Poirée was successfully several times: in the years 2000 to 2002 he won three times in a row the World Champion title in the mass start, which gave him the oft-quoted title "Master of the Mass Start " earned. In addition, he won in 2001 with the French relay gold medal.

Less successful for Poirée the 2002/03 season. In the overall World Cup, he finished fourth at the World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, he won only a bronze medal in the mass start. For the most successful season in the career of the French, however, the 2003/04 season has been Poirée won for the fourth time overall World Cup and all disciplines World Cup. At the 2004 World Championships in Oberhof, he was with three gold medals in sprint, individual and mass start of the most successful athlete in the World Cup and made his wife a record: The couple won seven out of ten gold medals.

No luck at the Olympic Games

An Olympic gold medal remained Raphaël Poirée denied despite participating in three Olympics. In 2002 he won in Salt Lake City with the silver medal in the pursuit of his only Olympic individual medal with the French relay he won in 2002 and 2006 in Turin each bronze.

End of career

During the 2007 World Championships in Antholz Poirée announced after the gold medal in singles to finish his career at the end of the 2006/07 season. He finished the World Cup with a complete set of medals, in addition to the gold medal in singles Poirée took silver with the French mixed relay and bronze in the mass start.

The races after the World Cup went for him as opposed to the start of the season extremely successful. This performance difference was explained in season two halves so that he and his wife had a child expected. After the birth of his second child was Poirée, which also already knew that it would be his last race, especially relaxed. In the third last World Cup station in Lahti, Finland, he was able to win all three races. This winning streak he sat at the penultimate World Cup station in Oslo on to the victory in singles. This marked the first in a single World Cup discipline and brought Poirée after an initial little satisfactory development season in the World Cup again in promising position. He finished his penultimate race behind Bjørndalen on a second place. Poirée played his last World Cup race with a mass start on 11 March 2007 in Oslo, which he finished in second place. Even here could only show a photo finish that he was beaten by only a few inches from his years of continuous rival Ole Einar Bjørndalen. All eight of his last individual race, he was able to finish on the podium, he was five times first, second twice and third once. The trip to Khanty-Mansiysk to the last World Cup station he no longer made ​​with, even though he was in the World Cup just a few points behind leader Michael Greis.

His last race contested Poirée outside the Biathlon World Cup: The Military World Championships in 2007 in the Estonian Võru he won on March 22, the world title in the sprint at the French championships he could on March 30 in Le Grand- Bornand also the mass start for decide. In early 2008 took Poirée still at several ski marathon fun runs successfully participated, including the legendary Worldloppet run Transjurassienne in the French Jura, where he missed the podium by a few inches to the fourth rank.

After his career, Poirée will mainly take care of his family. At the 2008 World Championships in Östersund, he was employed as an expert on Euro Sport. He also works as a trainer in Norway, among others, Lars Berger.

Before the season 2012/2013 Raphael Poirée changed as a coach to Belarus. His family, ie wife Liv Grete and the three girls should continue to live in Norway. The collaboration was initially planned only up to the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. Poirée worked with, among others, the German Klaus Siebert, who was honored for his work from the beginning of April, the Belarusian Association. The coaching project ended, however, early in April 2013 by mutual agreement.

Balance

His greatest successes achieved Raphaël Poirée at World Championships, since 2000 he has been a total of eight times world champion and won 18 World Championship medals (8x Gold, 3x Silver, Bronze 7x ). He is also a four-time overall World Cup winner and reached 44 World Cup victories. He is by Ole Einar Bjørndalen the most successful biathlete in the World Cup.

Poirée is also next to his compatriot Martin Fourcade of so far the only biathlete in the men who succeeded, the overall World Cup and all World Cup disciplines in one season to win ( 2003/ 04). In his career, he managed ten World Cup ratings and discipline - along with the four overall World Cup victories - 14 World Cup votes to decide for themselves. More World Cup votes won in the men's only Ole Einar Bjørndalen.

Private life

Poirée was married from 2000 to 2013 with the former Norwegian biathlete Liv Grete Poirée (born Skjelbreid ). They have three daughters together. His brother Gaël Poirée is also a former biathlete. Ann- Elen Skjelbreid, the sister of Liv Grete is also a biathlete. Egil Gjelland, his former brother in law is athlete ambassador of development organization Right to Play.

The end of 2009 he had an accident with his quad and was treated to the end of January 2010 in a hospital.

Total score in the World Cup

The table shows all placements (depending on the year, including hosting the Olympic Games and World Championships ).