Christoph Stephan
Christoph Stephan ( born January 12, 1986 in Rudolstadt ) is a German biathlete.
Career
Raised in Rudolstadt and living in Oberhof Christoph Stephan starts for the WSV Oberhof 05 eV his first steps on skis he made in SV 1883 Schwarza before he moved to the sports high school in 1996 and a member of the WSV Oberhof Oberhof was 05 eV. He is coached by former biathlete Mark Kirchner. Stephan was able to achieve great success at the Junior World Championships in 2007 in Martell. After he had reached the sixth place in the individual, he won the sprint, pursuit and with the season and was a three time Junior World Champion.
His debut in the Biathlon World Cup, he gave in 2006 in Kontiolahti in the sprint, which he finished at Rank 56. The first World Cup points, he reached in March 2007 by his 14th place in a single race in Lahti. A week later he won the World Cup in Oslo in single race a 11th place. His first top- ten finish he achieved in 2008 on his birthday in Ruhpolding with an 8th place in the sprint. At the beginning of the season 2008/ 09 he could improve his best result so far still a place in the first pursuit race of the season in Ostersund. He also reached the best runtime in the race. Only three days earlier occupied Stephan still as 95 of the first season 's Singles have hitherto worst result in the World Cup. The first podium of his career he reached in his fourth World Cup season use in January 2009 in Ruhpolding, as the due Michael Greis ' injury umformierte Season surprisingly ran in second place in the cast Rösch, Stephan, Peiffer and long. Here Stephan had to reduce the deficit on the later victorious Norwegians after only one shooting error to 2.4 seconds. His first World Cup victory later succeeded in a short time 25 January 2009 the mass start race in Antholz, he could after one penalty prevail down the stretch against Landertinger and Ivan Tscheresow. Stephen was nominated as one of six German starters for the World Championships in Pyeongchang. Place 22 in the quadruple triumph of Norwegians in the sprint ended his first competition, in the subsequent pursuit race he fell with eight penalties, back to square 41. For the individual competition over 20km so he moved in after the team only because of a disease of the originally planned Andreas Birnbacher. Here he was greatly improved when shooting, when he met 19 of 20 targets. He finished second behind Ole Einar Bjørndalen and won the hitherto biggest success of his career. With this performance, he qualified as at that time the 15th of the overall World Cup also for the final mass start race in which he finished in 21st place. At the conclusion of competition in Pyeongchang he won with Michael Rösch, Arnd Peiffer and Michael Greis nor the bronze medal in the Men's Relay. In the Summer Biathlon World Championships 2009 in Oberhof Christoph Stephan won with Magdalena Neuner, Tina Bachmann and Michael Rösch the gold medal in the mixed relay and the title in the sprint. In the pursuit he took second place. At the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010, he reached the 19th place in the sprint, 23rd in the mass start, 29th place in the individual race and the 30th place in the chase in the individual competitions.
In the season 2011/12 Christoph Stephan has voluntarily waived, among other things because of health problems to participate in the World Cup and at the home World Cup in Ruhpolding. In the long run, he wanted to prepare for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
For the Biathlon World Cup 2012/2013 Stephan was reported in conveying cadres of the German national team. In the Olympic 2013/2014 season he moved up to the first race in the World Cup squad and qualified for participation in the Olympic Games.
Stephan is engaged to former biathlete Sabrina Buchholz.
Biathlon World Cup rankings
The table shows all placements (depending on the year, including hosting the Olympic Games and World Championships ).
Awards
- Golden Ski 2009
- Thuringian athletes of 2009