Rinnat Safin

Rinnat Ibragimowitsch Safin (Russian Риннат Ибрагимович Сафин; born August 29, 1940 in Bolshiye Yaki, Tatarstan ) is a former Soviet biathlete and Olympic champion.

Rinnat Safin is one of the most successful Soviet and international biathletes the second half of the 1960s and the first half of the 1970s, although he usually stood in the shadow of his great compatriot Alexander Tikhonov, at whose side he gained his greatest successes. In the Biathlon World Championships 1967 in Altenberg, the athlete Dynamo Leningrad in fourth place missed five seconds behind Jon Istad his first medal over 20 kilometers. In the relay competition he won with Tikhonov, Viktor Mamatow and Nikolai Pusanow behind the Norwegians with silver his first international medal.

At the 1968 Olympic Winter Games Safin did not participate. In 1969, he started again, now in Zakopane, at Biathlon World Championships. Behind Tikhonov, he won his first and only international silver individual medal, with Tikhonov and Vladimir Mamatow Gundarzew in the relay competition his first gold medal. In Östersund, he won again in 1970, now with Alexander Ushakov for Gundarzew, the relay gold medal.

Safin won in 1971 in Hämeenlinna for the third time relay gold, fourth man was now Nikolai Muschitow. In individual he reached number five. In 1972 he took part in Sapporo to his only Olympic Games. He achieved in single rank 19 with a comparatively poor placement, he won with Tikhonov, Mamatow and Ivan Bjakow the gold medal in the relay competition. The fourth and last world title in the relay Safin won in 1973 in Lake Placid. Besides Tikhonov and Safin Yuri Kolmakow and Gennady Kovalev were part of the season.