Vladimir Smirnov (skier)
Vladimir Mikhailovich Smirnov (Russian: Владимир Михайлович Смирнов; born March 7, 1964 in Schtschutschinsk, Location Aqmola ) is a former Kazakh skiers. He originally competed for the Soviet Union in 1992 still under the colors of the CIS, then for Kazakhstan.
Life and career
His first World Cup race denied Smirnov in December 1982, the 15 - km race in Davos. His first victory he celebrated in Kavgolovo 1986. Overall, he won 29 World Cup races in 1991 and 1994 he was the World Cup overall winner. In World Ski Championships he won five gold, three silver and three bronze medals. The most successful he was in 1995 in Thunder Bay, when he was three -time world champion.
Smirnov took from 1988 to 1998 at four Olympic Winter Games in part. In 1994, he became the first Olympic champion of newly independent Kazakhstan and received in the same year as the first Kazakh the Holmenkollen medal. He became friends with his biggest rival, the Norwegian Vegard Ulvang and Bjørn Dæhlie, and appeared in several TV shows of Dæhlie. Smirnov, director of the admissions committee of the city of Almaty for the 2014 Winter Olympics, but the application was not accepted in June 2006 for the second round.
From 1998 to 2004, Smirnov was a member of the Athletes' Commission of the IOC. He is a Vice President of the International Biathlon Union ( IBU ), the umbrella organization of all national biathlon federations. He lives in Sundsvall in Sweden, is married and has two daughters.
Achievements
Olympic Winter Games
World Championships
World Cup
- 30 victories in World Cup race
- Overall winner of the Nordic skiing World Cup in 1991 and 1994