Kaisa Leena Mäkäräinen (born 11 January 1983) is a Finnish former world-champion and 3-time world-cup-winning biathlete, who currently competes for Kontiolahden Urheilijat. Outside sports, Mäkäräinen is currently studying to be a Physics teacher at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu. Her team coach is Jonne Kähkönen, while Jarmo Punkkinen is her ski coach.
Career
Mäkäräinen was originally a cross-country skier and focused on this until the age of twenty. She started training for the biathlon in 2003. In 2004, she made the Finnish National Team. 2005 saw Mäkäräinen compete at the Biathlon World Championships for the first time. Her best placings in the Biathlon World Championships have occurred at the 2007 World Championships in Antholz-Anterselva, where she placed eighth in the individual 15 and seventh in the mass start events. At the 2008 Biathlon World Championships in Östersund, she was 15th in the mass start. During the 2007-08 Biathlon World Cup, she made it to the podium twice, the first time when she placed second in the sprint at Pokljuka, Slovenia and third in the pursuit at Ruhpolding, Germany. During the 2008–09 Biathlon World Cup, she has steadily risen in the rankings and on she placed second during the pursuit event and third in the mass start after Iourieva and Jonsson at Antholz.
Her best season so far has been the 2010-11 Biathlon World Cup. She made a strong start at the opening event in Östersund, where Mäkäräinen won her first ever World Cup victory in the sprint. Two days later she repeated her success by winning the pursuit, too. She showed her strong early-season form again in Hochfilzen and Pokljuka by reaching the podium in every single event.
Mäkäräinen's form fell somewhat after that as she managed to reach the podium only once in the next 12 starts. Despite this Mäkäräinen scored valuable points in every single race beside the mass start in Antholz. She entered the Biathlon World Championships 2011 in Khanty-Mansiysk in second place for the Overall World Cup (9 points behind Andrea Henkel), but regained the overall World Cup leader's yellow bib after taking the silver medal in the sprint. Mäkäräinen's flawless shooting and fourth-fastest course time secured her career-first gold medal in the pursuit the following day. Mäkäräinen became the second Finnish female to medal in biathlon and the first one since 1987 when Tuija Vuoksiala placed third in the individual . She is also the first Finnish biathlete to medal at the Biathlon World Championships since 2003, since Paavo Puurunen's bronze in the pursuit.
Despite her not-so-good performance in the individual competition and being tied for the overall lead by Helena Ekholm, Mäkäräinen managed to stay on top of the Overall World Cup classification until the very end of the season. In Holmenkollen she grabbed both the Overall and the Pursuit Titles. She was subsequently named the 2011 Finnish Sports Personality of the Year.
She has gone on to win two more overall World Cups, in 2013-14 and 2017-18.
Mäkäräinen has also competed in the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, and she finished 14th in the 10km freestyle event at the 2013 Nordic Skiing World Championships. She was also the 2013 Finnish national champion in the same event. She has continued competing in the national cross-country skiing championships even during her retirement. In January 2021, she notably won a silver medal in a 10 km freestyle competition, with only a few of Finland's current World Cup skiers absent from the event.
Biathlon results All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.International Biathlon Union. Kaisa Mäkäräinen. IBU Datacenter. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
Olympic Games 0 medals EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay 2010 Vancouver 46th 59th 45th — — 2014 Sochi 9th 30th 16th 6th — — 2018 Pyeongchang 13th 25th 22nd 10th 15th 6th
a. The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.
World Championships 6 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze) EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay 2005 Hochfilzen 49th 73rd — — 18th — rowspan="12" 2006 Pokljuka 19th 2007 Antholz 8th 29th 25th 7th 12th 16th 2008 Östersund 31st 55th DNS 15th 15th 10th 2009 Pyeongchang 30th 23rd 4th 17th — 6th 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk 18th 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 28th SilverGold 4th 10th 9th 2012 Ruhpolding 28th 27th 20th Bronze 18th 16th 2013 Nové Město 8th 9th 10th 17th 21st 19th 2015 Kontiolahti Bronze 35th 12th 15th 17th 9th 2016 Oslo 19th 9th 7th Bronze 17th 18th 2017 Hochfilzen 15th 12th 7th Bronze 15th 10th 2019 Östersund 45th 12th 17th 23rd — 10th 12th 2020 Antholz 21st 40th 22nd 14th 11th 9th —
a. During Olympic seasons "Mixed-Relay Championships" were held for those events not included in the Olympic program. b. The single mixed relay was added as an event in 2019.
Junior/Youth World Championships
EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay 2004 Haute-Maurienne 23rd 51st 39th —
World Cup standings Season Age Overall Sprint Pursuit Individual Mass start Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position2004/05 22 2/27 0 1/10 0 0/9 0 1/4 0 0/4 0 2005/06 23 15/26 18 62nd 9/10 10 63rd 5/8 4 63rd 1/3 4 54th 0/5 0 2006/07 24 22/27 230 27th 8/10 60 29th 6/8 16 47th 3/4 78 8th 5/5 74 16th2007/08 25 23/26 386 13th 9/10 178 10th 6/8 108 15th 3/3 11 43rd 5/5 80 14th2008/09 26 24/26 577 14th 9/10 192 17th 7/7 178 10th 3/4 47 27th 5/5 140 9th2009/10 27 22/25 418 22nd 10/10 202 17th 5/6 84 28th 3/4 26 43rd 4/5 106 16th2010/11 28 26/26 1005 1st 10/10 391 2nd 7/7 343 1st 4/4 131 6th 5/5 140 8th2011/12 29 26/26 1007 4th 10/10 401 3rd 8/8 330 4th 3/3 116 2nd 5/5 187 5th2012/13 30 26/26 834 5th 10/10 324 5th 8/8 255 5th 3/3 104 6th 5/5 171 5th2013/14 31 22/22 861 1st 9/9 368 1st 8/8 350 1st 2/2 31 20th 3/3 130 3rd2014/15 32 25/25 1044 2nd 10/10 364 2nd 7/7 348 1st 3/3 162 1st 5/5 193 5th2015/16 33 24/25 892 4th 9/9 309 4th 8/8 324 4th 3/3 93 8th 4/5 179 4th2016/17 34 26/26 971 3rd 9/9 337 3rd 9/9 368 3rd 3/3 69 11th 5/5 207 3rd2017/18 35 22/22 822 1st 8/8 258 3rd 7/7 280 2nd 2/2 84 3rd 5/5 216 1st2018/19 36 25/25 673 7th 9/9 280 5th 8/8 286 5th 3/3 11 57th 5/5 96 21st2019/20 37 21/21 506 11th 8/8 117 23rd 5/5 146 7th 3/3 48 21st 5/5 195 4th
a. Until 2009–10 season, IBU did not count an athlete's three worst races in overall World Cup scores. In 2010–11 season, all races were included in World Cup scores. Starting from 2011–12 season, the two worst results have been eliminated again. So the points in the "Points" column is represented after deduction, except 2010–11 season. b. Until 2009–10 season it was required to leave out the result of the worst discipline race for the final result of discipline world cup (if there were four discipline races or more during the season), so the points in the "Points" columns for those seasons is represented after deduction of the result of the worst discipline race.
Individual victories 27 victories – (8 Sp, 13 Pu, 2 In, 4 MS) No. Season Date Location Discipline Level 1 2010/11 3 December 2010 Östersund, Sweden 7.5 km Sprint World Cup 2 5 December 2010 Östersund, Sweden 10 km Pursuit World Cup 3 6 March 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia 10 km Pursuit World Championships 4 2011/12 11 January 2012 Nové Město, Czech Republic 15 km Individual World Cup 5 12 February 2012 Kontiolahti, Finland 10 km Pursuit World Cup 6 2013/14 8 March 2014 Pokljuka, Slovenia 10 km Pursuit World Cup 7 13 March 2014 Kontiolahti, Finland 7.5 km Sprint World Cup 8 15 March 2014 Kontiolahti, Finland 7.5 km Sprint World Cup 9 16 March 2014 Kontiolahti, Finland 10 km Pursuit World Cup 10 2014/15 7 December 2014 Östersund, Sweden 10 km Pursuit World Cup 11 12 December 2014 Hochfilzen, Austria 7.5 km Sprint World Cup 12 14 December 2014 Hochfilzen, Austria 10 km Pursuit World Cup 13 21 December 2014 Pokljuka, Slovenia 12.5 km Mass Start World Cup 14 12 February 2015 Holmenkollen, Norway 15 km Individual World Cup 15 20 March 2015 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia 7.5 km Sprint World Cup 16 2015/16 6 December 2015 Östersund, Sweden 10 km Pursuit World Cup 17 20 December 2015 Pokljuka, Slovenia 12.5 km Mass Start World Cup 18 17 March 2016 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia 7.5 km Sprint World Cup 19 19 March 2016 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia 10 km Pursuit World Cup 20 2016/17 14 January 2017 Ruhpolding, Germany 7.5 km Sprint World Cup 21 15 January 2017 Ruhpolding, Germany 10 km Pursuit World Cup 22 2017/18 14 January 2018 Ruhpolding, Germany 12.5 km Mass Start World Cup 23 24 March 2018 Tyumen, Russia 10 km Pursuit World Cup 24 2018/19 8 December 2018 Pokljuka, Slovenia 7.5 km Sprint World Cup 25 9 December 2018 Pokljuka, Slovenia 10 km Pursuit World Cup 26 15 December 2018 Hochfilzen, Austria 10 km Pursuit World Cup 27 2019/20 12 January 2020 Oberhof, Germany 12.5 km Mass Start World Cup * Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.
Overall record
ResultIndividualSprintPursuitMass StartRelayMixed RelayTotalIndividual EventsTeam EventsAllEvents1st place 2 8 13 4 – – 26 – 262nd place 4 15 11 2 – – 32 – 323rd place 1 7 8 7 – – 23 – 23Podiums 7 29 31 12 – – 81 – 81 Top 10 16 65 54 34 7 12 169 19 188 Points 33 109 85 57 38 26 284 64 348 Others 7 17 9 – – – 33 – 33 – – – – 1 – – 1 1 – – – 1 – – 1 – 1 Starts 40 126 94 58 39 26 316 65 383
a. Includes mixed relay and single mixed relay, the event involves one male and one female biathlete each completing two legs consisting of one prone and one standing shoot. b. Until 2007–08 season, top-30 were awarded with World Cup points and biathlete got 50 points for the win. Starting from 2008–09 season another points system is applied in World Cup, top-40 are awarded with World Cup points and winner got 60 points. Results in "Points" row is represented according to the applied scoring system in corresponding season.
Statistics as of 15 December 2018
Shooting Shooting2004-05 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.2005-06 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.2006-07 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.2007-08 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.2008-09 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.2009-10 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.2010-11 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.2011-12 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016. Prone position 17 / 23 73.9% 114 / 137 83.2% 163 / 193 84.5% 163 / 194 84.0% 185 / 219 84.5% 165 / 199 82.9% 212 / 243 87.2% 191 / 239 79.9% Standing position 10 / 23 43.5% 100 / 140 71.4% 147 / 191 77.0% 149 / 191 78.0% 175 / 218 80.3% 161 / 204 78.9% 201 / 245 82.0% 197 / 240 82.1% Total 27 / 46 58.7% 214 / 277 77.3% 310 / 384 80.7% 312 / 385 81.0% 360 / 437 82.4% 326 / 403 80.9% 413 / 488 84.6% 388 / 479 81.0% Shooting2012-13 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.2013-14 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.2014-15 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.2015-16 Season World Cup Shooting Percentages . realbiathlon.com. Accessed 30 December 2016.Career Prone position 205 / 246 83.3% 212 / 234 90.6% 189 / 223 84.8% 198 / 235 84.3% 225 / 262 85.9% 203 / 236 86.0% 2442 / 2883 84.7% Standing position 176 / 252 69.8% 180 / 233 77.3% 182 / 222 82.0% 192 / 233 82.4% 211 / 263 80.2% 200 / 239 83.7% 2281 / 2894 78.8% Total 381 / 498 76.5% 392 / 467 83.9% 371 / 445 83.4% 390 / 468 83.3% 436 / 525 83.0% 403 / 475 84.8% 4723 / 5777 81.8% Results in all IBU World Cup races, Olympics and World Championships including relay events and disqualified races. Statistics as of 25 March 2018.