Laura Dahlmeier (; 22 August 1993 – 28 July 2025) was a German biathlete. Dahlmeier started in her first World Cup races in the 2012–13 season. In 2014, she participated in the Winter Olympics in Sochi. She won a record of five gold medals at the World Championships of 2017. In 2018, she became the first woman to win the biathlon sprint and pursuit in the same Olympics. During her career she won a total of two golds and one bronze at the Olympics, seven gold medals, three silver medals and five bronze medals at World Championships, one overall World Cup and two discipline World Cup titles.
Dahlmeier announced her retirement from competition in May 2019, at the age of 25. She died on 28 July 2025 in a mountaineering accident in northern Pakistan.
Early life Dahlmeier was born on 22 August 1993, in the Bavarian ski-town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen as the first child of Andreas and Susi Dahlmeier. She had a brother, five years younger, named Pirmin. She began skiing at a young age, took up biathlon by the age of 7, excelled as a teenaged biathlete at the age of 17 and won gold in all three races (10 km individual, 6 km sprint, and the mixed relay) at the 2011 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in Liberec. In this year she also passed her high school diploma at the St. Irmengard-Gymnasium with an average of 1.9 (very good) and became a member of "Zoll-Ski-Team Germany", where she could combine a professional education with a biathlon career. Her father runs a furniture store and is also a passionate climber, skier and mountain-rescue volunteer. Her mother and her aunt were both professional downhill mountain bikers, winning titles. After their retirement, they opened shops, Lauras mother as a goldsmith, her aunt as a hairstylist.
Career Biathlon career At the 2013 Biathlon Junior World Championships in Obertilliach, Austria, Dahlmeier took three gold medals in the individual, sprint and relay, as well as a silver in the pursuit. Following this, she was selected for the German team in the women's relay at the 2013 Biathlon World Championships: racing in the third leg, she shot clean and overcame a 38-second deficit to hand over with Germany in the lead. Dahlmeier completed her first full World Cup campaign the following season: she enjoyed further success in World Cup relays, however she was unable to secure a solo podium finish, and did not make an impact at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Dahlmeier's start to her 2014–15 season was delayed due to a mountain accident at the Zugspitze, caused by a broken mountain flake, where she suffered a broken bone and a torn ligament. Because of that she made her World Cup season debut at Pokljuka in December 2014. Two months later she took her first World Cup win in Nové Město na Moravě, following which she took another six podiums, including a second win, and her first two senior World Championship medals, a silver in the pursuit and a gold in the women's relay.
In 2015–16, she took five World Cup wins, and at the World Championships in Oslo she took her first solo gold medal in the pursuit along with a silver in the mass start and bronzes in the sprint, individual and women's relay.
Dahlmeier enjoyed her best season in 2016–17, winning the overall World Cup and winning five golds and a silver at the World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria, missing out on a sixth gold by four seconds in the sprint to Gabriela Koukalová. She became the first woman in biathlon history to win five gold medals at a World Championships.
The following season Dahlmeier's focus was on the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang: At the Games she became the second German woman to take the Olympic gold in the sprint, shooting clean as one of only three competitors to hit all targets in windy conditions, before doubling up with a second title in the pursuit and additionally taking a bronze in the individual. Dahlmeier received the Silver Laurel Leaf shortly after she won her first Olympic gold medal. She was the first female biathlete to win sprint and pursuit gold medals at the same Winter Olympics.
Dahlmeier's 2018–19 season was postponed by a mountain bike accident, where a cut wound had to be stitched, a tooth removal and a subsequent infection. However, she took a World Cup race win at Antholz in January 2019 before going on to take two bronzes at the 2019 World Championships in Östersund in the sprint and the pursuit. In May 2019, after the end of the season, she announced her retirement from competition, stating that she no longer felt the 100% passion necessary for professional biathlon. She had her last biathlon competition after six months of retirement the 29th of December 2019 at the "Arena of Schalke" in Gelsenkirchen. She achieved a very good result with only one shot of forty missing the target and a very good lap time.Die Gier weicht der Ruhe, sueddeutsche, 20190517
Post-biathlon career On 18 October 2019, Dahlmeier released the children's book Die Klima Gang: Laura Dahlmeier und Freunde im Einsatz für die Natur, which she co-authored (The Climate Gang: Laura Dahlmeier and Friends in Action for Nature).
For the 2019–20 Biathlon World Cup season, she served as an expert commentator for the German broadcaster ZDF and as a winter sport brand ambassador for BMW. In 2019, she started studying sport science at the Technical University of Munich.
After retiring from competitive biathlon, Dahlmeier competed in mountain running. In June 2019 she won the 39-kilometer Basetrail XL race of the Zugspitz Ultratrail in Grainau, Germany. In September 2019 she won and set a new women's course record in the 52-kilometer Karwendelmarsch race from Scharnitz to Pertisau in Austria. In November of that year she placed 27th at the 2019 World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships in Argentina.
In April 2023 Dahlmeier passed the exam "state-certified ski and mountain guide". From then she leads occasionally groups through the mountains around Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The same year she released her second book, Wenn ich was mach, mach ich's gscheidt. From 2011 until her death, she was a volunteer for the Garmisch-Partenkirchen mountain rescue team.
Death After having conquered successfully the Great Trango Tower (6,286 m) on 8 July, Dahlmeier died on 28 July 2025 in a rockfall accident. She and her rope partner Marina Krauss were climbing Laila Peak in the Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan. According to Krauss, who was waiting some distance below Dahlmeier at the time of the accident, the weather conditions at the beginning of the early morning ascend had been cold and dry. Two hundred meters below the summit, they realized that air humidity and temperature had increased rapidly, and they decided to turn back before reaching the summit to avoid the dangers of rockfall and icefall. On their way down, a rockfall occurred. Dahlmeier was hit on the head by a large rock and thrown against the face of the mountain, leaving her unresponsive and in a position where Krauss could not reach her. She was killed instantly. Marina Krauss reported that she climbed to Laura to get a sky telephone and call for help, but saw that her helmet had been broken into pieces and her head was seriously injured.
It was initially believed that Dahlmeier may have survived, so a rescue operation was launched, but crews were unable to get to her location due to danger of rockfall. They could only spot Laura from the helicopter and saw no signs of life. On 30 July 2025, Dahlmeier's management confirmed that she had died during the accident; they also said Dahlmeier had expressly wished that no-one risk their life to recover her in case of an accident, and that her body should remain on the mountain.
On several mountains in the region, the remains of a number of climbers who perished in accidents have been left behind, where recovery was particularly challenging due to the difficult terrain or bad weather conditions. The ongoing border conflict with India further complicated recovery efforts, as only the Pakistani military was permitted to operate helicopters in the area.
An unnamed park in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was officially named Laura Dahlmeier Park on 27 February 2026, according to the decision of the municipal council on 24 September 2025 in coordination with the family of the deceased biathlon Olympic champion. A memorial already commemorates the honorary citizen there. A final recovery attempt failed, because the body was untraceable, although Thomas Huber and Andreas Dahlmeier searched parts of the mountain with a camera drone and a telescope with 30x magnification. It is suspected that her body has fallen into a glacier crevasse and is now covered with rock rubble. Laura’s father said, "We would have liked to bring Laura home to avoid that people try to make photos of her. But it wasn’t possible to recover her. It was too dangerous directly after the accident."
Biathlon results All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.International Biathlon Union. Laura Dahlmeier. IBU Datacenter. Retrieved 17 April 2016. On 17 May 2019, she announced her retirement from biathlon.
Olympic Games 3 medals (2 gold, 1 bronze) Year Age Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay Single mixed relay 2014 Sochi20 13th 46th 30th — 10th DSQ rowspan="2" 24Bronze Gold Gold 16th 8th 4th *The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.
World Championships 15 medals (7 gold, 3 silver, 5 bronze) Year Age Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay Single mixed relay 2013 Nové Město19 — — — — 5th — rowspan="4" 2015 Kontiolahti21 6th 4thSilver 7thGold — 2016 Oslo22BronzeBronzeGoldSilverBronze — 2017 Hochfilzen23GoldSilverGoldGoldGoldGold 2019 Östersund25 4thBronzeBronze 6th 4th — — *During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program. **The single mixed relay was added as an event in 2019.
Junior World Championships Year Age Sprint Pursuit Relay Mixed relay 2011 Nové Město 17 12th 14thBronzeBronze 2012 Kontiolahti 18 16th 37th 34th 6th 2013 Obertilliach 19GoldGoldSilverGold
European Youth Olympic Winter Festival Year Age Individual Sprint Mixed relay 2011 Liberec 17GoldGoldGold
World Cup Season Age Overall Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Races Points Position Points Position Points Position Points Position Points Position2012–13 19 7/26 220 35th — — 101 32nd 69 36th 50 29th2013–14 20 17/22 410 15th 54 12th 138 23rd 145 14th 73 14th2014–15 21 17/25 725 8th 81 8th 292 8th 224 4th 128 12th2015–16 22 18/25 786 6th 80 10th 213 9th 265 5th 228 3rd2016–17 23 24/26 1211 1st 180 1st 372 2nd 411 1st 2542nd2017–18 24 19/22 730 4th — — 252 4th 271 3rd 2072nd2018–19 25 15/25 554 12th 75 9th 191 10th 163 14th 125 13th
Shooting statistics SeasonOverallIndividualSprintPursuitMass StartRelay2012–1390.0 (117/130)0 (0/0)96.7 (29/30)82.5 (33/40)87.5 (35/40)99.9 (20/20)2013–1490.8 (336/370)93.3 (56/60)87.1 (61/70)90.7 (127/140)86.7 (52/60)99.9(40/40)2014–1592.7 (290/313)95.0 (38/40)90.0 (63/70)92.0 (92/100)95.0 (57/60)93.0 (40/43)2015–1691.6 (294/321)90.0 (36/40)85.0 (51/60)95.0 (95/100)92.0 (92/100)95.2 (20/21)2016–1788.6 (444/501)91.7 (55/60)91.3 (73/80)90.6 (145/160)91.0 (91/100)79.2 (80/101)2017–1890.6 (396/437)87.5 (35/40)90.0 (72/80)94.3 (132/140)89.2 (107/120)87.7 (50/57)2018–1987.2 (251/288)92.5 (37/40)94.0 (47/50)91.3 (73/80)81.3 (65/80)76.3 (29/38) Key:Hits/shots, percentage. Results in all IBU World Cup races including relay events.
Individual victories 22 victories – (4 , 11 , 3 , 4 )