Mark Kirchner (born 4 April 1970) is a German former biathlete.
Life and career Kirchner won gold in the 10 km sprint at the Albertville Olympics in 1992 and followed that up by taking silver in the 20 km individual and gold in the relay. An out-of-the-blue win by Eugeni Redkine of the Unified Team in the 20 km individual prevented him taking honours as the absolute champion of these Games.
In 1994 in Lillehammer, he was his country's flag bearer and was part of the gold-medal winning relay team. He was the youngest ever triple Olympic Champion in biathlon, at the age of just 23 years and 10 month.
Kirchner came second in the overall World Cup standings twice, behind Sergei Tchepikov of the USSR in the 1990–91 season and behind Mikael Löfgren of Sweden in 1992–93.
In addition Kirchner became World Champion multiple times.
He retired relatively early, at the age of 28, in 1998.
Subsequently, Kirchner was employed as an assistant to Frank Ullrich, the German biathlon male team head coach, with responsibilities including youth development. In April 2014, he was appointed as men's coach for the national team.
Biathlon results All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.
Olympic Games 4 medals (3 gold, 1 silver) EventIndividualSprintRelay 1992 Albertville Silver Gold Gold 1994 Lillehammer 7th 12th Gold
World Championships 10 medals (7 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) EventIndividualSprintPursuitTeamRelay 1990 Minsk 13th Gold Gold Bronze 1991 Lahti Gold Gold — Gold 1993 Borovets 20th Gold — Bronze 15th 52nd — Gold 1996 Ruhpolding — 36th 6th — 1997 Brezno-Osrblie 43rd 32nd 14th Silver — *During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program. **Pursuit was added as an event in 1997.
Individual victories 11 victories (6 In, 5 Sp) Season Date Location Discipline Level 1989–90 1 victory (1 Sp) 10 March 1990 Oslo Holmenkollen10 km sprintBiathlon World Championships 1990–91 4 victories (3 In, 1 Sp) 31 January 1991 Oberhof20 km individualBiathlon World Cup 19 February 1991 Lahti10 km sprintBiathlon World Championships 24 February 1991 Lahti20 km individualBiathlon World Championships 7 March 1991 Oslo Holmenkollen20 km individualBiathlon World Cup 1991–92 2 victories (1 In, 1 Sp) 12 February 1992 Albertville10 km sprintWinter Olympic Games 10 March 1992 Skrautvål20 km individualBiathlon World Cup 1992–93 3 victories (1 In, 2 Sp) 19 December 1992 Pokljuka10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup 13 February 1993 Borovets10 km sprintBiathlon World Championships 11 March 1993 Östersund20 km individualBiathlon World Cup 1996–97 1 victory (1 In) 6 March 1997 Nagano20 km individualBiathlon World Cup *Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.
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