Andreas Birnbacher

Andreas Birnbacher (born 11 September 1981) is a former German biathlete. His biggest successes were the silver medal in the mass start event at the 2007 World Championships and the gold medal in the mixed relay at the 2008 World Championships. He also won the bronze medal at the 2012 world championships in Ruhpolding when he was part of the German teams that finished third in the mixed relay and the men's relay.

Andreas Birnbacher
Birnbacher in Antholz-Anterselva in 2010.
Personal information
Full nameAndreas Birnbacher
Nickname(s)Andi
Birnei
Born (1981-09-11) 11 September 1981
Prien am Chiemsee, West Germany
Height1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Websiteandibirnbacher.de
Professional information
SportBiathlon
ClubSC Schleching
World Cup debut18 January 2001
Retired10 March 2016
Olympic Games
Teams2 (2010, 2014)
Medals0
World Championships
Teams9 (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016)
Medals6 (1 gold)
World Cup
Seasons16 (2000/01–2015/16)
Individual victories6
All victories7
Individual podiums16
All podiums36
Discipline titles1:
1 Mass start (2011–12)

Life and career

2011–2012 world cup season

Birnbacher's most successful biathlon world cup season was the 2011–2012 season. He had just come off the back of a strong end to the 2010/2011 season after taking his maiden win in the Oslo sprint. In the opening world cup race at Oestersund, he finished 28th in the individual competition but placed 6th in the sprint and pursuit. Birnbacher's first win of the year came in the Hochfilzen (2) pursuit when he came through from 26th to win, hitting the perfect 20/20 score and denying Ole Einar Bjørndalen in a sprint finish. For Birnbacher, this win was the last race before the Christmas break.

Returning from the break, Birnbacher looked extremely strong in Oberhof. After a poor 24th in the sprint, he ran away with the mass start, hitting all 20 targets and finishing 24.3 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger. This victory completed a rout of the top step of the podium for Germany after Magdalena Neuner won both women's races and Arnd Peiffer won the men's sprint.

Birnbacher's strongest weekend of the season was Antholz-Anterselva. After finishing 4th in the sprint, he took win number 3 in the mass start with a penalty lap on shoot 3 proving to be a mere bump on the road to victory as he beat Anton Shipulin and Martin Fourcade by 0.1 and 0.3 seconds respectively. At that point in the season, Birnbacher sat 52 points off Fourcade and 27 pts behind Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway.

World cup 7 took Birnbacher back to the site of his maiden win at the end of last year: Oslo Hollmenkollen. After reasonable sprint and pursuit performances Birnbacher, finished second in the mass start cleaning all 20 targets but not having the skiing speed of race winner Svendsen. Then any hopes of Birnbacher taking the overall crystal globe ended when the German coaches decided to rest him for Kontiolathi Finland so he could be prepared for the upcoming world championships.

The world championships were a mixed bag for Birnbacher. He won two bronze medals and finished 4th in the individual and mass start events. In the mixed relay, Birnbacher teamed up with Andrea Henkel, Magdalena Neuner and Arnd Peiffer; at the time the four of them combined had won 14 races. Birnbacher looked to have given Germany the win as he made no mistakes on the shooting range and the net result was a 1-minute advantage for Germany. Then Peiffer had a penalty loop on the standing shoot and Germany finished 3rd. His other medal came in the men's relay once again he teamed up with Peiffer but also with Simon Schempp and the returning Michael Greis. Birnbacher needed 2 spare rounds for the standing shoot but his strong skiing kept Germany in the running for Medals. The two bronze medals meant that for the first time in his career Birnbacher had picked up more than one medal from the world championships.

In the last race of the season, a 4th-place finish in the mass start meant Birnbacher clinched the mass start crystal globe thus picking up the German men's first Crystal globe since Michael Greis won the overall and sprint crystal globes in 2007. Birnbacher finished the year third overall on 837 points.

Retirement

Birnbacher announced his retirement on 8 March 2016 during the World Championships in Oslo. His last race was the 20 km individual on 10 March.[1]

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.[1]

Olympic Games
Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay
2010 Vancouver 12th 23rd 13th 15th 5th N/A
2014 Sochi 22nd — — — — —
*The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.
Andreas Birnbacher interviewed.

World Championships

6 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze)

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay
2004 Oberhof 14th — — — — N/A
2005 Hochfilzen — 56th DNS — — —
2006 Pokljuka N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 4th
2007 Antholz-Anterselva 19th 17th 13th Silver — —
2008 Östersund — 8th 21st 16th Bronze Gold
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 8th 6th 5th 16th 7th —
2012 Ruhpolding 4th 16th 12th 4th Bronze Bronze
2013 Nové Město 8th 23rd 22nd 11th Bronze 13th
2016 Oslo Holmenkollen 9th — — — — —
*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.
**The mixed relay was added as an event in 2005.

World Cup
Season Overall Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start
Points Position Points Position Points Position Points Position Points Position
2000–010N/A0N/A0N/A0N/A0N/A
2001–024254th0N/A2446th1851st0N/A
2002–037046th946th2747th3437th0N/A
2003–0417229th4416th3843rd7226th1834th
2004–0516930th3425th5534th6426th1635th
2005–0637117th3421st13318th12213th9018th
2006–0751413th5815th18112th14416th1318th
2007–0848110th2831st1946th1668th9015th
2008–0931427th2750th14224th8227th6329th
2009–1047915th5824th17016th11215th12315th
2010–1154914th9310th2199th14213th9519th
2011–128373rd908th2488th2396th2601st
2012–136915th1042nd2436th18110th1634th
2013–1417141st356th2956th9633rd4326th
2014–1540624th3628th16123rd13021st7923rd
2015–1642119th876th8538th16416th8522nd

Individual victories

6 victories (2 Sp, 1 Pu, 3 MS)

Season Date Location Discipline Level
2010–11
1 victory
(1 Sp)		17 March 2011 Oslo Holmenkollen10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
2011–12
3 victories
(1 Pu, 2 MS)		17 December 2011 Hochfilzen12.5 km pursuitBiathlon World Cup
8 January 2012 Oberhof15 km mass startBiathlon World Cup
21 January 2012 Antholz-Anterselva15 km mass startBiathlon World Cup
2012–13
2 victories
(1 Sp, 1 MS)		7 December 2012 Hochfilzen10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
16 December 2012 Pokljuka15 km mass startBiathlon 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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References
  1. "Andreas Birnbacher". IBU Datacenter. International Biathlon Union. Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
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