Jakov Fak

Jakov Fak (born 1 August 1987) is a biathlete born in Croatia and competing for Slovenia since 2010. As a member of the Croatian biathlon team, Fak won bronze medals at the 2009 World Championships and at the 2010 Winter Olympics where he was also the Croatian flag bearer at the opening ceremony. In 2010, Fak switched his citizenship and started competing for Slovenia. With the Slovenian team, Fak won four medals at the World Championships, including two gold, and a silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics.[1] In addition, Fak has eight victories in the World Cup.

Jakov Fak
Jakov Fak during World Cup competitions in Östersund, Sweden in December 2017
Personal information
Born (1987-08-01) 1 August 1987
Rijeka, Croatia, Yugoslavia
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Professional information
SportBiathlon
ClubSD Pokljuka
World Cup debut8 December 2006
Olympic Games
Teams3 (2010, 2014, 2018)
Medals2 (0 gold)
World Championships
Teams7 (2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016)
Medals5 (2 gold)
World Cup
Seasons11 (2006/07–)
Individual victories8
All victories8
Individual podiums21
All podiums22
Medal record
Men's biathlon
Representing  Slovenia
Olympic Games
2018 Pyeongchang20 km individual
World Championships
2012 Ruhpolding20 km individual
2015 Kontiolahti15 km mass start
2012 RuhpoldingMixed relay
2013 Nové Město10 km sprint
Representing  Croatia
Olympic Games
2010 Vancouver10 km sprint
World Championships
2009 Pyeongchang20 km individual
Updated on 15 February 2018.
Fak in 2010, Slovenian mixed team.
Fak in a race Podium (2010).

Career

Fak began to compete in biathlon in 2001 under the trainer Robert Petrović. His first international biathlon tournament was the Junior World Championships in Ridnaun in 2002 where his best result was 64th place in the Sprint event. Fak improved his performance in 2008, eventually finishing in the top 10 at that year's Junior World Championships.

Since 2006, Fak has participated in the Biathlon World Cup. In his first race in the World Cup in Hochfilzen, Fak finished 107th. For a long time his best performance was 47th place which he reached in an Individual race in 2007 in Pokljuka. In 2007 he also participated in his first Biathlon World Championships, finishing 78th in the Sprint race and 93rd in the Individual.

The big breakthrough in Fak's career came in the 2008/09 season. In the opening race of the season Fak came in 47th, but in the Individual he earned his first World cup points with a 38th position finish. In the third stage of the World cup in Hochfilzen, Fak achieved a 16th-place finish.

2009 Biathlon World Championships

Despite several respectable performances in the World Cup, Fak's performance at the Biathlon World Championships 2009 came as a huge surprise. In the opening sprint race Fak improved his career best performance by two more places by finishing 14th. However, he couldn't improve on that performance in the pursuit falling back to 25th place. The big surprise came in the 20 kilometres individual race where Fak won the bronze medal. A perfect score in the final range would have brought Fak a gold medal, however after one miss Fak had to battle very hard for at least some medal and in the end beat Simon Fourcade by less than a second to win the bronze. Thus Jakov Fak won Croatia their first-ever World Championship medal in biathlon.

2010 Winter Olympics
Jakov Fak was the flag-bearer for Croatia at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

After his success in the World Championships, the expectations were high, but Fak's World Cup race performances in the 2009–10 season were substandard.[2] He managed to win his first points in the World Cup only on 23 January 2010, with a 24th place in Antholz,[3] and was by that time largely forgotten by the public.[2] At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Fak once again created a sensation by winning the bronze medal in the 10 km sprint.[4]

Switch of Citizenship

In July 2010 it was announced in the Slovenian Press that Fak would represent Slovenia in international competition.[5] On 19 November the switch to the Slovenian Biatlethe team was officially announced and Fak received his Slovenian passport on 24 November, enabling him to compete for Slovenia.[6]

Career threatening injury

At the world cup races in the US in 2011 which were held in freezing temperatures Jakov Fak suffered 3rd degree frostbite to his trigger finger.[7] It was feared his finger may have to be amputated which would certainly have ended his career as a biathlete. Jakov and his coaches decided to pull out of the Biathlon World Championships 2011 in Russia to focus on recovering from his injury and saving his finger.

2012 Biathlon World Championships

After missing the 2011 World Championship due to the injury, Fak entered the 2012 World Championship as a member of Slovenian team. He won two medals, a silver in the mixed relay (together with Andreja Mali, Teja Gregorin and Klemen Bauer). Although Slovenia crossed the finish line as first, 8.2 seconds in front of Norway, the jury awarded bonus seconds for the Scandinavians because one target did not go down despite their last runner Ole Einar Bjørndalen hit it and therefore had to take an additional penalty loop, which put them ahead of Slovenia into the first place.[8] A couple of days later, Fak won the gold medal at the 20 km individual, thus winning the first gold medal for Slovenia at World Championships.[9]

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.[10]

Olympic Games

2 medals (1 silver, 1 bronze)

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay
Representing  Croatia
2010 Vancouver 51st Bronze 25th 9th — N/A
Representing  Slovenia
2014 Sochi 32nd 10th 31st 4th 6th —
2018 Pyeongchang Silver 23rd 47th 10th 14th
*The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.

World Championships

5 medals (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay
Representing  Croatia
2007 Antholz-Anterselva 93rd 78th — — — —
2008 Östersund DNS 69th — — — —
2009 Pyeongchang Bronze 14th 25th 19th — —
Representing  Slovenia
2012 Ruhpolding Gold 11th 8th — — Silver
2013 Nové Město 20th Bronze 6th 19th 13th 5th
2015 Kontiolahti 10th 14th 8th Gold 8th 15th
2016 Holmenkollen 6th 39th 5th 7th — 13th
*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.

Individual victories

8 victories (1 In, 3 Sp, 2 Pu, 2 MS)

Season Date Location Discipline Level
2011–12
1 victory
(1 In)		6 March 2012 Ruhpolding20 km individualBiathlon World Championships
2012–13
2 victories
(1 Sp, 1 Pu)		8 December 2012 Hochfilzen12.5 km pursuitBiathlon World Cup
13 December 2012 Pokljuka10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
2013–14
1 victory
(1 Sp)		20 March 2014 Oslo Holmenkollen10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
2014–15
4 victories
(1 Sp, 1 Pu, 2 MS)		7 February 2015 Nové Město10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
8 February 2015 Nové Město12.5 km pursuitBiathlon World Cup
15 March 2015 Kontiolahti15 km mass startBiathlon World Championships
22 March 2015 Khanty-Mansiysk15 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. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Jakov Fak". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 4 December 2016.
  2. "Fak: Medalju sa SP-a trebao sam bolje naplatiti". Jutarnji list (in Croatian). 21 January 2010. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
  3. "Jakov Fak u Italiji osvojio prve bodove". vecernji.hr (in Croatian). 23 January 2010. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  4. "Jakov Fak osvojio broncu na Olimpijskim igrama!". Jutarnji list (in Croatian). 14 February 2010. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
  5. "Croatian Biathlete Joins Team Slovenia".
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "WM ohne Jakov Fak: Führen Erfrierungen zur Amputation?". xc-ski news (in German). 21 January 2010. Archived from the original on 5 March 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
  8. "Norway wins mixed relay gold at biathlon worlds". Associated Press. Yahoo! Sports. 1 March 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  9. http://www.rtvslo.si/sport/zimski-sporti/foto-video-jakov-fak-svetovni-prvak-na-20-km/278281
  10. "Jakov Fak". IBU Datacenter. International Biathlon Union. Retrieved 3 June 2015.

Media related to Jakov Fak at Wikimedia Commons

Winter Olympics
Preceded by
Janica Kostelić		 Flagbearer for  Croatia
Vancouver 2010		 Succeeded by
Ivica Kostelić
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