Michael Greis

Michael Greis (born 18 August 1976) is a former German biathlete.

This article is about the German athlete. For the American screenwriter, see Michael Grais.
Michael Greis
Greis at the World Championships in Antholz-Anterselva.
Personal information
Full nameMichael Greis
Nickname(s)Michi
Born (1976-08-18) 18 August 1976
Füssen, West Germany
Height1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Professional information
SportBiathlon
ClubSK Nesselwang
World Cup debut28 February 2001
Retired5 December 2012
Olympic Games
Teams3 (2002, 2006, 2010)
Medals3 (3 gold)
World Championships
Teams9 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012)
Medals12 (3 gold)
World Cup
Seasons13 (2000/01–2012/13)
Individual victories11
All victories21
Individual podiums34
All podiums64
Overall titles1 (2006–07)
Discipline titles4:
3 Individual (2004–05, 2005–06, 2008–09);
1 Sprint (2006–07)

Career

Greis first competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, finishing 15th and 16th in the 10 km sprint and 12.5 km pursuit events in the biathlon.

Greis won the World Cup in the individual category in 2004/05, and was a member of the winning 4 × 7.5 km relay team in the 2004 Biathlon World Championships, and took silver in the individual 20 km category at the 2005 World Championships.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Greis came into the games heading the World Cup standings and took the first Olympic gold of the games with victory in the individual 20 km ahead of the defending Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjørndalen. He was also a member of the German team that won the 4 × 7.5 km relay.

On 25 February 2006 Greis won the men's 15 km event and became the first person to capture three gold medals at the Turin Olympic Games. (Koreans Jin Sun-Yu and Ahn Hyun Soo became the second and third later on the same day with victories in short track speed skating.)

Greis was named German sportsman of the year, along with fellow biathlete Kati Wilhelm, by journalists.[1]

In the 2006/07 World Cup season, Greis won the Overall and the Sprint competition.

In the 2007/08 World Cup season Greis managed onto the podium on a regular basis, attaining three victories, three 2nd places as well as three 3rds. At the season's World Champs in Östersund Greis did not participate in the sprint and in the pursuit but being anchor both in the men's Relay and the mixed Relay, helped to secure a gold and a bronze for his team.

Prior to the 2008/09 World Cup season Greis had had a serious disagreement with the Germans' head coach Frank Ullrich the reason being Ullrich's authoritative management of the team, which resulted in Greis' departure from Ullrich's jurisdiction to train on his own. This yielded him quite a solid performance throughout the year, with another two World Cup victories and the relay bronze at the Biathlon World Championships 2009 in South Korea.

Greis participated in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada which turned to be a disappointing performance for his fans as he finished in the mediocre 10th place twice, in the Individual and the Mass Start, along with coming 5th in the relay and the pursuit, adding to a streak of unsuccessful Olympic performances by the German biathlon male team when not a single German won any medal in biathlon for the first time in the Olympic history.

After the first round of the 2012–13 World Cup, Greis announced his retirement on 5 December 2012 citing a lack of motivation, making the 20 km in Östersund on 28 November his last competition as he had dropped the sprint and pursuit.[2] After retiring, Greis studied International Management at Ansbach University of Applied Sciences.[3] He also worked as a pundit for Eurosport.[4] Subsequently in 2016 he was appointed as head coach at the national biathlon training centre for east Switzerland at Lenzerheide, where he coached youth biathletes.[3][4] After two years in this post, in April 2018 he was announced as head coach of the United States men's biathlon team.[3] After one season in this role, in May 2019 he was named as head coach for the Polish women's biathlon team.[5]

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.[6]

Olympic Games

3 medals (3 gold)

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay
2002 Salt Lake City — 15th 16th N/A —
2006 Turin Gold 33rd 8th Gold Gold
2010 Vancouver 10th 21st 5th 10th 5th
*Mass start was added as an event in 2006.

World Championships

12 medals (3 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze)

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay
2002 Oslo Holmenkollen N/A N/A N/A 19th N/A N/A
2003 Khanty-Mansiysk — 29th DNS — — N/A
2004 Oberhof — 5th 9th 21st Gold N/A
2005 Hochfilzen Silver 6th 5th 10th 6th Bronze
2007 Antholz-Anterselva Silver 19th 12th Gold Bronze 5th
2008 Östersund 36th — — 13th Bronze Gold
2009 Pyeongchang 19th 7th 13th DNF Bronze Bronze
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 7th 9th 11th 20th 7th Silver
2012 Ruhpolding 11th 26th 23rd 22nd Bronze —
*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.

Individual victories

11 victories (3 In, 4 Sp, 2 Pu, 2 MS)

Season Date Location Discipline Level
2004–05
1 victory
(1 In)		9 February 2005 Turin20 km individualBiathlon World Cup
2005–06
2 victories
(1 In, 1 MS)		11 February 2006 Turin20 km individualWinter Olympic Games
25 February 2006 Turin15 km mass startWinter Olympic Games
2006–07
2 victories
(1 Sp, 1 MS)		14 December 2006 Hochfilzen10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
11 February 2007 Antholz-Anterselva15 km mass startBiathlon World Championships
2007–08
4 victories
(2 Sp, 2 Pu)		12 January 2008 Ruhpolding10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
13 January 2008 Ruhpolding12.5 km pursuitBiathlon World Cup
18 January 2008 Antholz-Anterselva10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
29 February 2008 Pyeongchang12.5 km pursuitBiathlon World Cup
2008–09
2 victories
(1 In, 1 Sp)		3 December 2008 Östersund20 km individualBiathlon World Cup
19 March 2009 Trondheim10 km sprintBiathlon 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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See also

References
  1. Vancouver 2010 - profile
  2. Kokesh, Jerry (5 December 2012). "Germany's Michael Greis Retires from Biathlon". Biathlonworld. International Biathlon Union. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  3. Kinast, Florian (30 April 2018). "Greis wird Cheftrainer der US-Biathleten" [Greis will be head coach of US biathletes]. spiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  4. Becker, Thomas (12 May 2018). "Michael Greis: "I'm As Ambitious As Ever"". Internationale Fachmesse für Sportartikel und Sportmode. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  5. "German coach for Polish women's biathlon team". thenews.pl. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  6. "Michael Greis". IBU Datacenter. International Biathlon Union. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
Awards
Preceded by
Ronny Ackermann		 German Sportsman of the Year
2006		 Succeeded by
Fabian Hambüchen
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