[83] Pokljuka was not as successful, as Fourcade didn't add to his win tally. [2][3] As of February 2018, he is the most successful French Olympian of all time. [158], The final competition weekend of the season in Oslo saw Fourcade finish the campaign in style. [189] Having clinched the overall title and a big lead in the pursuit discipline, Fourcade could have been excused for not concentrating on the pursuit competition. [14], Fourcade again improved in the 200910 season, consistently finishing in the top 10 and making the French team for the 2010 Winter Olympics, together with his brother. [144], Competition weekend number 6 in Antholtz in the typically challenging venue for Fourcade again proved to be just that. [10] Fourcade then claimed his first victory in a pursuit at Kontiolahti,[17][18] and followed up with two more first places at Oslo, in a sprint and another pursuit. [80] This appeared to be only temporary, however, as he won both of the following races, the sprint and the pursuit. Fourcade missed only one shot and produced some great ski speed to once again have a big enough lead to show the iconic fist after the clean last shooting. He shot clean in the sprint and stormed through the snowfall to leave Simon Desthieux and Fredrik Lindstrm of Sweden behind with a margin of over half a minute. Fourcade had a four Major Championships gold streak in the individual race, but found it hard to defend his title this time. I leave a part of my life behind me animated by all that remains to be built. [174] Fourcade then had a second place in the mass start behind Johannes. Fourcade shot clean in the sprint and withheld the late challenge of old rival Emil Hegle Svendsen. Fourcade was able to beat B in the last loop to get a small revenge from the World Championship mass start from the year before. But the French great also missed three times and while he shot clean in the standings, it was only good enough for eighth place, some half a minute behind the surprise gold medalist Arnd Peiffer. By claiming the pursuit, Fourcade equalled the number of world cup race wins of Raphal Poire, with 44 victories.

Yet again the first competition weekend of the season in stersund proved to be a successful one for Fourcade. [69] In the individual, Fourcade carried on his good form, hitting 19 out of 20 targets in winning his second olympic gold medal. NBC Olympic Research contributed to this report. My love for sport in general, and the values of transcendence and respect for others is greater than ever. [180] While Fourcade didn't medal in the sprint, he had, like in Sochi four years ago, a tolerable starting position in the pursuit. [37], The first to start, Fourcade managed to win the sprint despite extreme temperatures in Kontiolahti, Finland (18C). In February 2022 Fourcade was elected to serve eight-year terms as a member of both the International Olympic Committee and the IOC Athletes' Commission.[8][9]. [73], At the season finale in Khanty-Mansiysk, Fourcade claimed a victory in the sprint, his 8th win of the season. [182] Fourcade wasn't rattled by this, however, and while he didn't have the best memories from recent major championship mass starts, this time it was to be his turn. He even had time to stare the shooting Norwegians (Svendsen, Johannes and eventual third of the race, Tarjei B) after the last shooting, as an answer to Svendsen who had implied after the sprint, that Fourcade would be afraid on the Norwegian team. [48][49] In the latter, Fourcade lost the gold by one tenth of a second to Svendsen, leaving the Frenchman disappointed, citing that he would "think of that 2,4 cm everyday when training next summer". With this win, Fourcade secured having at least one victory from every competition weekend of the season. Johannes Thingnes B crumbled in the second prone, missing three times, while Fourcade climbed back from missing one in the first prone. Unrivalled Olympic news & highlights. French Biathlon great Martin Fourcade has announced his retirement at the age of 31. Five-time Olympic champion and France's most decorated Winter Olympian. [184], After the Olympics the World Cup moved to Eastern Finland. If it hadn't been for the late success of eventual bronze medalist Ondrej Moravec, the elder of the Fourcade brothers, Simon, would have been on the podium as well. He also equalled the record number of discipline titles won by Ole Einar Bjrndalen, both now had 20 small crystal globes. [190] He did lose his concentration in the mass start, however. He hit 19 out of 20 targets in difficult conditions and climbed from 51 seconds back of Julian Eberhard to win with a margin of over a minute to Arnd Peiffer. He left the final shooting in the lead but Julian Eberhard sprinted past the exhausted Frenchman in the last few hundred meters. ", "International Biathlon Union / Fourcade Runs Away in Oslo Pursuit", "International Biathlon Union / Fourcade Charges Back to Win 20K", "International Biathlon Union / Fourcade Overwhelms Sprint Field", "International Biathlon Union / Fourcade Incomparable In Khanty Sprint", "International Biathlon Union / Fourcade Masters Mass Start", "Martin Fourcade wins men's 20K individual in stersund", "International Biathlon Union / Perfect Tactics Give Fourcade Pursuit Victory", "International Biathlon Union / First Win for Norway's Johannes Boe", "International Biathlon Union / Martin Fourcade Wins 1st Mass Start of Season", "Ruhpolding News: a week without Martin Fourcade Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. The race also marked the 100th time Fourcade wore the prestigious yellow bib. [127], Fourcade finished the season winning the overall World Cup title as well as all of the discipline titles, becoming the first male biathlete to win all five crystal globes of a season multiple times. The gold made Fourcade the most successful French Winter Olympian of all time. But still the second place made Fourcade quite satisfied after the two prone mistakes. [107][108][109] After the first of the two Ruhpolding weekends, a familiar threat in Emil Hegle Svendsen took over as the nearest challenger to Fourcade in the overall rankings. He started first, shot 20 out of 20 and stayed on top until the end. [175], The final competition weekend before the Olympics saw Johannes Thingnes B start brilliantly in Antholz. And with B in the sixth place, Fourcade opened up a notable lead in the overall standings. But he narrowly missed the last two, missing out on the podium and allowing his biggest rival at the time, Johannes Thingnes B to finally claim his first Olympic gold and first medal altogether in the non team races. And by claiming three non-team gold medals to take his career tally to 9, Fourcade became the second most successful non-team gold medal winning male biathlete at the World Championships after Ole Einar Bjrndalen. Schempp was, however, able to gain on the lead of Fourcade quite considerably. "There are life-changing decisions," Fourcade wrote on Facebook before thanking his family, friends, support team and even bis rivals. The second competition weekend in Hochfilzen saw Fourcade score two more podiums. [95], At the World Championships in Kontiolahti, Fourcade didn't medal in the three other non-team events, but won his sixth world championships gold medal in the individual. But the French team claimed Martin had purposely slowed down before crossing the line, seeing that Simon was far behind.

Lesser missed twice, Schempp missed once and Fourcade seemed to clear for gold before missing the last shot. Fourcade, Simon Schempp and Erik Lesser cleared the first standing and arrived at the last shooting with a healthy margin. He outskied Julian Eberhard and Emil Hegle Svendsen in the sprint, all three of them shooting clean. [126] With his non-team medals, Fourcade became only the second male biathlete to win three golds and one silver in non-team competitions in a single World Championships, after Raphal Poire (Oberhof 2004). In the sprint, he missed one standing shot and finished second behind the clean-shooting Johannes Thingnes B. However, the late starting Tarjei B finished just 0.7 seconds quicker than the Frenchman with B missing once as well. He followed older brother Simon, who competed in three Olympics. This was the 13th non-team race victory of the season for Fourcade, an all-time record for one season. He shot clean in the sprint but wasn't able to take the victory having fallen on the first lap and broken his skiing pole. [161], Fourcade won all five crystal globes of the season for a record third time and a record second time in a row. [10][23] Fourcade won mass starts at both Antholz and Fort Kent,[10][24] and entered the 2011 World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia as one of the favourites. Boe, 16 victories), 144 non-team World Cup podiums (2nd to Bjrndalen, 170 podiums), 20 non-team World Cup podiums in one season + 2 non-team Olympic Games podiums (all-time record), 79 non-team World Cup victories out of 268 non-team starts, 29.5% win rate, personal highest 31% win rate (all-time record), 144 non-team World Cup podiums out of 268 non-team starts, 53.7% podium rate, personal highest 56.7% podium rate (all-time record), 5 gold medals and 2 silver medals (2nd to Bjrndalen, 8 gold medals, 4 silver medals and 1 bronze medal), 4 non-team gold medals and 2 non-team silver medals (2nd to Bjrndalen, 5 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 1 bronze medal), 2 non-team gold medals and 1 non-team silver medal in a single Olympic Games (2nd to Bjrndalen, 3 gold medals), 13 gold medals (2nd to Bjrndalen, 20 gold medals), 28 medals: 13 gold medals, 10 silver medals and 5 bronze medals (2nd to Bjrndalen, 45 medals: 20 gold medals, 14 silver medals and 11 bronze medals), 11 non-team gold medals (all-time record shared with Bjrndalen), 18 non-team medals: 11 gold medals, 4 silver medals and 3 bronze medals (2nd to Bjrndalen, 26 medals: 11 gold medals, 6 silver medals and 9 bronze medals), 3 non-team gold medals and 1 non-team silver medal in a single World Championships (all-time record shared with, 6 World Championships in a row with at least 1 non-team gold medal (all-time record), 8 Major Championships (Olympic Games and World Championships) in a row with at least 1 non-team gold medal (all-time record), 4 times the "career Grand Slam" of a non-team olympic gold medal, a non-team World Championships gold medal, the overall World Cup title and all of the discipline World Cup titles (all-time record), 7 years in row with at least 7 non-team race victories (all-time record), 83 World Cup and Olympic Games non-team victories (2nd to Bjrndalen, 95 victories), 98 World Cup and Olympic Games victories altogether (2nd to Bjrndalen, 132 victories), This page was last edited on 29 May 2022, at 02:08. Marie Dorin Habert, Anais Bescond and Simon Desthieux carried France to medal contention, some 30 seconds behind the leading Germany. Fourcade is expected to make Saturdays World Cup 12.5km pursuit in Finland the last race of his career. [49] Fourcade was, however, able to take a gold in the individual, his fifth World Championships gold medal. Fourcade did crush the field with a dominating performance, shooting 20 out of 20, but he also looked in danger of being disqualified, as he forgot to reload his magazines before the competition. Its also the last race of the season, which will end prematurely due to the coronavirus. Fourcade had been suffering from illness before the Kontiolahti weekend, but was still expected to start in the sprint. He shot 20 out of 20 and comfortably won ahead of B and Erik Lesser. [10][11], Fourcade first competed in the Biathlon World Cup at Oslo in March 2008, finishing 61st in what would be his only World Cup appearance that season. Only Norway's Ole Einar Bjorndalen has managed to win more Olympic (8) and World Championship titles (20). [111][112] The next weekend, the Antholz weekend was a poor one for Fourcade, although he did rise from 28th place to fourth in the pursuit. [139], The first race after the Christmas break was the Oberhof sprint, where Fourcade had the lead coming to the second shooting, but couldn't manage the tough winds and missed three targets. This wasn't the case at the start of year 2018, however, as he had a fantastic weekend in the foggy Oberhof. With the record 14th non-team victory of the season, Fourcade won the mass start discipline World Cup, ahead of Simon Schempp who finished 20th. [138] By winning 7 of the 8 non-team competitions, placing third in the remaining one and winning both relay competitions, Fourcade had the most successful December in biathlon history. [167] Fourcade then finished third behind B and Jakov Fak in the pursuit, having missed a surprising five bullets. [179] His wish didn't happen in the sprint where Johannes Thingnes B missed three targets in the prone and seemingly left the door open for Fourcade. [10][19] The two pursuit victories meant Fourcade won the 200910 Pursuit World Cup, edging out Austria's Simon Eder by just one point. This allowed fast-skiing Fourcade to take the victory. "My passion for my sport is intact. He suffered from a combination of nerves and wind to miss four targets altogether as he was beaten by the surprise pair of the season, Anton Babikov and Maxim Tsvetkov of Russia. And he ended his career in style taking the 12.5km pursuit to celebrate his 83rd individual win in a World Cup race. This was because the Frenchman missed three times in the second and third shooting combined. He overtook a fellow clean-shooter Johannes Thingnes B in the sprint with a strong last loop. [118] Judging by his success in the championships, this seemed to be a good move. France' most decorated Winter Olympian is also a thirteen-time World Champion and has won the overall World Cup title a record seven straight times from 2012-2018.. "Thanks for the journey. [160] In the last competition of the season, the mass start, Fourcade needed considerably more points than Simon Schempp to win the discipline crystal globe. The first shooting seemed ominous, Fourcade missing twice. [151] Fourcade then anchored the French relay team to silver, having also started second. [134] Fourcade then anchored the French team to victory in the relay, having had a 20-second head start thanks to three good legs from Jean Guillaume Beatrix, Quentin Fillon Maillet and Simon Desthieux. [78], Before the 201415 season Fourcade suffered from mononucleosis and was forced to heavily cut back his training hours in the summer. By missing four times in the last race of the season, Fourcade finished 19th, his worst result of the season. But it was Fourcade, who stormed the last leg with fast skiing and no missed shots, taking the gold for the French team with a wide margin to Norway and Italy. [152] The final race of the championships, the mass start, was a slight disappointment for Fourcade. [33] It was the first time in biathlon's history that 2 brothers stood on a podium together. [39] He became only the third male biathlete to win three non-team gold medals at a single World Championships after Raphal Poire (Oberhof 2004) and Ole Einar Bjrndalen (Hochfilzen 2005 and Pyeongchang 2009). However, the jury saw no rule violation in the way Fourcade received replacing magazines from his team and so the Frenchman was ruled the winner. However, B too missed in the last standing and while Fourcade won comfortably, clean-shooting Ondrej Moravec beat B and left him third. This ensured that Fourcade now had at least one victory at every World Cup venue in the current calendar. Free live sport events. This opened the door for many late starters but a while it seemed that the most successful individual racer of all time had after all done enough. Time to say goodbye," he stated on his Twitter account. [98], Despite the off season mononucleosis, Fourcade finished the season winning the Overall World Cup title and the sprint and pursuit discipline titles. [46][47], At the World Championships in Nov Msto, Fourcade had to settle for silver both in sprint and in pursuit as Emil Hegle Svendsen won both events. [15] Fourcade grabbed a silver medal in the mass start,[16] marking the first time he made the podium in a World Cup event.

He won the sprint with a margin of 1,6 seconds with one penalty, outskiing the clean-shooting Anton Shipulin. But Fourcade missed no more, and when Johannes and the leading Svendsen did, it was the Frenchman who got his third victory in a row. [5], On 13 March 2020, he announced his retirement following the 20192020 season. He became the first male biathlete to win the Overall title four times in succession. [121] He then went on to keep the golden streak going by winning the individual race. And he set up a big lead in the overall ranking before the final weekend of the season. He finished eighth, his worst result of the season, thus ending the streak of 10 podium finishes and 8 non-team podium finishes. The French superstar has come back from a disappointing 2019 season that included zero medals at the World Championships and only a 12th-place finish in the overall standings. [10] His best results that year came at the 2009 World Championships, where he finished in the top 20 in every competition, including an 8th place in the pursuit and a 4th place in the relay. [61][62] His final tune-up for the olympics, the Antholz World Cup weekend wasn't all that successful, although the French team, anchored by Martin Fourcade, did win the men's relay. The overall title was his fifth in succession.[128]. It meant that Fourcade and Schempp arrived together at the final sprint, this time the Frenchman narrowly taking the gold with 14 centimeters. [123][124] In addition, Fourcade claimed the individual discipline crystal globe with a margin of two points over bronze medallist Simon Eder of Austria, leaving the great Frenchman all but certain to win all of the crystal globes that season. The younger Fourcade competed for France in the 2007 and 2008 Junior World Championships, winning a bronze medal in the relay in 2007. Last season, Fourcade struggled with zero world championships medals for the first time since 2010 and a 12th-place finish in the overall standings. With his incredible ski-speed, he was again able to score a podium finish, a third place behind Julian Eberhard and Lowell Bailey. [19][20] In the overall World Cup he finished 5th, 64 points ahead of his brother Simon, who finished a career-best 7th. [117], To prepare for the 2016 World Championships in Oslo, Fourcade bought an apartment in Oslo with the help of his friend Tarjei B in June 2015. Johannes Thingnes B, the closest rival to Fourcade in the world cup standings, missed twice but still finished third. [173], The world cup then moved to Ruhpolding and like many times before, the fog and rain of Oberhof changed to clear weather. Before the last shooting, Svendsen had the lead for a moment and a number of other athletes caught them as well. He finished second in the individual, behind Anton Shipulin, shooting two mistakes as the Russian only shot one. [57] In addition, he won the sprint two days later. Fourcade took up biathlon in 2002 and started competing internationally in 2006,[10] following in the footsteps of his older brother Simon Fourcade. [4] Fourcade is the all-time biathlon record holder of overall World Cup titles with seven big crystal globes and he's also the all-time record holder of the most consecutive Major Championships titles with at least one non-team gold medal in every major championship from 2011-2018. This article uses the phrase "non-team" when referring to individual competitions to avoid mixing up one of the biathlon disciplines, the individual discipline and individual competitions in general.

Moreover, the season's total point tally of 1322 by Fourcade was also a record, Fourcade beating the next athlete (Anton Shipulin) by more than 400 points for the second time.[162]. [68] After the last shot at the last standing shooting Fourcade famously stretched his arm in the air and pumped his fist, explaining that it was all happiness, knowing the weight of that shooting. He opened the season at stersund with three top 5 finishes, including two 3rd places. [25], The first event at the World Championships was the mixed relay, where the French placed 3rd after Fourcade as anchor showed the best male performance in the race to lift his team up from 5th. This was the 10th podium out of 11 races of the season for Fourcade. [99], Before starting his biathlon campaign for 201516, Fourcade had a brief foray into cross-country skiing, finishing 12th in a 15km freestyle FIS race at Beitostlen before competing in the opening meeting of the 201516 FIS Cross-Country World Cup at Ruka, where he finished 22nd in the 10km freestyle, posting the third best French performance of the day, and beating his previous personal best result on the Cross-Country World Cup of a 47th place in 2012. [65] The first non-team race, the sprint, ended in disappointing sixth place for Fourcade. No Featured Athletes at the moment. [72] In addition, he became only the second male biathlete after Ole Einar Bjrndalen to have won a non-team Olympic gold medal, a non-team World Championships gold medal, the Overall World Cup title and all of the discipline World Cup titles in his career.