Raphaël Poirée

Raphaël Poirée (August 9 1974 -) is a retired French biathlete who was active from 1999 to 2007.

Biography

He was born in Rives, Isère in France and his physical measurements are: 174 cm / 5'9", 70 kg / 154 lb, 11 st.He is married to fellow retired biathlete Liv Grete Skjelbreid Poirée from Norway. They have two daughters together, Emma (b. 27 January 2003) and Anna (b. 10 January 2007). They have a flat in La Chapelle-en-Vercors, France, but live mostly in Liv's hometown of Hålandsdalen, Norway.The Poirées are the only husband and wife to win medals in the same Olympics for different nations. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, France’s Raphaël and Norway’s Liv won matching silver medals in the biathlon.

Sports career

Poirée has four IBU World Cup titles (1999−00, 2000−01, 2001−02 and 2003−04). He has also come second once, in 2005−06 and third once, in the 2004−05 season. Poirée has had 103 World Cup podium finishes, 44 in first place, 39 in second, and has come third 20 times. In the Winter Olympics, Poiree has one silver and two bronze medals. At the World Championships however, he has eight gold medals, three silver and seven bronze.

Raphaël Poirée was the best Mass start biathlete of his time, with 9 1st places, 4 2nd places, and 3 3rd places in his World Cup career. He also won 4 out of the 7 World Championships Mass start races he took part in.

Poirée also had five victories at the Holmenkollen ski festival biathlon competition with three Mass starts (2000, 2002, and 2004), one Pursuit (2004) and one Individual (2007).

After winning the gold medal at the World Championships in Antholz in 2007, Poiree announced the end of his career after that World Cup season. [ [http://www.biathlonworld.com/eng/news/page_000171_648.htm "Poiree wins Gold in Individual and announces retirement"] – Article from biathlonworld.com, 4 February 2007] He eventually chose to retire after the Holmenkollen World Cup meet (i.e. before the season's last WC meet, in Khanty-Mansyisk in Russia the week after); his last competition was the Mass start race on Sunday 11 March, where he finished in second place after a cm-close last sprint to the finish line against his long-time competitor Ole Einar Bjørndalen of Norway [ [http://www.biathlonworld.com/eng/news/page_000055_700.htm "Adieu Raphaël Poirée!"] ] .

Achievements

Winter Olympics
* 2002: Silver (Pursuit), Bronze (Relay)
* 2006: Bronze (Relay)

Biathlon World Championships
* 1998: Bronze (Pursuit)
* 2000: Gold (Mass start), Bronze (Pursuit)
* 2001: 2 × Gold (Mass start, Relay), Silver (Pursuit)
* 2002: Gold (Mass start)
* 2003: Bronze (Mass start)
* 2004: 3 × Gold (Sprint, Individual, Mass start), Silver (Pursuit), Bronze (Relay)
* 2005: Bronze (Mass start)
* 2006: Bronze (Mixed relay)
* 2007: Gold (Individual), Silver (Mixed relay), Bronze (Mass start)

Biathlon World Cup
* 4 × Overall winner (1999−00, 2000−01, 2001−02, 2003−04)
* 1 × 2nd place in Overall (2005−06)
* 1 × 3rd place in Overall (2004−05)
* 44 World Cup race victories

Trivia

* Poirée, like the rest of his colleagues in the French biathlon and cross-country skiing team, was a sport soldier.
* He speaks French, English, Norwegian and Italian.
* His hobbies are films and tennis.

References

External links

* [http://www.biathlonworld.com/eng/dynamic/archiv_redirect.asp?page=data.biathlonworld.com/data/archives.aspx?IbuId= IBU's profile of Raphaël Poirée]
* [http://www.biathlonworld.com/eng/news/page_000055_700.htm "Adieu Raphael Poiree!"] – Article from biathlonworld.com 11 March 2007
* [http://poiree.shades-of-moonlight.com/ Fansite of Raphael and Liv Grete Poirée]
* [http://www.poiree-and-friends.com/ Fansite about Poirée and other French biathletes] en icon fr icon de icon
* [http://www.biathlon-holmenkollen.no/ Holmenkollen biathlon information]

Persondata
NAME=Poirée, Raphaël
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Biathlete
DATE OF BIRTH=9 August 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH=Rives, France
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=