Magdalena Neuner

Career

Early career and World Cup debut Neuner started biathlon when she was nine years old after she had participated in a try out course at her local ski club. although she is a full-time professional athlete with no customs obligations. One of her team mates is alpine skiing world champion Maria Höfl-Riesch.

In December 2003, Neuner won the German Cup for 17-year-olds, which led to her appointment for the 2003–04 European Cup competition for juniors.

alt=A young woman in multicoloured winter sportswear and with the number 19 on her jersey smiles into the camera, standing in a field covered with snow. A forest and many onlookers can be seen in the background. She holds ski poles in her right hand and has a rifle on her back.

No. World Cup location

Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay

Key:"—" denotes discipline not held; DNS—Did not start she was appointed for nine more World Cup races for the remainder of the season.

Three world championship titles (2006–07 season)

No. World Cup location

Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay

Key:"—" denotes discipline not held; DNS—Did not start; WCH—World Championships On 5 January 2007, Neuner won her first World Cup event, the sprint race in Oberhof, Germany. Her victory on home soil, before a crowd of 19,000 people, received considerable media attention and put her into the national spotlight for the first time. Two days later at the pursuit race, she forgot to reload her rifle after a warm-up. She was handed a new magazine during the prone shooting and managed to finish third despite a total of six shooting errors.

Neuner was scheduled to compete at the junior world championships in 2007. However, following her first World Cup win, she was instead appointed for the senior World Championships in Antholz, Italy. On 3 February 2007, she won gold in the sprint, beating Sweden's Anna Carin Olofsson by 2.3 seconds. It was her first world championship event ever and only her second victory at senior level. One day later, she also claimed the pursuit title, in spite of four shooting errors. Following a 14th place in the mass start, Neuner, alongside Martina Beck, Andrea Henkel and Kati Wilhelm, also won gold in the relay race on 11 February 2007. With three titles, she was the championship's most successful athlete and became the youngest triple world champion. and she won the sprint and pursuit events at the season final in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, giving her seven career World Cup wins. She ended her first complete season fourth in the Overall World Cup standings and finished second in the pursuit discipline. She claimed her eighth World Cup win at the mass start in Oberhof in January 2008, and later that month won the relay race in Ruhpolding with the German team. Shortly before her 21st birthday, Neuner decided to again compete at the Junior/Youth World Championships, held in Ruhpolding in January 2008—the last time she was eligible to enter. She failed to defend her titles in the sprint and pursuit races, with shooting errors preventing better results; she finished 17th and sixth respectively. Four days later, she won her second title in the mass start, beating Norway's Tora Berger by 3.0 seconds. She had four shooting errors compared to Berger's one and skied side by side with the Norwegian for most of the last lap, in what she later described as her hardest fought victory ever. Alongside Martina Beck, Andrea Henkel and Kati Wilhelm, Neuner also claimed gold in the relay race on 17 February 2008. By winning three more titles, she became the youngest six-time world champion, solidifying her status as Germany's biggest biathlon star.

In the following World Cups, she won the sprint races in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and in Khanty-Mansiysk—her tenth and eleventh World Cup victories. With a second-place finish in the penultimate mass start race of the season, Neuner won the 2007–08 Mass start World Cup. At the season final in Oslo, she also claimed the season's Sprint World Cup and took over the yellow bib of the Overall World Cup leader for the first time in her career. In the last race of the season, a ninth place in the mass start ensured Neuner the 2007–08 Overall Biathlon World Cup victory. She was the youngest Overall World Cup winner since the International Biathlon Union was established in 1993.

First setbacks (2008–09 season)

No. World Cup location

Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay

Key:"—" denotes discipline not held; DNS—Did not start; WCH—World Championships she later attributed it to pressure of public expectations. In October 2008, she contracted influenza and in November, a bacterial infection caused her to miss two weeks of training. Subsequently, her ski speed saw a substantial drop at the start of the season. In the first four World Cups, Neuner only achieved two individual podiums; atypically courtesy of good shooting performances, not her skiing.

alt=A woman on cross country skies wearing a red cap, a white jersey with the number 15 and black trousers skies away from a shooting range covered in snow. Half a dozen people in the background are shooting while lying on the ground. Neuner leaves the shooting range at the World Cup in Antholz, January 2009.

Following the Christmas break, her skiing times had improved. In Ruhpolding in January 2009, Neuner was part of the winning German relay team. She beat team mate Kati Wilhelm by 0.2 seconds in the Ruhpolding sprint and also won the following pursuit event, which marked her World Cup wins twelve and thirteen. Neuner again missed the podium in Antholz. She was leading the mass start by 53.6 seconds before the final shooting, in which she missed all five targets, eventually finishing sixth. This result received much public attention. She later described it as a pivotal moment in her career and called it the "total end of the world".

Neuner suffered further setbacks at the 2009 World Championships in Pyeongchang, where she struggled with a cold and a high number of shooting errors. She finished eighth in the sprint, in which she crashed on a downhill slope, and came in eleventh in the pursuit race. She was not appointed for the individual race and could not start in the mixed relay due to her cold. On 21 February 2009, Neuner claimed silver as part Germany's women's relay team, alongside Martina Beck, Andrea Henkel and Kati Wilhelm. On the last day of the championships, she came in seventh in the mass start race.

At the Olympic rehearsal in Vancouver, Canada, in March 2009, Neuner claimed the 2008–09 Individual World Cup, despite never having won a race in that discipline. She also won the Vancouver relay race with the German team, and was second in the sprint, 0.7 seconds behind Sweden's Helena Ekholm. At the season final in Khanty-Mansiysk, Neuner won the pursuit race—her 14th World Cup win. She ended the season fourth in the Overall Biathlon World Cup, She started working with a psychologist and cut down her media appearances as much as possible in the summer.

Double Olympic champion (2009–10 season)

No. World Cup location

Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay

Key:"—" denotes discipline not held; DNS—Did not start Neuner missed the first World Cup of the 2009–10 season due to a cold in December 2009. She returned at the following races in Hochfilzen, but was still affected by her cold and finished outside the top 20. Her first podiums of the winter came in Pokljuka, finishing third in the sprint and second in the pursuit race. Thereby she secured her Olympic qualification within the German team.

alt= A woman in multicoloured winter sportswear which features the Olympic rings on her chest and the number 2 in the center, moves towards the camera. She is pictured in an area covered in snow. A second person can be seen in the background to her right. An out of focus red-and-white flag covers the upper parts of the image.

Shortly before the Oberhof sprint in January 2010, Neuner injured her back during warm-up and had to withdraw. She returned in Ruhpolding where she came in third in both the sprint and the mass start race. In her first relay of the season, she dealt a blow to the German team by incurring two penalty loops, with Germany finishing fourth eventually. With some top competitors missing in Antholz at the last World Cup before the 2010 Winter Olympics, Neuner won two events—the first individual race of her career as well as the sprint, giving her 16 career World Cup wins. She also came in second in the pursuit, which marked her seventh consecutive podium finish.

Neuner went into her first Winter Olympics in Vancouver with the declared aim of winning a gold medal. On 13 February 2010, she participated in the opening sprint, which was contested at Whistler Olympic Park in rainy conditions. With one shooting error, Neuner claimed the silver medal, finishing 1.5 seconds behind Slovakia's Anastasiya Kuzmina. She uncharacteristically lost five seconds against the unheralded Slovak on the cross-country course, which led to speculation of inferior ski preparation in the German media. Three days later, Neuner won gold in the subsequent pursuit race. Despite missing two targets in the standing position, she beat sprint winner Kuzmina by 12.3 seconds. In her third Olympic event, she finished tenth in the individual. She had three shooting mistakes and said it had been difficult for her to immediately get her concentration back after winning her first gold medal. On 21 February 2010, Neuner claimed her second gold of the Games in the mass start. After missing two targets, she had been trailing by as much as 29 seconds, but she pushed the pace and a clean final standing shoot allowed her to overtake Russia's Olga Zaitseva on the last lap. After the race, Neuner made the announcement not to participate in the relay, citing mental exhaustion and her desire to give all of her team mates the chance to win a medal. Her withdrawal allowed her friend Martina Beck a start in her last Olympic Games. Neuner was Germany's most successful athlete in Vancouver and was chosen to carry the German flag at the closing ceremony.

Following her Olympic success, Neuner continued her good form at the season's remaining three World Cups, finishing all races in the top ten. She came in second in the Kontiolahti pursuit, and third in Oslo's mass start race, which increased her World Cup lead after taking over the yellow bib in Vancouver. Neuner ended the season with her 19th World Cup win in Khanty-Mansiysk's mass start, which ensured her the 2009–10 Overall World Cup, making her the first German woman to win the Biathlon World Cup for a second time. She also won the pursuit and mass start discipline World Cups. In the last event of the winter, the Mixed Relay World Championship, she won gold, alongside Simone Hauswald, Simon Schempp and Arnd Peiffer, to claim her seventh world title.

Record world champion (2010–11 season)

No. World Cup location

Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay

Key:"—" denotes discipline not held; DNS—Did not start; WCH—World Championships In December 2010 she suffered from a cold, missing the season's first World Cup in Östersund for the second year in a row. She started the 2010–11 season in Hochfilzen, where she managed two seventh-place finishes, and was part of the winning German relay team. At the third stop of the season in Pokljuka, she won the sprint race in spite of two shooting errors, claiming her 20th career victory.

alt=A blonde woman, wearing a predominately black jacket and blue jeans, stands in front of a large poster of a winter landscape, smiles and looks to the right. She holds a microphone in her right hand and several gold medals in her left hand.

Neuner continued the winter with mixed results in January 2011. She reached the podium in the sprints of Oberhof and Ruhpolding, coming in second and third respectively. In the relay in Oberhof, Neuner was part of Germany's team coming in sixth place, the team's worst result since 2005. She also had her worst personal result in 13 months, finishing in 16th place in the Ruhpolding individual race, which ended her streak of 24 consecutive top ten finishes (including 15 podiums and 6 wins). At the World Cup in Antholz, Neuner again struggled with illness. She only participated in the concluding mass start, coming in 6th place.

At the World Cup stops in February in the United States, Neuner returned to good health and showed more consistency; her worst result was a 6th-place finish. In Presque Isle, Maine, she won the mixed relay as part of the German team. One week later in Fort Kent, Maine, Neuner finished all three races on the podium. She came in third in the sprint, second in the pursuit, and claimed her 21st World Cup win in the mass start—the last race before the world championships.

At the 2011 World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Neuner won three gold and two silver medals. She claimed silver, alongside Andrea Henkel, Arnd Peiffer and Michael Greis, in the opening mixed relay. On 5 March 2011, Neuner won the sprint race courtesy of a clean shooting performance. She finished second in the pursuit and fifth in the individual subsequently. On 12 March 2011, Neuner won her second title in the mass start despite four shooting errors. The following day she also claimed gold in the women's relay, together with Andrea Henkel, Miriam Gössner and Tina Bachmann. Running the last leg for Germany, Neuner started in fourth, 67.5 seconds off the lead, but she pulled back the entire time and moved in front on the last lap. Her five medals made her the most successful female athlete in the history of Biathlon World Championships.

The season ended in disappointment for Neuner in Oslo. After claiming her 24th career win in the sprint, she had moved into second place in the Overall World Cup ranking. However, she again suffered from a cold and had to pull out of the penultimate race of the winter, the pursuit in which she would have started 31 seconds in front. This effectively ended her hopes of retaining the World Cup crown. She eventually finished fifth in the overall standings, having missed five of the season's 26 races. She also came third in the individual and the pursuit, and took the yellow bib of the Overall World Cup leader. On 6 December 2011, Neuner announced her retirement from biathlon by the end of the season on her homepage. She explained her early departure from the sport (at age 25) with a lack of motivation and her desire for a normal life. Neuner nonetheless continued her good form in Hochfilzen, where she claimed her 26th World Cup win in the sprint.

After Christmas, Neuner won both individual races in Oberhof – her World Cup wins 27 and 28. In the women's relay, she incurred 4 penalties in the final shooting, which foiled a likely German victory. Neuner suffered one of the biggest mishaps of her career, when she fired on the wrong targets in the Nove Mesto pursuit, dropping from first to seventh place. She recovered quickly by winning the sprint race in Antholz one week later. In February, Neuner claimed a double sprint and pursuit victory in Oslo despite suffering from a cold, which forced her to withdraw from the mass start. At the last World Cup stop before the world championships in Kontiolahti, she reached her sixth sprint win of the season, and extended her World Cup lead over Darya Domracheva.

At the 2012 World Championships in Ruhpolding, Neuner won bronze in the opening mixed relay, alongside Andrea Henkel, Andreas Birnbacher and Arnd Peiffer. On 3 March 2012, she claimed her 11th world title in the sprint race courtesy of her clean shooting. Neuner dropped to second place one day later in the pursuit, in which Domracheva overtook her at the final shooting bout. During the second week of the championships, Neuner often struggled with her shooting. She only reached 23rd place in the individual – her worst world championships result ever. With Tina Bachmann, Miriam Gössner and Andrea Henkel she won her second gold medal in Ruhpolding in the women's relay on 10 March 2012, despite incurring a penalty loop. In the concluding mass start, Neuner came in tenth place, with six shooting mistakes in total. Her 12th gold medal made her the second most successful biathlete of all time at world championships, behind male record holder Ole Einar Bjørndalen.

Having led the standings uninterruptedly since the second race of the winter, Neuner won her third Overall World Cup title at the season final in Russia, where she claimed her 34th and final World Cup win in the sprint. Neuner also won the 2011–12 Sprint World Cup thanks to an unprecedented eight out of ten sprint wins. With ten victories in total, her final World Cup season was the most successful in her career. She also became only the second woman after Magdalena Forsberg to win the overall title more than twice. On 18 March 2012, Neuner ended her biathlon career with a sixth place in the Khanty-Mansiysk mass start.

Skiing alt=A woman in predominantly black winter sportswear, wearing a red cap and a bright red jersey with the number 13, is pictured in a forested area covered with snow. She leans slightly forward and holds ski poles in her hands. There is a green conifer tree behind her and a second person can be seen in the background out of focus on the right. Neuner skies uphill at a World Cup race in Trondheim, March 2009.

Neuner was one of the fastest female cross-country skiers in biathlon. During 66 of her 151 World Cup races (44%), she has set the fastest course time (race time without time spent at the shooting range or in the penalty loop). In addition, she has been among the top three fastest skiers in 77% of her career races. During her first full season in 2006–07, she finished among the top three fastest skiers in 19 of her 24 races and came in fastest in seven of them. Neuner won the 2007–08 Biathlon World Cup with dominating skiing performances. She set the fastest course time in 19 of her 25 races and was second or third fastest in the remaining six. At the beginning of the 2008–09 season, Neuner had a substantial drop in her skiing times due to a series of illnesses. However, she recovered and set the fastest course time in 14 of the remaining 18 races from January onwards. In the 2009–10 Olympic season, Neuner again started slowly in December, but came back finishing among the top three fastest skiers in 17 of her 21 races. She had her second best winter in 2010–11 when she set the fastest or second fastest skiing time in 90% of her 21 races.

During three of her 32 World Cup wins (2007 World Championships pursuit, 2008 World Championships mass start, and 2009 Ruhpolding pursuit), Neuner skied three additional penalty loops compared to the second-place finisher. She also reached third place in the Oberhof pursuit in January 2007 with six missed targets. At Neuner's first World Cup victory in the individual discipline in January 2010, she compensated for a total time penalty of two minutes on the cross-country course (incurred by two additional shooting errors). Statistics as of 18 March 2012.

Shooting alt=A woman in multicoloured winter sportswear, wearing a red cap and a jersey with the number 3, holds a rifle in a horizontal position. Her rifle has advertising on its side, while snow falls in the background.

Neuner averaged a career shooting accuracy of 78%. Her career average in the prone position was 88%, while her career average in the standing position was 67%. Her shooting results in the prone position were similar to other top contenders. The standing shoot had long been her weak point and her hit percentage was well below average in the World Cup field, although it had improved considerably in her later seasons. Kati Wilhelm (87%) and Sandrine Bailly (81%). She steadily increased her shooting percentages in the following two seasons with a 76% average in 2008–09, and her career best results of 82% in the 2009–10 Olympic season. In the 2010–11 season, she set her career high in the standing position with a 75% accuracy. She explained in interviews that she had developed a fear of the standing shooting over time, knowing she had to justify herself after the race if she missed. In 2008, Neuner trained with Bundeswehr shooting coach and former large calibre world champion, Rudi Krenn, and subsequently changed her stance slightly. Since 2009, she has worked with a psychologist, primarily focusing on mental techniques to build her confidence on the shooting range. The individual race, which places a high emphasis on shooting, has traditionally been her worst discipline (each shooting error results in a one-minute time penalty, instead of a penalty loop). and the Östersund sprint in December 2008, finishing third. Neuner's costliest shooting occurred during a mass start race in Antholz in January 2009. After 15 clean shots, she was leading by 53.6 seconds before the final shooting, in which she missed all five targets, eventually dropping to sixth place. She has said she enjoys mountain biking, hiking and swimming during the off-season. Until the autumn of 2009, she then lived in a relationship with DSV chief biathlon technician Björn Weisheit for 19 months.

In December 2009, Neuner confirmed a romantic relationship with Josef Holzer, a school day friend from Wallgau. The couple were civilly married in March 2014 and have a daughter, Verena Anna (born 30 May 2014 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen) and a son, Josef Valentin (born 8 November 2016 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen). Their church wedding took place on 17 October 2015.

In the media Biathlon is the most popular winter sport in Germany. Each World Cup event is shown live on German television and the January World Cup races in Oberhof, Ruhpolding and Antholz are regularly seen by over five million viewers. Following her three world championship titles in 2007, Neuner quickly became one of Germany's most popular female sport stars, often nicknamed "Gold Lena" in the media. Neuner's popularity grew further with her success during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Her second gold medal win in the Olympic mass start was seen live by 9.75 million television viewers (a 31.5 per cent market share), the most watched programme of the Games in Germany. Her withdrawal from the Olympic relay was one of the dominating stories of the Winter Olympics in Germany, leading to much media speculation whether pulling out had been entirely her decision. She later received the Fair Play medal of Germany's Olympic Society for setting an example of "team spirit". German Sportswoman of the Year award Along with all Olympic medal winners, she received the Silberne Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf) in 2010, the highest state decoration for athletes in Germany. and she was again named German Sportswoman of the Year.

Neuner's interest in knitting has often been addressed by the German media and she maintains a knitting website, which includes detailed knitting instructions and a "knitting blog". She has stated that she usually takes knitting equipment on her travels during the season and that knitting is a way for her to relax. In 2007, Neuner declined an offer to appear nude in the German edition of Playboy. Outside of Germany, she is particularly popular in Russia, where she has a fan club and from where she has said to receive half of her fan mail. In 2010, Neuner appeared in an advertising campaign for a lingerie line. She explained she tried to use it in a deliberate attempt to correct her media image, after becoming irritated with her public persona of "little sweet Lena". She was an ambassador for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany. and a member of the board of trustees for Munich's bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Record

Olympic Games alt=A woman, wearing a predominately yellow and pink jacket and a black cap, stands in front of a blue background, looking to the right. She hold flowers in her hands and has a gold medal around her neck.

Neuner has won two gold medals and one silver medal at the Winter Olympic Games. At her only appearance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, she won gold in the pursuit and the mass start event. She also claimed silver in the opening sprint. After winning three medals, she decided not to participate in the concluding relay race. She has won seventeen medals, twelve gold, four silver and one bronze. At her debut during the 2007 World Championships in Antholz, Italy, Neuner won three titles (sprint, pursuit and relay). One year later at the 2008 World Championships in Östersund, Sweden, she again claimed three gold medals, winning the mass start, relay and mixed relay events. Neuner did not win a title at the 2009 World Championships in Pyeongchang, South Korea; her best result was the silver medal in the relay event. She won her second mixed relay gold in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, in 2010. At the 2011 World Championships, she won three more titles (sprint, mass start, relay) and two silver medals (pursuit and mixed relay). At her final championships in 2012, Neuner won her world titles eleven (sprint) and twelve (relay), as well as her fourth silver (pursuit) and her first bronze medal (mixed relay). In addition, she has won nine relay races and three mixed relay events as part of the German World Cup team. Neuner has often started slowly at the beginning of a winter season and has claimed only three of her individual victories before Christmas. Consequently, 18 of her 47 wins came in the month of March. Geographically most of her wins occurred in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia (10), followed by Antholz, Italy (6) and Ruhpolding, Germany (6). 2011 Biathlon Award for Female Newcomer of the Year – 2007 Biathlon Award for Female Athlete of the Year – 2007, 2008 Biathlete of the Year of the Forum Nordicum – 2008, 2010 Silbernes Lorbeerblatt – 2010