Tim Burke

Timothy John Burke (born February 3, 1982, in Paul Smiths, New York) is a retired U.S. biathlete and coach. On December 20, 2009, he became the first ever US biathlete to lead the overall Biathlon World Cup. During his career he competed in 11 Biathlon World Championships and four Winter Olympic Games, won a World Championship silver and took six podiums in World Cup races.

Career Early career

Burke first took up biathlon in 1997 and soon became a promising prospect on the national level, first competing for the United States in the Biathlon Junior World Championships in 2000. Most critically, he had career-threatening hip problems in 2002, eventually managing a full recovery after surgery. and came quite close to achieving his first World Cup points (the Olympics being part of the Biathlon World Cup), placing 35th in the sprint and 36th in the following pursuit. |group="note" However, his moment of international attention came as Jay Hakkinen surprisingly brought the US team to the first exchange in first place. Burke, on the second leg, thus had the honour of leading the Olympic relay. and followed up with another five points finishes, including the first top 10 finish of his World Cup career in a sprint at Hochfilzen, Austria. Burke got his season-best 6th-place finish in a mass start at Pokljuka, Slovenia on January 21, 2007. At the World Championships in Antholz, Italy, Burke placed 7th in the individual competition. He eventually finished a very respectable 25th in the overall World Cup standings. and failed to improve on the previous year, finishing 29th in the overall World Cup. In the last race, a mass start, he placed 8th despite four penalty loops. These were his best finishes that year. (Josh Thompson had been the first.) Burke continued to produce solid results in the following competitions, consistently finishing in the top 20. and the disastrous 103rd place of Austria's Christoph Sumann in the Pokljuka sprint – meant that on December 20, 2009, Burke, despite never winning a World Cup race, became the first ever US biathlete to capture the overall World Cup lead. The winner,

Burke then entered a slump with a season-worst 31st place the next weekend in a sprint at Ruhpolding. His bad form continued at Antholz, Italy, as he finished 29th in the 20 km individual competition and 21st in the sprint.

2010 Winter Olympics At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, Burke had big expectations and aimed to win a medal but instead left at one of the lowest in his 14 years as a USA national team member. This came as a disappointment to him as prior to the competition, he had medalled on the World Cup Tour. In addition, there was media hype around his participation as he was the first American to lead the Biathlon World Cup standings and was a strong medal contender. The increased media attention may have impacted his possible success, as he felt he did "a bad job dealing with that". There was also poor snow conditions which can lead to more friction for the athletes, resulting in slower speeds. Burke placed 18th in mass start, 45th in individual, 46th in pursuit, 47th in sprint and 13th in relay. His first race was the individual, where landing him at 45th place came as a shock to him as it was his lowest finish that season.

After his 15k mass start race, his coach, Nilsson, believed that Burke did not find the balance "between calm and aggressiveness". Evgeny Ustyugov from Russia, Martin Fourcade from France and Pavol Hurajt from Slovakia placed first, second and third, respectively.

After the Olympics

Burke's problems continued in the last races of the season. He fell ill after the Olympics and failed to score another top 20 finish until the second-last individual race of the season, a 10 km sprint at Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, where he finished 11th despite one miss at both shooting stages. Thanks to his strong early season, he still finished a career-best 14th in the overall World Cup.

Post-competition career After Burke retired from competition at the end of the 2017–18 season, in May 2018 he was announced as athlete development manager with U.S. Biathlon Association.

Personal life Since October 25, 2014, Burke has been married to former German biathlete Andrea Henkel. He has expressed support for stricter gun control in the United States, stating during the 2018 Winter Olympics that although he was a keen hunter, "if locking up all my sport rifles and hunting rifles meant saving one life, I would do it".

Biathlon results All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

Olympic Games 0 medals EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay 2006 Turin 58th 35th 36th — 9th 2010 Vancouver 45th 47th 46th 18th 13th 2014 Sochi 43rd 19th 22nd 21st — 8th 2018 Pyeongchang 41st 47th 17th — 6th 15th The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.

World Championships 1 medal (1 silver) EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay 2004 Oberhorf 61st 71st — — 18th — 2005 Hochfilzen 63rd 66th — — — — 2007 Antholz 7th 35th 32nd 24th 9th — 2008 Östersund 29th 9th 10th 25th 15th — 2009 Pyeongchang 14th 11th 21st 28th 21st — 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 30th 31st 30th — 6th — 2012 Ruhpolding 56th 10th 28th 23rd 10th 12th 2013 Nové Město Silver 28th 32nd 30th 12th — 2015 Kontiolahti 31st 15th 20th 14th 14th — 2016 Oslo Holmenkollen 44th 14th 17th 12th 8th — 2017 Hochfilzen 36th 40th 32nd — 7th — 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.