Martin Fourcade

On 13 March 2020, he announced his retirement following the 2019–2020 season.

After the Olympics the World Cup moved to Eastern Finland. Fourcade had been suffering from illness before the Kontiolahti weekend, but was still expected to start in the sprint. Surprisingly, he did not, announcing so just before the race. He also skipped the relays but was ready to compete in the mass start. The first shooting seemed ominous, Fourcade missing twice. But he got his game together and missed no more. He left the final shooting in the lead but Julian Eberhard sprinted past the exhausted Frenchman in the last few hundred meters. But still the second place made Fourcade quite satisfied after the two prone mistakes. And when Johannes Thingnes Bø missed five times to finish 19th, Fourcade was able to widen the gap in the overall ranking.

The penultimate competition weekend in Oslo Holmenkollen was a chance for Fourcade to pursue the race win record of the venue and to further solidate his overall World Cup lead. And once again the Frenchman delivered. 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. He finished third behind the surprise winner, Henrik L’Abee Lund of Norway and Johannes Thingnes Bø, who beat the Frenchman by a fraction of a second. Fourcade regrouped for the following pursuit and comfortably won ahead of Lukas Hofer of Italy and Bø. Fourcade and L’Abee Lund arrived together at the last shooting but it was the overall leader who shot clean and strolled to the finish line. With the victory Fourcade did manage to snatch the honour of being the most awarded biathlete in Holmenkollen. And he set up a big lead in the overall ranking before the final weekend of the season.

The first competitions after the Christmas break had previously been hard for Fourcade in many occasions. This wasn't the case at the start of year 2018, however, as he had a fantastic weekend in the foggy Oberhof. Fourcade shot clean in the sprint and withheld the late challenge of old rival Emil Hegle Svendsen. Johannes Thingnes Bø, the closest rival to Fourcade in the world cup standings, missed twice but still finished third. Fourcade then carried the momentum to the following pursuit and won it with one missed shot. It was the very first shot he fired and it meant that he went to the penalty ring alongside Johannes Bø. 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. He even had time to stare the shooting Norwegians (Svendsen, Johannes and eventual third of the race, Tarjei Bø) after the last shooting, as an answer to Svendsen who had implied after the sprint, that Fourcade would be afraid on the Norwegian team.

For the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang, Fourcade was chosen to carry the French flag at the opening ceremonies. He said that it was a great honor and regarding the competitions added that he wanted to win one title and only after that would dream for more. His wish didn't happen in the sprint where Johannes Thingnes Bø missed three targets in the prone and seemingly left the door open for Fourcade. 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. While Fourcade didn't medal in the sprint, he had, like in Sochi four years ago, a tolerable starting position in the pursuit. And like in Sochi, it proved to be decisive. 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. With the gold, his third Olympic gold overall, Fourcade equalled the most number of gold medals won by a French athlete in Winter Olympics. Moreover, he extended his all-time record of consecutive major championships with at least one non team gold medal, now standing at eight (also an all-time record among ski sports). Fourcade then had the gold within his grasp in the individual race having cleaned the first 18 targets. But he narrowly missed the last two, missing out on the podium and allowing his biggest rival at the time, Johannes Thingnes Bø to finally claim his first Olympic gold and first medal altogether in the non team races. 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. Johannes Thingnes Bø crumbled in the second prone, missing three times, while Fourcade climbed back from missing one in the first prone. Fourcade, Simon Schempp and Erik Lesser cleared the first standing and arrived at the last shooting with a healthy margin. Lesser missed twice, Schempp missed once and Fourcade seemed to clear for gold before missing the last shot. It meant that Fourcade and Schempp arrived together at the final sprint, this time the Frenchman narrowly taking the gold with 14 centimeters. The gold made Fourcade the most successful French Winter Olympian of all time. It also made him the most successful male biathlete of the Games in non-team races, equalling the achievement from Sochi. Next up in Pyeongchang was the mixed relay, where the French team had a good, but not a great start before the anchoring Fourcade. Marie Dorin Habert, Anais Bescond and Simon Desthieux carried France to medal contention, some 30 seconds behind the leading Germany. 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.

To prepare for the 2016 World Championships in Oslo, Fourcade bought an apartment in Oslo with the help of his friend Tarjei Bø in June 2015. Judging by his success in the championships, this seemed to be a good move. Fourcade started by anchoring the French mixed relay team to a gold medal before winning both the sprint and the pursuit in convincing fashion. With these gold medals, Fourcade secured his fifth straight Overall World Cup title and brought his number of World Championship gold medals to nine. He then went on to keep the golden streak going by winning the individual race. Fourcade had a one-minute penalty at the first standing stage but, as in the three previous major individual races, this proved to be his only mistake of the race. That turned out to be just enough to beat clean-shooting Dominik Landertinger of Austria. By claiming his tenth World Championship gold medal and ninth non-team gold medal, Fourcade became the first biathlete ever to win the longest event in biathlon three times in succession at the World Championships. 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 final race of the championships, the mass start, saw Fourcade narrowly miss the chance to win all four non-team gold medals as Johannes Thingnes Bø edged the Frenchman on the last loop. 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 Raphaël Poirée (Oberhof 2004). 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 Bjørndalen.

The Oberhof weekend at the start of the year 2015 was a very successful one for the French star as he won both the sprint and the mass start. The final shooting of the mass start was one of the most memorable moments of the season as a strong wind forced the leading Fourcade to wait patiently for it to calm down while many athletes, including eventual runner-up Anton Shipulin, left the shooting range. None of them shot clean, however, and it was the clean shooting Fourcade who again took the lead and the victory.

Before starting his biathlon campaign for 2015–16, Fourcade had a brief foray into cross-country skiing, finishing 12th in a 15 km freestyle FIS race at Beitostølen before competing in the opening meeting of the 2015–16 FIS Cross-Country World Cup at Ruka, where he finished 22nd in the 10 km 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.

He has two daughters, Manon (born on 10 September 2015) and Inès (born on 23 March 2017), with his partner Hélène. They reside in La Llagonne, France.

At the start of the year 2014 Fourcade won the mass start in Oberhof, his first World Cup victory there. He then decided to skip the Ruhpolding weekend to train for the olympics. 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.

Ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Fourcade admitted that he will be under pressure, but that he will be able to handle it. He also said that he is capable of winning every race he enters but that there will be others, mainly Emil Hegle Svendsen, with a great level of self-confidence. The first non-team race, the sprint, ended in disappointing sixth place for Fourcade. However, he was able to turn the tables in the following pursuit, climbing from sixth to first, winning his first olympic gold medal. 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. In the individual, Fourcade carried on his good form, hitting 19 out of 20 targets in winning his second olympic gold medal. The mass-start ended in a slight disappointment for Fourcade, for even though claiming his third medal of the games, a silver, he lost the gold by some centimeters, Svendsen claiming the victory in photo-finish. Regardless of that, Fourcade was by far the most successful male biathlete of the 2014 Winter Olympics. In addition, he became only the second male biathlete after Ole Einar Bjørndalen 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.

Before the 2014–15 season Fourcade suffered from mononucleosis and was forced to heavily cut back his training hours in the summer.

The last weekend of the season in Tyumen, Russia started perfectly for Fourcade. He shot clean in the sprint and stormed through the snowfall to leave Simon Desthieux and Fredrik Lindström of Sweden behind with a margin of over half a minute. And when Johannes Thingnes Bø succumbed to 14th place, Fourcade secured the seventh consecutive overall World Cup title as well as the seventh consecutive sprint discipline title. 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. However, he did and easily won the race with his head start and only missing one shot, winning his 70th World Cup race. He did lose his concentration in the mass start, however. By missing four times in the last race of the season, Fourcade finished 19th, his worst result of the season. Regardless, he won the mass start discipline title, holding all five crystal globes of the season for the record fourth time.

Just like in the previous season, Fourcade started the 2013–14 season by winning the Östersund individual. In addition, he won the sprint two days later. He then went on to take a third win of the season in Hochfilzen pursuit. Fourcade couldn't, however, add to his win count in Annecy, France, his best result being third in the sprint.

With world number two Bjørndalen and world number three Schempp absent from the first two and all three Oberhof-replacing Ruhpolding races, respectively, Fourcade was able to take a sizeable lead in the overall rankings. 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. However, Fourcade was able to take a big lead in the final race of the weekend, the mass start. The two great rivals arrived toe to toe at the final standing shoot, only for Fourcade to hit all five targets and win the race and Svendsen to miss three times and fall to the 13th place.

In Kontiolahti, Fourcade won the sprint with one miss, outskiing the clean-shooting Ondrej Moravec by just 0.6 seconds. This was the 13th non-team race victory of the season for Fourcade, an all-time record for one season. Fourcade was then unable to score a podium finish in the following pursuit, finishing fifth with four penalties. However, with the two races, he secured both the sprint discipline title as well as the pursuit discipline title.

Fourcade started the 2012–13 season with a win in the individual in Östersund. At the time he had improved his shooting to 89%.

Fourcade had the best possible start in 2011–12 season with 2 wins in the individual and the pursuit in Östersund, Sweden, leading the Overall ranking for the first time.

In Nové Město, Czech Republic, he finished 3rd in the sprint, alongside his older brother Simon who took the 2nd place, behind Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen. It was the first time in biathlon's history that 2 brothers stood on a podium together. In the following pursuit (although finishing respectively 2nd and 3rd) Simon was downgraded to 4th place after IBU decided to upgrade Germany's Arnd Peiffer following a target's malfunction (Peiffer did an extra lap). But the French team claimed Martin had purposely slowed down before crossing the line, seeing that Simon was far behind. IBU finally decided to tie Peiffer and Martin.

For the second weekend in a row, Fourcade won all three competitions of the weekend, this time in Nové Město. He won the sprint with a margin of 1,6 seconds with one penalty, outskiing the clean-shooting Anton Shipulin. Fourcade then shot a single penalty in a convincing pursuit victory and wrapped up the weekend with another 19 out of 20 targets -mass start competition, claiming his 7th non-team victory of the season. 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.

The 2010–11 season was also highly successful for Fourcade. He opened the season at Östersund with three top 5 finishes, including two 3rd places. After somewhat weaker showings at Pokljuka and Oberhof, Fourcade placed runner-up in all three races at Ruhpolding. Fourcade won mass starts at both Antholz and Fort Kent, and entered the 2011 World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia as one of the favourites.

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. He finished eighth, his worst result of the season, thus ending the streak of 10 podium finishes and 8 non-team podium finishes. However, Fourcade was able to turn the tables in the following pursuit. 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. With this win, Fourcade secured having at least one victory from every competition weekend of the season. In the mass start, Fourcade missed twice and finished third behind Germans Simon Schempp and Erik Lesser, despite leading after the last shooting. This was the 10th podium out of 11 races of the season for Fourcade.

Fourcade again improved in the 2009–10 season, consistently finishing in the top 10 and making the French team for the 2010 Winter Olympics, together with his brother. Fourcade grabbed a silver medal in the mass start, marking the first time he made the podium in a World Cup event. Fourcade then claimed his first victory in a pursuit at Kontiolahti, and followed up with two more first places at Oslo, in a sprint and another pursuit. The two pursuit victories meant Fourcade won the 2009–10 Pursuit World Cup, edging out Austria's Simon Eder by just one point. In the overall World Cup he finished 5th, 64 points ahead of his brother Simon, who finished a career-best 7th.

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. The next season was already much more successful for him, as he grabbed his first World Cup points at Hochfilzen, placing 36th in the individual race and 10th in the sprint. 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. Fourcade finished 24th in the overall World Cup that year.

At the World Championships in Ruhpolding, Fourcade won three gold medals in sprint, pursuit and mass start. He became only the third male biathlete to win three non-team gold medals at a single World Championships after Raphaël Poirée (Oberhof 2004) and Ole Einar Bjørndalen (Hochfilzen 2005 and Pyeongchang 2009).

Fourcade took up biathlon in 2002 and started competing internationally in 2006, following in the footsteps of his older brother Simon Fourcade. The younger Fourcade competed for France in the 2007 and 2008 Junior World Championships, winning a bronze medal in the relay in 2007.

Martin Fourcade (born 14 September 1988) is a French former biathlete and sous-lieutenant. He is a five-time Olympic champion, a thirteen-time World Champion and a seven-time winner of the Overall World Cup. As of February 2018, he is the most successful French Olympian of all time. 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.

Martin Fourcade was born on 14 September 1988, in Ceret, France, to Gisèle and Marcel Fourcade.

Unlike the two previous years, Fourcade couldn't win the Östersund individual, in fact with six shooting errors he slumped to 81st place, his second worst World Cup result ever. This appeared to be only temporary, however, as he won both of the following races, the sprint and the pursuit.

The trip to North America started very well for Fourcade, as he won the Canmore sprint. He also took the Canmore single mixed relay with Marie Dorin Habert. In the Presque Isle sprint, Fourcade finished third behind Johannes Thingnes Bø and Anton Shipulin. In the following pursuit, Bø seemed to be on his way to winning a double before missing twice on the last shooting. Fourcade, some 40 seconds back, cleared all five targets and left the range before his Norwegian rival. By claiming the pursuit, Fourcade equalled the number of world cup race wins of Raphaël Poirée, with 44 victories. The race also marked the 100th time Fourcade wore the prestigious yellow bib.

Fourcade then carried on the good form by winning the Ruhpolding individual race and placing second in the mass start. The next weekend, the Antholz weekend was a poor one for Fourcade, although he did rise from 28th place to fourth in the pursuit.