108 Facts About Martin Fourcade

Martin Fourcade is a six-time Olympic champion, a thirteen-time World Champion and a seven-time winner of the Overall World Cup.

In February 2022 Martin Fourcade was elected to serve eight-year terms as a member of both the International Olympic Committee and the IOC Athletes' Commission.

Martin Fourcade took up biathlon in 2002 and started competing internationally in 2006, following in the footsteps of his older brother Simon Martin Fourcade.

The younger Martin Fourcade competed for France in the 2007 and 2008 Junior World Championships, winning a bronze medal in the relay in 2007.

Martin 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.

Martin Fourcade finished 24th in the overall World Cup that year.

Martin Fourcade grabbed a gold medal in the mass start, marking his first Olympic medal and the first time he made the podium in a World Cup event.

Martin 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.

Martin Fourcade opened the season at Ostersund with three top 5 finishes, including two 3rd places.

Martin 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.

Martin Fourcade then claimed the silver medal behind Arnd Peiffer in the sprint, despite missing two shots at the prone stage; Martin Fourcade was the fastest skier in the competition.

The next day in the pursuit Martin Fourcade won the gold despite three penalties, thanks to turning in another fastest skiing performance.

Martin Fourcade finished 3rd in the Overall World Cup, 4th in the Sprint, 2nd in the Pursuit, 3rd in the Individual and 2nd in the Mass Start.

Antholz was a fantastic weekend for the French team, both men and women relays taking 1st place and Martin Fourcade finishing 3rd of the sprint and the mass Start.

The first to start, Martin Fourcade managed to win the sprint despite extreme temperatures in Kontiolahti, Finland.

At the World Championships in Ruhpolding, Martin Fourcade won three gold medals in sprint, pursuit and mass start.

Martin Fourcade won the overall World Cup for the first time, as well as the discipline titles in the sprint and the pursuit.

In Hochfilzen, Martin Fourcade finished 2nd and 3rd in the sprint and in the pursuit, respectively.

At the World Championships in Nove Mesto, Martin Fourcade had to settle for silver both in sprint and in pursuit as Emil Hegle Svendsen won both events.

Martin Fourcade was able to take a gold in the individual, his fifth World Championships gold medal.

Martin Fourcade finished the season with over 400 overall world cup points more than Svendsen who finished second, thus winning his second overall World Cup title.

Martin Fourcade then went on to take a third win of the season in Hochfilzen pursuit.

Martin Fourcade couldn't add to his win count in Annecy, France, his best result being third in the sprint.

At the start of the year 2014 Martin Fourcade won the mass start in Oberhof, his first World Cup victory there.

Martin Fourcade then decided to skip the Ruhpolding weekend to train for the olympics.

Ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Martin Fourcade admitted that he will be under pressure, but that he will be able to handle it.

Martin Fourcade 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.

Regardless of that, Martin Fourcade was by far the most successful male biathlete of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Martin Fourcade won the final event of the season, the Oslo mass start, which ensured that he won the mass start crystal globe.

Martin Fourcade finished the season with the Overall crystal globe as well as sprint, pursuit and mass start crystal globes.

Pokljuka was not as successful, as Martin Fourcade didn't add to his win tally.

The final shooting of the mass start was one of the most memorable moments of the season as a strong wind forced the leading Martin Fourcade to wait patiently for it to calm down while many athletes, including eventual runner-up Anton Shipulin, left the shooting range.

Martin Fourcade started first, shot 20 out of 20 and stayed on top until the end.

Martin Fourcade then went on to take the second place behind Arnd Peiffer in the sprint.

Martin Fourcade didn't make any more shooting mistakes and overtook Svendsen at the finish to take the gold.

At the season finale in Khanty-Mansiysk, Martin Fourcade claimed a victory in the sprint, his 8th win of the season.

Martin Fourcade then finished 4th in the pursuit, which was enough to secure the big crystal globe, as well as the pursuit discipline title.

Martin Fourcade became the first male biathlete to win the Overall title four times in succession.

Martin Fourcade missed five times in the two competitions altogether, but was still able to win both races quite comfortably with his outstanding ski speed.

However, Martin Fourcade was able to take a big lead in the final race of the weekend, the mass start.

Martin Fourcade then carried on the good form by winning the Ruhpolding individual race and placing second in the mass start.

Martin Fourcade took the Canmore single mixed relay with Marie Dorin Habert.

The race marked the 100th time Martin Fourcade wore the prestigious yellow bib.

Martin Fourcade started by anchoring the French mixed relay team to a gold medal before winning both the sprint and the pursuit in convincing fashion.

Martin Fourcade then went on to keep the golden streak going by winning the individual race.

Martin 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.

Martin 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.

Martin Fourcade started the campaign with a convincing victory in the mixed relay with Marie Dorin Habert.

Martin Fourcade then won the individual race, the first non-team race of the season, despite two missed shots at the first standing stage.

The sprint was a dominant race for Martin Fourcade, who missed no targets and outskied everyone else.

Martin Fourcade 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.

The third place ensured that Martin Fourcade would take a sizeable lead in the world cup total points from the first weekend.

Martin Fourcade continued his domination in Pokljuka, winning all three competitions of the weekend.

Martin 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.

Martin Fourcade won the sprint with a margin of 1,6 seconds with one penalty, outskiing the clean-shooting Anton Shipulin.

Martin 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.

The first race after the Christmas break was the Oberhof sprint, where Martin Fourcade had the lead coming to the second shooting, but couldn't manage the tough winds and missed three targets.

Martin Fourcade finished eighth, his worst result of the season, thus ending the streak of 10 podium finishes and 8 non-team podium finishes.

However, Martin Fourcade was able to turn the tables in the following pursuit.

Martin Fourcade 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.

Martin Fourcade continued to amass victories and World Cup lead in Ruhpolding.

Martin Fourcade outskied Julian Eberhard and Emil Hegle Svendsen in the sprint, all three of them shooting clean.

Competition weekend number 6 in Antholtz in the typically challenging venue for Martin Fourcade again proved to be just that.

Martin Fourcade finished second in the individual, behind Anton Shipulin, shooting two mistakes as the Russian only shot one.

Martin Fourcade then skipped the relay to prepare for the mass start.

Martin Fourcade couldn't reach the podium this time as three missed shots left him fifth, thus ending his five-weekend streak of at least one victory and at least one non-team victory.

Martin Fourcade didn't appear to let that harm his concentration however, as he started by shooting clean in the mixed relay and anchoring the French team to silver.

Martin Fourcade then failed to add to his non-team gold medal tally in the sprint, but was still positively surprised to grab the bronze medal after missing one shot at both shootings.

Martin Fourcade never gave the lead away after that, only missed his very last shot and won with a healthy margin.

Martin Fourcade had a four Major Championships gold streak in the individual race, but found it hard to defend his title this time.

Martin Fourcade started early and missed his first shot at both prone shootings.

Martin Fourcade then anchored the French relay team to silver, having started second.

Martin Fourcade arrived to the last shooting with a group of leaders but uncharacteristically slightly lost his rhythm, having tried to be the first to start shooting.

Two missed shots meant that Martin Fourcade finished fifth, his only race without a medal in the championships.

Martin Fourcade finished as the medal table winner for the men's non-team races.

Martin Fourcade shot 20 out of 20 and when both Eberhard and Bailey in front of him had multiple misses, Fourcade was able to win with a large margin over Anton Shipulin.

Martin Fourcade then capped off the successful weekend by anchoring the French relay team to victory.

In Kontiolahti, Martin Fourcade won the sprint with one miss, outskiing the clean-shooting Ondrej Moravec by just 0.6 seconds.

Martin Fourcade was then unable to score a podium finish in the following pursuit, finishing fifth with four penalties.

Martin Fourcade did crush the field with a dominating performance, shooting 20 out of 20, but he looked in danger of being disqualified, as he forgot to reload his magazines before the competition.

However, the jury saw no rule violation in the way Martin Fourcade received replacing magazines from his team and so the Frenchman was ruled the winner.

Martin Fourcade later thanked Schempp and the German team for not wanting to protest the decision of the jury.

Martin Fourcade won all five crystal globes of the season for a record third time and a record second time in a row.

Martin Fourcade's overall title was a record-equalling sixth and a record sixth consecutive.

Martin Fourcade set the record for the most non-team races won in one season with 14 victories, as well as setting the record for consecutive Major Championships and World Championships with at least one non-team gold medal.

Martin Fourcade didn't make the podium in the single mixed relay with Marie Dorin Habert as they finished fourth.

Martin Fourcade didn't seem to let this get him down, as he won the following pursuit in a convincing fashion.

Martin Fourcade was able to stop the streak in the last competition before Christmas, the first mass start of the season.

Martin Fourcade shot clean in the sprint and withheld the late challenge of old rival Emil Hegle Svendsen.

Martin Fourcade then carried the momentum to the following pursuit and won it with one missed shot.

Martin Fourcade even had time to stare the shooting Norwegians after the last shooting, as an answer to Svendsen who had implied after the sprint, that Fourcade would be afraid on the Norwegian team.

Martin Fourcade then had a second place in the mass start behind Johannes.

Martin Fourcade won both the sprint and the pursuit and left Fourcade second in both of the races.

However, Martin Fourcade was able to turn the tables in the mass start, which he won quite comfortably with two missed shots.

Martin Fourcade 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.

Martin Fourcade missed only one shot and produced some great ski speed to have a big enough lead to show the iconic fist after the clean last shooting.

Martin Fourcade then had the gold within his grasp in the individual race having cleaned the first 18 targets.

Martin Fourcade wasn't rattled by this and while he didn't have the best memories from recent major championship mass starts, this time it was to be his turn.

Lesser missed twice, Schempp missed once and Martin Fourcade seemed to clear for gold before missing the last shot.

Martin Fourcade had been suffering from illness before the Kontiolahti weekend, but was still expected to start in the sprint.

Martin Fourcade skipped the relays but was ready to compete in the mass start.

Martin Fourcade left the final shooting in the lead but Julian Eberhard sprinted past the exhausted Frenchman in the last few hundred meters.

The penultimate competition weekend in Oslo Holmenkollen was a chance for Martin Fourcade to pursue the race win record of the venue and to further solidate his overall World Cup lead.

Martin Fourcade shot clean in the sprint but wasn't able to take the victory having fallen on the first lap and broken his skiing pole.

Martin Fourcade shot clean in the sprint and stormed through the snowfall to leave Simon Desthieux and Fredrik Lindstrom of Sweden behind with a margin of over half a minute.

Martin Fourcade did lose his concentration in the mass start, however.

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

Martin Fourcade has an elder brother Simon, who is a biathlete and a younger brother Brice.