Raphael Poiree

Raphael was born in Rives, and he grew up in La Chapelle en Vercors in France. He went to a sports gymnasium in Villard-de-Lans. He does biathlon for the team of Vercors Ski De Fond. Raphael has profession as a soldier as is common for biathletes in many European countries. He has a younger brother, Gael who is also a biathlete, and two sisters, Karine and Lydie.

In 2000, on the 27th of May, he got married to the Norgweian biathlete Liv Grete Skjelbreid. On the 27th of Jaunary 2003 he became a father: his daugther, Emma, was born. Has built house in Norway summer 2003

Raphael's career:
Raphael began his international biathlon career in 1994 when he won two titles at the junior WCH.

World Cup:
Raphael became 17th in the all over WC in the 1995/96 season. He won his first WC-victory in Ruhpolding in 1998 (Ruhpolding), and that season he became number 5 in the overall WC. Since then his overall result has never been worse than that. From the season of 1999/2000 he won the overall WC three times in a row. In the season of 2002/03, when he became a father, he became 4th. Then in the season of 2003/04 he won again. In the season after that he became 3rd. And last season (2005/06) he became 2nd. He has 37 individual WC-victories, 30 second places and 17 third places (these statistics are from the seasons before the 2005/06 season).

World Championships:
Raphael got his first WCH medal as a senior in 1998: A bronze medal in the pursuit in Pokljuka. In 1999 he became a military world champion in the individual race. And in 2000 he won his first real WCH golden medal in the mass start in Holmenkollen On the day that his wife, Liv Grete also won. Since then he has won a medal in all the WCH mass starts that he has competed in: Gold in Pokljuka in 2001, bronze in Khanty-Mansijysk in 2003, gold in Oberhof in 2004 and bronze in Hochfilzen in 2005. The WCH in Oberhof became his and Liv Grete's WCH; he won medals in all the races: Gold in the individual, sprint and mass start, silver in the pursuit and a bronze in the relay together with the rest of the French team. Liv Grete won 4 golden medals so the Poiree family had a lot to celebrate after that WCH. Altogether he has won 11 individual WCH-medals, and 5 of them are golden (these statistics are from the seasons before the 2005/06 season).

Olympics:
Raphael has participated in three Olympics. He won his first Olympic medals in Salt Lake in 2002: Silver in the pursuit and bronze in the relay together with the rest of the French team. The Olympics in Torino in 2006 was a disaster for Raphael, as was the rest of the season. He had a lot of accidents on the shooting range, and in the pursuit he actually lost a ski and had to walk a most of the second round with just one ski, he quit the race after that round because he was so far behind that he had lost all his chances of doing a good race. His results reflected the disaster: 20th in the individual, 9th in the sprint and 12th in the mass start. The only highlight was that he did a great race in the relay where he won a bronze medal together with the rest of the French team.