Florian Graf (biathlete)

Florian Graf
Association	Germany
birthday	24th July 1988 (age 32)
place of birth	Freyung , Germany
Career
job	Customs Officer (First Customs Sergeant)
society	WSV Eppenschlag Customs Ski Team
Trainer	Hans Wallner Andreas Stitzel
Admission to the national team	2004
Debut in the World Cup	2010
status	resigned
End of career	2018
Medal table
EM medals 2 × 0 × 2 × JWM medals 0 × 2 × 1 × JuWM medals 1 × 1 × 1 × National medals 1 × 3 × 2 ×
European biathlon championships gold 2011 Ridnaun Season bronze 2014 Nové Město Season bronze 2016 Tyumen persecution gold 2016 Tyumen Mass start  Biathlon Junior World Championships gold 2009 Canmore Season silver 2008 Ruhpolding sprint silver 2008 Ruhpolding persecution bronze 2008 Ruhpolding Season  Biathlon Youth World Championships silver 2006 Presque Isle sprint gold 2007 Martell persecution bronze 2007 Martell sprint  German championships gold Langdorf 2013 sprint silver Langdorf 2013 persecution silver Langdorf 2013 Season bronze Ruhpolding 2013 singles silver Ruhpolding 2013 Mass start bronze Oberhof 2014 Mass start
World Cup balance
Overall World Cup	21st ( 2011/12 )
Individual World Cup	30. (2011/12, 2016/17 )
Sprint World Cup	22. (2011/12)
Pursuit World Cup	22. (2011/12)
Mass start world cup	18th (2011/12)
Podium placements 1. 2. 3. Season 0 1 1
Continental Cup balance
Overall IBU Cup	01. ( 2014/15 )
last change: end of career

Florian Graf (born July 24, 1988 in Freyung ) is a former German biathlete .

Career

At the age of seven, Florian Graf was brought to cross-country skiing at WSV Eppenschlag by his older siblings Katharina and Markus . Graf soon began biathlon under coach Hans Wallner after some success in cross-country skiing. The first biathlon victory at the age of twelve was followed in the 2002/03 season by the overall victory at the Germany Cup in the pupil age group 15 . He then moved to the Berchtesgadener ski school at the age of 15 and in August 2004 to the customs ski team in Ruhpolding . In the winter of 2005/06 the first appearances in the Junior European Cup followed. He took second place in the sprint at the World Youth Championships in Presque Isle  (USA).

Internationally, his first major success was winning the 2007 World Youth Championship in Martell, Italy . In the following year he could not win a junior title in Ruhpolding, but showed his skills with two second, one third and one fifth place as the best German overall. He achieved three victories in the 2007/08 Junior European Cup. On a national level, he won the Bayern III relay at the 2007 German Senior Championships. Only Michael Rösch , Christoph Stephan , Christoph Knie and Andreas Birnbacher , who were experienced in the World Cup , showed a better individual performance there. These successes led to the classification in performance group 2a of the C-team in the German national biathlon team.

Graf made his first appearances in the World Cup in the 2010/11 season . First of all, he was allowed to start in Pokljuka in the sprint. There he finished 84th. At the season finale in Oslo he came to other missions. With strong placings in sprint and pursuit with positions 14 and 12, he qualified for the mass start and achieved his first top ten place in the fourth World Cup race with tenth place. In the following season 2011/12 the Bavarian was an integral part of the World Cup team. After a moderate start to the season in Östersund , he achieved better results in Hochfilzen with seventh place in the sprint and eighth in the pursuit. Graf thus created the standard for the World Championships in Ruhpolding . After the turn of the year he succeeded in both the Oberhof sprint and the individual races of Nové Město na Moravě in seventh place. He achieved another good result in Oslo with eighth place in the pursuit and thus secured a single start at the home world championships. He was 34th in the sprint and dropped to 38th in the pursuit. In the coming competitions, the coaches trusted the resurgent three-time Olympic champion Michael Greis , so that Graf's title fights were over after two races. At the end of the season in Khanty-Mansiysk , Russia , Graf achieved the best result of his World Cup career in the last race of the season. He came in fifth in the mass start and finished the season with 21st place in the overall World Cup.

In the 2014/15 season, Florian Graf was the overall winner of the IBU Cup and was also able to win the sprint ranking of the second-rate biathlon competition.

In the 2015/16 season Florian Graf finished second in the overall ranking of the IBU Cup and won the mass start ranking.

On March 17, 2018, after the last race of the IBU Cup of the 2017/18 season , Graf announced his retirement from competitive sport.

statistics

Biathlon World Cup placements

The table shows all placements (depending on the year, including the Olympic Games and World Championships).

• 1st - 3rd Place: Number of podium placements
• Top 10: Number of placements in the top ten (including podium)
• Points ranks: Number of placements within the point ranks (including podium and top 10)
• Starts: Number of races run in the respective discipline

placement	singles	sprint	persecution	Mass start	Season	total
1st place
2nd place					1	1
3rd place					1	1
Top 10	2	4th	3	3	7th	19th
Scoring	4th	26th	22nd	10	7th	69
Starts	8th	35	27	10	7th	87
Status: end of career

Biathlon world championships

World Championship		Individual competitions				Relay competitions
year	place	singles	sprint	persecution	Mass start	Men's relay	Mixed relay
2012	Ruhpolding	-	34.	38.	-	-	-
2013	Nové Město	40.	-	-	-	-	-

European biathlon championships

European Championship		Individual competitions				Relay competitions
year	place	singles	sprint	persecution	Mass start	Men's relay	Mixed relay	Single mixed relay
2011	Ridanna	17th	7th	5.		1.
2014	Nové Město	8th.	20th	10.		3.
2015	Otepää	7th	15th	5.		5.
2016	Tyumen		4th	3.	1.		4th	-
2018	Ridanna	8th.	26th	28.			-	9.

Junior World Championships

World Championship		singles	sprint	persecution	Season
year	place
2006	Presque Isle	28.	2.	5.	-
2007	Martell	43.	3.	1.	-
2008	Ruhpolding	5.	2.	2.	3.
2009	Canmore	-	4th	8th.	1.

Web links

• Florian Graf in the IBU database (English)
• Florian Graf (biathlete) in the database of the Visma Ski Classics (English)
• Personal website
• Portrait of the customs ski team

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Uslugina wins pursuit on biathlonworld.com, accessed March 17, 2018