Andrea Henkel

Andrea Henkel
Association	Germany
birthday	10th December 1977 (age 42)
place of birth	Ilmenau ,  GDR
Career
job	Sports soldier
society	Großbreitenbacher SV
Trainer	Gerald Hönig
Debut in the World Cup	March 16, 1995
World Cup victories	46 (22 individual wins)
status	resigned
End of career	March 23, 2014
Medal table
Olympic medals 2 × 1 × 1 × World Cup medals 8 × 6 × 2 ×
winter Olympics gold 2002 Salt Lake City singles gold 2002 Salt Lake City Season silver 2006 Turin Season bronze 2010 Vancouver Season  Biathlon world championships silver 2000 Oslo Season silver 2001 Pokljuka Season gold 2005 Hochfilzen singles silver 2005 Hochfilzen Season gold 2007 Antholz Mass start gold 2007 Antholz Season gold 2008 Östersund sprint gold 2008 Östersund persecution gold 2008 Östersund Season bronze 2009 Pyeongchang Mixed relay silver 2009 Pyeongchang Season silver 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk Mixed relay gold 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk Season bronze 2012 Ruhpolding Mixed relay gold 2012 Ruhpolding Season silver 2013 Nové Město singles
World Cup balance
Overall World Cup	1st  ( 2006/07 ) 2nd ( 2010/11 ) 3rd ( 2007/08 , 2012/13 )
Individual World Cup	1st  ( 2006/07 )
Sprint World Cup	3rd ( 2006/07 )
Pursuit World Cup	2. ( 2007/08 , 2010/11 , 2012/13 )
Mass start world cup	3rd ( 2009/10 )
Podium placements 1. 2. 3. singles 4th 4th 2 sprint 5 9 6th persecution 8th 4th 7th Mass start 5 3 2 Season 24 18th 5
last change: March 23, 2014

Andrea Henkel (born December 10, 1977 in Ilmenau ), married Andrea Burke , is a former German biathlete . With eight world championship titles and two Olympic victories, she is one of the most successful representatives of her sport.

Life

The younger sister of the cross-country Olympic champion Manuela Henkel grew up in Großbreitenbach, Thuringia , and was four years old when she was on cross-country skis for the first time. From 1991 she attended the sports high school in Oberhof , where she graduated from high school in 1996 . In the same year she was accepted into the sports promotion group of the Bundeswehr , in which she held the rank of sergeant major . The sports soldier mainly trained in Oberhof under the direction of her long-time home trainer and later women's national trainer Gerald Hönig ; Her former coaches include Manfred Geyer and Harald Böse . Her manager was the former biathlete Petra Behle .

In March 1995, the four-time junior world champion made her debut in the biathlon world cup . From the 1998/1999 season she was part of the German World Cup team until the end of her active career. She celebrated her first individual victory in December 1999 in the Slovenian Pokljuka in the mass start race.

At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Henkel achieved the first major successes of their career by winning gold medals in individual competitions and in the relay. After a three-year dry spell, she surprisingly won gold again over the 15 km at the world championships in Hochfilzen in 2005, making her the first biathlete to become an Olympic and world champion over the long distance. In 2007 in Antholz, Henkel became the first German mass start world champion in the triple success of the DSV women and also secured gold for the first time with the relay. By winning the overall World Cup 2006/2007, she crowned the most successful season of her career to date, in which she had previously won the individual discipline ranking.

At the World Championships in Östersund in 2008, Henkel achieved something historic in biathlon with her double victory in the sprint and pursuit. She was the first female athlete to achieve a world title in all four individual disciplines. With the relay she won the gold medal again and was next to Magdalena Neuner the most successful participant in these championships. Henkel had to wait five years before winning another individual medal in the title fights in Nové Město na Moravě with silver over 15 km in 2013, after having become the third and fourth relay world champion in Chanty-Mansiysk and Ruhpolding in the previous two years .

On October 25, 2014, Henkel married the US biathlete Tim Burke . After her active career, she emigrated to the United States, where she works as a fitness trainer.

Career in the biathlon world cup

Beginnings in the World Cup team

Andrea Henkel made her debut in the biathlon world cup in March 1995 at the world cup in Lillehammer . In the individual competition, the 17-year-old reached 30th place with six penalty minutes and 21st place in the sprint with ten hits. Around three and a half years after her first chance of probation, the now four-time junior world champion fought for a place in the German World Cup team in the 1998/1999 season . In Hochfilzen , one day after her 21st birthday, she celebrated a successful debut in the sprint as tenth and confirmed the respectable success with good performances in the following races, including her best result of the season in Osrblie in the pursuit race thanks to a faultless shooting performance with fifth place. Until January, Henkel established itself in the extended world elite and, after two seventh places in Oberhof, was now in sixth place overall.

In Ruhpolding and Antholz finally the first setbacks ceased: after running in the mass start for the eighth time in nine races in the top 15, she took the next four races, only one World Cup point. Nevertheless, Henkel was nominated for the biathlon world championships in Kontiolahti by women’s national trainer Uwe Müssiggang , where she was used in sprint and pursuit and achieved positions 12 and 18. In Lake Placid , she achieved a top ten result in ninth place over the 7.5 km, before a loss of substance was increasingly noticeable in the young runner in Valcartier and at the season finale in Oslo . After a zero-point weekend in Canada, she only took part in the World Cup decisions that were not made in Finland at Holmenkollen and finished 26th and 20th in the individual and mass start. Her first World Cup season she finished 14th in the overall ranking.

Henkel as the most consistent German biathlete

In the 1999/2000 season , Andrea Henkel achieved her final breakthrough into the top of the world, even if, unlike the previous year, she started the winter badly: because the Thuringian, who was still one of the weaker cross-country skiers at the time, made too many misses, she missed in Hochfilzen and Pokljuka got three points in four competitions. At the third World Cup, which was moved from Osrblie to Pokljuka, Henkel regained her usual accuracy and qualified for the mass start with an eighth place in the sprint race, in which she fought her first World Cup victory with one second ahead of Svetlana Ischmuratowa . As a result, the 22-year-old established herself with very consistent performances among the top of the world, in 13 of the remaining 18 races of the season she was among the top ten. In January, Henkel was twice fifth in Oberhof and once sixth in Ruhpolding, before she celebrated her second World Cup victory in Antholz after finishing third over the 7.5 km pursuit race.

She achieved two more top ten placements in Östersund a week before the World Championships in Oslo , at the beginning of which she finished eighth and fifth in sprint and pursuit. After failing to finish 40th in the individual competition due to five shooting errors, Henkel won her first World Championship medal in the relay with silver. In the final mass start she lost the lead in the Discipline World Cup with 16th place and with it her first red jersey. After a short regeneration break, she presented herself in good shape again in Lahti and made it onto the podium as second over the 15 km and third in the pursuit for the fourth and fifth time this season . With places 6, 10 and 11, Henkel secured fifth place in the overall standings at the World Cup final in Khanty-Mansiysk and was surprisingly the best among German female ski hunters.

That this was no coincidence, she proved in the 2000/2001 season , in which she repeated this result and once again left her teammates behind. As in the previous season, she achieved the most top ten results in an internal comparison, and she was the only one from the team to achieve points at all starts. In Antholz - the substitute organizer of the three December World Cups - Andrea Henkel, second in the opening race over 15 km, missed the possible victory with the last shot. After a moderate performance in two successive sprint races, she was among the top ten in the other four competitions, and in the final pursuit she was second again. In January, her performances were a bit more inconsistent, only as fourth over the 7.5 km in Oberhof and seventh in the pursuit race in Ruhpolding after an improvement of 19 positions, she achieved top positions. In the other home races as well as at the regular World Cup in Antholz, she moved between positions 13 and 20.

In time for the Biathlon World Championships in Pokljuka, Henkel managed to stabilize her shooting performance again; after finishing 11th in the sprint, she was on course for a medal in the pursuit before the last shooting, after starting the race in third place with a clear gap of 64 seconds . With her only miss of the day, however, she missed the safe precious metal and fell behind Magdalena Forsberg and Olga Pylewa on the final lap from bronze . After finishing ninth in the individual competition, Henkel was runner-up in the relay for the second time. She had to vacate her starting place for the mass start in favor of Martina Beck , who won the silver medal in this competition. After the high point of the season, the Thuringian woman achieved a podium finish in the test races on the Soldier Hollow Olympic courses as third in the sprint, in the five other races there and - after not starting in Lake Placid - at the season finale on Holmenkollen, she also achieved placings between four and eight very good results.

Double Olympic victory in Salt Lake City

Andrea Henkel made a successful start to the Olympic winter with three podium places in the first four races of the season : In Hochfilzen she finished second in the opening sprint, over the 15 km and in the pursuit she was third in Pokljuka. With an eleventh and two sixth places from individual, sprint and mass start, Henkel was among the best eleven in Osrblie for the 16th time in a row and moved up to second place in the overall World Cup behind the dominant Magdalena Forsberg. Inevitably, in this form, she would have been counted among the favorites for the Winter Games in Salt Lake City , but at the turn of the year she was thrown back by bronchitis, which cost her participation in the home races in Oberhof. Still slightly bruised, the 24-year-old missed the points on her comeback in Ruhpolding for the first time in almost two years when she dropped from 20th to 36th in the pursuit. At the beginning of the Olympic biathlon competitions in Soldier Hollow, she found herself in the usual role of the outsider.

But while the big favorites showed unexpected weaknesses, Andrea Henkel presented herself in the best shape again in the individual competition and used the opportunity for her first major individual success - the Olympic victory over the 15 km. After a “rest day”, she only managed to get 25th in the sprint with two penalties, from which she fought her way up to 13th place in the pursuit race with the fifth fastest time of the day. Exactly one week after the first triumph, she celebrated winning the second gold medal in the final relay decision , to which she contributed with a faultless shooting performance. At the last three World Cups in Östersund, Lahti and Oslo, the Großbreitenbacherin fell into a form low and with the low yield of 35 points from the last six competitions slipped down to 13th place in the overall standings. In the mass start world championship race on Holmenkollen, she finished 21st with three shooting errors and almost four minutes behind.

Sporty slump & career low

After the first high point in her career, Andrea Henkel was rarely able to match the top performances she had shown in the past three winters in the 2002/2003 season. After a solid start in Östersund with three top 15 placings from four races, in Osrblie she fell well short of her own increased expectations: In the sprint, she posted her worst result in a World Cup race to date in 50th place, the pursuit was hardly better with six penalty laps and 36th place. Henkel got off to a promising start to the new year in Oberhof with places 4 and 12, although it did not succeed in stabilizing its performance at a higher level. In the pursuit race in Ruhpolding she improved as fourth compared to the sprint by 20 positions, but already missed the points in the next competition in Antholz as 31st and finally continued the "roller coaster ride" with an 11th place.

In Lahti, Henkel reached the second low point after Osrblie, after finishing 27th over the 7.5 km among the no more than 41 starters, she was last in the mass start with eight penalties. As if changed, she convinced the following week in Oslo with places nine and six in the sprint and pursuit, before she then settled between the extremes at the regular World Cup in Östersund with placings between 14 and 20. In order to be able to prevail in the team-internal fight for the starting places for the world championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, the season balance characterized by the constant ups and downs was not enough - after she had not been allowed to start in only one of 16 individual decisions in title fights until then Henkel in Siberia only used in the individual competition, for which she had the right to start as an Olympic champion and which she finished in 16th. In the overall World Cup, she ultimately finished 17th.

As a result of health problems during preparation and also because of the switch to a new rifle , the Thuringian was unable to stop her downward trend in the 2003/2004 season . After a failed start to the season with only seven points from the first five races, she recorded two successes in Osrblie when she was 14th in the sprint and secured sixth place in the pursuit with faultless shooting performance. After she missed the World Cup in Pokljuka due to illness, the positive tendency initially seemed to continue with two top ten placements in Ruhpolding, but in Antholz, further setbacks followed with places 29 and 43 in the individual and sprint. The home World Cup in Oberhof therefore experienced Henkel almost always as a spectator, their only appearance in the individual competition ended after five misses at number 26. During the last three season stations in North America and at Holmenkollen, it achieved its best results in Fort Kent to twelfth places in pursuit and mass start. However, she was only able to improve her position in the overall standings insignificantly, and in the end she finished 29th.

Turning point in Hochfilzen

After the two weak years, Andrea Henkel had to seriously fear for her place in the World Cup team in the run-up to the 2004/2005 season . After an internal qualification had taken place under irregular conditions, it was ultimately preferred again by national coach Uwe Müßiggang and justified the trust placed in her at the season opener in Beitostølen as a surprise second in the sprint and eighth in the pursuit. But even in Oslo she could not build on these performances with results between 22nd and 31st place and until February there were no further top ten placements and only four results among the top 15. Henkel in Pokljuka was once again under pressure to succeed at the last World Cup before the World Cup in Hochfilzen . With a fourth place in the pursuit of starting position 20, she was able to draw attention again, but only the bad luck of her friend Martina Beck, who had to cancel her participation with bronchitis and pleurisy, made her move up to the World Cup.

After team-mate Simone Hauswald had disappointed with 32nd places on the opening weekend, the Großbreitenbacherin, who was actually only intended as a reservist, got a chance to play and ran over the 15 km, perhaps the most important race of her career: as with her Olympic victory, she combined an excellent shooting result with a surprising one good mileage, the mistakes of the competition finally made the almost magical comeback, which was crowned with the gold medal, perfect. With this liberation, Henkel also secured starting positions in the relay, with which she was runner-up for the third time, and for the mass start, in which she stayed close to the medal ranks until the very last standing and finished in a good seventh. With positions 11 and 15 in sprint and pursuit as well as fifth place in the mass start after a temporary lead, she continued her upward trend at the World Cup final in Khanty-Mansiysk, which was also reflected in 14th place in the overall World Cup ranking.

For the Olympic season 2005/2006 Andrea Henkel came up with a clear improvement in the running area, which she indicated for the first time with third place in the pursuit after 14th place in the sprint at the start in Östersund. In the 15 km race in Hochfilzen she stayed on course for a long podium again before dropping three penalty minutes in the last shooting back to 19th place. After finishing sixth over half the distance, the Thuringian experienced an unexpected "relapse" into worse times in Osrblie, when she was 36th on the long distance and was 67th in the sprint for the first time in her career, unable to qualify for a pursuit race. After the Christmas break, Henkel immediately rehabilitated itself with two ninth places in Oberhof, after a decent performance in Ruhpolding, she presented herself in top form in Antholz, the last station before the Turin Winter Games, when she reached sixth and seventh place in sprint and pursuit and said goodbye to the Olympic preparation as second in the mass start competition.

Although the defending champion had not been able to preserve her good running form, in San Sicario she was still promising in the battle for precious metal for the 15 km up to the fourth shooting, but after two misses she had to be content with the "ungrateful" fourth place in the end. While the sprint and pursuit took place without her, Henkel prepared for her use in the relay with which she won silver, in the final mass start, however, she played 13th in the medal award. At the post-Olympic World Cups in Pokljuka and Kontiolahti, Henkel achieved better placings with partly moderate shooting performance, although their results were not bad thanks to good runtimes with two places 6 and 13 as well as one place 18. At the season finale on Holmenkollen, the 28-year-old managed to achieve a top ten result in the pursuit race after improving by 16 positions in ninth place, in the mass start she reached the goal in 23rd and finished the World Cup winter in a good seventh place in the overall standings.

Victory in the overall world cup

Henkel with the World Cup at the award ceremony in Khanty-Mansiysk

Andrea Henkel narrowly missed the yellow jersey three times in the opening races in second place, in Östersund she took it over at the start of the 2006/2007 season after finishing fourth over the 15 km with eighth place in the following sprint without a podium. In the pursuit race, the Thuringian defended it as sixth only with a minimal lead, before she emerged as a serious and first contender for the overall victory at the double World Cup in Hochfilzen, when she was in sprint, pursuit and with increasingly clear intervals of up to almost one minute in succession Winner individual competition and rounded off her winning streak as third in the second sprint. After the turn of the year, Henkel further increased her lead in Oberhof with places 2 and 9 in the overall standings, but her chances of winning the large crystal ball vanished suddenly when she had to skip the World Cup in Ruhpolding due to bronchitis.

After two more races in Pokljuka, she reported back with a respectable 11th place in the local mass start, but the gap to Kati Wilhelm and Anna Carin Olofsson , who are now almost equally at the top, was a little more than 100 points. Henkel now primarily focused its hopes on the World Championships in Antholz , but initially without success: with three penalty loops, she did not get past 23rd place in the sprint, after 10th place in the pursuit, she dropped out over the 15 km with the third penalty minute the medal ranks back to 6th place. In the mass start race she finally used her last chance for an individual medal, after a faultless last shooting she fought for the second world title of her career on the final round against Martina Beck, together the two became world champions for the first time with the German relay a day later.

In the last three World Cups, Henkel was once again in top form and won the individual discipline championship in Lahti with its fifth win of the season. She was fourth over the 7.5 and 10 km respectively. With her tenth World Cup victory as well as a second and a tenth place she reduced her deficit in the overall standings to Olofsson and Wilhelm and with places 2 and 3 in sprint and pursuit she even caught up with them at the season finale in Khanty-Mansiysk; Only six points separated them from the top duo with the same number of points before the final mass start. In this race, Andrea Henkel showed great fighting spirit when, despite five mistakes in the first shooting, she did not give in and with an almost optimal performance at the end of 15th even before her also stumbling opponents and thus still as third German Overall World Cup winner celebrated.

Golden days in Östersund

In Kontiolahti, Andrea Henkel started the 2007/2008 season with 18th place in the individual competition . As fourth and second in sprint and pursuit, the World Cup title holder seemed to be able to build on the strong form of the pre-winter early on. In the following years, however, the 30-year-old struggled with uncertainties at the shooting range, in Hochfilzen and Pokljuka she missed 14 targets in four competitions and gradually slipped in the result lists from sixth to 10th and 11th to 20th position. With another fifteen misses, the trend reversal at the home World Cups in Germany failed to materialize.After a renewed 20th place over the 7.5 km in Oberhof, the local hero missed the podium in the mass start in fourth despite five penalties by only a few meters. In Ruhpolding, the Thuringian reached eighth and fifth place, before she finally got her persistent problems under control in Antholz and only had to turn twice into the penalty loop in the three competitions. After being distanced only by Kati Wilhelm in the sprint, she celebrated her first two victories of the season in the pursuit and mass start.

Henkel managed to preserve this shape until the World Championships in Östersund, and with faultless shooting performance she laid the foundation for her sprint title win - with which she also took the lead in the overall World Cup - and the sovereign start-finish victory in pursuit. Over the 15 km and in the mass start, she couldn't cope with the gusty wind conditions and finished 22nd in both races. At the end of the women's relay she managed to successfully defend her title. In the last third of the season, the uncertainties at the shooting range returned, at the World Cup premiere in Pyeongchang , Henkel had to surrender the yellow jersey after finishing 17th and 5th. In Khanty-Mansiysk, she initially had the chance of a second overall victory in a row as fifth and third over the short distances and with 13th place in the mass start, but then lost this in the pursuit race in Oslo when she moved up from fifth after the sprint at ten Positions dropped back, which also made them miss the possible win of the Discipline World Cup. After finishing 16th in the final mass start race, she finished her tenth World Cup season in third place overall.

After two very successful winters, Andrea Henkel was unable to achieve her ambitious goals in the 2008/2009 season . In the first five races of the season in Östersund and Hochfilzen, she was among the top 15 and in Tyrol was third in the sprint on the podium, but numerous shooting errors prevented, in some cases, significantly better results. The second weekend in Hochfilzen then failed completely with eleven misses and places 32 and 56 in individual and sprint. In Oberhof, Henkel achieved her first World Cup victory in Germany over the 7.5 km - albeit with a one-month delay due to the subsequent disqualification of Yekaterina Yuryeva . In the next four races, the Thuringian, who presented herself more accurately in January, but a little slower than in the previous month, achieved results between 11th and 16th in the pursuit and in the mass start as third and second respectively Final round, but had to let three competitors pass each time.

At the World Championships in Pyeongchang, Andrea Henkel was unable to defend any of her three Östersund titles, and the sixth sprint before the pursuit was even disqualified because of the violation of safety regulations. After finishing 10th over the 15 km, she won bronze and silver in the women's relay with the mixed relay, the last chance to win an individual medal she gave away as fifth in the mass start with two errors in the standing strokes, after being in the lead up to that point had been lying. She also achieved two fifth places at the Olympic dress rehearsal in Whistler , before she won the pursuit race in Trondheim with a perfect shooting performance from starting position 10. At the World Cup final in Khanty-Mansiysk, the Großbreitenbacherin achieved another top result in the mass start in third place, but it was not enough to win a discipline classification or a place in the top three in the overall classification, here she finished in the end Fifth place.

Relay bronze in Whistler

Andrea Henkel with her bronze relay medal from the 2010 Olympic Winter Games

In the fourth attempt, Andrea Henkel achieved her first top ten result of the season at the start of her third Olympic winter with sixth place in the pursuit of Hochfilzen, after she was 17th in the sprint as well as 27th and 20th in individual and Sprint in Östersund had done one miss too many for this. After finishing fifth in the Pokljuka singles, the Thuringian had a "black day" with four mistakes as 43rd in the sprint, but compensated for this with the best time of the day in the pursuit race in her chase, which ended in tenth place. A similar picture presented itself after the turn of the year in Oberhof, this time the local hero threw six mistakes back to 38th place over the 7.5 km, two days later she came up with her first win of the season in the mass start. In Ruhpolding and especially in Antholz, Henkel seemed to be in Olympic form in time, after two top ten results in the Chiemgau-Arena, she climbed all steps of the winners' podium once in South Tyrol, after third place over 15 km and second place in the sprint she won the chase.

As a co-favorite, she made her way to Canada for the Winter Olympics. In Whistler, like a year earlier at the World Championships, the 32-year-old was not allowed to take part in an award ceremony in the individual races. Over the short distances she finished 27th and 10th, before she came closest to the medal ranks over the long distance in sixth. Due to material problems, she did not get past ninth place in the mass start despite only one penalty loop. In the final decision, she brought the German relay to the finish as the final runner on the bronze rank. At the last three World Cups in Kontiolahti, Oslo and Khanty-Mansiysk, she was three times in the top ten in seven competitions, but it was no longer enough for a podium finish, as in the overall standings, in which she finished fourth. In the last race of the season, the world championships in the non-Olympic mixed relay, it was no longer used.

After some health problems during the preparation, Andrea Henkel started her 13th World Cup season without much expectation, especially in terms of her running form - and surprised herself with two top ten results in individual and sprint in Östersund. Since their shooting performance did not remain at the level of the first races in the further course of December, there were no further placements in the top ten in either Hochfilzen or Pokljuka. Just in time for the home World Cups in Germany, the Thuringian presented herself in top form in January, after finishing third in the Oberhof sprint, she only had to admit defeat to Helena Ekholm in the floodlit mass start after a thrilling final lap in the final sprint . Three more second places followed in the individual, sprint and pursuit of Ruhpolding, after she had never made it onto the podium in an individual race there. In Antholz, she sprinted over 7.5 km with two shooting errors in fourth place, but not quite as well in the mass start with three penalties and 15th place.

As the World Cup leader, Henkel returned from the detour to the US state of Maine, in Presque Isle they washed a flawless final shooting in the pursuit and a strong final lap compared to the sprint by 20 places up to fifth place. With two victories over the short distances and as a second in the mass start, she finally won the yellow jersey in Fort Kent. In the title fights in Khanty-Mansiysk, the 33-year-old lost it again as 20th in the sprint, without a miss and with an increase to fourth place, she made her best world championship race by far in the pursuit. On the other hand, nine penalty minutes over 15 km meant a personal negative record, even in the mass start she could not intervene in the medal awarding as 13th. Silver in the mixed relay and gold in the women's relay could only partially cover the rather disappointing results in the individual competitions. In Oslo, she reached the podium again in third place in the pursuit, before she crossed the finish line in fourth in the mass start and finished the season in second place overall.

On the way to Sochi

After persistent groin problems during the preparation period, Andrea Henkel was unable to build on the strong form of the previous year in the 2011/2012 season and in the end had to be satisfied with eighth place in the overall World Cup despite a new personal record in terms of the hit rate in the individual races. In the first World Cup block in Östersund and Hochfilzen, she was able to place in the top ten in five of seven races, and achieved her best results in the two pursuit races during the two-week stay in Tyrol as fourth and sixth respectively. After the detour to the World Team Challenge at Schalke, the Thuringian sprinted to fifth place at the home World Cup in Oberhof and announced at a press conference that she would continue her career until the 2014 Winter Olympics. One day later, in the mass start, she finished third in the first podium of the current winter. After a mixed World Cup dress rehearsal in Nové Město na Moravě , she had to take a break in Antholz because of a foot injury in the sprint and relay, in the mass start she was thirteenth.

In Oslo, Henkel accidentally completed one more penalty lap than necessary and dropped from fifth on the grid to eleventh place. In the mass start, she earned a flying visit to King Harald V's box with her only win of the season . In Kontiolahti, she ran into double-digit minus degrees places 16 and 8 over the short distances. At the home world championships in Ruhpolding, after a bronze start in the mixed relay, as in the previous year, she was unable to convince at all individual starts with the exception of the pursuit race. Here she posted the second-best time of the day as eleventh with faultless shooting performance, but as 34th of the sprint she entered the competition with practically no prospect. Over the long distance she was twentieth with four penalty minutes and one day after her celebrated appearance as the final runner in the women's gold relay, she was twelfth of the final mass start race. She finished her fourteenth World Cup season in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, with top ten results in all three competitions, including sixth place over the 7.5 km.

Andrea Henkel started her 15th World Cup season in Östersund with three top ten results and an increase from race to race. After finishing eighth in the individual, she avoided going into the penalty loop in sprint and pursuit and finished fifth and third respectively. She was not so accurate a few days before her 35th birthday in Hochfilzen, where she was 17th both times over the short distances. She reached the finish line in Pokljuka ten places ahead in these disciplines, and came eleventh in the mass start. For the fifth winter in a row she posted a podium finish at the home races in Oberhof after the turn of the year, but dropped from third place after the sprint to seventh in the pursuit. In Ruhpolding she just missed the next top result in fourth over the 7.5 km, in the mass start, after two mistakes in the last standing stage, she was only 13th. At the last World Cup before the season's high point, she recorded the 25th and 12th place in Antholz lowest point yield during the first half of the season.

Just like in the previous two years, the Thuringian missed the sprint race in 33rd place with three penalties at the start of the world title fights in Nové Město, only to storm up to sixth place in the pursuit - again with an impeccable shooting performance and the best time of the day. In the individual, Henkel seamlessly continued this performance and after another twenty goals only had to admit defeat to Tora Berger, who was outstanding this season . After winning her first non-gold individual medal, however, she was 13th in the mass start with four mistakes without a chance. With places six, nine and twelve from Holmenkollen in their luggage, they went on to Sochi for the dress rehearsal for their fourth Olympic Games. On the demanding routes over the 15 km with a penalty minute, she first missed the jump on the podium in fourth place, then in the sprint after four misses in 52nd the points. With three top ten results, including second place in the sprint, she secured a very good third place in the overall standings at the season finale in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Farewell tour without a happy ending

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With a tenth place over the 15 km Andrea Henkel tackled the last World Cup winter of her career in Östersund. In the pursuit, in which she started from 13th place, she had to stop the race due to the weather; in stormy winds she had not even hit 50% of the targets by then. A few days before her 36th birthday, things went little better in the Hochfilzen sprint when she almost missed the pursuit in standing 55th with four mistakes in standing, in which she finished 29th after two more penalties. It went in the other direction in the hunting race at Le Grand Bornand , where she missed five times despite ideal external conditions and was passed from 13th to 32nd. At the home World Cup in Oberhof, the Thuringian was without a podium for the first time in six years, but narrowly missed it in fourth place in the mass start. Despite good shooting performances in individual and pursuit, she did not get beyond positions 17 and 14 in Ruhpolding, before the routes in the Antholz Valley once again proved to be her most successful pavement. Without a miss during the entire weekend, Henkel sprinted into second place and from there won her 22nd and last World Cup victory in the pursuit.

However, the hopes they had stoked to win a medal at the Winter Games in Sochi were not fulfilled. Handicapped by bronchitis, she still showed her best complex performance in the sprint, despite the penalty loop she was 22nd just under half a minute behind the bronze rank. A race to catch up based on the example of the last three world championships did not succeed this time, with three mistakes Henkel even fell back to 29th place. The waiver of the individual competition did not pay off in the mass start, although acting almost flawlessly at the shooting range, she was clearly behind the top in 17th place. Even in the women's relay there was no precious metal after the mishap of starting runner Franziska Preuss . At the post-Olympic stations in Pokljuka and Kontiolahti, Henkel was among the top ten in two out of five races, which she achieved in tenth place in the overall standings for the ninth time in a row and for the eleventh time in 16 years. After she was the only starter with no mistakes in the Oslo pursuit and had fought her way from 31st to 12th place, she finally ended her long and successful career as a biathlete with 13th place in the mass start, her 375th individual race in the World Cup.

Relay operations

In January 1999 Andrea Henkel came to Oberhof in front of a home crowd at the side of Uschi Disl, Simone Greiner-Petter-Memm and Martina Zellner for her first appearance in a World Cup relay and immediately celebrated a victory. In her second World Cup season, the then 22-year-old established herself as a regular in the German team and won her first two relay medals with silver in Oslo and Pokljuka in 2000 and 2001. However, the clear highlight of the first part of her relay career was winning the Olympic gold medal in Salt Lake City in 2002, when she was successful together with Katrin Apel, Uschi Disl, and Kati Wilhelm. For the time being, it remained the last precious metal with the team for the Thuringian, who was no longer included in the relay line-up for around two years during her subsequent career low.

In the title fights in Hochfilzen in 2005, Henkel made her comeback in a quartet of world championships and refined her gold coup in the individual competition with the third season silver. A year later, the Thuringian was again one of the big names in the team of long-time national coach Uwe Müßiggang at the Olympic Winter Games in Turin , who, however, had to admit defeat to the Russian team once again. Together with Martina Beck, Magdalena Neuner and Kati Wilhelm, Andrea Henkel ended two long dry spells for the DSV women at the World Championships in Antholz in 2007, with the first relay success after more than two years without a win and the first World Cup gold since 1999. After the quartet Had successfully defended his title in Östersund in 2008, a year later in Pyeongchang the long-time rivals from Russia were once again beaten.

Also in Pyeongchang in 2009, Henkel was able to look forward to her first medal in the mixed relay, alongside Simone Hauswald, Arnd Peiffer and Michael Greis , she won bronze and only missed it by around 10 seconds, being the first biathlete in each of the current competitions To have won gold at least once in six World Cup disciplines. In 2010 she won the bronze medal in the biathlon relay at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, together with Kati Wilhelm, Martina Beck and Simone Hauswald . A year later, in Chanty-Mansiysk, she won her third world title with the women's relay alongside Miriam Gössner , Tina Bachmann and Magdalena Neuner, after she had previously won silver in the mixed- team with Magdalena Neuner, Arnd Peiffer and Michael Greis. Won the season. At the home world championships in Ruhpolding in 2012, Henkel made the successful title defense with the same line-up as in Siberia, with the mixed relay alongside Magdalena Neuner, Andreas Birnbacher and Arnd Peiffer as the final runner of the women's quartet.

From their last world championships in Nové Město in the Czech Republic, however, Henkel returned without a team precious metal. With the mixed relay, she landed in 13th place at the beginning, as the last runner in the women's foursome, she gave the medal chance with two spare rounds in the final shooting and only reached the target in fifth place. Even at the last major event of her career, the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, she had no luck. After not being considered for the mixed relay, she was unable to avert the bitter bankruptcy of the only eleventh-placed women's relay, after starting runner Franziska Preuss sent her into the race with a gap of around three minutes. In her last World Cup relay race she was stopped by thick fog in Antholz, in December 2013 she had her 24th success in the team in Le Grand Bornand.

Awards

• 2002 - Silver bay leaf (highest award in sport in Germany)
• 2005 - Thuringia's sportswoman of the year
• 2006 - Silver bay leaf
• 2006 - Sportswoman of the month for December
• 2007 - Winter star in the category best team (viewer and reader choice of Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Bild newspaper)
• 2007 - Golden Ski of the German Ski Association (highest award of the DSV)
• 2007 - Thuringia's sportswoman of the year
• 2008 - February athlete of the month
• 2008 - Golden Ski of the German Ski Association
• 2008 - Thuringia's sportswoman of the year
• 2010 - Silver bay leaf
• 2011 - Holmenkollen Medal
• 2011 - Thuringia's sportswoman of the year
• 2013 - Golden Ski of the German Ski Association
• 2013 - Thuringia's sportswoman of the year

Trivia

Like Sven Fischer , Andrea Henkel used a Suhl lower loader as a rifle for many years. It was not until the 2003/04 season that she switched to the Fortner locking system from Anschütz , which is the most widely used system in biathlon.

Competition balance

winter Olympics

Results at Olympic Winter Games:

	Individual competitions				Relay competitions
	sprint	persecution	singles	Mass start	Women's relay	Mixed relay
Olympic Winter Games 2002 | Salt Lake City	25th	13.	1.		1.
Olympic Winter Games 2006 | Turin	-	-	4th	13.	2.
2010 Winter Olympics | Vancouver	27.	10.	6th	9.	3.
Olympic Winter Games 2014 | Sochi	22nd	29	-	17th	11.	-

World championships

Results at biathlon world championships

World Championship		singles	sprint	persecution	Mass start	Season	Mixed relay
year	place
1999	Kontiolahti / Oslo	26th	12.	18th	20th	-
2000	Oslo / Lahti	40.	8th.	5.	16.	2.
2001	Pokljuka	9.	11.	5.	-	2.
2002	Oslo				-
2003	Khanty-Mansiysk	16.	-	-	-	-
2004	Oberhof	26th	-	-	-	-
2005	Hochfilzen	1.	-	-	7th	2.	17th
2007	Antholz	6th	23.	10.	1.	1.	-
2008	Ostersund	22nd	1.	1.	22nd	1.	-
2009	Pyeongchang	10.	6th	DSQ	5.	2.	3.
2011	Khanty-Mansiysk	46.	20th	4th	13.	1.	2.
2012	Ruhpolding	20th	34.	11.	12.	1.	3.
2013	Nové Město na Moravě	2.	33.	6th	13.	5.	12.

World cup

Individual competitions

Season ( 1 )	run	Shooting performance		Placements			Overall World Cup ( 2 , 3 )
		Hits / shots	Hit rate	1st - 2nd - 3rd	Top ten	Points ( 3 )	Points	space
1998/1999	21 (23)	294/340	86.5%	0 - 0 - 0	05	15th	188	14th
1999/2000	25 (25)	365/420	86.9%	2 - 1 - 2	15th	21st	378	5
2000/2001	23 (25)	325/370	87.8%	0 - 2 - 1	15th	23	* 639 *	5
2001/2002	18 (24)	249/290	85.9%	1 - 1 - 2	07th	15th	378	13
2002/2003	20 (23)	269/320	84.1%	0 - 0 - 0	05	17th	344	17th
2003/2004	20 (26)	269/320	84.1%	0 - 0 - 0	03	15th	220	29
2004/2005	23 (27)	316/380	83.2%	1 - 1 - 0	06th	21st	431	14th
2005/2006	23 (26)	308/370	83.2%	0 - 1 - 1	11	21st	531	7th
2006/2007	23 (27)	326/380	85.8%	6 - 3 - 2	20th	23	870	1
2007/2008	26 (26)	343/420	81.7%	4 - 2 - 1	16	26th	* 795 *	3
2008/2009	25 (26)	333/400	83.3%	2 - 0 - 2	16	24	* 847 *	5
2009/2010	25 (25)	346/400	86.5%	2 - 1 - 1	15th	24	798	4th
2010/2011	26 (26)	354/420	84.3%	2 - 5 - 2	16	25th	972	2
2011/2012	25 (26)	363/410	88.5%	1 - 0 - 1	14th	25th	* 813 *	8th
2012/2013	26 (26)	361/420	86.0%	0 - 2 - 2	16	25th	* 864 *	3
2013/2014	25 (26)	347/400	86.8%	1 - 1 - 0	06th	21st	* 545 *	10
total	373 (406)	5169/6060	85.3%	22 - 20 - 17	186	341

¹ Before the 2000/2001 and 2008/2009 seasons, a new point system was introduced in the Biathlon World Cup.

² For better comparability, the actually achieved World Cup points are listed here and the deleted results are not deducted. The points marked with an asterisk differ from the official ratings of the respective season. In the 2010/2011 season, the regulations did not provide for any deletion results.

^{3 In} contrast to the previous winter games, the 2014 Olympic competitions in Sochi were not part of the Biathlon World Cup. In their three individual starts, Henkel would otherwise have scored points in all races and achieved a total of 45 points.

→ Additional information: Distribution of points / cancellation results in the Biathlon World Cup

Relay competitions

season	run	Shooting performance		Placements
		Hits / shots	Hit rate	1st - 2nd - 3rd	Top ten
1998/1999	3 (6)	30/38	78.9%	1 - 1 - 0	3
1999/2000	6 (7)	59/75	78.7%	3 - 2 - 0	6th
2000/2001	4 (5)	40/44	90.9%	1 - 3 - 0	4th
2001/2002	2 (5)	20/20	100.0%0	2 - 0 - 0	2
2002/3003	3 (8)	30/34	88.2%	1 - 2 - 0	3
2003/2004	0 (4)	-	-	-	-
2004/2005	3 (5)	28/37	75.7%	1 - 1 - 0	2
2005/2006	5 (6)	44/62	71.0%	0 - 3 - 0	5
2006/2007	4 (5)	40/52	76.9%	1 - 2 - 0	4th
2007/2008	4 (7)	40/45	88.9%	4 - 0 - 0	4th
2008/2009	6 (7)	60/68	88.2%	3 - 1 - 2	6th
2009/2010	5 (7)	50/62	80.6%	1 - 1 - 1	5
2010/2011	5 (7)	48/66	72.7%	2 - 1 - 1	5
2011/2012	5 (6)	50/66	75.8%	1 - 0 - 1	5
2012/2013	7 (8)	70/84	83.3%	2 - 0 - 0	5
2013/2014	4 (6)	40/46	87.0%	1 - 1 - 0	3
total	66 (98)	649/799	81.2%	24 - 18 - 5	63

World Cup victories

Single race

Relay race

No. date place discipline 1. Dec 19, 1999  Osrblie Mass start 2. Jan. 22, 2000  Antholz persecution 3. Feb 11, 2002  Salt Lake City (OWS) singles 4th 0March 8 2005  Hochfilzen (WM) singles 5. 0Dec 8, 2006  Hochfilzen sprint 6th 0Dec 9, 2006  Hochfilzen persecution 7th Dec 13, 2006  Hochfilzen singles 8th. Feb 10, 2007  Antholz (WM) Mass start 9. Feb 28, 2007  Lahti singles 10. 0March 8 2007  Oslo sprint 11. Jan. 19, 2008  Antholz persecution 12. Jan. 20, 2008  Antholz Mass start 13. 0Feb 9, 2008  Östersund (World Cup) sprint 14th Feb 10, 2008  Östersund (World Cup) persecution 15th 0Jan. 9, 2009  Oberhof sprint 16. 21 Mar 2009  Trondheim persecution 17th Jan. 10, 2010  Oberhof Mass start 18th Jan. 24, 2010  Antholz persecution 19th Feb 11, 2011  Fort Kent sprint 20th Feb 12, 2011  Fort Kent persecution 21st 0Feb 5, 2012  Oslo Mass start 22nd Jan. 18, 2014  Antholz persecution

No. date place discipline 1. Jan. 10, 1999  Oberhof Season 1 2. Jan. 14, 2000  Ruhpolding Season 2 3. Jan. 23, 2000  Antholz Season 3 4th 10 Mar 2000  Lahti Season 2 5. Dec 10, 2000  Antholz Season 4 6th Dec 14, 2001  Pokljuka Season 5 7th Feb. 18, 2002  Salt Lake City (OWS) Season 4 8th. Jan. 10, 2003  Oberhof Season 4 9. 0Jan. 6, 2005  Oberhof Season 4 10. Feb 11, 2007  Antholz (WM) Season 6 11. 0Dec 9, 2007  Hochfilzen Season 7 12. Dec 16, 2007  Pokljuka Season 8 13. 0Jan. 3, 2008  Oberhof Season 9 14th Feb 17, 2008  Östersund (World Cup) Season 6 15th Dec 21, 2008  Hochfilzen Season 10 16. Jan. 14, 2009  Ruhpolding Season 11 17th 14 Mar 2009  Vancouver Season 6 18th 0Dec 6, 2009  Ostersund Season 7 19th Dec 11, 2010  Hochfilzen Season 12 20th 13 Mar 2011  Khanty-Mansiysk (WM) Season 13 21st 10 Mar 2012  Ruhpolding (WM) Season 13 22nd Jan. 20, 2013  Antholz Season 14 23. 10 Mar 2013  Sochi Season 15 24. Dec 12, 2013  Annecy-Le Grand-Bornand Season 16 1with Uschi Disl , Simone Greiner-Petter-Memm and Martina Zellner 2with Uschi Disl, Katrin Apel and Martina Zellner 3with Martina Glagow , Katrin Apel and Martina Zellner 4thwith Uschi Disl, Kati Wilhelm and Katrin Apel 5with Katrin Apel, Janet Klein and Kati Wilhelm 6thwith Martina Glagow, Magdalena Neuner and Kati Wilhelm 7thwith Martina Glagow, Simone Denkinger and Kati Wilhelm 8thwith Martina Glagow, Sabrina Buchholz and Magdalena Neuner 9with Simone Denkinger, Kathrin Hitzer and Kati Wilhelm 10 with Simone Hauswald, Magdalena Neuner and Kathrin Hitzer 11 with Kati Wilhelm, Kathrin Hitzer and Magdalena Neuner 12 with Kathrin Hitzer, Magdalena Neuner and Sabrina Buchholz 13with Miriam Gössner , Tina Bachmann and Magdalena Neuner 14thwith Franziska Hildebrand , Miriam Gössner and Nadine Horchler 15thwith Evi Sachsenbacher-Stehle , Miriam Gössner and Laura Dahlmeier 16with Franziska Preuß , Franziska Hildebrand and Laura Dahlmeier

Web links

Commons : Andrea Henkel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Andrea Henkel in the IBU database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Andrea Henkel writes biathlon history. Retrieved November 3, 2012 . 
2. ↑ Biathlon Olympic champion Andrea Henkel got married. Retrieved October 26, 2014 . 
3. ↑ New name, new job at www.bild.de, accessed on March 10, 2016
4. ↑ Grande Dame Andrea Henkel stops. Retrieved March 23, 2014 . 
5. ↑ Welcome to the chaos. Retrieved November 3, 2012 . 
6. ↑ Andrea Henkel is “Sportswoman of the Month” for December. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved November 3, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Winter star on Neuner, women's relay and large. Retrieved November 3, 2012 . 
8. ↑ "Golden Ski" awarded to the best DSV athletes. Retrieved November 3, 2012 . 
9. ↑ "Sportswoman of the Month" February - Andrea Henkel. Archived from the original on April 25, 2016 ; Retrieved November 3, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Henkel, Neuner and Wolf receive "Golden Ski" from the DSV. Retrieved November 3, 2012 . 
11. ↑ biathlon.xc-ski.de ( Memento from July 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
12. ↑ Holmenkollen medals for Bjoerndalen, Greis and Henkel. Retrieved November 3, 2012 . 
13. ↑ mdr.de ( Memento from September 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
14. ↑ Golden ski for Henkel and Birnbacher. Retrieved October 31, 2013 . 
15. ↑ Thuringian athlete of the year chosen. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013 ; accessed on June 22, 2016 .