Andreas Zihlmann lives in Marbach and started for the local sports club. At first he did cross-country skiing. Here he had his first major race in 1998 in the context of the Junior World Championships in Pontresina , where he was 56th over 10-kilometer freestyle, a year later in Saalfelden 46th over 30-kilometer freestyle. From 1999, further races in the Continental Cup and FIS races followed . In particular in FIS races he often achieved good placements. In 2000 the first race in the cross-country world cup followed . In Ulrichen , Zihlmann was 61st in the 10-kilometer freestyle. It was also the best individual result in his seven World Cup starts between 2000 and 2003, two of them in relay races. In 2001 he won the Tidel over the 30-kilometer classic at the Swiss Championships in Langis . Shortly afterwards he also started at the 2001 Military World Ski Championships in Colchester and finished 47th in the 15-kilometer freestyle. A year later he came 44th in Kranjska Gora .
In 2004 Zihlmann switched to biathlon. Towards the end of the 2003/04 season he made his debut in Gurnigel in the Biathlon European Cup and immediately won first points in sprint and pursuit as 22nd. The first international championship followed with the military World Ski Championships in 2004 in Östersund . The sprint finished in 73rd place, with Christoph Schinder, Roland Zwahlen and Matthias Simmen he was also seventh in the military patrol run. Since the 2004/05 season , Zihlmanns has been used regularly in the European Cup. In Langdorf he just missed a podium finish in fourth place against Michael Rösch . It should remain the best result of his 29 European Cup races. Several weeks earlier he came to Oberhof at the side of Simon Hallenbarter , Matthias Simmen and Roland Zwahlen for his only appearance in the Biathlon World Cup and achieved tenth place in this relay race. He had his greatest national success at the Swiss Biathlon Championships in 2005 , when he was able to take advantage of the absence of the national team athletes and won the Swiss individual championship ahead of Claudio Böckli and Ivan Joller . In 2006 there was another runner-up behind Joller in the mass start race.
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
Switzerland
