Jakov Fak

Jakov Fak
Association	Croatia (until 2010) Slovenia
birthday	1st August 1987 (age 33)
place of birth	Rijeka ,  Yugoslavia
size	184 cm
Weight	74 kg
Career
society	SD Pokljuka
Debut in the World Cup	December 8, 2006 in Hochfilzen
World Cup victories	8 (single)
status	active
Medal table
winter Olympics 0 × 1 × 1 × World championships 2 × 1 × 2 × Summer biathlon JWM 1 × 0 × 0 ×
winter Olympics bronze 2010 Vancouver sprint silver 2018 Pyeongchang singles  Biathlon world championships bronze 2009 Pyeongchang singles silver 2012 Ruhpolding Mixed relay gold 2012 Ruhpolding singles bronze 2013 Nové Město na Moravě sprint gold 2015 Kontiolahti Mass start  Junior Summer Biathlon World Championships gold 2008 Haute-Maurienne persecution
World Cup balance
Overall World Cup	03. ( 2014/15 )
Individual World Cup	02. ( 2011/12 )
Sprint World Cup	04. ( 2012/13 , 2014/15 )
Pursuit World Cup	03. ( 2014/15 )
Mass start world cup	02. ( 2014/15 )
Podium placements 1. 2. 3. singles 1 0 1 sprint 3 0 7th persecution 2 4th 2 Mass start 2 1 1 Season 0 1 0
last change: December 7, 2019

Jakov Fak (born August 1, 1987 in Rijeka , Socialist Republic of Croatia , Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ) is a Slovenian biathlete of Croatian origin. He has been competing in the biathlon world cup since 2006 , initially for the Croatian and since 2010 for the Slovenian national association. He has won eight races in this series of competitions and was third in the overall World Cup in the 2014/15 season. He also won two medals at the Winter Olympics and five at the Biathlon World Championships . In 2012 he was world champion in the individual over 20 kilometers and in 2015 in the mass start over 15 kilometers. Fak belongs to the SD Pokljuka association.

Athletic career

The native Croatian Jakov Fak moved in 2000 from the cross-country skiing to the more popular at that time in Croatia has become the sport of biathlon .

Jakov Fak made his first international appearance at the 2002 Biathlon Junior World Championships in Ridnaun, Italy . There he finished 64th in the sprint and 72nd in the individual and together with the Croatian relay reached 17th place in the corresponding competition. In January 2003 he made his debut in the Biathlon European Cup with a 46th place in a sprint in Forni Avoltri . At the Junior World Championships in 2003 in Kościelisko , Poland , he was 28th in the sprint, 32nd in the pursuit, 38th in the individual and 18th together with the relay. In the competitions of the Junior World Championships in 2004 in Haute-Maurienne , France , he did not get beyond the top 50 athletes in the individual races. With the season he reached 15th place. Then it took until 2007 before he competed again in the junior title fights. In Martell he was 24th of the individual, 23rd of the sprint and 18th of the pursuit race. In 2008 he achieved his best result at the Junior World Championships as tenth in the sprint in Ruhpolding . He also finished 13th in the pursuit and 31st in the individual. He also competed in the 2008 Junior Summer Biathlon World Championships in Haute-Maurienne. After finishing eighth in the sprint competition, he won the gold medal in the pursuit.

On December 8, 2006, Fak made his debut in the biathlon world cup as part of a sprint in Hochfilzen . He finished this as 107th In the course of the Biathlon World Cup 2006/07 he started in seven other competitions, including the Biathlon World Championships 2007 in Antholz , his first in the adult field. There he was 78th in the sprint and 93rd in the individual. He was denied a place in the points and the 78th place from Antholz should remain his best result. The following season was similar . His best result was the 43rd place in the individual on the Pokljuka . At the 2008 World Championships in Sweden's Ostersund , he was 69th in the sprint, but gave up a start in singles. Fak had been training with the Slovenian national team since summer 2008, initially under the Croatian flag . According to his own statement, it was only through this step that he made the leap from amateur to professional. In the second race of the 2008/09 season , a sprint in Östersund, he scored his first World Cup points with 37th place. The Croatian succeeded in further increasing his performance in the individual at the World Cup in Hochfilzen. In this he finished 15th, surpassing his best World Cup result by 22 places.

Jakov Fak made his breakthrough to the top of his sport at the 2009 Biathlon World Championships in Pyeongchang, South Korea . After finishing 14th in the sprint and 25th in the pursuit, he won the bronze medal in the individual over 20 kilometers. He only had to admit defeat to Ole Einar Bjørndalen from Norway and Christoph Stephan from Germany . This was also his first podium finish in a competition in the context of the Biathlon World Cup and the first medal win for Croatia at world championships in Nordic skiing and related biathlon. In the mass start, he finished 19th. He finished the winter of 2008/09 in 44th place in the overall World Cup. After he had only classified himself in Antholz as 24th of the sprint and 17th in the pursuit in the points during the 2009/10 World Cup season , he won the bronze medal in the sprint over ten at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada Kilometers behind the French Vincent Jay and the Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen . When he first participated in the Winter Games, he was also 25th in the pursuit, 51st in the individual and ninth in the mass start. With regard to the entire season, he improved compared to the previous year and was 38th of the overall World Cup.

During the time around his medal win at the 2009 World Championships, talks were held between the associations about Fak's change from the Croatian to the Slovenian national association after the 2010 Winter Olympics. In August 2009, Fak announced that it was “99.9 percent” certain that the change would be made in the following year due to the better training conditions in Slovenia. In April 2010, the Slovenian team director Borut Nunar made it clear that the Slovenians would only continue to work with Fak if the athlete changes associations. After the Croatian federation initially demanded a transfer fee of 100,000 euros from the Slovenian federation, the two federations reached an agreement in November 2010, which means that Fak has been flying the Slovenian flag since the 2010/11 season .

In this he started with three results in the top ten in Östersund, including a third place in the pursuit. This was his first podium finish in the World Cup outside of major events. In the course of the season he placed himself regularly in the points. After Fak suffered severe frostbite on his trigger finger at the World Cup in Fort Kent in mid-February 2011, he had to cancel his participation in the 2011 World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk in order not to risk a finger amputation, which would mean an involuntary end of his career. He ended the season prematurely and was 24th of the overall World Cup. At the beginning of the 2011/12 season, Fak first won a sprint held in Östersund as part of the second-rate IBU Cup . As in the previous year, he regularly won points in the World Cup . At the Biathlon World Championships in 2012 in Ruhpolding, he achieved his greatest sporting success to date: After winning the silver medal in the mixed relay over 2 × 6 and 2 × 7.5 kilometers together with Andreja Mali , Teja Gregorin and Klemen Bauer and In the sprint and pursuit, he finished eleventh and eighth respectively, and on March 6, 2012 he became world champion in the individual over 20 kilometers. He was ahead of Simon Fourcade from France and Jaroslav Soukup from the Czech Republic . The world title was also his first victory in the World Cup and the first for Slovenia in biathlon. At the end of the season, Fak finished 17th in the overall World Cup and second in the individual discipline.

After failing to classify himself among the top 30 athletes in three races at the start of the 2012/13 World Cup season in Östersund, he achieved his first podium finish of the winter at the second World Cup in Hochfilzen with a third place in the sprint race. A day later, on December 8, 2012, he won the pursuit and thus his second World Cup race. On December 13, 2012, he won the second individual race in a row with the sprint at the Slovenian Home World Cup on Pokljuka and came second in the mass start. In Antholz he reached the podium two more times as third in the sprint and second in the pursuit. At the 2013 World Championships in Nové Město na Moravě , Czech Republic , he finished fifth in the Slovenian mixed relay, which had the same line-up as last year. In the sprint he was able to win the bronze medal behind Emil Hegle Svendsen and Martin Fourcade and thus his fourth precious metal at world championships. With these it was his only medal: In the pursuit he was sixth, in the individual 20th, in the relay with Peter Dokl , Klemen Bauer and Janez Marič 13th and finished 19th in the final mass start. At the end of the season he was denied further podium finishes, which meant he fell back to fourth place behind Dominik Landertinger in the overall World Cup, in which he had long been third behind Fourcade and Svendsen . His best World Cup season to date, he finished with two wins and seven podiums on this place.

On the way to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia's Sochi Fak started with a 49th place in the individual at the traditional opener in Östersund in the 2013/14 season . In the pursuit of Ruhpolding, he was second on the podium for the first time this year. At the Winter Games, for the first time since the 2008 World Championships, he was unable to win a medal in a major event in any competition. He finished tenth in the sprint, 31st in the pursuit and individual and fourth in the mass start. With Dokl, Bauer and Marič he reached sixth place in the season. After the Games, Fak won the Oslo sprint . In the mass start in the same place he finished third, in the overall World Cup he was twelfth. In the 2014/15 World Cup , Fak should surpass his best overall performance so far from the 2012/13 winter. Before Christmas he reached two podium places in the sprint of Östersund and in the pursuit of Hochfilzen with third place. After the turn of the year he was third in the sprint in Antholz and won both sprint and pursuit in Nové Město na Moravě. At the 2015 World Championships in Kontiolahti , he was 15th in the mixed relay, 14th in the sprint, eighth in the pursuit, tenth in the individual and eighth in the men's relay. In the 15-kilometer mass start on March 15, 2015, he won his second world title ahead of Ondřej Moravec and Tarjei Bø . He ended the season after another victory in the last race, a mass start in Khanty-Mansiysk, in third place in the overall World Cup behind Martin Fourcade and Anton Schipulin .

In 2015/16 , for the first time since the 2007/08 season , Fak remained without a podium in the entire season. He presented himself in good shape at the 2016 Biathlon World Championships in Oslo: He was 39th in the sprint, fifth in the pursuit, sixth in the individual and seventh in the mass start. The last three were his only top ten results this season. The mixed relay with Andreja Mali, Teja Gregorin, Klemen Bauer and Jakov Fak reached the 13th place. After he had only completed two races in Ruhpolding in the 2016/17 season due to health problems, in which he had remained without points, and also missed the 2017 World Championships , he returned to the top of the world in 2017/18 . Before the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, with the exception of the Antholz sprint, he consistently placed in the top 15 and therefore traveled to South Korea alongside Martin Fourcade, Johannes Thingnes Bø , Arnd Peiffer and Tarjei Bø as a favorite for medals named by the International Biathlon Union . After initially mixed results as 23rd in the sprint and 47th in the pursuit, he won his second Olympic medal with silver in the individual over 20 kilometers behind Johannes Thingnes Bø and in front of Dominik Landertinger. In the mass start he was tenth, with the mixed relay he achieved 14th place. After the games, he continued to rank consistently in the points until the end of the season. He finished the season with three podium places in sixth place in the overall World Cup.

The 2018/19 season again went without a podium finish for Fak. The best result was a fourth place in the individual right at the start of the season, which this year took place exceptionally at the Pokljuka due to the 2019 Biathlon World Championships held in Östersund , as well as a ninth place in the sprint of Hochfilzen. At the World Championships, Fak was 17th in the sprint, 26th in the pursuit, 42nd in the individual, fifth in the relay - with Miha Dovžan , Klemen Bauer and Rok Tršan  - and 14th in the mass start. The season ended for him in 26th place overall.

According to information on his homepage, Fak would like to continue his sporting career until the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in 2022 .

statistics

Biathlon world cup

World Cup victories

Fak (center) after his World Cup victory on February 7, 2015 together with Simon Schempp (left) and Jean-Guillaume Béatrix (right)

Single race

No. date place discipline 1. 06th Mar 2012  Ruhpolding ( WM ) Single (20 km) 2. 0Dec 8, 2012  Hochfilzen Pursuit (12.5 km) 3. Dec 13, 2012  Pokljuka Sprint (10 km) 4th 20 Mar 2014  Oslo Sprint (10 km) 5. 0Feb 7, 2015  Nové Město na Moravě Sprint (10 km) 6th 0Feb 8, 2015  Nové Město na Moravě Pursuit (12.5 km) 7th 15th Mar 2015  Kontiolahti ( WM ) Mass start (15 km) 8th. 22 Mar 2015  Khanty-Mansiysk Mass start (15 km)

Placements in the World Cup

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
• Relay: including mixed relays

placement	singles	sprint	persecution	Mass start	Season	total
1st place	1	2	2	2		7th
2nd place			1	1	1	3
3rd place	1	3	1			5
Top 10	6th	11	9	7th	13	46
Scoring	10	28	23	11	18th	90
Starts	18th	53	26th	11	18th	126
As of March 22, 2015

winter Olympics

	Individual competitions				Relay competitions
	sprint	persecution	singles	Mass start	Season	Mixed relay
2010 Winter Olympics  Vancouver	3.	25th	51.	9.	-
2014 Winter Olympics  Sochi	10.	31.	31.	4th	6th	-
Olympic Winter Games 2018  Pyeongchang	23.	47.	2.	10.	-	14th

Biathlon world championships

	Individual competitions				Relay competitions
	sprint	persecution	singles	Mass start	Season	Mixed relay	S.-M.-Relay
World Championships 2007  Antholz	78.	-	93.	-	-	-
World Championships 2008  Ostersund	69.	-	DNS	-	-	-
World Championships 2009  Pyeongchang	14th	25th	3.	19th	-	-
World Championships 2012  Ruhpolding	11.	8th.	1.	-	-	2.
World Championships 2013  Nové Město na Moravě	3.	6th	20th	19th	13.	5.
World Championships 2015  Kontiolahti	14th	8th.	10.	1.	8th.	15th
World Championships 2016  Oslo	39.	5.	6th	7th	-	13.
World Championships 2019  Ostersund	17th	26th	42.	14th	5.	-	-

Biathlon Junior World Championships

	Individual competitions			Season
	sprint	persecution	singles
Junior World Championships 2002  Ridanna	64.	-	72.	17th
Junior World Championships 2003  Kościelisko	28.	32.	38.	18th
Junior World Championships 2004  Haute-Maurienne	50.	DNS	55.	15th
Junior World Championships 2007  Martell	23.	18th	24.	-
Junior World Championships 2008  Ruhpolding	10.	13.	31.	-

Others

Fak's older brother was also active as a biathlete and, among other things, completed the relay competition with him at the 2002 Biathlon Junior World Championships in Ridnaun. Fak married his long-time fiancée in June 2018. He is the father of a daughter born in 2016.

Web links

Commons : Jakov Fak  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Jakov Fak in the IBU database (English)
• Homepage (Slovenian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jakov Fac. Eurosport , accessed on February 23, 2020 . 
2. ^ ^{A b} Viktoria Franke: Biathlon World Cup Korea: Interview with Jakov Fak. Biathlon Online Magazine, February 17, 2009, accessed December 14, 2019 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Tom Klein: 21-year-old the sensation of the nation. International Biathlon Union, February 18, 2009, archived from the original on November 11, 2011 ; accessed on December 14, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Viktoria Franke: Jakov Fak: “99.9% of the time I'm moving to Slovenia!” Biathlon Online Magazine, August 5, 2009, accessed on December 14, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Viktoria Franke: Slovenes expect a decision from medalist Jakov Fak.Biathlon Online Magazine, April 15, 2010, accessed on December 14, 2019 . 
6. ^ Olympic medal winner Fak now Slovene. Augsburger Allgemeine, November 19, 2010, accessed on December 14, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Frozen finger: Slovene Fak cancels World Cup start. Augsburger Allgemeine, March 2, 2011, accessed on December 14, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Five favorites for Pyeongchang: Martin, Johannes, Jakov, Arnd and Tarjei. International Biathlon Union, January 29, 2018, accessed December 14, 2019 . 
9. ↑ A good start to the week: Wedding with Jakov Fak and Nadezhda Pisareva, Ole's farewell and ... International Biathlon Union, June 18, 2018, accessed on December 14, 2019 .