Steinigen started as an active player for SG Dynamo Zinnwald . He celebrated his first success in 1985 when he became junior world champion. Due to problems with the sports system in the GDR , he was not taken to the Olympic Games in Calgary in 1988, although he was athletically qualified . He won the gold medal in the German 4 × 7.5 km relay together with Ricco Groß , Mark Kirchner and Fritz Fischer at the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville .
A year later he won bronze in the relay at the Biathlon World Championships. He was not granted an individual medal at the Olympic Games or World Championships. In addition to his career as a biathlete, Steinigen studied law in Munich and received his doctorate in 2003 on the subject of "Civil law aspects of doping from the perspective of top athletes". He has been working as a lawyer and specialist lawyer for labor law in Traunstein since August 2000 .
German Democratic Republic of Germany
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| 1972: Tichonow , Safin , Bjakow , Mamatow ( URS )
| 1988: Vasilyev , Tschepikow , Popow , Medwedzew ( URS )
| 2006: Groß , Rösch , S. Fischer , Greis ( GER )
| 2018: Femling , Nelin , Samuelsson , Lindström ( SWE )