Michela Ponza

Michela Ponza
Full name	Michela Ponza
Association	Italy
birthday	February 12, 1979
place of birth	Bolzano, Italy
Career
society	Ski Club Val Gardena Gr. Sciatori Fiamme Gialle
Trainer	Paolo Riva, Farbrizio Curtaz Francesco Berlendis
Admission to the national team	1994
Debut in the World Cup	1998
status	resigned
End of career	2014
Medal table
World Cup medals 0 × 0 × 1 × JWM medals 0 × 1 × 2 × SWM medals 0 × 0 × 1 × IM medals 26 × 7 × 1 ×
Biathlon world championships bronze 2013 Nové Město Season  Summer biathlon world championships bronze 2008 Haute Maurienne Mixed relay  Biathlon Junior World Championships silver 1998 Valcartier singles bronze 1998 Valcartier Season bronze 1999 Pokljuka persecution  Italian championships gold 1999 Courmayeur singles gold 1999 Froni Avoltri persecution gold 2000 singles gold 2000 Mass start silver 2000 Antholz sprint silver 2000 persecution gold 2001 Antholz singles gold 2001 Forni Avoltri persecution gold 2001 Forni Avoltri sprint silver 2002 Forni Avoltri singles gold 2002 Antholz Mass start silver 2002 Forni Avoltri sprint gold 2002 Forni Avoltri persecution gold 2003 Brusson singles gold 2003 Brusson sprint gold 2003 Brusson persecution gold 2004 Val Ridanna singles gold 2004 Forni Avoltri Mass start gold 2004 Martell Valley sprint gold 2004 Martell Valley persecution gold 2005 Bionaz sprint gold 2005 Bionaz persecution silver 2006 Cesana San Sicario sprint gold 2006 Cesana San Sicario persecution gold 2007 Val Ridanna Mass start gold 2008 Antholz Mass start gold 2009 Forni Avoltri Mass start gold 2009 Brusson sprint silver 2009 Forni Avoltri Season gold 2009 Brusson persecution gold 2011 Forni Avoltri sprint gold 2011 Forni Avoltri Mass start bronze 2012 Val Ridanna sprint silver 2012 Val Ridanna persecution
World Cup balance
Overall World Cup	10th ( 2007/08 ) 16th ( 2005/06 ) 18th ( 2008/09 ) 19th ( 2004/05 ) 20th ( 2003/04 , 2011/12 )
Pursuit World Cup	06. (2005/06) 10. (2007/08)
Mass start world cup	03rd (2007/08) 08th (2004/05)
Podium placements 1. 2. 3. singles 0 1 0 sprint 0 1 1 persecution 0 2 1 Mass start 0 0 1 Season 0 1 1
last change: February 15, 2013

Michela Ponza (born February 12, 1979 in Bozen , South Tyrol ) is a former Italian biathlete .

Life

The South Tyrolean Michela Ponza, in Santa Cristina in Val Gardena lives, comes from a sports family. Her grandfather Vincenzo Demetz was a two-time bronze medalist at the world championships in cross-country skiing in Chamonix over 50 km and with the relay in 1937. From 1990 she was initially an active cross-country skier , but like her sister Ivonne already an excellent air rifle shooter , so the change to biathlon in 1993 was only logical. Her younger sister was also a biathlete, but ended this career very early because of health problems. Since completing her commercial high school, she has been fully focused on sport and is a member of the financial police sports group .

Career in biathlon

Michela Ponza has always been one of the top 15 female athletes in the field of World Cup biathletes in recent years: Her hit rate in the 2005/06 season was 87% (lying: 90%, standing: 85%). In her weaker sub-area, running, she was able to continuously improve over the course of her career.

The athlete with the nickname "Micky" was considered one of the best Italian biathletes during her active time and was able to achieve numerous top 10 placements in biathlon world cup races . Her best individual results were second places, for the first time in the 7.5 km sprint competition at Holmenkollen in Oslo in the 2005/06 season .

Her best placement in international championships was 5th in the 10 km pursuit race in San Sicario at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin . Her performance then stabilized at a high level, and she was always in the top 10 of the results lists at the last three World Cups of the 2005/06 season. Also as the starting runner of the Italian relay she was able to deliver some very good results, e.g. B. handed her over at the start of the 2005/06 season in Östersund with an 8 second lead as 1st with the best individual time of all women.

In the 2006/2007 season , Michela Ponza was the only A-team biathlete who is supported by the Italian federation in the World Cup. As is so often the case, her season was marked by several febrile illnesses that kept throwing her back. She achieved her best positions of the season at the home World Cup in Antholz with sixth and eighth places in sprint and pursuit.

2008 she managed and a second place with the mixed relay in their most successful season to date, two each second and third places in individual races Korean Pyeongchang and thus also its best result in the overall World Cup rankings in tenth. In the discipline classification of the mass start, she was third overall, tied with Helena Jonsson .

At the world championships in summer biathlon 2008 Ponza reached third place in the mixed relay competition together with Katja Haller , Christian Martinelli and Markus Windisch . She won the mass start title at the Italian Championships in 2009 and was runner-up in the relay.

Michela Ponza took part in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Her best results were 27th in the singles and 11th in the relay.

At the Biathlon World Championships 2013 in Nove Mesto , she surprisingly won the bronze medal with the Italian relay.

On March 31, 2014, Ponza ended her career in biathlon.

At the request of the winter sports association, Ponza switched to the biathlon coach almost immediately after her resignation. Since then, she has looked after the B team - primarily as a shooting coach - together with Alex Inderst and René Laurent Vuillermoz.

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
• Relay: including mixed relays

placement	singles	sprint	persecution	Mass start	Season	total
1st place
2nd place	1	1	2		1	5
3rd place		1	1	1	1	4th
Top 10	6th	16	14th	6th	44	86
Scoring	28	71	72	36	61	268
Starts	46	119	89	36	63	353
As of February 17, 2013

Web links

Commons : Michela Ponza  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• www.michelaponza.com Official website of Michela Ponza (Italian and German)
• Michela Ponza in the IBU database (English)
• Michela Ponza in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )