Nathan Smith (biathlete)

Nathan Smith
Association	Canada
birthday	25th December 1985 (age 34)
place of birth	Calgary , Canada
Career
society	Foothills Nordic Ski Club
Trainer	Matthias Ahrens Richard Boruta
Admission to the national team	2005
Debut in the European Cup / IBU Cup	2007
Debut in the World Cup	2007
World Cup victories	1
status	resigned
End of career	December 16, 2018
Medal table
World Cup medals 0 × 1 × 1 × Junior World Championships 0 × 0 × 1 × North American Junior Championships 1 × 0 × 0 × Canadian Championships 7 × 0 × 0 ×
Biathlon world championships silver 2015 Kontiolahti sprint bronze 2016 Oslo Season  Biathlon Junior World Championships bronze 2005 Kontiolahti Season North American Junior Championships gold 2005 Mt. Shark total Canadian Championships gold 2006 Valcartier persecution gold 2010 Canmore singles gold 2010 Canmore persecution gold 2010 Canmore Mixed relay gold 2011 Charlo Mixed relay gold 2011 Charlo sprint gold 2011 Charlo persecution
World Cup balance
Overall World Cup	16. ( 2014/15 )
Individual World Cup	30. ( 2013/14 )
Sprint World Cup	13. (2014/15)
Pursuit World Cup	10. (2014/15)
Mass start world cup	19. (2014/15)
Podium placements 1. 2. 3. sprint 0 1 0 persecution 1 0 0 Season 0 1 1
last change: end of career

Nathan Smith (born December 25, 1985 in Calgary , Alberta ) is a retired Canadian biathlete .

Career

Nathan Smith lives in Canmore and starts for the Foothills Nordic Ski Club . He is trained by Richard Boruta and Matthias Ahrens . He started cross-country skiing as a child . He has been practicing biathlon since 1998. Smith started four times, in 2002 in Ridnaun , 2003 in Kościelisko , 2005 in Kontiolahti and 2006 in Presque Isle , at Junior World Championships. Most of the time he placed himself in midfield. Only in one individual race, the 2006 pursuit, was he able to finish 19th among the top 20. Smith achieved the greatest success with the relay when he surprisingly won the bronze medal together with Jaime Robb , Patrick Côté and Jean-Philippe Leguellec behind the relay from Germany and France. At the North American Junior Championships in 2005 in Mt. Shark , he won the overall title.

In 2006, Smith won the Canadian Pursuit Championship at Valcartier after finishing just sixth in the sprint. In the Biathlon World Cup , he was used for the first time in 2007 in Oberhof in a relay race, in which the Canadian relay came in 14th. The highlight of his first real senior season was his participation in the biathlon world championships in 2008 in Östersund , where the Canadian competed in three races. In the singles he finished 81st, in the sprint 92 and with the relay of Canada he was 21. At the Canadian Championships 2010 Smith won the titles in pursuit, singles and with the mixed relay. After sporadic missions in the previous seasons, Smith came regularly to use in the 2010/11 season and reached ranks among the top 50 for the first time. The best result was a 38th place in a pursuit race in Fort Kent , with which he reached his first World Cup points. It was not until the first sprint of the 2013/14 season that Smith could improve significantly as 16th in Östersund. In Annecy , he repeated this placement and improved to eighth place in the pursuit race and thus achieved the first single-digit placement. Smith achieved good results at the Olympic Games in Sochi . The worst result was a 25th place in the individual, in the sprint and in the pursuit he missed the top ten places by only a few places as 13th and 11th. He did not finish the mass start race, with the Canadian relay he reached seventh place.

After the resignation of Jean-Philippe Leguellec, Smith was number one in the Canadian men's team from the 2014/15 season . He was almost always able to achieve the points, several times also the top ten. In Nové Město na Moravě he improved his best performance in the World Cup in a sprint race again by one place and was seventh. Only one day later he improved two places in the pursuit based on this and came in fifth. At the 2015 Biathlon World Championships in Kontiolahti , Finland , he was the first man to win a medal for Canada at a Biathlon World Championship with his second place in the 10 km sprint . After Myriam Bédard's medals at the Biathlon World Championships in 1993 in Borowetz, it was the first time a Canadian won a medal at a World Cup. In addition, after Jean-Philippe Leguellec's victory in a sprint in Östersund in 2012 , it was the second-best Canadian result in a World Cup race. At the end of the 2014/2015 season Smith was able to improve this record and achieved his first World Cup victory in the pursuit race in Khanty-Mansiysk .

At the 2016 Biathlon World Championships in Oslo, he was a member of the Canadian relay team, which also included Christian Gow , Scott Gow and Brendan Green , who won a bronze medal.

Due to a persistent illness, Smith missed almost the entire 2016/17 season , was unable to build on his previous performances the following year and finally had to end his career entirely in Hochfilzen in December 2018 .

statistics

World cup victory

No.	date	place	discipline
1.	21 Mar 2015	Khanty-Mansiysk	persecution

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			1			1
2nd place		1			1	2
3rd place					1	1
Top 10		6th	6th	1	16	29
Scoring	5	19th	20th	8th	38	90
Starts	19th	49	26th	8th	38	140
Status: end of career

winter Olympics

Results at Olympic Winter Games:

	Individual competitions				Relay competitions
	sprint	persecution	singles	Mass start	Men's relay	Mixed relay
Olympic Winter Games 2014 | Sochi	13.	11.	25th	DNF	7th	-
Olympic Winter Games 2018 | Pyeongchang	44.	54.	81.	-	-	-

World championships

World Championship		Individual competitions				Relay competitions
year	place	singles	sprint	persecution	Mass start	Men's relay	Mixed relay
2008	Ostersund	81.	92.	-	-	21st	-
2011	Khanty-Mansiysk	85.	67.	-	-	11.	-
2012	Ruhpolding	61.	45.	43.	-	13.	18th
2013	Nové Město	62.	72.	-	-	8th.	-
2015	Kontiolahti	44.	2.	13.	23.	19th	12.
2016	Oslo	42.	46.	15th	-	3.	11.

Web links

• Nathan Smith (biathlete) in the database of the IBU (English)
• Portrait on the Association's website (Engl.)