Jakov Fak

Despite several respectable performances in the World Cup, Fak's performance at the Biathlon World Championships 2009 came as a huge surprise. In the opening sprint race Fak improved his career best performance by two more places by finishing 14th. However, he couldn't improve on that performance in the pursuit falling back to 25th place. The big surprise came in the 20 kilometres individual race where Fak won the bronze medal. A perfect score in the final range would have brought Fak a gold medal, however after one miss Fak had to battle very hard for at least some medal and in the end beat Simon Fourcade by less than a second to win the bronze. Thus Jakov Fak won Croatia their first-ever World Championship medal in biathlon.

Jakov Fak was the flag-bearer for Croatia at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

After his success in the World Championships, the expectations were high, but Fak's World Cup race performances in the 2009–10 season were substandard.[2] He managed to win his first points in the World Cup only on 23 January 2010, with a 24th place in Antholz,[3] and was by that time largely forgotten by the public.[2] At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Fak once again created a sensation by winning the bronze medal in the 10 km sprint.[4]

In July 2010 it was announced in the Slovenian Press that Fak would represent Slovenia in international competition.[5] On 19 November the switch to the Slovenian Biatlethe team was officially announced and Fak received his Slovenian passport on 24 November, enabling him to compete for Slovenia.[6]

At the world cup races in the US in 2011 which were held in freezing temperatures Jakov Fak suffered 3rd degree frostbite to his trigger finger.[7] It was feared his finger may have to be amputated which would certainly have ended his career as a biathlete. Jakov and his coaches decided to pull out of the Biathlon World Championships 2011 in Russia to focus on recovering from his injury and saving his finger.

After missing the 2011 World Championship due to the injury, Fak entered the 2012 World Championship as a member of Slovenian team. He won two medals, a silver in the mixed relay (together with Andreja Mali, Teja Gregorin and Klemen Bauer). Although Slovenia crossed the finish line as first, 8.2 seconds in front of Norway, the jury awarded bonus seconds for the Scandinavians because one target did not go down despite their last runner Ole Einar Bjørndalen hit it and therefore had to take an additional penalty loop, which put them ahead of Slovenia into the first place.[8] A couple of days later, Fak won the gold medal at the 20 km individual, thus winning the first gold medal for Slovenia at World Championships.[9]

2 medals (1 silver, 1 bronze)

Event	Individual	Sprint	Pursuit	Mass start	Relay	Mixed relay
Representing  Croatia
2010 Vancouver	51st	Bronze	25th	9th	—	N/A
Representing  Slovenia
2014 Sochi	32nd	10th	31st	4th	6th	—
2018 Pyeongchang	Silver	23rd	47th	10th	—	14th

*The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.

5 medals (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)

Event	Individual	Sprint	Pursuit	Mass start	Relay	Mixed relay
Representing  Croatia
2007 Antholz-Anterselva	93rd	78th	—	—	—	—
2008 Östersund	DNS	69th	—	—	—	—
2009 Pyeongchang	Bronze	14th	25th	19th	—	—
Representing  Slovenia
2012 Ruhpolding	Gold	11th	8th	—	—	Silver
2013 Nové Město	20th	Bronze	6th	19th	13th	5th
2015 Kontiolahti	10th	14th	8th	Gold	8th	15th
2016 Holmenkollen	6th	39th	5th	7th	—	13th

*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.

8 victories (1 In, 3 Sp, 2 Pu, 2 MS)

Season	Date	Location	Discipline	Level
2011–12 1 victory (1 In)	6 March 2012	Ruhpolding	20 km individual	Biathlon World Championships
2012–13 2 victories (1 Sp, 1 Pu)	8 December 2012	Hochfilzen	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	13 December 2012	Pokljuka	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
2013–14 1 victory (1 Sp)	20 March 2014	Oslo Holmenkollen	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
2014–15 4 victories (1 Sp, 1 Pu, 2 MS)	7 February 2015	Nové Město	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	8 February 2015	Nové Město	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	15 March 2015	Kontiolahti	15 km mass start	Biathlon World Championships
	22 March 2015	Khanty-Mansiysk	15 km mass start	Biathlon World Cup

*Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.