Lars Berger

Lars Berger (born 1 May 1979) is a former Norwegian biathlete and cross-country skier.

Lars Berger
Personal information
Full nameLars Berger
Born (1979-05-01) 1 May 1979
Levanger, Norway
Height1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)
Professional information
SportBiathlon
Cross-country skiing
ClubDombås IL
Byåsen IL
World Cup debut4 January 2001
22 November 2003
Retired27 April 2015
Olympic Games
Teams1 (2010)
1 (2010)
Medals0
1 (0 gold)
World Championships
Teams7 (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012)
2 (2005, 2007)
Medals5 (1 gold)
3 (3 gold)
World Cup
Seasons14 (2000/01–2013/14)
Individual victories
  • 7 (biathlon)
  • 0 (cross-country skiing)
All victories
  • 11 (biathlon)
  • 1 (cross-country skiing)
Individual podiums
  • 16 (biathlon)
  • 1 (cross-country skiing)
All podiums
  • 27 (biathlon)
  • 2 (cross-country skiing)

Life and career

Fellow former biathlete Tora Berger is his sister.[1] Berger's family moved to Lesja, Oppland, in 1985. At the age of six, Berger started cross-country skiing, but during his teens he decided to try out biathlon.

Berger joined the national biathlon team in 2001. During the 2004 Biathlon World Championships in Oberhof, Germany, he won silver medals in the 15 km mass start and the 4 × 7.5 km relay. Berger also won two gold medals in the military world championships that same year (cross-country and patrol). Berger finished fifth in the 2004 overall World Cup, and won several gold medals from the Norwegian Biathlon Championships. At the 2007 Biathlon World Championships in Rasen-Antholz, Italy, Berger was part of the Norwegian team that won silver in the 4 × 7.5 km relay. After several disappointing races, mainly due to unstable shooting, Berger was thrown off the Norwegian national team ahead of the 2008/2009 season. He revenged this by retrieving two world cup victories in sprint events, a silver in the World Championship sprint, and contributed to the gold in the men's relay. He was regarded as perhaps the fastest skier on the biathlon tour, but his lack of shooting accuracy often prevented him from producing consistent and winning results.

Berger also competed in cross-country skiing from 2002. He won the 30 km and relay at the 2003 Norwegian cross-country skiing championships in Molde. Berger won a gold in the 4 × 10 km at the 2005 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf and finished 4th in the 15 km in those same championships. Berger won the gold medal in the 15 km at the Nordic Skiing World Championships in Sapporo in 2007.

Berger is the first person to win medals at the World Championships in biathlon and Nordic skiing in the same year. He is also the only athlete to win gold in relays in both World Championships (in Nordic skiing in 2005 and 2007, in biathlon in 2009).

In 2014, Berger won gold medal in the men's 15 km cross county skiing in the military world championship in Sodankylä, Finland.

On 27 April 2015, Berger announced his retirement from the sport. He cited a "chronic knee injury" as his reason for retiring.[2]

Though Berger only participated in the 2010 Olympics, in both cross-country skiing and biathlon, he did travel to the Olympic Games as a reserve athlete in biathlon in both 2002 and 2014.

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.[3]

Olympic Games

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay
2010 Vancouver 46th 23rd

World Championships

5 medals (1 gold, 4 silver)

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay
2004 Oberhof 24th 14th 11th Silver Silver N/A
2005 Hochfilzen 44th 32nd
2006 Pokljuka N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 23rd
2007 Antholz-Anterselva 49th 14th 11th 17th Silver
2009 Pyeongchang 34th Silver 5th 29th Gold 4th
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 65th 14th 19th 14th
2012 Ruhpolding 32nd 40th
*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.
**The mixed relay was added as an event in 2005.

Overall record

Result Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay Total
1st place7411
2nd place221510
3rd place3126
4–10214913130
11–20141691141
21–407242512169
41–601021738
Others448
DNF0
DSQ11
Starts23896023163214
*Results in all UIPMB and IBU World Cup races.[3]

Junior/Youth World Championships

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Relay
1999 Pokljuka 11th 9th 5th

Individual victories

7 victories (7 Sp)

Season Date Location Discipline Level
2003–04
3 victories
(3 Sp)
11 December 2003 Hochfilzen10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
27 February 2004 Hochfilzen10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
11 March 2004 Oslo Holmenkollen10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
2008–09
2 victories
(2 Sp)
20 December 2008 Hochfilzen10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
13 March 2009 Vancouver10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
2010–11
1 victory
(1 Sp)
14 January 2011 Ruhpolding10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
2013–14
1 victory
(1 Sp)
6 December 2013 Hochfilzen10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
*Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).[4]

Olympic Games

  • 1 medal – (1 silver)
 Year   Age   15 km 
individual
 30 km 
 skiathlon 
 50 km 
mass start
 Sprint   4 × 10 km 
 relay 
 Team 
 sprint 
201030Silver

World Championships

  • 3 medals – (3 gold)
 Year   Age   15 km 
individual
 30 km 
 skiathlon 
 50 km 
mass start
 Sprint   4 × 10 km 
 relay 
 Team 
 sprint 
2005254Gold
200727GoldGold

Season standings

 Season   Age  Discipline standings Ski Tour standings
Overall Distance Sprint Nordic
Opening
Tour de
Ski
World Cup
Final
2004248154N/AN/AN/A
2005259359N/AN/AN/A
200626NCNCN/AN/AN/A
2007277846N/AN/A
20082814485N/A
20103013084N/A
20123210767

Team podiums

  • 1 victory – (1 RL)
  • 2 podiums – (2 RL)
No. Season Date Location Race Level Place Teammates
1 2003–04 23 November 2003 Beitostølen, Norway4 × 10 km Relay C/FWorld Cup2ndSvartedal / Hjelmeset / Hofstad
22011–1220 November 2011 Sjusjøen, Norway4 × 10 km Relay C/FWorld Cup1stRønning / Krogh / Northug

References

  1. Associated Press (15 January 2011). "Tora Berger wins biathlon sprint in Germany, day after brother Lars wins race". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  2. Tingve, Pål Marius (27 April 2015). "Lars Berger legger opp". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  3. "Lars Berger". IBU Datacenter. International Biathlon Union. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  4. "BERGER Lars". FIS-Ski. International Ski Federation. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
Awards
Preceded by
Stein Johnson
Egebergs Ærespris
2006
Succeeded by
Frode Andresen
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