Michael Greis

Greis won the World Cup in the individual category in 2004/05, and was a member of the winning 4 × 7.5 km relay team in the 2004 Biathlon World Championships, and took silver in the individual 20 km category at the 2005 World Championships.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Greis came into the games heading the World Cup standings and took the first Olympic gold of the games with victory in the individual 20 km ahead of the defending Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjørndalen. He was also a member of the German team that won the 4 × 7.5 km relay.

On 25 February 2006 Greis won the men's 15 km event and became the first person to capture three gold medals at the Turin Olympic Games. (Koreans Jin Sun-Yu and Ahn Hyun Soo became the second and third later on the same day with victories in short track speed skating.)

Greis participated in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada which turned to be a disappointing performance for his fans as he finished in the mediocre 10th place twice, in the Individual and the Mass Start, along with coming 5th in the relay and the pursuit, adding to a streak of unsuccessful Olympic performances by the German biathlon male team when not a single German won any medal in biathlon for the first time in the Olympic history.

After the first round of the 2012–13 World Cup, Greis announced his retirement on 5 December 2012 citing a lack of motivation, making the 20 km in Östersund on 28 November his last competition as he had dropped the sprint and pursuit. After retiring, Greis studied International Management at Ansbach University of Applied Sciences. He also worked as a pundit for Eurosport. Subsequently in 2016 he was appointed as head coach at the national biathlon training centre for east Switzerland at Lenzerheide, where he coached youth biathletes. After two years in this post, in April 2018 he was announced as head coach of the United States men's biathlon team. After one season in this role, in May 2019 he was named as head coach for the Polish women's biathlon team.