Christoph Sumann is a retired Austrian biathlete who enjoyed more than 13 years of success in world biathlon. He won two silver medals and one bronze from two Winter Olympics; he won two silver and two bronze from various World Championships, and he achieved six victories and 17 podium finishes in 11 World Cup series. His greatest triumph in the latter competition came when he won the Individual discipline gold medal at the end of the 2009-10 season. He retired in March 2014 and returned to his day job, working as a policeman in his native Austria. As his social media shows, however, he remains an active athlete, doing runs for charity and the like.
Sumann was born in the Austrian town of Judenburg in 1976. He began skiing at a young age, and through his passion for cross-country skiing, he joined the junior national team during the 1990s, eventually becoming part of the senior national team. However, he switched to biathlon in 2000 and made his World Cup debut that December. He won his first race during the 2002/03 season and continued to gradually improve until his deserved discipline gold medal in 2009/10.
Sumann got his first taste of World Championship glory in 2005 when he helped the Austrian team to win bronze in the 4 x 7.5km relay. He later took silver in the 15km mass start and 20km individual too, but it is his Olympic medals that remain his greatest sporting triumph, particularly his silver from the 12.5km pursuit at the 2010 Games in Vancouver (he also played his part in Austria’s 4×7.5km relay silver that year, as well as their bronze in the same event in Sochi four years later).
