Katrin Apel

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Olympic medal record
Women's biathlon
Gold 1998 Nagano 4x7.5 km relay
Gold 2002 Salt Lake City 4x7.5 km relay
Silver 2006 Turin 4x7.5 km relay
Bronze 1998 Nagano 7.5 km sprint

Katrin Apel (born May 4, 1973 in Erfurt) is a German biathlete. 172cm (5'8"), 61kg (134lbs, 9st 8lbs). Apel now resides in Gräfenroda, and is a member of the SV Eintracht Frankenhain club. Like most German winter sport athletes, Apel is a sport soldier, performing normal soldier duties but released for training and competitions.

Apel began her career as a cross country skier, between 1990 and 1994, her best results were third place in the junior World Championships 5km classic in 1993, and second in the relay also in the junior World Championships, in 1990. However when Apel failed to be chosen to go to the Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994, she made the decision (along with her friend and then training partner Steffi) to switch to biathlon.

Apel began biathlon in 1994 in the European Cup, the second division to the World Cup. In Apels first season in the World Cup, 1995/96, she placed 33rd, but her results imporoved from then on. In the 1998/99 season she placed 8th, in 1999/00 10th, 2000/01 12th. The 2001/02 season was her best when she finished the season in 5th place. In that season Apel placed 13th in the individual, 4th in the sprint, 4th in the pursuit, and 12th in the mass start. The year after she could only finish a lowly 20th place. She bounced back to 7th in the 2003/04 season and 8th again in 2004/05, where her best discipline was the pursuit, in which she finished 7th.

She currently lies in 8th place, 426 points behind roommate Kati Wilhelm. She is 30th in the individual, 76 points behind Svetlana Ishmouratova. She finished the sprint season in 11th place, 185 points behind Wilhelm. Her best standing is in the pursuit, where she currenty lies in 4th place, 135 behind Wilhelm. Apel is 10th in the mass start, 74 points behind Martina Glagow.

Apel has had 18 podium finishes in the World Cup. Four wins, five second places and nine third places. All but one of her World Cup wins were in the 2001/02 season when she came 5th in the final standings. Also three of the four wins were in the sprint. Apel is a solid shooter in the prone position, avaraging mid 80% over the years, but her standing shoot lets her down, only in the low 70%, though it has improved from mid 60% from a few years ago.

Apel has four Olympic medals, two gold, one sliver and one bronze. Her only solo medal is a bronze in the sprint in the 1998 Winter Olympics. The other medals were won in relay events. Apel has nine World Championship medals, three gold, five silver and one bronze. However only two of the medals are solo medals, one a silver won in Oslo Holmenkollen in 2000 in the sprint, and the other, also a silver, won in the mass start in Oberhof in 2004. The remaining medals were won in relays.

Her favourite course is Holmenkollen, but she also likes Oberhof and Ruhpolding, because of the support of home fans. She is sponsored by e-on ruhrgas, Deutsche Kreditbank(dkb), and Viba sweets. Her equipment is supplied by Fischer, Salomon, Holmenkol, Rudy project, Swix, and airnergy. Outside of competition Apel enjoys cooking, and reading. Her favourtie author is Ken Follett. She is not married. Her summer sports include cycling, running, roller skiing, and nordic walking, she has even done a nordic walking training DVD. She says her favourite food is Thüringen dumplings (like Sven Fischer), barbaque and noodles. She likes to drink apple juice with water (like Uschi Disl), and red wine. She has a soft toy penguin called Hugo which she takes with her to all her races and also a chain with a glass heart. Katrin says she is a good natured person, and humorous but a bit grumpy in the mornings. She has also said when she finishes biathlon she hopes to work with children.

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