Kaisa Mäkäräinen

Kaisa Mäkäräinen
Personal information
Full name Kaisa-Leena Mäkäräinen
Nickname(s) Kappa
Born (1983-01-11) 11 January 1983
Ristijärvi, Finland
Height 1.71 m (5 ft 7 in)
Website kaisaleena.com
Professional information
Sport Biathlon
Club Kontiolahden Urheilijat
World Cup debut 5 March 2005
Olympic Games
Teams 2 (2010, 2014)
Medals 0
World Championships
Teams 10 (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015)
Medals 4 (1 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 11 (2004/05–)
Individual victories 16
All victories 16
Individual podiums 53
All podiums 53
Overall titles 2 (2010–11, 2013–14)
Discipline titles 5:
1 Individual (2014–15);
1 Sprint (2013–14);
3 Pursuit (2010–11, 2013–14, 2014–15)
Medal record
Women's biathlon
Competitor for  Finland
World Championships
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 10 km pursuit
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 7.5 km sprint
2012 Ruhpolding 12.5 km mass start
2015 Kontiolahti 15 km individual
Updated on 22 March 2015.

Kaisa-Leena Mäkäräinen (born 11 January 1983) is a Finnish biathlete, who currently competes for Kontiolahden Urheilijat. Outside of sports, Mäkäräinen is currently studying to be a Physics teacher at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu. Her team coach is Jonne Kähkönen, while Jarmo Punkkinen is her ski coach and Asko Nuutinen her shooting coach.[1]

Career

Kaisa Mäkäräinen (leading) Kontiolahti, Finland, 12 February 2012

Mäkäräinen was originally a cross-country skier and focused on this until the age of twenty.[2] She started training for the biathlon in 2003. In 2004, she made the Finnish National Team. 2005 saw Mäkäräinen compete at the Biathlon World Championships for the first time. Her best placings in the Biathlon World Championships have occurred at the 2007 World Championships in Antholz-Anterselva, where she placed eighth in the individual 15  and seventh in the mass start events. At the 2008 Biathlon World Championships in Östersund, she was 15th in the mass start. During the 2007-08 Biathlon World Cup, she made it to the podium twice, the first time when she placed second in the sprint at Pokljuka, Slovenia and third in the pursuit at Ruhpolding, Germany. During the 2008–09 Biathlon World Cup, she has steadily risen in the rankings and on she placed second during the pursuit event[3] and third in the mass start after Iourieva and Jonsson[4] at Antholz.

Her best season so far has been the 2010-11 Biathlon World Cup. She made a strong start at the opening event in Östersund, where Mäkäräinen won her first ever World Cup victory in the sprint.[5] Two days later she repeated her success by winning the pursuit, too.[6] She showed her strong early-season form again in Hochfilzen and Pokljuka by reaching the podium in every single event.

Mäkäräinen's form fell somewhat after that as she managed to reach the podium only once in the next 12 starts. Despite this Mäkäräinen scored valuable points in every single race beside the mass start in Antholz. She entered the Biathlon World Championships 2011 in Khanty-Mansiysk in second place for the Overall World Cup (9 points behind Andrea Henkel), but regained the overall World Cup leader's yellow bib after taking the silver medal in the sprint.[7] Mäkäräinen's flawless shooting and fourth-fastest course time secured her career-first gold medal in the pursuit the following day.[8] Mäkäräinen became the second Finnish female to medal in biathlon and the first one to do it since 1987 when Tuija Vuoksiala placed third in the Biathlon World Championships 1987 individual.[9] She is also the first Finnish biathlete to medal at the Biathlon World Championships since 2003, as eight years have passed since Paavo Puurunen's bronze in the Biathlon World Championships 2003 pursuit.[10]

Despite her not-so-good performance in the individual competition and being tied for the overall lead by Helena Ekholm, Mäkäräinen managed to stay on top of the Overall World Cup classification until the very end of the season. In Holmenkollen she grabbed both the Overall and the Pursuit Titles.[11] She was subsequently named the 2011 Finnish Sports Personality of the Year.[12]

Mäkäräinen has also competed in the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, and she finished 14th in the 10km freestyle event at the 2013 Nordic Skiing World Championships.[12] She was also the 2013 Finnish national champion in the same event.[13]

Statistics

World Cup Top 3 podiums

Standings Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass Start Relay Mixed Relay Total
1st place 2 5 8 1 16
2nd place 2 10 7 2 21
3rd place 1 6 5 4 16
Discipline World Cup 1 1 3 5

(As of the 6 December 2015)

World Cup wins

Individual wins (16)
No. Date Location Discipline
1 3 December 2010 Östersund, Sweden Sprint
2 5 December 2010 Östersund, Sweden Pursuit
3 6 March 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia (WCH) Pursuit
4 11 January 2012 Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic Individual
5 12 February 2012 Kontiolahti, Finland Pursuit
6 8 March 2014 Pokljuka, Slovenia Pursuit
7 13 March 2014 Kontiolahti, Finland Sprint
8 15 March 2014 Kontiolahti, Finland Sprint
9 16 March 2014 Kontiolahti, Finland Pursuit
10 7 December 2014 Östersund, Sweden Pursuit
11 12 December 2014 Hochfilzen, Austria Sprint
12 14 December 2014 Hochfilzen, Austria Pursuit
13 21 December 2014 Pokljuka, Slovenia Mass-start
14 12 February 2015 Oslo, Norway Individual
15 20 March 2015 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia Sprint
16 6 December 2015 Östersund, Sweden Pursuit
17 20 December 2015 Pokljuka, Slovenia Mass-start

Olympic Games

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass Start Relay
2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver 46th 59th 45th — —
2014 Winter Olympics, Sochi 9th 30th 16th 6th —

World Championships

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass Start Relay Mixed Relay
2005 Hochfilzen, Austria 49th 73rd — — 18th —
2006 Pokljuka, Slovenia Not held in an Olympic season 19th
2007 Antholz, Italy 8th 29th 25th 7th 12th 16th
2008 Östersund, Sweden 31st 55th DNS 15th 15th 10th
2009 Pyeongchang, South Korea 30th 23rd 4th 17th — 6th
2010 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia Not held in an Olympic season 18th
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia 28th Silver Gold 4th 10th 9th
2012 Ruhpolding, Germany 28th 27th 20th Bronze 18th 16th
2013 Nové Město, Czech Republic 8th 9th 10th 17th 21st 19th
2015 Kontiolahti, Finland Bronze 35th 12th — — 9th

World Cup rankings

Season Overall Sprint Pursuit Individual Mass Start
2006–07 27th 29th 47th 8th 16th
2007–08 13th 10th 15th 43rd 14th
2008–09 14th 17th 10th 27th 9th
2009–10 22nd 17th 28th 43rd 16th
2010–11 1st 2nd 1st 6th 8th
2011–12 4th 3rd 4th 2nd 5th
2012–13 5th 5th 5th 6th 5th
2013–14 1st 1st 1st 21st 3rd
2014–15 2nd 2nd 1st 1st 5th

Shooting

Shooting 2005–06 season 2006–07 season 2007–08 season 2008–09 season 2009–10 season 2010–11 season 2011–12 season Career
Prone position 86% 85% 83% 84% 82% 88% 80% 84%
Standing position 73% 76% 77% 79% 78% 82% 83% 78%
Total 79% 81% 80% 81% 80% 85% 81% 81%

Roller-ski biathlon

In the summer of 2007, Mäkäräinen won the world championship in roller-ski biathlon at Otepää in both the 7.5 km sprint and the 10 km pursuit.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "About Kaisa". Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  2. ↑ "Home: Kaisa-Leena Mäkäräinen". kaisaleena.com. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  3. ↑ "E.ON RUHRGAS IBU WORLD CUP – Antholz-Anterselva (ITA) Women 10 km Pursuit". International Biathlon Union. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  4. ↑ "Stephan and Iourieva win biathlon mass starts; Canada’s Le Guellec 22nd". The Associated Press. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  5. ↑ "E.ON IBU WORLD CUP BIATHLON 1 – Oestersund (SWE) Women 7.5 km Sprint". International Biathlon Union.
  6. ↑ "E.ON IBU WORLD CUP BIATHLON 1 – Oestersund (SWE) Women 10 km Pursuit". International Biathlon Union.
  7. ↑ "IBU WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS) Women 7.5 km Sprint". International Biathlon Union.
  8. ↑ "IBU WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS) Women 10 km Pursuit". International Biathlon Union.
  9. ↑ "WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS WOMEN – Lahti (FIN) Women 10 km Individual". International Biathlon Union.
  10. ↑ "WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS) Men 12.5 km Pursuit". International Biathlon Union.
  11. ↑ "Overall classification" (PDF). International Biathlon Union.
  12. 1 2 "Athletes – Kaisa Makarainen". Sochi2014. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  13. ↑ "Makarainen Kaisa – Biographie". Fédération Internationale de Ski. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  14. ↑ "Mäkäräiselle kaksi MM-kultaa rulla-ampumahiihdossa (Two World Champion Golds for Mäkäräinen in Roller Biathlon)" (in Finnish). MTV3. 2007-09-08. Retrieved 2007-09-09.

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