Kaisa Mäkäräinen



Kaisa-Leena Mäkäräinen (born January 11, 1983 in Ristijärvi, Finland) 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]



Contents
[hide]  *1 Career  ==Career[edit] == Kaisa Mäkäräinen (leading) Kontiolahti, Finland, 12 February 2012Kaisa Mäkäräinen 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, 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[2]  and third in the mass start after Iourieva and Jonsson[3]  at Antholz.
 * 2 Statistics
 * 2.1 World Cup Top 3 podiums
 * 2.2 World Cup wins
 * 2.3 Olympic Games
 * 2.4 World Championships
 * 2.5 Shooting
 * 3 Roller-ski biathlon
 * 4 References
 * 5 External links

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.[4]  Two days later she repeated her success by winning the pursuit, too.[5] 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 yellow jersey after taking the silver medal in the sprint.[6]  Mäkäräinen's flawless shooting and fourth-fastest course time secured her career-first gold medal in the pursuit the following day.[7]  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.[8]  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 2003pursuit.[9]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10] ==Statistics<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == ===World Cup Top 3 podiums<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">(As of the 4 January 2014) ===World Cup wins<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === ===Olympic Games<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === ===World Championships<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === ===Shooting<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === ==Roller-ski biathlon<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == <p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">In the summer of 2007, Mäkäräinen won the world champion in roller-ski biathlon at Otepää in both the 7.5 km sprint and the 10 km pursuit.