Ricco Groß

Ricco Groß ranked as one of most successful biathletes of all time. His career stretched from his first World Cup in 1990 until his farewell in 2007. During that time, he collected eight Olympic medals (including four golds), 20 World Championship medals (nine golds, five silvers and six bronzes) and 33 World Cup wins, of which nine were in individual events.

Groß regretted never winning an individual Olympic gold medal, winning all of his four titles with the German relay team (1992, 1994, 1998 and 2006). He did win four individual World Championship medals, including the pursuit title in front of his home crowd at Oberhof in 2004. He also won the 20 km overall World Cup in 1997, but never ranked first in the World Cup standings for a full season.

During his active career, Groß was a “sport soldier” in the German Army. After his retirement, he became an expert biathlon commentator on the German TV channel ARD. He also finished his coaching qualification at the Deutsche Sporthochschule in Köln in 2010, and worked with the German Biathlon Association until 2015. Groß then coached the Russian team until 2018 when he became chief coach in Austria. His sons Simon, Gabriel and Marco also became international biathletes.