American biathlete
Tim Burke
|
---|
Burke in 2018
|
Full name
| Timothy John Burke
[1]
|
---|
Born
| (
1982-02-03
)
February 3, 1982
(age 42)
Paul Smiths, New York
,
United States
|
---|
Height
| 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
|
---|
Ski club
| Lake Placid Biathlon Club
|
---|
|
Seasons
| 2004?2018
|
---|
Podiums
| 6
|
---|
|
Updated on 14 February 2013.
|
Timothy John Burke
(born February 3, 1982, in
Paul Smiths, New York
) is a retired
U.S.
biathlete
and coach. On December 20, 2009, he became the first ever US biathlete to lead the overall
Biathlon World Cup
.
[2]
During his career he competed in 11
Biathlon World Championships
and four
Winter Olympic Games
, won a World Championship silver and took six podiums in World Cup races.
[3]
Career
[
edit
]
Early career
[
edit
]
Burke first took up biathlon in 1997
[4]
and soon became a promising prospect on the national level, first competing for the United States in the
Biathlon Junior World Championships
in 2000.
[4]
Burke competed in the World Junior Championships another three times, but without ever finishing in the top 10.
[4]
Burke's formative years were plagued by ill health.
[5]
Most critically, he had career-threatening hip problems in 2002, eventually managing a full recovery after surgery.
[5]
He also suffered from
mononucleosis
.
[5]
First World Cup seasons
[
edit
]
Burke debuted in the
Biathlon World Cup
in the latter half of the
2003?04 season
at
Ruhpolding
,
Germany
.
[4]
This season also marked Burke's first
World Championships
; however, he failed to make an international impact, not achieving any World Cup points.
[4]
[5]
Burke made his first US
Olympic
team in 2006,
[4]
[6]
and came quite close to achieving his first World Cup points (the Olympics being part of the Biathlon World Cup), placing 35th in the
sprint
and 36th in the following
pursuit
.
[4]
[note 1]
However, his moment of international attention came as
Jay Hakkinen
surprisingly brought the US team to the first exchange in first place.
[6]
[8]
Burke, on the second leg, thus had the honour of leading the Olympic relay.
[6]
However, this did not last long, as US dropped to 8th place on Burke's leg with him needing all three spare rounds in both shootings; they eventually finished 9th.
[8]
Per Nilsson
of
Sweden
became the head coach of team US in 2006.
[5]
Burke, whose results soon improved markedly under Nilsson's guidance, credits the Swede with "teaching me what hard training really looks like."
[5]
The
2006?07 season
was a great success for Burke, who got the first World Cup point of his career already in the season-opening 20 km
individual
at
Ostersund
, Sweden with a 30th place
[9]
and followed up with another five points finishes, including the first top 10 finish of his World Cup career in a
sprint
at
Hochfilzen
,
Austria
.
[4]
[10]
Burke got his season-best 6th-place finish in a
mass start
at
Pokljuka
,
Slovenia
on January 21, 2007.
[11]
At the
World Championships
in
Antholz
,
Italy
, Burke placed 7th in the
individual competition
. He eventually finished a very respectable 25th in the overall World Cup standings.
[4]
The
2007?08 season
was a disappointment as Burke suffered from health problems again
[12]
and failed to improve on the previous year, finishing 29th in the overall World Cup.
[4]
However, Burke finished that year on a high note as in the second-last race of the season, a
pursuit
at
Holmenkollen
,
Oslo
,
Norway
he became the first ever US biathlete to have the best scratch time in a World Cup competition;
[5]
[12]
though as he entered the pursuit from a meager 45th place, he still only finished 7th.
[12]
[13]
In the last race, a
mass start
, he placed 8th despite four penalty loops.
[12]
[14]
These were his best finishes that year.
[4]
2009?10 World Cup season
[
edit
]
The first half of the
2009?10 Biathlon World Cup season
marked Burke's breakthrough to the absolute elite of biathlon. In an individual 20 km competition at
Ostersund
,
Sweden
, the opener of the 2009?10 World Cup season, Burke became the second ever US biathlete to finish 2nd in a Biathlon World Cup competition.
[15]
(
Josh Thompson
had been the first.) Burke continued to produce solid results in the following competitions, consistently finishing in the top 20.
[4]
This solidity ? combined with the absence of Norwegian World Cup leader
Emil Hegle Svendsen
from the
third competition weekend
at
Pokljuka
,
Slovenia
[16]
and the disastrous 103rd place
[17]
of Austria's
Christoph Sumann
in the Pokljuka sprint ? meant that on December 20, 2009, Burke, despite never winning a World Cup race, became the first ever US biathlete to capture the overall World Cup lead.
[2]
Burke initially held that position for just one competition, as he only finished 19th in a 10 km sprint at
Oberhof
,
Germany
, in adverse weather conditions.
[18]
[19]
The winner,
[18]
[19]
Evgeny Ustyugov
of
Russia
, in turn captured the World Cup leader's yellow bib for the first time in his career. However, Burke recaptured the lead in the very next race (the first
mass start
of the season) by matching his career-best 2nd-place finish.
[20]
[21]
Burke then entered a slump with a season-worst 31st place
the next weekend
in a sprint at
Ruhpolding
.
[22]
His bad form continued at
Antholz
,
Italy
, as he finished 29th in the 20 km individual competition and 21st in the sprint.
[4]
[23]
2010 Winter Olympics
[
edit
]
At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, Burke had big expectations and aimed to win a medal but instead left at one of the lowest in his 14 years as a USA national team member.
[24]
This came as a disappointment to him as prior to the competition, he had medalled on the World Cup Tour.
[25]
In addition, there was media hype around his participation as he was the first American to lead the Biathlon World Cup standings and was a strong medal contender.
[26]
The increased media attention may have impacted his possible success, as he felt he did "a bad job dealing with that".
[27]
There was also poor snow conditions which can lead to more friction for the athletes, resulting in slower speeds.
[28]
Burke placed 18th in mass start, 45th in individual, 46th in pursuit, 47th in sprint and 13th in relay.
[29]
His first race was the individual, where landing him at 45th place came as a shock to him as it was his lowest finish that season.
[30]
After his 15k mass start race, his coach, Nilsson, believed that Burke did not find the balance "between calm and aggressiveness".
[31]
Burke reflected on his own race, suggesting it may have been the pressure that ultimately got to him and caused him to make the three misses that ended his chances in medalling.
[31]
Evgeny Ustyugov
from
Russia
,
Martin Fourcade
from
France
and
Pavol Hurajt
from
Slovakia
placed first, second and third, respectively.
After the Olympics
[
edit
]
Burke's problems continued in the last races of the season. He fell ill after the Olympics
[32]
and failed to score another top 20 finish until the second-last individual race of the season, a 10 km sprint at
Khanty-Mansiysk
,
Russia
, where he finished 11th despite one miss at both shooting stages.
[4]
[33]
Thanks to his strong early season, he still finished a career-best 14th in the overall World Cup.
[34]
Post-competition career
[
edit
]
After Burke retired from competition at the end of the 2017-18 season, in May 2018 he was announced as athlete development manager with
U.S. Biathlon Association
.
[3]
The following year he was appointed to the newly created post of Director of Athlete Development with the USBA, working alongside his former team-mate
Lowell Bailey
, who had been appointed as the Association's High Performance Director.
[35]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Since October 25, 2014, Burke has been married to former German biathlete
Andrea Henkel
.
[36]
He has expressed support for stricter
gun control in the United States
, stating during the
2018 Winter Olympics
that although he was a keen hunter, "if locking up all my sport rifles and hunting rifles meant saving one life, I would do it".
[37]
Biathlon results
[
edit
]
All results are sourced from the
International Biathlon Union
.
Olympic Games
[
edit
]
0 medals
- *The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.
World Championships
[
edit
]
1 medal (1 silver)
- *During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.
- **The mixed relay was added as an event in 2005.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
At the time, only the top 30 were awarded Biathlon World Cup points. This was revised upwards to 40 starting in
2008?09
. Burke had previously finished 33rd in a World Cup competition at Hochfilzen, Austria.
[4]
[7]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Homepage of Olympic Biathlete Tim Burke"
. Retrieved
2010-02-16
.
- ^
a
b
Kokesh, Jerry (2010-01-09).
"Tim Burke Wears Yellow Bib in Sprint"
.
IBU
. Retrieved
2010-01-09
.
- ^
a
b
Kortemeier, Todd (2 May 2018).
"Four-time Olympian Tim Burke Hired By U.S. Biathlon To Help Next Generation"
.
United States Olympic Committee
. Archived from
the original
on May 3, 2018
. Retrieved
22 January
2019
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
"IBU DATACENTER/Tim Burke"
. Retrieved
2010-01-10
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Franke, Viktoria (2009-12-21).
"Current World's Best Biathlete: Tim Burke"
. Archived from
the original
on July 28, 2011
. Retrieved
2010-01-14
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Tim Burke ? Athletes ? US Biathlon"
. Archived from
the original
on February 4, 2010
. Retrieved
2010-01-27
.
- ^
"IBU DATACENTER"
. Retrieved
2010-01-27
.
- ^
a
b
"COMPETITION ANALYSIS MEN'S 4x7.5 KM RELAY"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(pdf)
on 2011-07-07.
- ^
"IBU DATACENTER"
. Retrieved
2010-01-25
.
- ^
"IBU DATACENTER"
. Retrieved
2010-01-25
.
- ^
"IBU DATACENTER"
. Retrieved
2010-01-25
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Burke Closes Out Biathlon World Cup With 8th"
. 2008-03-17
. Retrieved
2010-01-25
.
- ^
"IBU DATACENTER"
. Retrieved
2010-01-25
.
- ^
"IBU DATACENTER"
. Retrieved
2010-01-25
.
- ^
Kokesh, Jerry (2009-12-03).
"Svendsen Wins 20K on a Cold Night"
. IBU
. Retrieved
2010-01-09
.
- ^
Lewis, Michael C. (2010-01-02).
"Surging biathletes ready to make noise in Vancouver"
.
The Salt Lake Tribune
. Retrieved
2010-01-24
.
- ^
"IBU DATACENTER"
. Retrieved
2010-01-09
.
- ^
a
b
Kokesh, Jerry (2010-01-09).
"Ustyugov Battles Elements to Take Oberhof Sprint"
. IBU
. Retrieved
2010-01-09
.
- ^
a
b
"IBU DATACENTER"
. Retrieved
2010-01-09
.
- ^
Kokesh, Jerry (2010-01-10).
"Bjorndalen in Dominating Mass Start Win"
. IBU
. Retrieved
2010-01-10
.
- ^
"IBU DATACENTER"
. Retrieved
2010-01-10
.
- ^
"IBU DATACENTER"
. Retrieved
2010-01-24
.
- ^
Franke, Viktoria (2010-01-23).
"21st Place for Burke in Antholz Sprint"
. Archived from
the original
on July 28, 2011
. Retrieved
2010-01-24
.
- ^
"Q&A with Tim Burke"
.
Eurosport
. Retrieved
14 September
2018
.
- ^
Reuter, Lou.
"Tim Burke hopes for redemption in fourth Olympic Games"
.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise
. Retrieved
14 September
2018
.
- ^
Sullivan, Teresa.
"American Tim Burke Raises Hopes for First US Biathlon Olympic Medal at Vancouver"
.
VOA News
. Retrieved
14 September
2018
.
- ^
Maese, Rick.
"American Tim Burke takes aim at Olympic biathlon history"
.
The Washington Post
. Retrieved
14 September
2018
.
- ^
Casselman, Anne.
"Vancouver 2010 to Be Warmest Winter Olympics Yet"
.
National Geographic
. Archived from
the original
on February 15, 2010
. Retrieved
14 September
2018
.
- ^
"Time Burke"
.
Team USA
. Archived from
the original
on December 26, 2014
. Retrieved
14 September
2018
.
- ^
Hersh, Philip.
"A small-town guy shoots - and skis - for the big prize again"
.
Chicago Tribune
. Retrieved
14 September
2018
.
- ^
a
b
Herz, Nathaniel.
"Burke's Medal Hopes Fade After 18th in Mass Start"
.
FasterSkier
. Retrieved
14 September
2018
.
- ^
Franke, Viktoria (2010-03-17).
"Oslo Next World Cup Stop"
. US Biathlon. Archived from
the original
on July 28, 2011
. Retrieved
2010-03-27
.
- ^
"IBU DATACENTER"
. IBU
. Retrieved
2010-03-27
.
- ^
"E.ON RUHRGAS IBU WORLD CUP BIATHLON"
(PDF)
. IBU. 2010-03-27. Archived from
the original
(pdf)
on 2010-02-15
. Retrieved
2010-03-27
.
- ^
"New Season Begins: A Spin on the Coaching Carousel"
.
International Biathlon Union
. 10 May 2019
. Retrieved
16 May
2019
.
- ^
"Biathlon-Olymiasiegerin Andrea Henkel hat geheiratet"
.
Thuringer Allgemeine Zeitung
. 2014-10-26.
- ^
Calkins, Geoff (20 February 2018).
"Winter Olympics 2018: Biathlete Lowell Bailey takes aim at assault weapons"
.
The Commercial Appeal
. Retrieved
19 March
2018
.
External links
[
edit
]