Anton Shipulin

Anton Vladimirovich Shipulin (Антон Владимирович Шипулин; born 21 August 1987) is a retired Russian biathlete and politician serving as the member of the State Duma since 2019.

Biography
He was born in the family of Vladimir Shipulin and Alla Shipulina, masters of sports in cross-country skiing and biathlon. He started training at an early age, at first he took up ski racing under the guidance of his father, but once he saw a rifle from his older sister, Anastasiya Kuzmina, who was doing biathlon, he got the idea to try his hand at biathlon. In 2002, his parents arranged for their son to go to a sports school in Khanty-Mansiysk to work with Svetlana Sleptsova's coach Mikhail Novikov. Under his guidance, Shipulin began his career in biathlon.

Sport career
In 2004, he returned to his hometown, Tyumen, and entered the Tyumen Law Institute. After 2 victories at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival, he drew the attention of Vladimir Putrov, coach of Olympic champions Juri Kashkarov, Evgeny Redkin and Aleksandr Popov. After receiving an offer from Putrov, Shipulin moved to Yekaterinburg in 2006. He got his first victory as a member of the relay team at the 2006 Biathlon Junior World Championships in Presque Isle, USA.

In 2007 in Val Martello, Italy, he was silver medallist in the individual pursuit, opening the account of personal victories at the international level. At the 2007 Biathlon European Championships he won a full set of medals: silver in the sprint, bronze in the pursuit and gold in the relay. In 2008 he successfully performed at the Junior World Championships in Ruhpolding: he was the first in sprint and pursuit, having made a series of six consecutive zeroes; together with Dmitry Blinov, Pavel Magazeev, Victor Vasiliev he won the relay; in the individual race he missed a shot and became the silver medallist, where he missed only 0.6 seconds. At the 2008 Biathlon European Championships he became the absolute European champion under 21, winning all 3 individual races and the relay.

For the 2008/2009 season he was preparing for the Russian national team under the guidance of Vladimir Alikin. According to the results of control training the coaching staff decided that the athlete would start the season with IBU Cup. On December 20, 2008 in the pursuit race, starting from 18th position, he managed to finish in the top three. In 2009, Alikin challenged Shipulin to the January rounds of the World Cup. In Oberhof on January 10, 2009 he made his debut in the sprint and showed 72nd time. The next start in the World Cup was the sprint race in Ruhpolding, where Anton again finished 72nd. The low results of the World Cup debutant were not only a consequence of a cold, but primarily due to the fact that the young body has not had time to recover from excessive loads during the national team training camp. Then the coaching staff decided that Anton would not go to the 2009 World Championships in Pyeongchang, but would prepare with his personal coach for the European Championships. Having become a bronze medallist of the European Championships in Ufa in sprint and relay, the biathlete again got the right to start at the World Cup stages. He earned his first points in the World Cup standings in the pursuit race, where he finished 29th. With 12 points earned in the pursuit, the athlete finished the season in 93rd place in the overall World Cup standings.

He was the best Russian biathlon marksman in the same season (2009/2010). Shipulin won the bronze medal as part of the Russian men's relay team at the 2010 Winter Olympics. In the aftermath of the competition, he was awarded an order For Merit to the Fatherland by the Russian president.

Together with Evgeny Ustyugov, Alexey Volkov and Dmitry Malyshko he won the gold medal in the men's relay at the 2014 Winter Olympics, in Sochi, Russia.

His sister Anastasiya Kuzmina, (Slovak biathlete), is the Olympic champion in the 7.5 km sprint at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and also Olympic champion in the 12.5 km mass start event from 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

On 25 December 2018, Shipulin announced his retirement from sports after the World Team Challenge (Christmas Race).

Biathlon results
All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

Olympic Games

 * * The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.

World Championships
7 medals (1 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze)
 * *During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.

Junior/Youth World Championships
6 medals (4 gold, 2 silver)

Individual victories
11 victories (1 In, 4 Sp, 5 Pu, 1 MS)


 * *Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.

Political career
In January 2019, Shipulin announced that he would be a candidate for the United Russia nomination in the 2019 State Duma by-election in Serov constituency. In the primary on 26 May, Shipulin defeated 5 other candidates, scoring 78.13% and won nomination for the United Russia. In the by-election on 8 September, Shipulin won, gaining 41.59%.

Sanctions
Shipulin was Sanctioned by the United Kingdom government in 2022 in relation to Russo–Ukrainian War.