User:Dawntree/sandbox

Career
Ciao

Early Career
Wierer grew up in Antholz Valley, just a few kilometres where the Biathlon Stadium regularly hosts the Biathlon World Cup. Most of his brother and sisters were athletes in their youth and.

Her first achievement at the international level was a Gold Medal at the Youth World Championships in Ruhpolding.

In 2008-09 WC Wierer made her debut at Sprint in Oberhof in January, finishing 69th.

2010-11 Season: Junior World Championships glory and becoming part of the world cup team
In 2010-11 Wierer shared her time in the World Cup with the preparation for the Junior World Championships. Dorothea collected her first points in 'Ruhpolding with a 23rd in the sprint and a 36th place in the pursuit.

In Febraury she competed in the Junior World Championships, held in Nove Mesto. The field of consisted of many of her future rivals, like Tiril Eckhoff, Marte Olsbu, Laura Dahlmeier (3 years younger than Wierer), other world cup regulars like Polish Monika Hojnisz, Ukrainian Yulia Dzhima and Swedish Mona Brorsson and soon to be national team mates Nicole Gontier, Federica Sanfilippo and Alexia Runggaldier. Wierer swept the three individual races (Sprint, Pursuit and Individual), also winning the Silver Medal in the Relay.

The great performances earned Wierer a spot in the national team for the World Championships in Khanty-Masiysk. The not-yet-21 years old surprised with a 9th place in the Pursuit (she was 27th after the Sprint), qualifying for the Mass Start, where she finished in 20th position. Wierer ended her championships running the last leg of the Women Relay where she was able to defend Italy position against Norway (with Tora Berger) and Sweden (with Helena Ekholm) for a 5th place (later upgrade to 4th because of Ukraine disqualification).

2011-12 Season: A difficult second season in the world cup
The 2011-12 was the first for. The results were far below what she was capable of doing the previous year.

2012-13 Season: World Championship medal with the relay
In 2012-13 Wierer showed a minor improvement her results, going back into the points more regularly.

At the World Championships Wierer went back to Nove Mesto, were she won 3 golds at the Junior World Championships 2 years before. The first race was the Mixed Relay, where Wierer teamed up with Karin Oberhofer, Dominik Windisch and Lukas Hofer. It was the first mixed relay for Wierer and the first partnerships with the two men (Windisch was of a team that would eventually bring medal

2013-14 Season: Bronze medal in Sochi and first individual podium
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisci elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullamco laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur. Duis aute irure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint obcaecat cupiditat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

2014-15 Season: More podiums and a third medal with the relay
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisci elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullamco laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur. Duis aute irure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint obcaecat cupiditat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

2015-16 Season: World cup victories and first invididual medal
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisci elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullamco laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur. Duis aute irure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint obcaecat cupiditat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

2016-17 Season: Winless season
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisci elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullamco laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur. Duis aute irure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint obcaecat cupiditat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

2017-18 Season: Second Olympic medal with the relay
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisci elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullamco laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur. Duis aute irure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint obcaecat cupiditat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

2018-19 Season: First World Cup and first Gold Medal
Wierer started strongly in the 2018-19 season, with a 7th place in the inaugural Individual in Pokljuka, followed by a couple of second places in Sprint and Pursuit behind reining Wold Cup winner Kaisa Makarainen, securing the yellow bib for second time in her career. In the following Sprint in Hochfilzen Dorothea won in the discipline for the first time in her career, beating Makarainen by 0.6 seconds. Another podium arrived in the Pursuit with a a 3rd place. In the sunday Women Relay Wierer had an outstanding performace. Starting the 3rd leg more than a minute behind Slovakia and 40 seconds from rivals Sweden and France, Wierer was the fastest in her leg in both skiing and shooting (withouth misses), giving the lead to Italy with over 30 seconds, allowing her teammate Federica Sanfilippo to cross the line in first position, the second time in the world cup for the Italian Women Relay, in the same venues of 3 years earlier first success. Wierer closed her outstanding December in Nove Mesto with other top 10 results, a 9th in the Sprint, a 2nd place in the Pursuit after a last loop battle versus Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Hanna Öberg, and a 4th in the Mass Start. Wierer had a commanding lead in the World Cup, with Makarainen getting bad results in Czech Republic the closest competitors were Paulina Fialkova and Wierer teammate Lisa Vittozzi

The first race of the year, the Sprint in Oberhof turned out to be Wierer worst of the season, with a 24th place, however in the Pursuit she was able to gain a lot of position finishing 5th, meanwhile Vittozzi got a double win. Similar results occured in Ruhpolding, a 6th in the Sprint and a 19th in the Mass Start, allowing Vittozzi to get even closer to Wierer in the World Cup total score. January races came to an end in Antholz-Anterselva, Wierer got an 8th place in the Sprint, and in the Pursuit she was finally able to break two of her "curses" by winning the first pursuit of her career (after 14 podium finishes) and by winning in her hometown stadium, after a 4 laps battle with Vittozzi, ended with Wierer being able to shoot faster that her teammates with the same number of missed targets on the 4th shooting. With that win, Wierer had at least a win in each of the 4 individual disciplines of Biathlon. The 5th place in the Mass Start allowed to pull a bit ahead of Vittozzi, 632-598 after 15 of 26 races.

The Febraury North American tour started in Canmore where only a Short Indivual was held due to freezing temperatures, and Wierer placed 21st. The tour moved to Soldier Hollow and Wierer did not get good results there either. A 8th in the Sprint and a 19th in Pursuit (with 8 missed targets) meant that Wierer wasn't able to defend her lead and the yellow bib passed on Vittozzi shoulders. However, Wierer won the Single Mixed Relay with Lukas Hofer, becoming the third biathlete to win in all 7 disciplines raced during her career.

The World Championships in Östersund started with a Bronze medal in the Mixed Relay with the "usual" team of Vittozzi, Wierer, Hofer and Windisch. The first couple of individual races, Sprint and Pursuit, had a similar pattern than those in Soldier Hollow, with a 10th in Sprint followed by a 20th in the Pursuit (again with 8 missed targets), with yellow bib jumping between her and Vittozzi for those races. The 8th place in the Individual was another minor disappointment for Wierer, but the Single Mixed Relay brought another relay medal, this time a Silver with Hofer. With Wierer and Vittozzi in good shape, the Italian women team had chances to win a medal in the Relay, however Wierer was sick on the day of the race and was unable to help her teammates (Wierer would have started in the lead in the 3rd leg after Vittozzi and Gontier). Trailing in the World Cup by 26 points and with no individual medals, the championships seemed to be another major event disappontement for Wierer.

Dorothea started in the final Mass Start not in her best shape, but was able to keep herself in the front after the prone shootings, and in the 3rd shooting with a quick 5/5 she pulled ahead of her competitors, all with 1 or more missed targets. In the final shooting Wierer too had a couple of missed shoots that gave opportunities to her rivals, but no one of the closest were able to exit without mistakes and Wierer hold on to her lead until the finish line, winning her first Gold medal at the World Championship, becoming the first Italian to do so in 23 years and the first woman ever. With that result, she was also able to regain the yellow bib with the same amount of points of Vittozzi (Wierer was given the bib by virtue of more victories).

The Sprint in Oslo wasn't the best for Wierer, but with Vittozzi getting out of the top 60 she gained a significant lead over her, because Lisa would not be able to start in the Pursuit. Kuzmina with a double win kept her chances to win the overall, but in the final Mass Start both her and Vittozzi missed a lot in the first prone shooting, allowing Wierer to control her rivals and win the first World Cup ever for Italy in Biathlon. She paired her World Cup with the second discipline trophy, this time in Pursuit.

2019-20 Season: Second World Cup and golden home World Championships
After a win with her teammates in the Mixed relay, Wierer started the 2019-20 World Cup with a convincing win in the sprint race in Östersund, following with another sprint win in Hochfilzen (same result as previous year). At the following pursuit a serious challenger to her yellow bib rose: Tiril Eckhoff won the Hochfilzen Pursuit, with her first career 20/20, while Dorothea collected her fourth top 10 in as many races. The last stage of December was in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand where Eckhoff swept all the 3 races. Dorothea struggled in the sprint, missing twice, but was able to mount a great comeback in the pursuit (22nd to 4th) and closed the year with a 2nd place in the mass start, regaining the yellow bib that was once on the the shoulder of Eckhoff teammate Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold for the mass start race.

January started with two fourth places in Oberhof, however Eckhoff was gaining momentum and with the subsequent win in Ruhpolding she took the yellow bib from Wierer. At the following pursuit Dorothea struggled both on the skis and at the shooting range, losing 17 places in a for her uncommon pattern. The following week in Pokljuka the troubles at the range continued for Wierer and a 23rd place in the individual made her lose more points against Eckhoff. The Norwegian however decided not to race in the Mass Start, and Wierer was able to gain back a few points, while the 2 winners of the week Denise Herrmann and Hanna Öberg came closer to her. After 13 of the 24 (at the time) planned races, Eckhoff was leading with 524 points, Wierer second with 509, then Öberg with 456 and Herrmann with 419.

With a well open World Cup race, Wierer started her preparation for the World Championships that would been held in her hometown of Antholz-Anterselva. A controversy rose within the team when her teammate Lisa Vittozzi gave an interview in which.

In the first race of the World Championship, the Mixed Relay, the Italian team won the silver medal after an hard-fought battle against Norway. However at the end Johannes Thingnes Bø was quicker and used one less spare round in the final shooting compared to Dominik Windisch and cruised Norway to victory. The following day Wierer placed 7th in the Sprint after 2 misses in a windy day that gave Marte Olsbu Røiseland the first gold of her career. Wierer after the race complained about not feeling at her best, but promised to attack in the pursuit. The 7th place however allowed her to regain the yellow bib, since Eckhoff had a hard race finishing out of the points in 59th place. In the Pursuit Wierer was able to quickly close the gap to Røiseland after her miss at the first prone shooting. The two athletes then stayed together for 3 laps, until the deciding 4th shooting. Wierer missed her first shoot, but Røiseland missed twice, and Herrmann who was a bit behind also missed the last target. Dorothea cruised to victory, entering her home stadium hands up in the air celebrating her second World title. Two days later she raced in the Individual competition. The first two shooting had each a missed target, however all her competitors missed targets as well, allowing Wierer to comeback after two clean shootings. Wierer started the final lap with a 2.2 seconds margin over Vanessa Hinz who only missed one target. Wierer was able to defend the slim margin and won her third gold medal, second at Antholz. In the Single Mixed Relay Dorothea had a rough start, since her bib #13 made her stay in the middle of the pack. Both her and Hofer struggled at the range and Wierer in her last lap pushed hard to catch the lead, but failed to close all the targets even with spares, meaning Italy had little chance to retain the medal won in Östersund. The Women Relay also wasn't able to win a medal, nevertheless Wierer provided one of the best standing shooting of the year clearing all the targets in 18 seconds. In the final Mass Start race of the World Champioships, Wierer again delivered a solid performance and after the 4th shooting it seemed she was going to retain the title won the previous year. However in the last lap Røiseland was able to catch her and win the Gold, leaving Wierer with a Silver, her fourth medal at the championships.

Wierer performaces in her home stadium gave her a solid lead in the World Cup, 106 points over Öberg, 112 over Eckhoff, 122 over Røiseland and 148 over Herrmann. However, Dorothea still had to drop 2 results, while her competitors all had already races with no points, meaning the actual margin was smaller for Wierer. Røiseland got sick before Nove Mesto and did not compete anymore in the season. The races in the Czech Republic were the first affected by coronavirus restrictions, no spectators were allowed at the stadium. Herrmann and Eckhoff split the two races, and Dorothea saw her lead shrink even more after a bad sprint and a 5th place in the mass start.

Before the following race in Kontiolahti, IBU announced that all the race in Oslo-Holmenkollen were cancelled (due to Coronavirus), meaning only a sprint and pursuit were left. In the sprint Dorothea struggled again at the standing shooting finished 19th. Eckhoff with a 3rd place came really close to Wierer, who had an actual lead of only 8 points, meanwhile both Öberg and Herrmann were too far behind and out of the overall race. The final pursuit was raced with strong winds and after the third shooting Eckhoff was in the lead while Wierer in 17th place. Eckhoff at the last shooting hesitated and missed thrice, opening the door for Wierer to get close to her. Dorothea missed a single target, and the two rivals completed the last loop together. Wierer placed immediately behind Eckhoff, winning her second World Cup by 7 points in dramatic fashion. She paired the overall world cup with the Mass Start discipline cup.

This victory was quite significant because Italy had just entered its first lockdown due to Coronavirus containment measuers. Before the races in Finland, Dorothea wrote two sentences on her rifle "Andrà tutto bene" ("All will be fine [in the end]", a popular motto in those days) and "Vinceremo assieme" ("We will win together"), a move that was warmly received by her fans.

2020-21 Season:
Wierer had again a strong start of season, winning the first race in Kontiolahti. However the subsequent races in Finland had poor results, with placements between 20th and 28th. Wierer was consistently back in the top 10 for the races in Hochfilzen, collecting her second podium at the end of the trip in the Mass Start.

With up and downs, Wierer was far behind Tiril Eckhoff,, however the week before the World Championships in Pokljuka she suffered from flu that caused her to be bed. Start of the Championships wasn't, with the Mixed Relay out of the podium for the first time since 2017. Sprint was the worst race for Dorothea, finish in 20th place. She mounted a comeback in the Pursuit to try to defend her title, clearing all 20 targets but fell short of the podium. She wasn't able to defend her title in the individual neither, but thanks to Lisa Theresa Hauser finishing 4th she won the Individual World Cup tied with the Austrian. The Single Mixed Relay gave Wierer and Italy the bitterst. Wierer entered the last shooting together with Julia Simon for France and with a small margin over Tiril Eckhoff for Norway, but after clearing 19/19 Wierer wasn't able to close the last target even with spares, so after the penalty loop Italy dropped to 5th without any chances for a podium. After a 9th place in the relay, the final Mass Start gave Wierer a 8th place with 3 missed targets, ending the championships without any medals for her and for Italy.

The last part of the season saw a few more podiums to end the season, both in sprint races in Nové Město and in Östersund, with a few other top 10s. Wierer ended the season in the top 5 of the World Cup for the 6th season in a row.

Wins in all individual races
Men

Women

Wins in individual disciplines - Men
Individuals

Sprints

Pursuits

Mass Starts

Wins in individual disciplines - Women
Individuals

Sprints

Pursuits

Mass Starts

Wins in team races
Wins in relays and team races - Men

Total wins considering all events - Men

Wins in relays and team races - Women

Total wins considering all events - Women

Podiums in all individual races
Men

Women

Podiums in individual disciplines - Men
Individuals

Sprints

Pursuits

Mass Starts

Podiums in individual disciplines - Women
Individuals

Sprints

Pursuits

Mass Starts

Podiums in team races
Podiums in relays and team races - Men

Total podiums considering all events - Men

Podiums in relays and team races - Women

Total podiums considering all events - Women

Top 10 in all individual races
Men

Women

Top 10 in individual disciplines - Men
Individuals

Sprints

Pursuits

Mass Starts

Top 10 in individual disciplines - Women
Individuals

Sprints

Pursuits

Mass Starts

Starts in all individual races
Men

Women

Starts in individual disciplines - Men
Individuals

Sprints

Pursuits

Mass Starts

Starts in individual disciplines - Women
Individuals

Sprints

Pursuits

Mass Starts

Starts in team races
Starts in relays and team races - Men

Total starts considering all events - Men

Starts in relays and team races - Women

Total starts considering all events - Women

= All winners Men =