Vanessa Voigt - Biathlon
- Successes
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Relay Bronze at the Olympic Games
Vice world champion and bronze medallist with the relay team
One World Cup victory and nine further podium places
- Birthday
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10/7/1997
- Profession
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Zoll Ski Team
- Club
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WSV Rotterode e.V.
- Hobbies
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Being creative
- Role model
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Matthias Steiner
- What's important to me
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Family and order
After the wonderful support I already received when I was on the Viessmann Junior Team, I’m glad to be partnering with Viessmann again. I look forward to our years together.
Career
At eight years old, Vanessa and her twin brother, Kevin, start cross-country skiing. In 2010, she transfers to the skiing high school in Oberhof to take advantage of the better training conditions. Because it has been her childhood dream to become a biathlete, she soon takes her first shots with a biathlon rifle and feels immediately comfortable. She soon becomes successful, winning the German Cup in her age group during the 2015/16 season. The following year, she has her first race in the IBU Junior Cup and also climbs the podium for the first time. At the 2017 Junior World Championships in Brezno-Osrblie, she wins the silver medal with the relay team. In the 2020/21 season Vanessa wins the IBU Cup overall ranking and also celebrates her World Cup debut. Only one year later she becomes the high-flyer in the German team. Vanessa shows consistently good performances, sensationally finishes second in the Otepää sprint and crowns her season with relay bronze at the Olympic Games in Beijing. In the years that followed, Vanessa collected further successes: she won her first World Championship medals and the first World Cup victory of her career.
International debut and first medal
Vanessa takes part in her first international race in the 2016/17 season at the IBU Junior Cup and directly secures a spot on the podium. At the Junior World Championships in Brezno-Osrblie in 2017, she wins a joint silver medal with Sophia Schneider and Anna Weidel.
Consistent performance at IBU Junior Cup
In the following years, Vanessa continues to compete in the IBU Junior Cup and proves herself with good finishes. In Obertilliach in December 2017, she even takes the podium in second place behind Sophia Schneider.
IBU Cup debut
Vanessa celebrates her IBU Cup debut this season and performs consistently well. She even secures her first podium spot with third place in the sprint in Brezno-Osrblie, and takes the podium again a few days later with the relay team.
IBU Cup Total Score champion and first World Cup appearance
After a shoulder injury in summer 2020 and an extended break due to the injury, her preparations for the 2020/21 IBU Cup season are less than ideal. Things work out better for Vanessa in the winter, as she lays the foundation for winning the IBU Cup Total Score with three victories in Brezno-Osrblie. She also wins the silver medal with the mixed relay team at the European Championships in Duszniki Zdroj. Thanks to her strong performance in the IBU Cup, the crowning achievement of Vanessa’s season is her World Cup debut; she competes there for the first time in Nove Mesto and Östersund.
High-flyer in the World Cup and Olympic bronze medal in the relay
After winning the IBU Cup overall ranking last year, Vanessa gets a fixed starting spot this season for the first World Cup in Östersund as well as all other races of the season. With consistently impressive performances she becomes the high-flyer in the German team. Consequently, she is allowed to participate in the season's highlight, the Olympic Games in Beijing, where she wins bronze with the relay team. Even after the Olympics, Vanessa is one of the athletes with the best form, which she successfully underlines with second place in the sprint in Otepää, her first World Cup podium finish ever.
Runner-up in the relay
This season, Vanessa continues to perform consistently - as has long been her custom - and finishes 12th overall in the World Cup. She makes it onto the World Cup podium a total of four times with the relay team. At the highlight of the season, the World Championships in Oberhof, Vanessa rewards herself with her first World Championship medal. She wins silver with the relay team.
First World Cup victory
Vanessa continued her impressive development in the 2023/24 season, performing consistently, climbing onto the podium several times and being rewarded with eighth place in the overall World Cup at the end of the winter. At the World Championships in Nove Mesto, she secured a bronze medal in the relay and narrowly missed out on the podium twice in the singles. Another highlight of the season: Vanessa's first World Cup victory of her career in Antholz. Together with Justus Strelow, she showed a strong race and with just one reload, they left the competition from Norway and Austria behind. All in all, a season with many highlights.
