Frank Luck


Frank Luck is a former German and, before 1990, East German biathlete.

Career

Luck started early with cross-country skiing, but in 1980 he went over to biathlon. By 1988 at the age of 21 he had already qualified for the Winter Olympics in Calgary, where he finished sixth in the sprint event. His big breakthrough came with the 10 km sprint world title in 1989. Having originally competed for the East German team, by 1991, Germany had unified and Luck was now competing for the combined Germany team. Because of illness he missed the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, but at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer he won the gold medal with the German relay team which he repeated four years later at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. During his seventeen-year career, Luck won eleven world championship gold medal with the last one in the relay in 2004 at Oberhof where he retired as a biathlete after this event. With five silver and three bronze medals he is one of the most successful world championship competitors of all time.
Luck also won three times at the Holmenkollen ski festival biathlon competition with two wins in the pursuit and one win in the sprint.
He is the Brother-in-law to his one-time teammate Sven Fischer.

Doping

In April 2009, Luck, on the German TV show Sport Inside, acknowledged having unwittingly been given the anabolic steroid Oral Turinabol by his trainer in the 1980s.

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

Olympic Games

5 medals
EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay
1988 Calgary6th
1994 LillehammerSilver6thGold
1998 Nagano7thGold
2002 Salt Lake CitySilver29th11thSilver

World Championships

20 medals
EventIndividualSprintPursuitTeamRelay
4thGoldGold
6th5thGoldBronze
SilverGold
1992 Novosibirsk7th
10thGoldBronze
11th7thGold
1996 Ruhpolding8th33rd6thSilver
1997 Brezno-Osrblie7th9thSilverGold
1998 Pokljuka16thSilver
1999 Kontiolahti24thGoldSilver20th4th
2000 Oslo HolmenkollenBronze4thGold17thBronze
2001 Pokljuka11th17th22nd12th
2002 Oslo Holmenkollen6th
2003 Khanty-Mansiysk36th30th5th17thGold
2004 OberhofGold

Individual victories

12 victories
SeasonDateLocationDisciplineLevel
1988–89
2 victories
17 December 1988 Albertville10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
1988–89
2 victories
11 February 1989 Feistritz10 km sprintBiathlon World Championships
1990–91
1 victory
2 February 1991 Oberhof10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
1992–93
1 victory
6 March 1993 Lillehammer10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
1993–94
1 victory
22 January 1994 Antholz-Anterselva10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
1997–98
2 victories
6 December 1997 Lillehammer10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
1997–98
2 victories
5 March 1998 Pokljuka10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup
1998–99
2 victories
12 February 1999 Kontiolahti10 km sprintBiathlon World Championships
1998–99
2 victories
14 March 1999 Oslo Holmenkollen12.5 km pursuitBiathlon World Cup
1999–2000
1 victory
20 February 2000 Oslo Holmenkollen12.5 km pursuitBiathlon World Championships
2001–02
2 victories
19 December 2001 Brezno-Osrblie20 km individualBiathlon World Cup
2001–02
2 victories
21 March 2002 Oslo Holmenkollen10 km sprintBiathlon World Cup