Kaisa Mäkäräinen


Kaisa-Leena Mäkäräinen is a Finnish former world-champion and 3-time world-cup-winning biathlete, who currently competes for Kontiolahden Urheilijat. Outside sports, Mäkäräinen is currently studying to be a Physics teacher at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu. Her team coach is Jonne Kähkönen, while Jarmo Punkkinen is her ski coach.

Career

Mäkäräinen was originally a cross-country skier and focused on this until the age of twenty. She started training for the biathlon in 2003. In 2004, she made the Finnish National Team. 2005 saw Mäkäräinen compete at the Biathlon World Championships for the first time. Her best placings in the Biathlon World Championships have occurred at the 2007 World Championships in Antholz-Anterselva, where she placed eighth in the individual 15 and seventh in the mass start events. At the 2008 Biathlon World Championships in Östersund, she was 15th in the mass start. During the 2007-08 Biathlon World Cup, she made it to the podium twice, the first time when she placed second in the sprint at Pokljuka, Slovenia and third in the pursuit at Ruhpolding, Germany. During the 2008–09 Biathlon World Cup, she has steadily risen in the rankings and on she placed second during the pursuit event and third in the mass start after Iourieva and Jonsson at Antholz.
Her best season so far has been the 2010-11 Biathlon World Cup. She made a strong start at the opening event in Östersund, where Mäkäräinen won her first ever World Cup victory in the sprint. Two days later she repeated her success by winning the pursuit, too. She showed her strong early-season form again in Hochfilzen and Pokljuka by reaching the podium in every single event.
Mäkäräinen's form fell somewhat after that as she managed to reach the podium only once in the next 12 starts. Despite this Mäkäräinen scored valuable points in every single race beside the mass start in Antholz. She entered the Biathlon World Championships 2011 in Khanty-Mansiysk in second place for the Overall World Cup, but regained the overall World Cup leader's yellow bib after taking the silver medal in the sprint. Mäkäräinen's flawless shooting and fourth-fastest course time secured her career-first gold medal in the pursuit the following day. Mäkäräinen became the second Finnish female to medal in biathlon and the first one since 1987 when Tuija Vuoksiala placed third in the individual. She is also the first Finnish biathlete to medal at the Biathlon World Championships since 2003, since Paavo Puurunen's bronze in the pursuit.
Despite her not-so-good performance in the individual competition and being tied for the overall lead by Helena Ekholm, Mäkäräinen managed to stay on top of the Overall World Cup classification until the very end of the season. In Holmenkollen she grabbed both the Overall and the Pursuit Titles. She was subsequently named the 2011 Finnish Sports Personality of the Year.
She has gone on to win two more overall World Cups, in 2013-14 and 2017-18.
Mäkäräinen has also competed in the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, and she finished 14th in the 10km freestyle event at the 2013 Nordic Skiing World Championships. She was also the 2013 Finnish national champion in the same event.

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

Olympic Games

0 medals
EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay
2010 Vancouver46th59th45th——
2014 Sochi9th30th16th6th——
2018 Pyeongchang13th25th22nd10th15th6th

World Championships

6 medals
EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay
2005 Hochfilzen49th73rd——18th—rowspan="12"
2006 Pokljuka19th-
2007 Antholz8th29th25th7th12th16th-
2008 Östersund31st55thDNS15th15th10th-
2009 Pyeongchang30th23rd4th17th—6th-
2010 Khanty-Mansiysk18th-
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk28thSilverGold4th10th9th-
2012 Ruhpolding28th27th20thBronze18th16th-
2013 Nové Město8th9th10th17th21st19th-
2015 KontiolahtiBronze35th12th15th17th9th-
2016 Oslo19th9th7thBronze17th18th-
2017 Hochfilzen15th12th7thBronze15th10th-
2019 Östersund45th12th17th23rd—10th12th

Junior/Youth World Championships

EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay
2004 Haute-Maurienne23rd51st39th—

World Cup standings

Individual victories

No.SeasonDateLocationDisciplineLevel
1 2010/11 3 December 2010 Östersund, Sweden7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
2 2010/11 5 December 2010 Östersund, Sweden10 km PursuitWorld Cup
3 2010/11 6 March 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia10 km PursuitWorld Championships
42011/1211 January 2012 Nové Město, Czech Republic15 km IndividualWorld Cup
52011/1212 February 2012 Kontiolahti, Finland10 km PursuitWorld Cup
62013/148 March 2014 Pokljuka, Slovenia10 km PursuitWorld Cup
72013/1413 March 2014 Kontiolahti, Finland7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
82013/1415 March 2014 Kontiolahti, Finland7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
92013/1416 March 2014 Kontiolahti, Finland10 km PursuitWorld Cup
102014/157 December 2014 Östersund, Sweden10 km PursuitWorld Cup
112014/1512 December 2014 Hochfilzen, Austria7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
122014/1514 December 2014 Hochfilzen, Austria10 km PursuitWorld Cup
132014/1521 December 2014 Pokljuka, Slovenia12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
142014/1512 February 2015 Holmenkollen, Norway15 km IndividualWorld Cup
152014/1520 March 2015 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
162015/166 December 2015 Östersund, Sweden10 km PursuitWorld Cup
172015/1620 December 2015 Pokljuka, Slovenia12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
182015/1617 March 2016 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
192015/1619 March 2016 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia10 km PursuitWorld Cup
202016/1714 January 2017 Ruhpolding, Germany7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
212016/1715 January 2017 Ruhpolding, Germany10 km PursuitWorld Cup
222017/1814 January 2018 Ruhpolding, Germany12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
232017/1824 March 2018 Tyumen, Russia10 km PursuitWorld Cup
242018/198 December 2018 Pokljuka, Slovenia7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
252018/199 December 2018 Pokljuka, Slovenia10 km PursuitWorld Cup
262018/1915 December 2018 Hochfilzen, Austria10 km PursuitWorld Cup
272019/2012 January 2020 Oberhof, Germany12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup

Overall record

Statistics as of 15 December 2018

Shooting

Results in all IBU World Cup races, Olympics and World Championships including relay events and disqualified races. Statistics as of 25 March 2018.

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation.

World Championships

World Cup

Season standings

Roller-ski biathlon

In the summer of 2007, Mäkäräinen won the world championship in roller-ski biathlon at Otepää in both the 7.5 km sprint and the 10 km pursuit.