Jakov Fak

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Jakov Fak
Fak J. - Biathlon WCh 2024 Nove Mesto 2752.jpg
Jakov Fak in Nové Město na Moravě, 2024
Personal information
Born (1987-08-01) 1 August 1987 (age 36)
Rijeka, Croatia, Yugoslavia
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Professional information
Sport Biathlon
ClubSD Pokljuka
World Cup debut8 December 2006
Olympic Games
Teams3 (2010, 2014, 2018)
Medals2 (0 gold)
World Championships
Teams7 (2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016)
Medals5 (2 gold)
World Cup
Seasons11 (2006/07–)
Individual victories8
All victories8
Individual podiums21
All podiums22
Medal record
Men's biathlon
Representing Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia
Olympic Games
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2018 Pyeongchang 20 km individual
World Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2012 Ruhpolding 20 km individual
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2015 Kontiolahti 15 km mass start
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2012 Ruhpolding Mixed relay
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2013 Nové Město 10 km sprint
Representing Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia
Olympic Games
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2010 Vancouver 10 km sprint
World Championships
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2009 Pyeongchang 20 km individual
Updated on 15 February 2018.
Fak in 2010, Slovenian mixed team. Pokljuka biathlon world cup in 2010, slovenian mixed team.jpg
Fak in 2010, Slovenian mixed team.

Jakov Fak (born 1 August 1987) is a Croatia-born Slovenian biathlete competing for Slovenia since 2010. As a member of the Croatian biathlon team, Fak won bronze medals at the 2009 World Championships and at the 2010 Winter Olympics, where he was also the Croatian flag bearer at the opening ceremony. In 2010, Fak switched his citizenship and started competing for Slovenia. Fak won four medals at the World Championships with the Slovenian team, including two gold and a silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics. [1] In addition, Fak has eight victories in the World Cup.

Contents

Career

Fak began to compete in biathlon in 2001 under the trainer Robert Petrović. His first international biathlon tournament was the Junior World Championships in Ridnaun in 2002, where his best result was 64th place in the Sprint event. Fak improved his performance in 2008, finishing in the top 10 at that year's Junior World Championships.

Since 2006, Fak has participated in the Biathlon World Cup. In his first race in the World Cup in Hochfilzen, Fak finished 107th. For a long time, his best performance was 47th place, which he reached in an Individual race in 2007 in Pokljuka. In 2007, he also participated in his first Biathlon World Championships, finishing 78th in the Sprint race and 93rd in the Individual.

The big breakthrough in Fak's career came in the 2008/09 season. In the opening race of the season, Fak came in 47th, but in the Individual, he earned his first World Cup points with a 38th position finish. In the third World Cup stage in Hochfilzen, Fak achieved a 16th-place finish.

2009 Biathlon World Championships

Despite several respectable performances in the World Cup, Fak's performance at the Biathlon World Championships 2009 was a huge surprise. In the opening sprint race, Fak improved his career-best performance by two more places, finishing 14th. However, he couldn't improve that performance in the pursuit, falling back to 25th place. The big surprise came in the 20 kilometres individual race, where Fak won the bronze medal. A perfect score in the final range would have brought Fak a gold medal; however, after one miss, Fak had to battle very hard for at least some medal and, in the end, beat Simon Fourcade by less than a second to win the bronze. Thus, Jakov Fak won Croatia their first-ever World Championship medal in biathlon.

2010 Winter Olympics

Jakov Fak was the flag-bearer for Croatia at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics. 2010 Opening Ceremony - Croatia entering.jpg
Jakov Fak was the flag-bearer for Croatia at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

After his success in the World Championships, the expectations were high, but Fak's World Cup race performances in the 2009–10 season were substandard. [2] He managed to win his first points in the World Cup only on 23 January 2010, with a 24th place in Antholz, [3] and was largely forgotten by the public by that time. [2] At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Fak once again created a sensation by winning the bronze medal in the 10 km sprint. [4]

Switch of Citizenship

In July 2010, it was announced in the Slovenian Press that Fak would represent Slovenia in an international competition. [5] On 19 November, the switch to the Slovenian Biatlethe team was officially announced and Fak received his Slovenian passport on 24 November, enabling him to compete for Slovenia. [6]

Career threatening injury

At the World Cup races in the US in 2011, which were held in freezing temperatures, Jakov Fak suffered 3rd-degree frostbite to his trigger finger. [7] It was feared his finger might have to be amputated which would undoubtedly have ended his career as a biathlete. Jakov and his coaches decided to pull out of the Biathlon World Championships 2011 in Russia to focus on recovering from his injury and saving his finger.

2012 Biathlon World Championships

After missing the 2011 World Championship due to the injury, Fak entered the 2012 World Championship as a member of the Slovenian team. He won two medals, a silver in the mixed relay (together with Andreja Mali, Teja Gregorin, and Klemen Bauer). Although Slovenia crossed the finish line as first, 8.2 seconds in front of Norway, the jury awarded bonus seconds to the Scandinavians because one target did not go down despite their last runner Ole Einar Bjørndalen hitting it and therefore had to take an additional penalty loop, which put them ahead of Slovenia into the first place. [8] A couple of days later, Fak won the gold medal at the 20 km individual, thus winning the first gold medal for Slovenia at World Championships. [9]

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union. [10]

Olympic Games

2 medals (1 silver, 1 bronze)

EventIndividualSprintPursuitMass startRelayMixed relay
Representing Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg 2010 Vancouver 51stBronze25th9th——
Representing Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia
Flag of Russia.svg 2014 Sochi 32nd10th31st4th6th—
Flag of South Korea.svg 2018 Pyeongchang Silver23rd47th10th—14th
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg 2022 Beijing 29th26th20th
*The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.

World Championships

5 medals (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)

EventIndividualSprintPursuitMass startRelayMixed relaySingle Mixed relay
Representing Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia
Flag of Italy.svg 2007 Antholz-Anterselva 93rd78th—————
Flag of Sweden.svg 2008 Östersund DNS69th————
Flag of South Korea.svg 2009 Pyeongchang Bronze14th25th19th——
Representing Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia
Flag of Germany.svg 2012 Ruhpolding Gold11th8th——Silver
Flag of the Czech Republic.svg 2013 Nové Město 20thBronze6th19th13th5th
Flag of Finland.svg 2015 Kontiolahti 10th14th8thGold8th15th
Flag of Norway.svg 2016 Holmenkollen 6th39th5th7th—13th
Flag of Sweden.svg 2019 Östersund 42nd17th26th14th5th—
Flag of Italy.svg 2020 Antholz-Anterselva 4th45th21st15th5th—
Flag of Slovenia.svg 2021 Pokljuka 21st35th35th5th8th16th13th
Flag of Germany.svg 2023 Oberhof 63rd
Flag of the Czech Republic.svg 2024 Nové Město na Moravě 9th27th24th6th11th9th18th
*During Olympic seasons, competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.
**The single mixed relay was added as an event in 2019.

Individual victories

8 victories (1 In, 3 Sp, 2 Pu, 2 MS)

SeasonDateLocationDisciplineLevel
2011–12
1 victory
(1 In)		6 March 2012 Flag of Germany.svg Ruhpolding 20 km individual Biathlon World Championships
2012–13
2 victories
(1 Sp, 1 Pu)		8 December 2012 Flag of Austria.svg Hochfilzen 12.5 km pursuit Biathlon World Cup
13 December 2012 Flag of Slovenia.svg Pokljuka 10 km sprint Biathlon World Cup
2013–14
1 victory
(1 Sp)		20 March 2014 Flag of Norway.svg Oslo Holmenkollen 10 km sprint Biathlon World Cup
2014–15
4 victories
(1 Sp, 1 Pu, 2 MS)		7 February 2015 Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Nové Město 10 km sprint Biathlon World Cup
8 February 2015 Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Nové Město 12.5 km pursuit Biathlon World Cup
15 March 2015 Flag of Finland.svg Kontiolahti 15 km mass start Biathlon World Championships
22 March 2015 Flag of Russia.svg Khanty-Mansiysk 15 km mass start Biathlon World Cup
*Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.

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References

  1. ↑ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Jakov Fak". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 4 December 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Fak: Medalju sa SP-a trebao sam bolje naplatiti". Jutarnji list (in Croatian). 21 January 2010. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
  3. ↑ "Jakov Fak u Italiji osvojio prve bodove". vecernji.hr (in Croatian). 23 January 2010. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  4. ↑ "Jakov Fak osvojio broncu na Olimpijskim igrama!". Jutarnji list (in Croatian). 14 February 2010. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
  5. ↑ "Croatian Biathlete Joins Team Slovenia".
  6. ↑ "Jakov Fak dobil slovenski potni list". Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  7. ↑ "WM ohne Jakov Fak: Führen Erfrierungen zur Amputation?". xc-ski news (in German). 21 January 2010. Archived from the original on 5 March 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
  8. ↑ "Norway wins mixed relay gold at biathlon worlds". Yahoo! Sports. Associated Press. 1 March 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  9. ↑ "Foto/Video: Jakov Fak svetovni prvak na 20 km!".
  10. ↑ "Jakov Fak". IBU Datacenter. International Biathlon Union. Retrieved 3 June 2015.

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