- Ralf Schumann
Ralf Schumann (born
June 10 ,1962 ) is a German25 m Rapid Fire Pistol shooter. He is a three-time Olympic Champion and twice World Champion.Born in
Meissen inSaxony , he took on pistol shooting in1977 and was eventually trained at the East German national shooting arena inSuhl ,Thuringia . He has on several occasions been voted the athlete of the year in Thuringia. He now lives in nearbyStockheim ,Bavaria .His international breakthrough came in the years before the Seoul Olympics in
1988 , where he was considered the most likely winner. However, he was beaten byAfanasijs Kuzmins of theSoviet Union (laterLatvia ) by 598 to 597 in the qualification round, and was never allowed to come back in the finals, Kuzmins performing a perfect 100. (In an interview, Ralf quoted his young son's reaction: "Daddy, why didn't you win?")After this, the targets were changed, lowering results considerably, but Schumann's hegemony has only increased. He won the
1990 World Championships and the 1992 Olympics. He performed 596 on several occasions before raising the World Record to 597 in1995 and equalling it in2000 . After the major rule change in2005 , he once again acquired the World record, now of 588 points (later the same year bettered bySergei Alifirenko ). He also held the pre-2005 final World Record and the Olympic records (from1996 ), excelling in the four-second final shooting.Being the favourite in every competition he enters, it is natural that his failures to win have received some attention. Most notable among these is his performance in the Sydney Olympics in
2000 , when at the prospect of winning his third Olympic gold medal (something no RFP shooter before has managed) he only finished fifth. However, his results since then have proved that this was not the beginning of a long-term decline, and in the Athens Olympics in2004 , he finally got his third Olympic gold after yet another excellent final.External links
* [http://www.issfnews.com/default.asp?file=whoiswho&event=&wiwmode=namenat&shtrid=13181 Schumann's profile at ISSF NEWS]
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