Wolfgang Perner (17 September 1967 – 1 October 2019) was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n biathlete. The IOC banned Perner for life from competing in the Olympics as the result of a doping scandal at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Biography

He was a part of the Austrian national biathlon team since 1992. He failed to qualify for the 1992 Olympics in

Albertville Albertville (; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile'') is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It is best k ...

, but his career improved afterwards, firstly with a third place in Holmenkollen, and afterwards with his first

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

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. Perner competed in four Olympic Games, and won his only medal in the sprint at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, where he took bronze, behind Ole Einar Bjørndalen and Sven Fischer. This was Austria's first Olympic medal in biathlon. At the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

in Turin, aged almost 39, he came in fifth place in the sprint (he was later disqualified after the discovery of extensively used doping equipment in his hotel room during the 2006 Olympics). The IOC banned Perner for life from competing in the Olympics as the result of a doping scandal at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

References

* * Austrian male biathletes Austrian sportspeople in doping cases 1967 births Olympic biathletes for Austria Biathletes at the 2006 Winter Olympics Biathletes at the 1994 Winter Olympics Biathletes at the 1998 Winter Olympics Biathletes at the 2002 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Austria 2019 deaths Doping cases in biathlon Olympic medalists in biathlon Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics 20th-century Austrian sportsmen {{Austria-biathlon-bio-stub