Liv Grete Skjelbreid

Liv Grete Skjelbreid, who later competed as Liv Grete Skjelbreid Poirée after marrying the French biathlete Raphaël Poirée, is a former professional biathlete from Norway, born on 7 July 1974 in the Øvre Hålandsdalen valley in Fusa Municipality, near Bergen in western Norway. She began competing in biathlon at the age of nine, borrowing her father's rifle for her first race, and as a child she also played football and kayaked. She studied and trained at a sports school in Geilo in the same year as Ole Einar Bjørndalen, and was coached by Odd Lirhus between 2003 and 2006. She won the IBU overall World Cup in the 2003-04 season, the first Norwegian overall win since Anne Elvebakk in 1988, taking the sprint, pursuit and mass start titles that year. She announced her retirement on 20 March 2006, citing her young daughter and her family.