[1] An out-of-the-blue win by Eugeni Redkine of the Unified Team in the 20 km individual prevented him taking honours as the absolute champion of these Games.

In 1994 in Lillehammer, he was his country's flag bearer and was part of the gold-medal winning relay team.

He was the youngest ever triple Olympic Champion in biathlon, at the age of just 23 years and 10 month.

Kirchner came second in the overall World Cup standings twice, behind Sergei Tchepikov of the USSR in the 1990–91 season and behind Mikael Löfgren of Sweden in 1992–93.

Subsequently, Kirchner was employed as an assistant to Frank Ullrich, the German biathlon male team head coach, with responsibilities including youth development.