Career
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 by Afanasijs Kuzmins of the Soviet Union (later Latvia) 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 in 1995 and equalling it in 2000. After the major rule change in 2005, he once again acquired the World record, now of 588 points (later the same year bettered by Sergei Alifirenko). He also held the pre-2005 final World Record and the Olympic records (from 1996), 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 in 2004, he finally got his third Olympic gold after yet another excellent final.
Read more about this topic: Ralf Schumann
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