Timothy John Burke (born February 3, 1982 in Paul Smiths, New York) is a retired U.S. biathlete and coach. On December 20, 2009, he became the first ever US biathlete to lead the overall Biathlon World Cup. During his career he competed in 11 Biathlon World Championships and four Winter Olympic Games, won a World Championship silver and took six podiums in World Cup races. Career Early career Burke first took up biathlon in 1997 and soon became a promising prospect on the national level, first competing for the United States in the Biathlon Junior World Championships in 2000. Burke competed in the World Junior Championships another three times, but without ever finishing in the top 10. Burke's formative years were plagued by ill health. Most critically, he had career-threatening hip problems in 2002, eventually managing a full recovery after surgery. He also suffered from mononucleosis. First World Cup seasons Burke debuted in the Biathlon World Cup in the latter half of the 2003–04 season at Ruhpolding, Germany. This season also marked Burke's first World Championships; however, he failed to make an international impact, not achieving any World Cup points. Burke made his first US Olympic team in 2006, and came quite close to achieving his first World Cup points (the Olympics being part of the Biathlon World Cup), placing 35th in the sprint and 36th in the following pursuit. However, his moment of international attention came as Jay Hakkinen surprisingly brought the US team to the first exchange in first place. Burke, on the second leg, thus had the honour of leading the Olympic relay. However, this did not last long, as US dropped to 8th place on Burke's leg with him needing all three spare rounds in both shootings; they eventually finished 9th. Per Nilsson of Sweden became the head coach of team US in 2006. Burke, whose results soon improved markedly under Nilsson's guidance, credits the Swede with "teaching me what hard training really looks like." The 2006–07 season was a great success for Burke, who got the first World Cup point of his career already in the season-opening 20 km individual at Östersund, Sweden with a 30th place and followed up with another five points finishes, including the first top 10 finish of his World Cup career in a sprint at Hochfilzen, Austria. Burke got his season-best 6th-place finish in a mass start at Pokljuka, Slovenia