Career
In 1994 in Lillehammer, he was his country"s flag bearer and was part of the gold-medal winning relay team Kirchner came second in the overall World Cup standings twice which happened in the two consecutive seasons of 1990-1991 and 1991-1992 the former behind Sergei Tchepikov of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics and the latter behind Mikael Löfgren of Sweden. He retired relatively early in 1998 at the age of 28.
Subsequently Kirchner was employed as an assistant of Frank Ullrich, the German biathlon male team head coach with responsibilities including youth development.
In April 2014, he was appointed as men"s coach for the national team All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.
Olympic Games
4 medals (3 gold, 1 silver)
World Championships
10 medals (7 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program **Pursuit was added as an event in 1997.
Individual victories
11 victories (6 In, 5 Sp).