“Not in the best shape”
Biathlon ace is struggling with the start of the season
12/03/2025 – 12:44 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Franziska Preuß made a major false start to the Olympic season with the worst race in three years. The enormous backlog in running is particularly worrying.
Franziska Preuß was looking for explanations after the worst race in over 1000 days, but coming to terms with her false start to the Olympic winter took a little longer than usual. There were “a few question marks,” said the biathlete: “I’m unsettled by the running aspect because I don’t feel that bad because of the energy and I still get a lot of money on every lap.”
In the cross-country ski run, the overall World Cup winner lost more than 1:20 minutes to the best over 15 kilometers. In combination with the four penalty minutes at the shooting range, the first individual race became a debacle. “The worst single in a long time,” groaned Preuss. Ultimately, the second best of an extremely weak German team only managed 29th place, more than three minutes behind. The last time the Bavarian was worse was on January 21, 2023 in Antholz with 34th place in the pursuit.
“I’m not in the best shape,” explained the 31-year-old: “That was also the plan, that you wouldn’t be in top shape at the end of November, but the plan was that you would improve week after week and just get better.” But she didn’t expect that the messed up relay and the individual would get off to such a bad start. “It is what it is. I hope that we can improve,” said the pursuit world champion.
Felix Bitterling urged calm given the early season. “It’s a good idea not to panic now. That definitely won’t help,” said the DSV sports director on ZDF. Janina Hettich-Walz was the 17th best biathlete in the German Ski Association. In total, the seven DSV women made 39 (!) shooting errors in difficult wind conditions on a “day to forget” (Denise Herrmann-Wick).
Now you just have to “stay calm and keep pursuing the things you’ve trained over the summer. And I’m glad that there’s no pursuer, but that the sprint offers a new chance to present ourselves differently,” said Bitterling. That is also Preuss’ great hope. By the sprint on Friday (4 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport) “the head will be fresh again,” announced the German hopeful. After all, the opening single should only remain a blip.