The German biathlon team has had a winter with few ups and many downs. Franzi Preuß and Co. achieved some good results, but they rarely managed to jump to the top. Sports director Felix Bitterling still formulates a challenging Olympic goal.
The German biathlon team is suffering in the current season from the enormous level of performance among the world’s best. In many races, the DSV stars knocked on the podium, but often only a few seconds or even one more shot were missing from the shooting range to make it into the top three. That should change at the Olympic Games.
“Our goal is clear: We want to have a say in the medals at every competition,” said sports director Felix Bitterling, setting the tone for the season highlight. But what the person in charge also knows: “We won’t start as the top favorite in most races.” But that’s not a problem because: “This role of challenger can be a great opportunity in biathlon.”
German biathlon team hopes for early flow at the Olympics
Bitterling sees the German team overall as an “extremely capable underdog team” that needs one thing above all: an early can opener.
“If we manage to be successful early on, perhaps even with a medal, a flow can emerge, especially under the special conditions in Antholz. The World Championships in Lenzerheide last year showed that we can hold major events at high altitudes,” explained the sports director.
For Bitterling, there is no question that an increase in performance is needed to win Olympic medals. “All in all, you can say that we haven’t really gotten into a flow as a team yet,” he said, referring to the season so far.
Things are currently “a little harder” than last winter. It was often “nuances” that the DSV team was missing in the races. “Of course, purely in terms of the number of podium places, we are currently not where we would like to be,” admitted Bitterling: “But if you look closely at the result lists, we are absolutely within striking distance.”
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