Johannes Lukas achieved a total of 37 podium places with the Swedish men’s and women’s national teams in the last biathlon season. Nevertheless, the German coach will change the training plan.
Not only the Norwegians, but also the Swedes are relying less on altitude training camps than before in preparation for the coming biathlon season.
“We want to take our foot off the gas when it comes to altitude training, where you do it and how many days. You have to approach it cleverly and learn from the experiences of the last four years,” Sweden’s head coach Johannes Lukas told “Biathlon World”.
He will certainly return with his team to Font Romeu in the Pyrenees, “and not just because of the altitude. You can train excellently there, and we Swedes in particular need mountains to train in. Altitude training is certainly still needed, but perhaps not three training camps at altitude.”
The Norwegians around coach Patrick Oberegger are also relying on fewer units at altitude in the future, as the major events in Antholz (2026 Olympics) and Lenzerheide (2025 World Cup) are now over.
Successful biathlon coach Lukas develops a “new training structure”
The Swedes’ German coach is relying on a “new training structure” with “more training time at home”. After the successful last season, we are taking a “relaxed approach” to the coming months. Lukas has not yet planned the entire Olympic cycle until 2030.
He says: “We’re pretty confident. A large part of the team is back, we listened to them and reduced the amount of travel. After the season we’ll evaluate it and see where the strengths of the new plan lie. We know where we want to be in four years, but we’ll look at it again after next season and then see what happens.”
His team includes, among others, Olympic champion Martin Ponsiluoma, the bronze relay team with Sebastian Samuelsson, Jesper Nelin and Viktor Brandt as well as his Nations Cup winners Elvira and Hanna Öberg, Anna Magnusson and Linn Gestblom. At the last Winter Games there were three podium places.
“We’re extremely proud of it. The Winter Games are always a huge deal. Everyone wants to win a medal, but once you’re there, it’s not that easy. At first it didn’t want to work, but we stuck together and stayed calm. Then we got gold, which is crazy, but the two team medals are always something special because you win them together. I’m very proud that we withstood the pressure,” Lukas summed up.
