The German cross-country skiers are ready for the World Cup season: “But it’s only about the team,” says national coach Schlickenrieder.
After the good performance at the Olympic Games in Beijing with gold in the team sprint, the women’s relay silver and Friedrich Moch’s third place in the Tour de Ski, the German cross-country skiers are now ready for the World Cup season. The first date on the World Cup calendar is scheduled for November 25th in Ruka, Finland.
The entourage had also traveled to Finland to prepare: “We trained well for three weeks“, says Schlickenrieder. “JNow it’s time to recover and then strike with full force“. For the first time, parts of the Norwegian team also traveled to Muonio, “to take advantage of the good conditions“. Therefore, at the end of the training camp, the DSV team had the first opportunity to determine their position at two FIS races. “That’s a pretty good comparison of where you are“, says Schlickenrieder.
All athletes healthy?
The DSV team around the Olympic champions Katharina Hennig and Victoria Carl got through the preparation with almost no injuries. Only Katherine Sauerbrey, who was successful in the relay at the Olympics, after switching to a new shoe “been struggling with periosteum inflammation for five weeks“. That’s why she won’t be there at the first World Cup. The priority now is to fix the problem: “The goal is to have a fully operational Katherine Sauerbrey at the start of the Tour de Ski“, so the national coach.
The German hopefuls of the season?
“Katharina Hennig, Victoria Carl, Friedrich Moch are the important figures who move a team forward. But I can’t necessarily count the three as contenders for an individual medal right now“. Called: “If we want to achieve such a great success again, then the only way is through the team. In other words: team sprint or relay“.
But a lot of things have to fit together. “You need a strong team and we managed to do that well last year“.
Where should you go in the season?
The focus is on the World Championships and the Tour de Ski: “If we manage to fight for medals again in the team competitions, then we’ve already achieved a lot“. But it takes “that every athlete marches a little further forward“. That about Katharina Hennig, “Now makes the top three three times, four times“. And the others who finished 16th – 19th “run top 15 or top ten”.
“The potential for women is much greater“, according to Schlickenrieder. “Women are often further developed to make the leap from juniors to seniors“. The more difficult act is to bring the U23 boys up.
What is the impact of the energy crisis?
“Inflation can be felt in every nook and cranny“, says Schlickenrieder. Because “Winter sports always mean a lot of mobility, a lot of driving.” Higher food prices are also making themselves felt. “The November training camp was a fair bit more expensive than usual“.
It will certainly be the case that shorter stretches are covered with artificial snow. Failures are also to be expected. Easy “because you decide against snow production that such a World Cup event requires.”
Has spending already been cut?
They had been prepared for this and had waived some training camps in the summer. “Or rather, the athletes there are also obliged to carry a large part themselves in order to carry out this November training camp there in the north“. We saved for that, so to speak.”And I think it paid off before it even got into the competitions“, believes Schlickenrieder.