German biathlon men in the crisis
Ex-Prussian trainer should save Olympic hopes
25.02.2025 – 7:08 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Somewhat surprisingly, biathlon coach Uroš Velepec resigned on Tuesday. His successor has already formed Germany’s best biathlete.
The new national biathlon coach is called Tobias Reiter. In the late Tuesday afternoon, the German Ski Association (DSV) surprisingly announced that the previous national coach of the men, Uroš Velepec, declared its resignation.
The step takes place after a weak world championship of German men. At the competitions in Lenzerheide it was just enough for bronze in the season. There was no individual medal for men, while Franziska Preuss won silver in sprint and even gold in the pursuit. With the same Prussia, the man also has a past that is now supposed to lead the men’s team back on track. Time is pushing.
In his declaration of withdrawal, Velepec emphasized that his decision was “not a spontaneous decision” and “only has something to do with our performance at the World Cup”. Nevertheless, the weak performance once again focused on the lack of progress of the team. “Even though we all had more of course in Lenzerheide. Overall, we are currently not at the level that we had set together as the goal,” said Velepec.
For new national coach Reiter, it is now important to advance the biathlon men quickly. Because the Olympic Games will take place next year. The last three World Cup weeks of this season should therefore be used to “make the first necessary course with a view to the upcoming Olympic season”, as the DSV announcement says.
But can riders? The 39-year-old has no experience in the front row. During his own active career, Reiter did not get beyond the second-class European Cup (today IBU Cup), at least won twice gold and bronze at the German championships with the season. He finished his career in 2010 at the age of 20 and started his coaching career. There he was active between 2014 and 2018 as an assistant coach of the German women’s team. Before and after, he worked primarily in the youth work – but successful there.
For example, he looked after the young Franziska Preuss at the Bavarian Ski Association, formed it into three times the Olympic Olympic champion and was then awarded the best coach of the year by the DSV in 2012. After returning to the DSV in 2020/21, he worked again with Preuss, who at that time trained with the B team supervised by Reiter and was later to reach third place in the overall World Cup.
Most recently, riders trained the men’s IBU Cup team-and should now move in the first row for the first time. The DSV promises success above all from the fact that it is no stranger to the athletes. “Tobias has already looked after most of our athletes in the course of their career and, together with Jens Filbrich, formed a successful team of coaches in the IBU Cup,” said DSV sports director Biathlon Felix Bitterling. “Therefore, there should be a smooth transition, which hopefully releases positive energies again with the entire team. Because this will primarily be important,” Bitterling continues.
The aim is to get momentum in the last races of the season and set a few positive accents “in order to be able to attack the Olympic winter 2026 again with full strength and the new coaching team Reiter/Filbrich,” said Bitterling . In view of the World Cup, they have a lot of work in front of them.