Franziska Preuss is overall World Cup winner and writes history. After cheering, she doesn’t feel like it for a long time. Behind it is a fall, a protest and special respect for her greatest competitor.
Alexander Kohne reports from Oslo
At the greatest moment of her sporty career, she didn’t think of cheering. Instead of tearing your arms in the air and – as usual in the biathlon – to be raised by the teammates waiting in the finish area, Franziska Preuss looked around uncertainly. She waited for her worst competitor Lou JeanMonnot.
In the last race of the Biathlon World Cup season at the Osloer Holmenkollen in the third last curve, this was overturning, which gave away Prussia, won and was the first German to get the overall World Cup in eight years (here you read everything about the drama in Oslo). Instead of celebrating her success, the 31-year-old Bavarian turned to her competitor sunken right behind the finish line and hugged her for almost a minute.
“At the finish I waited directly for her and said that she should please me honestly if anything was unfair,” said Preuss in a press round that was also T-online. But JeanMonnot left no doubt about the legality of the race, as Preuss revealed: “She immediately said that it was not my fault and that she fell over her stick.”
The tragic end of the most gripping duel, which has ever been given to win the overall World Cup, took both protagonists with him. In the approximately six minutes that they remained near the finish line until they crossed the day last, both of them spoke through the scene of the race again and again, hugged – and a few tears flowed.
For the first time really cheering, Preuss presented himself a further quarter of an hour later when she came from the catacombs of the biathlon stadium on the legendary stonewoll-and was welcomed by the German team with a confetti rain, spraying sparkling wine and “So see the winner from” chants.
Only then was Preuss really clear that she had really won the overall World Cup 2024/25. Because: Even if JeanMonnot had assessed her fall differently, the French team had taken a protest against the racing rating. About 20 minutes after the end of the race it was clear: without success.
“When that was decided, it fell off a lot. It was very emotional,” revealed Preuss, who cried uninhibitedly a little later: “It was a sick fight until the end. These were really exhausting three weeks off the head, but I tried not to lose faith on it”. For them, a roller coaster of feelings had ended. This accumulated in Oslo this weekend.
After Preuss had won the sprint there in the sprint on Friday and 0.2 seconds before JeanMonnot, she lost the World Cup work a day later due to a fifth place. For the first time since the first race over three and a half months ago, Jeanonnot was back in front – and had five points ahead of the German before the final showdown on Sunday.
The fact that Preuss was put past JeanMonnot (1258) again at the end of 1278 points, she was not always completely convinced of that in the past few months. “This is one of the greatest things you can win in biathlon and was always a dream of mine somewhere. Sometimes it was far away when you were sick too often in the past,” said Preuss.