The biathlon season so far has been all about Franziska Preuß, who also won the pursuit in Annecy on Saturday and further extended her lead in the fight for the yellow jersey in the overall World Cup. Italy’s superstar Dorothea Wierer, among others, was happy about this.
Franziska Preuß is and remains on fire. In pursuit of Annecy, Germany’s top biathlete celebrated her second victory of the season. She was also on the podium in three more races and also achieved fourth and fifth place. In the overall World Cup standings, the 30-year-old now has a lead of 153 points over second-placed Elvira Öberg from Sweden.
It’s not just in our own camp that people are rejoicing over Preuß’ phenomenal start to the season. The competition is also happy for perhaps the worst unlucky guy in recent years. “I told her to hold on because she had a lot of bad luck every year. There wasn’t a season when she wasn’t sick,” Dorothea Wierer said touching words to the German in the “Fondo Italia” interview.
The season has just started, the Italian added, “but let’s hope for the best for her. I’m really happy for her because it must be really hard when you always have something.”
Preuß impresses on the cross-country ski trail and at the shooting range
In fact, there has hardly been a winter in recent years in which Prussia was not thrown off course by illness. In the meantime, there was even speculation about an early end to his career. This summer, the 30-year-old had an operation on her nose to reduce the risk of further infections in the pre-Olympic season – so far with success.
Preuß is one of the best biathletes this season, both on the cross-country ski trail and at the shooting range. In the running statistics she is in fourth place behind Anamarija Lampic, Elvira Öberg and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet. In terms of hit rate, she ranks eleventh among all runners who have completed at least five races.