How do you deal with setbacks? A question that biathlete Hanna Kebinger had to find an answer to over and over again. The result: a rapid rise that required many comebacks.
It took Hanna Kebinger a little to process what had happened in the past few weeks and months. The 25-year-old sits in a café in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, and smiles. “It was physically but also mentally exhausting. Plus all the emotions that hit you“, says the Bavarian.
She was nominated as a substitute for the home World Championships in Oberhof and not only that, she won silver in the relay. You don’t have to listen to the woman from Grainau for long to get an idea of what it means to her to be part of the World Cup team and to compete with the best biathletes on the planet.
Kebinger’s difficult year 2022
Translated into German, Nove Mesto means “new city” – a suitable title for Hanna Kebinger’s year 2023 could also be “Nove Hanna”. In the past few months and years, the Vice World Champion from Oberhof has come a long way, paved with setbacks and disappointments. It starts in July 2022.
Actually, Kebinger should prepare for the Summer World Championships in Ruhpolding. “I caught Corona back then“, she reports. “But as is so often the case with me: I can’t just have it, I’ll take everything with me again.”
Inflammation of the lung mucosa paralyzes Kebinger
She lay flat for two weeks and quickly realized that she was having a hard time breathing, even though she “furthest way from the couch to the bed and back again“. This bad assumption that something was wrong was to come true only a little later. Her lung mucosa had become inflamed. The consequence: a medical ban on sports.
She waits, cures the illness and starts training. She works hour after hour for her comeback so that she can be in shape at the start of the season. And that works: “I was fit as a rock“, says Kebinger. She pushes her body to the limit and beyond – and with consequences. She gets sick again and that to “worst time“, as she states herself, because the qualification for the World Cup is imminent.
“It’s really stupid to run sick”
The story of Hanna Kebinger is also one of the unconditional and almost untamable will – which is often an outstanding quality in competitive athletes, but sometimes it is precisely this that leads to the fact that action is no longer rational but emotional. Kebinger remains stricken in November 2022, regardless she wants “then give it a try and try to stick to your goal – even if it’s just really stupid to run sick.“
She runs anyway and fails in the qualification. “The end of the song“, as she describes the low point of this painful time of suffering: “I was out of everything, an additional two weeks in bed with antibiotics and the RS virus (acute illness of the upper and lower respiratory tract) jumped up on me.” The list of lows during this period from late November to early December 2022 seems endless.
set priorities correctly
Early in her sporting career, Hanna Kebinger painfully learned to classify and evaluate successes and failures correctly. As a young athlete, she had to struggle with an inflammation of the pericardium – not only her career as a professional athlete but also a healthy and symptom-free life were in danger. “Back then I said I wouldn’t let it get me down. And this time also taught me that there are more important things than sport.“
Gradual rise: from the Germany Cup to the World Cup
But if Hanna Kebinger doesn’t do one thing in life, it’s giving up. After missing out on the World Cup qualification this winter, she’s starting from scratch again. In mid-December she will start in the third-class Germany Cup – at this point she is light years away from the top of the world. The competition goes unexpectedly well, her boyfriend and her father support her on site.
Papa Kebinger then proves almost clairvoyant abilities. “Funnily enough, my father said at Christmas: ‘How funny would it be if you run the IBU Cup on Pokljuka in January, then the World Cup in Antholz and still make it to the World Championships’“. A beautiful but utopian idea, thinks daughter Hanna.
Dad’s prediction comes true
Utopia or not, Kebinger is nominated for the IBU Cup and promptly wins the sprint there, ending up on the podium three times. As his father had predicted, he was called up for the Antholz World Cup. The 25-year-old goes to the races there carefree and has fun and convinces the trainers. 19th in the sprint, tenth in the pursuit and in the relay he made it onto the podium.
The rise of Hanna Kebinger has reached its peak so far in February 2023. Not only is she nominated for the World Championships, she is also surprising the biathlon world with strong results in the individual events and is a crucial part of the Silver Relay.
“I was a little skeptical about Hanna Kebinger’s performance last season“says sports show expert Erik Lesser. “But how she presents herself after the setbacks in the World Cup and how constantly she works on the shooting range, I take my hat off to her.“
“I smelled a rat”
It shouldn’t be the end of the road for the 25-year-old biathlete. “I smelled a rat at the World Cup“, says Kebinger and laughs. “I don’t put any pressure or stress on myself that everything has to work out now.“But the will to get the best out of yourself will definitely accompany Hanna Kebinger in the future.