Almost exactly a year ago, Selina Grotian experienced a dark moment in her young career. Now she is returning to Oberhof full of self-confidence.
After the last shots at the training targets, Selina Grotian chatted with her friend Vanessa Voigt before they both disappeared into the Thuringian Forest in a great mood for a run. Grotian didn’t waste any thought on the negative experiences from the previous year with the shooting debacle and subsequent demotion. “That’s ticked off for me. The only thing that still gives me a bit of jitters is the descent”said the biathlon newcomer with a laugh before the start of the home World Cup in Oberhof.
Their anticipation before the first race of the new year is huge. “I’m very excited because I still remember what the atmosphere is like here and how awesome it is to walk up there”said Grotian. Last year, with the loud and rousing fans, she felt as if “the ground beneath me would shake”.
Grotian goes to Oberhof as World Cup winner
That could be the case again in the sprint on Thursday (2:20 p.m. in the live ticker), when the 20-year-old competes again for the first time after her first World Cup victory. At the beginning of 2024 she was still crying after only finishing 45th in the pursuit in Oberhof after seven penalties. The Bavarian then lost her place in the team and had to temporarily compete in the second-tier IBU Cup. It was a slap in the face, she explained.
Now her self-confidence is completely different. “In the last two weeks I was able to recover really well. The weather and conditions at home were simply perfect”said Grotian during a short break about the turn of the year. “I made the most of this time.”
Younger than Dahlmeier when he won for the first time
Shortly before Christmas, Grotian fulfilled one of her dreams in the mass start at Le Grand-Bornand ahead of the overall World Cup leader Franziska Preuß, who is still in outstanding form. At her first individual victory in the World Cup, she was even nine months younger than double Olympic champion Laura Dahlmeier, who was born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
“I still couldn’t believe it, but I’m not doing anything different just because I have a win under my belt”said Grotian. Her motto: Don’t have high expectations, “The best always comes out”.
Thuringian Voigt (27), with whom Grotian spent two weeks on holiday in a camper in Portugal after the previous season, calls her close friend an “inspiration”. According to sports director Felix Bitterling, Grotian, like 19-year-old Julia Tannheimer, is a promise for the future.
World Cup medal after demotion
A promise that Grotian wants to keep, she definitely has the prerequisites. With four gold medals at the 2023 Junior World Championships, she made it to the World Cup in the previous season. But things are different, as she learned. Mistakes are not forgiven. What followed was a rollercoaster ride, including being moved to the second division of biathlon.
But Grotian relies on her calmness and down-to-earth attitude. The perfectionist that “a plan for absolutely everything” must have, describes itself as “little deep stacker”. She doesn’t set herself too big goals, she just lets everything happen to her. She gets over bad races relatively quickly. “I think to myself, there are much worse things that can happen in life”said Grotian to the dpa.
She implemented her strategy in the preseason. She took the brief step back into the B league as a challenge. He even brings her further in her development, contrary to what she expected. The reward: At the World Championships in Nove Mesto, Grotian came fourth in the individual in her first ever World Championship race and shot four times without a mistake for the first time. The coronation follows with relay bronze.
Private low blows before the start of the season
Even now Grotian had to face some setbacks and challenges. Starting the new season was harder than expected for her. “I noticed that my body still had a lot to process, be it mentally or physically”Grotian wrote on Instagram. It was difficult for her to relax and even self-doubt arose.
This winter is also up to now “a little bumpy up and down”. During the final preparation in Vuokatti, her grandmother was dying at home. And she had to say goodbye to her beloved dog Nika. After a cold, Grotian started the season with disappointing places 50 and 48 in Kontiolahti. But she fought back.
Now, above all, she has to and wants to bring consistency to her shooting performance, “so that we don’t have such outliers anymore”. She is on the right track, says her brother Tim, who also trains her. And, as she told ZDF, it has to endure a lot. Because Grotian, who is usually quite calm, can sometimes become loud and angry if things don’t go as planned. “I feel sorry for him sometimes, it’s a shame”said Grotian, but her brother “infinitely grateful” is.