Mark Kirchner knows what it feels like to have that special gold medal around his neck. In 1992 and 1994, today’s national biathlon coach celebrated Olympic victory with the relay as an active participant – and would love to experience that again.
“The goal for me as a coach would be this relay gold medal,” said the Thuringian. On Tuesday (10:00 a.m. CET), his men are challenged in a quartet at the Winter Games in China, but are not among the favorites in the strong field.
Norway, Russia, France, Sweden: the circle of contenders for the triumph is quite large.
“I’ve won everything possible with the team in recent years since 2010 – but a relay Olympic victory would still be something that would finally satisfy me on my agenda in my work as a coach,” said the 51-year-old the departure to Asia.
Kirchner has formed and intensively promoted many world champions, and under his leadership the relay team has already won the world championship title in 2015. After relay silver in Sochi in 2014 and bronze in Pyeongchang in 2018, only the Olympic crowning is missing.
Last relay Olympic victory in biathlon 2006
The resignations of long-time top performers such as Arnd Peiffer and Simon Schempp in the previous year make the mission more difficult. At the World Cups in Antholz and Ruhpolding, it was enough for the podium twice, the last victory was in March 2021 in the Czech Republic. Realistically, the first German relay Olympic victory since 2006 would be a sensation. At least one medal would be important in Zhangjiakou to lift the mood in the team again.
After seven out of eleven competitions, gold is the only precious metal in China so far thanks to Denise Herrmann. Only the relays and the mass starts remain to prevent the worst German performance at the Winter Games. The biathletes had never won a medal since reunification, twice silver eight years ago in Russia is by far the weakest record so far.
“Don’t think about biathlon. That’s actually the most important thing,” said Benedikt Doll as a plan to clear his head before the relay. On Sunday, Germany’s best ski hunter was only 32nd in the pursuit. The previous races, in which he narrowly missed out on the podium, had taken a lot of energy. Now the 31-year-old wants to “make himself want to go full throttle again,” said the Black Forester: “I’ll definitely use that to motivate myself again.”
Cross-country skiers as role models for the biathlon team
The women’s relay, which is challenged on Wednesday (10:00 a.m.) and even has one more day’s rest, was inspired by the cross-country skiers, who sensationally won silver as a team on Saturday. “The girls are now radiating totally positive energy. You can tell how happy they are,” said Franziska Preuss: “Of course we want to experience something like that too.”
The competition for women is also enormous, with Norway, France and Sweden in particular likely to be difficult to beat. Since 2010 there hasn’t been an Olympic medal for the DSV biathletes, who absolutely want to change that in the mountains northwest of Beijing. “We will sharpen the knife and hope that we will annoy the others a bit,” said Olympic champion Herrmann. Preuss added: “We hope that we will have a good day and then have something to celebrate.”
The line-up of the women’s team will be announced on Tuesday but shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Herrmann, Preuß, Vanessa Voigt and Vanessa Hinz have competed in all competitions so far. There is currently no reason to use substitute runner Anna Weidel.