Even before the Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof starts with the mixed relay on Wednesday (2:45 p.m.), the World Cup has left its mark on the DSV squad at home: Vanessa Hinz ended her career after qualifying for missed the highlight of the season. A circumstance that apparently leaves its mark on her long-time colleagues.
“When I heard it, I was shocked and close to tears,” says Vanessa Voigt, who will lead the mixed relay on Wednesday as the first runner to “Sport1”: Hinz is “a fixture in the team” and “a an important part especially of the relays”.
Hinz won a total of three World Championship gold and three silver medals in world title fights with German relay teams. Hinz was also in the women’s relay, which won bronze at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The 30-year-old also won individual silver at the World Championships in Antholz in 2020.
Denise Herrmann-Wick also emphasized that Hinz will be missing from the German team. “You could always be relied on, no matter how precarious it got,” Herrmann-Wick posted on Facebook in the direction of Hinz and added with a wink: “When you open champagne, you’re the all-time number one anyway!”
On February 4, Hinz announced in an official statement from the German Ski Association: “It was already clear to me in the summer that I was going into my last season. My body and my mind showed me that competitive sports should be over at the age of 31. I’m absolutely ready for the next chapter of my life.” Hinz celebrates her 31st birthday on March 24th.
To date, the German has contested the biathlon winter in the second-rate IBU Cup, where she ended up on the podium three times. Hinz was then given a chance in the World Cup in Pokljuka, but was unable to start due to illness.