Mark Kirchner is no longer national coach of the German biathlon men. This was announced by the 52-year-old and the sports director of the German Ski Association, Felix Bitterling, on the sidelines of the World Cup in Oslo in the sports show.
Mark Kirchner is no longer national coach of the German biathlon men. This was announced by the 52-year-old and the sports director of the German Ski Association (DSV), Felix Bitterling, on the sidelines of the World Cup in Oslo in the sports show. Kirchner’s successor has also already been decided: the former cross-country skier Jens Filbrich will take over the position for the new season. The 44-year-old switched from cross-country skiing to biathlon within the DSV last year and has since been in charge of the men’s and women’s B national teams as a running coach.
Kirchner: “Wants to clear the way”
Mark Kirchner had carefully considered the decision and explained it with private and sporting reasons. He looks forward to no more”Spend 170 days a year in a hotel bed. It’s time to put the suitcases in the corner and have more time with family and grandkids.”. The withdrawal also has sporting reasons: “I want to clear the way to be able to set new impulses and to rejuvenate the team so that it can compete at the international top“said Kirchner in the sports show.
Coaching career was classic
Mark Kirchner and the DSV separate amicably. He wants to stay with the association. Kirchner already collected titles and medals as an active player, became Olympic champion three times and world champion seven times. After the end of his career, the Thuringian stayed with the German Ski Association as a coach and has been training the men’s training group at the Oberhof base since 2007. Kirchner’s coaching career was very classic, he gradually rose and took on more responsibility.
After three years as an assistant coach in the World Cup, Kirchner was promoted to men’s discipline coach ahead of the 2010/2011 season. After the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, the quiet representative of his field also assumed nominal responsibility for women. Kirchner formed Arnd Peiffer, Benedikt Doll, Simon Schempp and Erik Lesser into world champions. The highlights of his tenure were the 2015 World Cup relay victory in Kontiolahti and Arnd Peiffer’s 2018 Olympic victory in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Filbrich won two cross-country medals at the Olympics
Successor Jens Filbrich celebrated his greatest successes as an active player at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and 2006 in Turin when he won a bronze and a silver medal in the cross-country relay. After the end of his career in 2014, he immediately became a coach and initially worked with younger age groups. Since 2018 he has also been the head base trainer in Oberhof and the head youth trainer in the DSV. Filbrich should “We want to strengthen the running area, we know that we have deficits here”according to Bitterling.
His switch from cross-country skiing to biathlon was not welcomed by everyone in the German Ski Association. “He was supposed to take over the U20 area as our selection coach and is now leaving a gap, also at the base in Oberhof,” said Andreas Schlütter, sporting director of cross-country skiing at DSV, a year ago. Filbrich is now the men’s national coach.