After disappointing World Cup
Biathlon national coach resigns
Updated on February 25, 2025 – 8:50 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Bang at the German Ski Association. Uroš Velepec is no longer a national coach of German biathletes.
After the disappointing Biathlon World Cup, the national coach Uroš Velepec surprisingly resigned. The 58-year-old asked to “give him his tasks with immediate effect,” said the German Ski Association (DSV) on Tuesday.
It was agreed to use the remaining three World Cup weeks “in order to make the first necessary course with a view to the upcoming Olympic season”. Tobias Reiter, who recently looked after the men in the IBU Cup, will be the successor.
Velepec took over the office of head coach from Thuringian Mark Kirchner in 2023. Now his time at the DSV ends again. “This is not a spontaneous decision and has something to do with our performance at the World Cup,” he said. “Even though we all had more of course in Lenzerheide. Overall, we are currently not at the level that we had set together as a goal.”
The German biathlon team won five medals at the World Cup in Switzerland. But above all the men’s team remained without a single medal and thus behind the expectations-even in the World Cup season so far.
“With enough time, we would certainly be able to get out of this difficult situation together in which we are currently in ourselves,” said Velepec. “But as a head coach, I also see myself in the short and medium term. That is why I came to the conviction that a new impulse is now needed, perhaps also a new form of addressing to successfully look at the 2026 Olympic Games be.
For TV expert Michael Rösch, Velepec’s resignation is a “moderate earthquake”. “The time is blatant. Immediately after the World Cup, with three outstanding World Cups. This is already sporty,” says the 2006 Olympic champion at Eurosport.