Zhangjiakou (dpa) – When thinking about the Olympics, Franziska Preuss inevitably brings back memories of what is probably the blackest day of her career.
With tears in her eyes, the then only 19-year-old biathlete stood at the shooting range at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Before that, she had fallen badly as the starting runner of the German relay team and crouched in the snow at the end of a completely messed-up race with a blank stare. Young Preuss was suddenly the face of German failure in Russia. It wasn’t the last setback in a turbulent career that was supposed to be crowned with a medal eight years later in Beijing.
Open as to when Preuss will start for the first time
“Olympics – there were always mixed feelings,” says Preuss today at the age of 27. The Bavarian was considered Germany’s greatest hope for precious metal before she injured her foot falling down the stairs in France in December and then caught a corona infection, which she called “a mental low point”. Preuss missed four World Cups, was unable to train for weeks and must be happy to be in China at all. “For a short time I wasn’t so sure if it would work,” she said shortly before the games: “That’s why I’m all the more happy that Beijing is starting now.”
It is still unclear when Preuss, third overall in the World Cup last season, will start on the difficult routes of Zhangjiakou at an altitude of 1700 meters for the first time. A start right at the start in the mixed relay this Saturday (10:00 a.m.) is considered unlikely, the next chance would be on Monday in the individual over 15 kilometers. “We don’t know exactly where Franzi stands yet. She should get a good feeling,” said women’s national coach Kristian Mehringer.
“There are still a lot of question marks”
Preuss started the Olympic winter with high hopes, after the previous season had gone better than ever. She finally made it through the year without setbacks and matured into a leader. When she came to the World Cup as a teenager in 2013, her potential was confirmed to be similar to that of Laura Dahlmeier, who was almost a year older. However, injuries, bad luck and illnesses repeatedly prevented consistently good work, while Dahlmeier dominated mercilessly at times, became Olympic champion twice and world champion seven times before she surprisingly resigned in 2019.
And Prussia? In 2015 she won World Championship silver in the mass start in Finland. It is her only individual medal in major events, but there are also six other World Championship medals with relays. It seems difficult to imagine that more will be added in Beijing after weeks without competitions. “There are still a lot of question marks. Of course I would have liked to have come here with different expectations, but at the moment I just have to take it as it comes,” said Preuss on Thursday before training: “I’ll try the best and my current 100th Get a percentage. Then I just see what the body has to offer.”
All good things come in threes
With thin air at high altitudes, icy temperatures below minus ten degrees and strong winds, the challenge will be enormous. But Preuss is used to that from the past. “I’m trying to concentrate on myself,” said the 2015 relay world champion easily: “I’m not putting myself under unnecessary pressure yet.”
In Sochi, the German team finished eleventh with Preuss eight years ago. The women’s team has never been worse at major events, even in 2018 they only managed eighth place. Preuss shot a penalty loop and had no chance again with the DSV quartet in the medal race. More painful, however, was February 21, 2014, when the doping case involving Evi Sachsenbacher-Stehle became public before the start. This deeply unsettled her young teammates.
Preuss doesn’t like to talk about these difficult moments and prefers to focus on her third time at the Olympics: “I thought all good things come in threes. I’m going to be completely neutral now.”