Denise Herrmann-Wick is one of the most successful German biathletes of the past decade. In 2022 she became a single Olympic champion in Beijing, in 2023 there were another three World Cup medals (once gold, twice silver) in Oberhof at the end of the career. In the second part of the Great Sport.de interview, the 36-year-old clears up speculation about a possible comeback and talks about her great happiness as a young mother and her new passions away from the cross-country skiing trails.
Ms. Herrmann-Wick, you are then on site as a TV expert for the ZDF in Lenzerheide. How close are you to your former colleagues during the competition days?
Denise Herrmann-Wick: You still have contact with those with whom you have also run. Otherwise they all have enough to do themselves. I still know exactly what that is. You are already under power and take care of not getting sick and avoiding direct contacts. Let’s see, maybe it will work with one or the other loose unit between the races. But I’m just as well clamped on site and traveled in the stadium all day.
How do you perceive the big highlights of the year away from the shooting range and trail? Doesn’t it even itch in your hands and feet?
It was really a lot of fun until the last moment, especially since I still like to go cross -country skiing. Of course I also have moments here and there when I think: it would be cool to run a competition again. But I am also just very happy to have found such a nice conclusion for myself in 2023. Being there again and again and even making some interval with the former colleagues is fun. But I don’t want to be that much anymore either.
If you want to mix in the front, that’s another number. I know what all this brings about. Especially now with my family I would no longer be ready to sacrifice so much time. I think you could get back well if you wanted to. But it is also nice from the edge of the route and everything is good as it is.
So only once checked out: So the potential would be there for you to actively return to the World Cup?
In advance, I definitely don’t have any comeback! Every month that you are from the career end, it gets harder again. After birth it was an issue in the media. Will I come back again? Can I do that? Others do it and I am also convinced that I could find a good level back. I do a little bit, but of course I can no longer train almost to the scope in which I trained as an active athlete.
Anastasiya Kuzmina tried it again after several years. You have already seen: something is still possible, but maybe no longer at the level that it was.
In April 2024 they became a mother for the first time, wrote on Instagram at the time: “We are looking forward to a chaotically beautiful, exciting, new, fulfilled time for three!” How exciting and chaotic have the past few months really for you and her husband Thomas?
Of course, a lot changes. We had to find our new structure first. The responsibility you have at once as a parents is crazy. But of course: we found our rhythm for ourselves and settled in there. Every day is exciting and beautiful, but also exhausting. We can do it very well as a family.
My little one is now also in Switzerland and is already experiencing a bit. She was also there in Ruhpolding and Antholz. Always in one day, it shouldn’t be too much. But we are already trying to include them. And she also finds it totally exciting when there is some bustle around her.
You also showed yourself very active in hiking, ski scooters or jogging. What have become their greatest passions since their active career end?
I was glad that we had a little snow last and then try to be on the skis. In the beginning I liked to push the stroller continuously or walking. Now going towards the mountains with the little one in the stretcher is nice. At the beginning you don’t know exactly with the child: how much is there? How can you still follow your own interests? But everything is a lot of fun together. And there is also support from grandma and grandpa. Let’s see if the little one will want to hike and share this passion. We will experience it.