The Norwegian Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen is one of the superstars in the Biathlon World Cup: The 33-year-old became Olympic champion in the relay in 2022, and he also secured bronze in the mass start in Beijing. A further six relay and two individual medals were won at the World Championships. Now the ski hunter has explained what made him so strong.
“Pushing yourself is not the right way: train more, get better. Rather, you should train smarter to get better,” explained Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen in an interview with “biathlonwordl.com”, when confronted with the question of what the biggest challenges are as an athlete.
And further: “It can be difficult; you have to be tough to give yourself breaks; to find out what’s good for your body. I figured that out in my mid-twenties, and that’s when I got really good. But it was a hard road.”
Christiansen celebrated his first major successes when he was just 20 years old, when he was part of the victorious Norwegian men’s relay team at the World Cup in Hochfilzen in 2012. Christiansen was even part of the victorious relay quartet at the Norwegian championships in 2009. In 2013, Christiansen was also crowned European sprint champion and won silver in the pursuit.
“There are so many aspects in which you almost have to be the best”
In the absolute elite, however, the first individual coup did not take place until 2019: at the age of 26, Christiansen sprinted to the first of his six individual victories in the World Cup in Soldier Hollow.
In order to continue to have a say among the absolute world leaders, a lot of training is still necessary.
“There are so many aspects in which you almost have to be the best: physical training, shooting; what are my weaknesses, where do I need to improve? You’re never quite sure if the answer is good enough; you just have to believe, think, hope for the best and know your strengths and weaknesses,” says Christiansen, outlining the difficulties.
The biathlon season begins in Östersund at the end of November, and then Christiansen will also want to prove that his commitment is paying off.