After Laura Dahlmeier’s career end in 2019, victories for the German biathlon team are rare. The team is over-aged, there is a lack of youngsters and there is a risk of a mixed record at the Olympics. The Scandinavians show how things can be done differently.
When Uschi Disl is on the cross-country ski run, there is a hustle and bustle. Children are running back and forth everywhere. The two-time Olympic champion has been working as a volunteer biathlon trainer in Mora for some time. A little more than 12,000 people live here in central Sweden – a place of the Bullerbü idyll type. This is where the German sports legend emigrated after retiring and lives with her Swedish husband and their two children in a wooden house that is over 100 years old.
The clocks tick a little differently in Mora – also in biathlon. “We currently have around 40 children up to the age of 15 in our club. We can hardly save ourselves from registrations,” says Disl to t-online. The now 51-year-old still laughs as often and heartily as millions of TV viewers have met during their active careers.
At the moment there are simply not enough guns in the club, otherwise there would be more children, explains Disl. Biathlon is en vogue in Sweden – you can also see it in the World Cup for professionals. There, the Öberg sisters Hanna and Elvira, 26 and 22 years old, really stir up the female competition with their fresh, aggressive manner. The 24-year-old Sebastian Samuelsson – currently number four in the men’s – is in the process of establishing himself permanently among the best in the world.
German victories are the exception, no longer the rule
Sweden has them, the talents that are sorely lacking in Germany. Because the team of the German Ski Association (DSV) has had a different era since the departure of Laura Dahlmeier, who announced the end of her career in 2019 at the age of only 26: victories are no longer the rule, but the exception.
“I watch almost everything”: Olympic champion Uschi Disl explains which disciplines she finds the most exciting. (Source: t-online)
This can be clearly seen at the Olympic Games in Beijing. After Germany was the most successful nation four years ago in Pyeongchang with seven medals, today one would be satisfied with two or three podium finishes. Hopefuls like Denise Herrmann, Benedikt Doll and Erik Lesser are all over 30 and an athlete like Dahlmeier, who won three medals (two of them gold) four years ago, is not to be seen far and wide.
But why is that? When will there be biathlon superstars like Dahlmeier or Magdalena Neuner, who dominated in Vancouver in 2010, in Germany again? “That’s a prognosis that I find difficult to make. Dahlmeier and Neuner were of course exceptional talents,” ex-world-class athlete Disl points out and clarifies: “It’s very, very rare for someone to be that good at such a young age .”
Bernd Eisenbichler: The sports director wants to make biathlon sport in Germany fit for the future. (Source: ERNST WUKITS/imago images)
Nevertheless, there are growing concerns about young talent in German biathlon. Sport director Bernd Eisenbichler was already concerned a year ago. “Of course, the average age is higher than in other teams in the World Cup. We are working on changing that,” said the Bavarian, who has been thinking about the next generation in German biathlon for a long time.
Eisenbichler’s plan
The big “high flyer” is not in sight. “We have work ahead of us,” Eisenbichler repeats like a mantra – and has worked out his master plan. He wants to invest even more consistently in the second guard. “More courses, more points of friction, more attendance phases at the bases,” Eisenbichler substantiates. In addition, perspective squads were rejuvenated and the shooting and running coaches of the A squad were integrated into the youth training. The overriding demand of the sports director: “We have to develop our own German handwriting.”
Immediate results are not to be expected. “We’re talking about a decade here,” says Zibi Szlufcik on ZDF, outlining the time horizon with which one thinks at DSV. Born in Poland, he has been the head coach for the youngsters in the Ski Association for around two and a half years.
His premise: “We must not burn the young athletes before we reach the senior level.” A demand that also joins biathlon legend Disl. “I see that as an important point in Germany: the youth must be slowly introduced to the World Cup. They shouldn’t be burned out when they reach the senior level.” That’s why she says in no uncertain terms: “It’s not essential for survival to become junior world champion. You should keep enjoying the sport.”
The fun thing
This fun factor seems to have been neglected in the youth sector in Germany recently. A year ago, Szlufcik reported that “more than 20 hopeful talents” had left the DSV in the recent past.
Norway shows how things can be done differently. There, young hopefuls regularly make their way into the World Cup team – even if they weren’t outstanding in the junior division. Disl’s hypothesis: “It’s important to train regularly in the youth field – but not with this performance in the background. In Norway, the children have a training competition every Wednesday and get used to it early on,” says the eight-time world champion.
Sturla Holm Lägreid: The Norwegian wasn’t one of the high-flyers in the juniors, but he really took off in the World Cup. (Source: GEPA pictures/David Geieregger/imago images)
The Norwegian Way
But one point is even more important for Disl: “Titles are not the focus. They don’t have that much pressure to be the big superstars in the junior division.”
Sturla Holm Lägreid is an example of this. The 24-year-old shot up to the top of the world out of nowhere last season – and meanwhile has four world championship titles under his belt. His junior world titles: zero. Careers like Lägreid’s haven’t existed in the German team for what feels like an eternity.
Erik Lesser, the veteran in the DSV Olympic squad, blames the transition to seniors: “We don’t manage to train our athletes to the full quality when they switch from juniors to men.” The 33-year-old does not see a classic “newcomer problem”.
Magdalena Neuner (right) and Laura Dahlmeier: The two exceptional athletes have shaped German biathlon over the past two decades and have won a total of 23 Olympic and World Championship titles. (Source: imago images)
Ex-athlete Disl does not fundamentally disagree. From their point of view, however, another factor is gaining in importance. “There are fewer and fewer children in the ski clubs. That’s why talents like Dahlmeier and Neuner are sometimes hard to find in Germany.”
Disl: “Tomorrow’s talents sometimes just sit in front of the television”
This is related to different developments. “When I was young, I was outside every day and exercised. But children don’t do that as much these days and there are simply fewer offspring. Tomorrow’s talents sometimes just sit in front of the television.”
But something else is more important for Disl: “For me, the problem starts with school sports. It is becoming less and less important. That’s where politics should start – regardless of whether it’s more hours, fewer missed lessons or, above all, more different types of sports.” the 51 year old. “It’s just not seen as important enough at the moment. It’s fatal. Because we can teach children to enjoy exercise again through school sports.”