The biathlon champion reflects on her future, while in cross-country skiing the Aosta Valley champion collects podium number 44 in his career
She and him, Doro and Chicco: two legends of biathlon and cross-country skiing. Same class, 1990, at the crossroads of the season. She is Dorothea Wierer, who after 11th place at 4’49″9 in the relay with Comola, Passler and Vittozzi at the World Championships in Nove Mesto (in the Czech Republic) and won by France over Sweden and Germany, announces that the Mass Start on Sunday “will be my last race of this season, then I will decide what to do in the future, I will draw a line and reflect on whether it is appropriate to continue or not. If I hadn’t had all these ailments and so many hours of training, my season would have been different. This year it went like this, I was unlucky, but it’s part of the game. There are days where I would like to stop and others where I would like to get involved again. The only thing I’ve seen this year is that I still defend myself and I’m certainly not in the ideal condition. When I’m good I still go strong, this year I realize it’s difficult. On Sunday I want to finish well in the Mass Start and I will try to enjoy it. It was a really difficult relay due to the wind conditions. If you get two laps of throwing penalties it’s impossible to recover, I’m sorry for Comola because it’s never pleasant. I too had a lot of difficulties because the wind was blowing tremendously.” Fans are wondering: does it risk being her last career race? The only thing that is certain now is that she will be a commentator for Eurosport at the Paris Summer Games. Then he will decide whether to continue to focus on active biathlon until Milan-Cortina 2026 or dedicate himself to something else, given the many options he has created.
SPRINT
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He is Federico Pellegrino, who returns to the podium in the free technique Sprint in Minneapolis, beaten as in the last two Olympics only by the Norwegian ace Johannes Klaebo, at the end of a final which also sees Simone Daprà making his debut among the protagonists, surprisingly sixth. It is podium number 44 in his career for the Aosta Valley champion who tried up to the last meter to steal the victory from Klæbo. However, the Norwegian was able to find the decisive breakaway on the challenging US track designed inside the city’s Theodore Wirth Park; third is the other Norwegian Harvard Taugboel. Already second in the qualifying round, right behind Klæbo, Pellegrino thus reaches the podium for the second time this season, after third place in Davos during the Tour de Ski: the policeman from Nus reached the final act by closing the heat behind the Swiss Riebli – then fourth – and the subsequent semi-final shoulder to shoulder with Klaebo and Taugboel. And in the final Pellegrino found himself alongside the surprising Simone Daprà from Trentino, an excellent protagonist of the North American tour and capable of achieving an easy qualification with the eleventh time, and then deserving the final with determination (in the semi-final) and ability to take advantage of the occasions, as happened in battery. The sixth place finish represents a new career best result for the policeman from Val di Fiemme who was sixteenth in the 15 km of Canmore last weekend.
OTHERS
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Swedish double in the women’s sprint with Jonna Sundling who, after having signed the best time in qualifying, also confirmed herself in the final ahead of Linn Svahn and the Norwegian Kristine Skistad, with the host Jessie Diggins at the foot of the podium in front of the Minnesota crowd. Caterina Ganz and Nicole Monsorno tried to play their cards in the heat, but without finding space to go through and finishing in 16th and 22nd place respectively. Tomorrow we return to the snow of Minneapolis for an individual 10 km, still in free technique. Finally, in the biathlon, yesterday the men’s relay went to Sweden which denied the 20th gold to Johannes Boe, silver with Norway at 11″8 (4) and bronze with France at 12″8 (3) and the Azzurri sixth with the quartet Zeni, Bionaz, Hofer, Giacomel) at 1’44″1 (1). Also for the men Mass start.
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