The biathletes and biathletes already have six World Cup stations in the legs, the World Cup in Lenzerheide (February 12th to 23rd) and three other stations are still on the program: A good time to look at the previous achievements of the German ski hunters throw.
At the beginning of the World Cup winter, the splendor of the former biathlon nation Germany seemed to be significantly faded: In view of the overwhelming competition from Norway and the strong French, men were at best from outsiders who can take the podium in the best case. The women of the DSV were occasionally more to be trusted, especially the many young talents who inevitably had to be thrown into the tough World Cup everyday life, but raised big questions: some of them have now been answered – and that is quite positive.
Above all, the eternal heir to the throne Franziska Preuß ensures that the biathlon winter gets a positive coat of paint from a black and red-Golden perspective. At a young age, she demonstrated that Prussia is capable of great things when she won the mass start World Cup at the age of 20 and a very big coup seemed to be only a matter of time. However, the body kept thwarting the German.
Yellow present and golden future?
Sure, relay bronze at the Olympic Games in Beijing and seven World Cup medals (1 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze) are impressive, in view of Prussia, undisputed skills is a single single medal as well as the individual World Cup single victory, which the now 30-year-old had until this winter.
The latter yield has just tripled this season, but she also just overheared a further success, but the 2015 relay world champion almost always drove top places. Preuß rightly rightly dressed the end of the season in the yellow jersey in front of his chest.
Of course, the large crystal ball is not yet won, but Prussia 2024/25 is everything. This also applied to Vanessa Voigt, who also landed twice on the podium. However, the DSV announced on Tuesday that the 27-year-old would miss the World Cup and the rest of the World Cup season due to health reasons.
What is already gilding the winter from a German perspective is the outstanding appearance of the young ski hunters.
Selina Grotian seemed to have mastered the leap from the megatalent in the World Cup. The 20 -year -old won her first race in Annecy sensationally and recently ended up in second place in Antholz – a place among the top 10 of the overall World Cup is currently the impressive wage. The 19-year-old Julia Tannheimer has also won three placements in the slipstream of the top duo.
“I can’t really believe it yet that it has gone so well so far,” Tannheimer ordered in an exclusive conversation with sport.de your surprisingly strong course of the season.
Nadelsticks pass the darkest clouds
Talents à la Grotian or Tannheimers are not looking for a real iron in the German men, even a real iron in the fight for the yellow jersey would probably only have located the very most chief dreamer at the DSV before winter – but you will not be completely dissatisfied in the manor camp.
Against the competition from Sweden, France and especially Norway, no herb has grown, Philipp Nawrath with his third place in the sprint by Kontialahti and Danilo Riethmüller as a sensation in the mass start of Annecy have proven that positive slips are possible.
The fact that Philipp Horn, Justus Strelow and especially Johannes Kühn of the world leaders can rarely stand up to be too rarely standing by hand. In view of the expectations, however, you have to be satisfied. Especially since there is still a great chance: If the German men’s relay at the World Cup won a medal, many waves would probably have been smoothed. Third place in Ruhpolding showed that you are not without a chance.
However, the view of the future is more of a cloudy one: Even in the IBU Cup, there are hardly any German men who are still part of the offspring. After all, there were bright spots at the Junior European Championship, where Fabian Kaskel and Elias Seidl recently celebrated a double victory in the sprint.