Biathlon at the Olympics: only screaming and screaming – sport

A few days ago, Franziska Preuß no longer knew what she was actually doing in China. Why was she running there, on this biathlon facility, in a thin suit, with taped nose and cheeks at minus 15 degrees? Why did she take it upon herself, this journey with all the effort involved in corona tests and the like? To shoot four penalties in the individual, two in the sprint? To be 25th and 30th? “The fun is just gone,” said the 27-year-old, “I’ve just had enough”.

But then she found answers and by Wednesday afternoon in Zhangjiakou at the latest, Franziska Preuss knew exactly why she had come here.

Denise Herrmann, Vanessa Hinz, Vanessa Voigt and Preuss held hands, then they jumped together onto the winner’s podium, they danced and sang, for the first time since 2010 in Vancouver a German women’s relay team won a medal at the Olympics. The quartet got bronze, behind the winners from Sweden and Russia in silver. A success that consoled her for the disappointments of the past.

After the singles and gold for Herrmann at the start of these games, it was no longer possible to finish in the top ten. Against this background, this medal was all the more special, because the German women noticed how hard they have to work for every feeling of happiness. Sometimes you have to “push aside all the legacy and do what we love and can do,” said Herrmann, you have to “let fate take its course – and now we’ve done it.”

Hinz is now winning the medal she narrowly missed four years ago

There are relay races in which everything slips away from an individual; and there are those in which he shines brighter than the rest. But Zhangjiakou’s bronze medal was earned by the four of them together, it was actually that of the whole team.

They all came to China with their own stories, and there was Vanessa Voigt: She’s the youngest, it’s her Olympic premiere. The 24-year-old is just mastering her first full season in the World Cup and has immediately established herself in the team. In the mixed relay, the first competition of these games, she had two penalties, which quickly threw the team back. But Voigt was able to wipe that out, was fourth in the individual, and then on Wednesday afternoon: She sunk all the targets in the first attempt, prone and standing. She handed the lead to Vanessa Hinz.

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The 29-year-old has been in the team for a long time, four years ago she just missed out on an Olympic medal in Pyeongchang. In the mixed relay, Arnd Peiffer, of all people, made a penalty loop, losing to Italian Dominik Windisch in the finish sprint for bronze. “I had it in front of my nose and it was taken away from me,” said Hinz now in China, “that’s why I trembled until the end today.” Her prone shooting was perfect, Hinz had to fight in standing. The fifth shot missed the target. The first reload: over. The legs began to tremble, Hinz bent his knees and built up tension again. “I couldn’t believe that the second fell at all,” she said later. She just thought, “Okay, I’ll get around this final lap somehow.”

Franziska Preuß started the race in fourth place, while Hanna Öberg hurried away for the Swedes. Preuss had long feared for the Olympics. From the beginning of December she was no longer able to run races, first she injured her foot, then the corona infection came on New Year’s Eve. She was tormented by a severe sore throat, difficulty swallowing, “I thought my whole throat was open”. After two weeks she dared to do light training again, sat on the ergometer for half an hour for the circulation. “Then it came back and everything was occupied, including in the direction of the bronchi,” said Preuss. It wasn’t until the end of January that things really went uphill in training, she “no longer had a guilty conscience towards herself when you train”.

Judging by the long absence, things didn’t go badly for them in China, but after finishing third in the overall standings last year, Preuss wanted more. In the relay race, she also had to use two spares in the standing position, but lost only a little time to the best in skiing. After the first experiences of frustration at the Olympics, she had many conversations, also with friends and family. “You reminded me why I’m actually doing biathlon,” said Preuss now, and then one thing above all helped: “I managed to accept it the way it is now.” The fact that she made it to China and survived the hardships was already a success given the history.

Final runner Herrmann catches up immediately – in the end she also has to tremble

Denise Herrmann finally left the track in fourth place and she caught up straight away: She shot for silver with Russia’s Uljana Nigmatullina and Italy’s Federica Sanfilippo, after one spare she fell behind the two in prone position. The German men had just missed the medal the day before. “We tried to pull something out,” said Herrmann: “It’s really only over when the last shot is fired and the final lap is over.”

She then passed Sanfilippo on the course, and with just one extra round standing, she headed towards the finish line in the bronze position. 19 seconds behind her was Norway’s Marte Olsbu Röiseland, the most successful woman of these Winter Games. “On the last climb I looked to see who was coming from behind,” Herrmann said later, she lost her lead, but it should be enough. “When she got over the crest, so much pressure fell off her shoulders,” said Voigt, “we just screamed and screamed.”

Herrmann first lay flat in the snow and had to regain his strength in order to be able to celebrate. For the 33-year-old, it is her third Olympic medal after winning the individual event. In 2014 she won bronze in the cross-country relay in Sochi. “It’s simply the most beautiful thing to celebrate together,” said Herrmann, and also that: “The fact that we can do it again now, so many years later, that’s really cool, of course.” That was the clearest sign of the prevailing feeling that day: Where she could have said “I”, there was “we”.