biathlon
The place where it began: Dahlmeier is looking forward to Nove Mesto
Laura Dahlmeier entered the global biathlon stage in Nove Mesto in 2013. photo
© Martin Schutt/dpa
Laura Dahlmeier and Nove Mesto – that’s something special. Her successful career began in the Czech Republic. Many memories last forever.
That one day almost exactly eleven years ago happened Laura Dahlmeier burned deep into my memory. On February 15, 2013, the then 19-year-old catapulted herself into the spotlight of the biathlon circus as a no-name at the World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, which she left her mark on two years later until the end of her career in 2019.
“That was a very special moment for me, I will never forget the day,” Dahlmeier recalls in an interview with the German Press Agency about the appearance that changed her sporting life. This year’s World Cup starts next Wednesday in Nove Mesto, where Dahlmeier will be there as a ZDF expert.
Positive memories of Nove Mesto
Without playing in the World Cup, Dahlmeier traveled to the Czech Republic as a World Cup reservist. For her, just being nominated was a big deal; she just wanted to soak it all up and learn. “I didn’t expect anything. The trainers said from the start that I wouldn’t be played. That’s how I went about it and that was a good thing,” says Dahlmeier looking back.
After the team’s disappointing performances, Dahlmeier was then called up to the relay for the weak Nadine Horchler – a big bang. And in front of 27,000 fans in the sold-out madhouse Vysocina Arena, the later two-time Olympic champion and seven-time world champion was the only one to deliver, while the veterans Franziska Hildebrand, Miriam Neureuther (then Gössner) and Andrea Henkel made mistakes. Dahlmeier was the only German to shoot clean, bringing the team from eighth place to the top – but in the end, fifth place was not enough for a medal.
She wasn’t afraid, looked ripped and cool in the race. Her trick: She did it like she always did – run fast and try to hit all the targets. “I knew I didn’t have to start doing magic. I didn’t expect that at the world-class level it was enough to move the relay up to first place, and neither did anyone else,” says Dahlmeier.
Dahlmeier is now a mountain and ski guide
In general, she associates Nove Mesto with exclusively positive memories and emotions. “It’s very present in your head because a lot of things were there for the first time: the first time on the big stage, the first World Cup, the first time finishing first, the first time at a flower ceremony,” she says. In addition, on February 7, 2015, she celebrated the first of her 20 World Cup victories in the sprint and “in my last winter, where I struggled so much, it was the first race in which I came second again.”
The enthusiastic mountaineer and climber has been looking for challenges elsewhere for a long time. She has been a state-certified mountain and ski guide since last spring. Last August, she and her brother Pirmin climbed the 7,105-meter-high Pik Korschenevskaya in the Tajik part of the Pamir Mountains. However, she had to abandon the summit attempt shortly before the finish because there was a risk of frostbite on her feet.
New challenges for the ex-athlete
In October she covered 100 kilometers with an altitude difference of 5,178 meters in an 18-hour mountain run from her hometown of Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Lake Tegernsee. Last May she cycled 500 kilometers non-stop from Nice to Arco on Lake Garda. She is always surprised at how new challenges motivate her and how she can push her own boundaries. In autumn she will lead a ski tour up a 7,000-meter mountain in Nepal for the first time as a mountain guide.
“You reach your limits on almost every tour, but usually only for a short time. That’s the exciting thing about mountain sports, that it’s not just black and white and there are so many puzzles to solve on a tour,” said Dahlmeier, who is currently outside of her passion There’s one thing in particular that pushes me to its limits: “The fact that I still haven’t finished my bachelor’s thesis. It’s borderline that I find it so difficult to sit down at my desk and write,” says Dahlmeier. Since last year she has finished the exams for her sports studies at the Technical University of Munich. “I would ten times rather train, mountaineer, climb and go on ski tours before I sit down. Office tasks or things that have to be done are difficult for me,” says Dahlmeier with a laugh.