Winter sports
Tick off the World Cup: Biathletes want to work through material problems
Felix Bitterling is biathlon sports director. photo
© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
Other nations have faster skis. Even small ones. The focus of the World Cup analysis is now on ensuring that this does not repeat itself under certain conditions.
After a thorough analysis, a solution should be found as quickly as possible for the material problems faced by the German biathletes at the World Championships in Nove Mesto.
“Because I think this will be the new normal rather than the exception. We will see a lot more competitions like this in the future,” said the biathlon sports director Felix Bitterling after the end of the title fights in the Czech Republic.
In the Vysocina Arena, the DSV team, which won three medals thanks to Janina Hettich-Walz (silver), the women’s relay and Bendikt Doll (bronze each), had not found a solution for the wet routes in significantly plus temperatures. But the climate crisis is causing decreasing snow reliability and increasingly shorter cold periods in many places in the low mountain ranges.
There is no blame for the technicians
He had already spoken to his colleague Andreas Schlütter, sports director for cross-country skiing in the German Ski Association, on Saturday. “That’s a task. We have our specialists in the association, we will talk to them calmly and then tackle this issue as best as possible,” said Bitterling.
There is no blame for the technicians; they gave their all in sometimes 14-hour shifts. “But we need to be able to have a better setup available from the start and react quicker to something like this,” said Bitterling.
Franziska Preuß also said that everyone needs to optimize their area of the team again. Everyone showed full commitment, but it was “not a smooth affair. And then the sport is tough and you’re right in that midfield area.”