Denise Herrmann lies in the snow. She’s breathing heavily. She gets up, takes her sticks and leaves. Wait. She goes as an Olympic champion. hugs, tears. Herrmann keeps walking, almost mechanically. When she sees Vanessa Voigt, she hugs her. They whisper something to themselves, the words: We showed it to everyone.
And yes, Denise Herrmann, biathlete, 33 years old, born in the Ore Mountains, showed it to everyone, especially her critics. She left the big favorites behind: Norway’s Røiseland, Sweden’s Öberg, Italy’s Wierer – and won gold in the 15-kilometer individual race.
Herrmann ran away from them from the first moment. When shooting, she was only briefly on the mat, tock, tock, tock, tock, tock, further on the range. Crawling up the hill, in choppy but strong steps. Bright veils hung in the mountains, the sun was setting.
Then slide down the hill, slightly flex your left foot to keep going into the turn. Sometimes Marte Olsbu Røiseland was just ahead, the dominant athlete of the season. But Denise Herrmann didn’t let that deter her. Step by step further. Glide, run, shoot. On this day she set the rhythm.
She would have liked to pretend to be him sooner. After Laura Dahlmeier, Herrmann was regarded as the great hope of biathlon. She never quite lived up to those expectations. Franziska Preuss was already passing her. Or could she? Because Denise Herrmann was always fit in big competitions, she was there when she had to be there, delivered when she had to deliver. She doesn’t know why she’s doing it so well.
Herrmann is considered self-critical. Before the Olympics, she had resolved not to put so much pressure on herself. And on this evening in Zhangjiakou, she seems winged, as if she is guiding the course without ballast. Take off the gun, shoot, in a calm wind. keep walking
In the mountains, which are high, at 1700 meters, she runs as if she has never had a problem with altitude. And this despite the fact that her body reacts extremely to height. She had prepared herself with hard intervals. She had practiced shooting at height, over and over again. Again and again feel the calm pulse – the moment when the body has to switch from a raging plus to a low one.
On the Monday after the race, her face was flushed and her makeup blurred. “I got a real kick in the face this year. But I knew I could do it,” said Denise Herrmann on ZDF. The Olympic general rehearsal in Antholz had not worked. It doesn’t matter, Denise Herrmann has put that behind her. The women’s team support each other. Vanessa Voigt, who finished fourth in the race, says: “It wasn’t always easy.” Now the women had shown it to everyone. When she saw the German flag at the finish, she knew: This is Denise.
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