In December 2023, a report made the rounds: For the first time in six years, a German biathlete won the yellow jersey of the overall leader in the World Cup. Franziska Preuß had succeeded in the work of art, and fourth place in the sprint in Östersund was enough. But this feat brought the Ruhpolding native little luck at the time. After the competitions in Sweden she fell ill – and so she never wore the yellow jersey in a race. That is likely to change now.
Almost exactly a year after the events in Östersund, Franziska Preuß won a World Cup race on Friday for the second time in her career. In the sprint in Hochfilzen, Austria, she was ahead of the French Sophie Chauveau and Karoline Offigstad Knotten from Norway and won the yellow jersey for the overall leader – also for the second time in her career. In 2019 she won a mass start race at home in Ruhpolding, this time she did it in Hochfilzen, 58 kilometers away. Even if it started to wobble in the middle of the race.
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More precisely: to blur. After a flawless prone shooting performance and a rapid second 2.5-kilometer lap on the cross-country ski trail, she shot the first bullet so far past the target that German women’s head coach Christian Mehringer felt completely different as he watched. “At the first shot I thought to myself: Oh shit, he’s far away,” Mehringer explained casually after the race. But then Preuß sank the remaining four targets quickly and precisely, and given their lead, it was clear that that could be enough to put them at the top despite a penalty loop.
When she arrived in the mixed zone after the race, the 30-year-old looked as if a huge chunk of snow had fallen off her heart. “When I was shooting standing I thought to myself: Damn, it’s that one My again that’s not enough.” In Kontiolahti, Finland, she recently missed out on victory in two races because of one extra miss, and in the sprint she came fourth, a tenth of a second behind , still third in the mass start. This time it was enough despite the mistake, also because almost all of the favorites had difficulty on the traditionally complicated shooting range in Hochfilzen. This time she “was in the flow,” said Preuss. And above all: healthy.
“I was able to train normally, and sometimes that’s good enough,” says Preuß
In her life as an athlete, Franziska Preuß was always accompanied by setbacks, which almost exclusively had to do with her susceptibility to infections. If there was even the tiniest germ lurking somewhere, Preuss would catch it, that was as clear as Tyrolean cheese dumpling soup. As a result, she was often limited in preparation for the season, and that is perhaps the crucial difference to the – if you like – new Franziska Preuß. “I trained all summer,” she explained, and unlike usual, she had to make “little compromises.” “I was able to train normally, and sometimes that’s good enough,” she said: “You don’t have to do any magic.”
A procedure that Preuß had undergone in March, an operation on the paranasal sinuses, was apparently central to this stabilization. “To get rid of a source of inflammation,” explained Preuss, “that was the key.”
If she stays healthy for 24 hours, she will truly go into the pursuit race on Saturday in the yellow jersey and be the first on the trail. 30 seconds after her, Selina Grotian from Garmisch-Partenkirchen sets off on the hunt. The day before the race, the 20-year-old had shown off jumps in her bathrobe on Instagram, but now she has shown that she has recovered from the infection in Finland and is accurate. With one shooting error (lying down), she crossed the finish line as the second best German in fifth place – without a bathrobe. “Something like that distracts you and puts you in a good mood,” she explained afterwards. “The skis were perfect,” she added, so kudos to the DSV technicians: “It’s going in the right direction now.”
Her teammates Vanessa Voigt (one mistake, 12th place), Julia Tannheimer (2nd, 29th), Julia Kink (2nd, 40th) and World Cup debutant Marlene Fichtner (1st, 46th) also qualified for the chase on Saturday , about which Preuss said: “I’m not thinking about it yet anyway, I’ll just enjoy it for now.” Then it was off to the award ceremony, this Friday the 13th. your personal lucky day.
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