Biathlon | The new head coach Kulstad pumps enthusiasm into the biathletes: “I want the team to function as a team”

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Analytical, practical and cooperative. Started as the head coach of the Finnish national biathlon team last summer Erik Bartlett Kulstad recognizes himself from the figures.

The Norwegian Kulstad is to lead the national team for the next 1+3 years. The opening season is a washout for him as he redeems option years.

There are promising signs for the success of the union between the new head coach and the Finnish national team. The World Cup week that started in Kontiolahti this week has gone well from a Finnish point of view by the halfway point: three places in the top 20 in individual trips and places in the top eight in relays.

“The beginning has been good. But we can afford to improve”, smiles Kulstad.

National team gets a motivated head coach. Kulstad, 31, comes from a country with a rock-solid sports culture, and certainly does not want his coaching CV to be tarnished in the early years of his career.

The young head coach and the Finnish team hungry for development meet at the right time.

“The work of the coaches is evaluated by the results achieved by the athletes”, Kulstad philosophizes.

In the cooperation between the athlete and the coach, it is more important to answer the question why we do what we do than what we do.

“An athlete always needs to justify the exercises they do. That motivates him.”

In his analysis, Kulstad dives deep.

“For example, the shooting performance is broken up into small parts. I consider myself quite analytical.”

Of success Kulstad did not get to participate in his previous position, when he was coaching the Chinese biathlon team. Two and a half years of work of great magnitude Be Einar Bjørndalen and Darja Domratšava with extensive knowledge of the species.

Moving from China to Finland was a leap into a completely different culture. Kulstad has learned to adapt.

“I want the national team to have a good atmosphere. I have been well received. I want the team to work as a team,” Kulstad lists.

Kaisa Mäkäräinen after quitting the Finnish team a couple of years ago Tero Seppälä and Mari Eder have scored points on the world cup leaderboards, good shooter Suvi Minkkinen too at its level.

Kulstad looks at the World Cup between national teams more closely than the result lists of individual competitions.

“I hope that we improve our success specifically as a team. It is the best measure of development.”

If and when doesn’t skimp on the most worn-out clichés, you can boast that the Finnish national team has a good sense of humor.

The freshness of the atmosphere is illustrated by the fact that Eder, who has a lot of experience in skiing with and without a gun on his back, was visibly excited after the women’s cup relay race in Kontiolahti on Thursday.

“It feels so good to see when the national team athletes are successful,” Eder said after the women’s relay four took seventh place.

He did not incense the investment, which in itself was going to the mug. However, Finnish athletes still have a long way to go to the top international positions, to which Mäkäräinen got the Finnish sports fans used to over the course of more than a decade.

“Doing is always in relation to setting a goal. Ranking is not as significant as performance. Like Kaisa, we still don’t have a case for podium places”, Eder admitted.