The parallels between top biathlon and Oktoberfest may not be immediately obvious, but things are changing. In Franziska Preuß’ hometown, ski hunters and Oktoberfest goers come together. The reason is that since this year the traditionally beer-thirsty and party-loving Ruhpolding audience has had access to a spacious beer tent at the stadium. The beer tent is like a renaissance for Ruhpolding, a reflection on old strengths, even if this sometimes leads to loss of consciousness.
The recent history of the Chiemgau Biathlon World Cup fits well with a Ruhpolding villager: This winter, Franziska Preuß achieved the form that she had lost, more than that. Not long ago, the 30-year-old seriously considered the idea to put down the rifle and focus on new things. She decided against it and opted for sinus surgery. A procedure that was perhaps crucial to her being more stable since then – and now shooting so precisely that she could probably hit the head of a pin.
:Prone shooting at the Olympic Lake
For the first time in biathlon history, a competition will take place in Munich in 2025 – in October, in the Olympic Park, on roller skis. The world association wants to attract families, the athletes think of “party and beer” – and see it as “the future of sport”.
Franziska Preuß would probably have been decorated much more highly if her own body hadn’t repeatedly forced her to take long career breaks. On Thursday at her home race, she started out in perfect health, as they say here in Ruhpolding. In the 15-kilometer individual, she cleared 19 out of 20 targets and plowed through the trail as if all the germs in the world had been smothered.
The trick to combat nervousness: Preuss talks to himself during the shooting sequence
In the end, Preuß came second, only Frenchwoman Lou Jeanmonnot was better, who is in second place behind Preuß in the overall World Cup. A duel is brewing. Amy Baserga from Switzerland took third place on Thursday, Stefanie Scherer came in 22nd place as the second best German on her return to the World Cup, Julia Tannheimer had canceled at short notice due to illness. And Prussia? Although she took off her yellow bib, she held it in her hands like a trophy in the mixed zone before reporting on her nerves in this race in front of her parents, her sister, dozens of friends and helpers, all rooting for her pressed. At the last shooting, Preuss said, she talked to herself. “The fact that I have shot zero mistakes so many times at this range, I know every shooting range here, I felt it.”
Not far from the Chiemgau Arena, Preuß and her partner Simon Schempp built a wooden house. “When you’re at home in familiar surroundings, the tension isn’t quite as great as when you’re in a hotel,” says Preuß. It has now been six years since she – if you will – won the mass start in Ruhpolding on her doorstep and thus achieved her first World Cup victory. In the following winters she was always set back by infections – and so it took until this season before she was at the top again, twice in fact. Six podium places in a row put Preuß well ahead of the competition in the overall World Cup, which is why she will also take to the track in the yellow bib at the mass start on Sunday. If she defends it until the final in Oslo at the end of March, she would be the first German overall winner since Laura Dahlmeier, who last achieved the feat in the 2016/2017 season.
After years of infections, Preuß took measures: in medicine and in training
Preuss didn’t just take medical measures. While the German team trains together, they are now traveling alone. In past winters, she often got sick after high-altitude training camps, she says in Ruhpolding. She now lacks “a bit of conviction” for these group training sessions, says Preuß: “I’ve been in the World Cup for eleven or twelve years now, and I no longer have any motivation to go on official courses.” The German Ski Association is clear about this agreed. “Franzi is very honest. You can talk openly with her about positive and negative things,” coach Sverre Olsbu Röiseland recently told ZDF: “She wants to be responsible for her own training, many Norwegian athletes also have this attitude.”
Preuss has apparently found a way to trick his own body, a way that allows side glances. She recently posted a video message on social media in which she addressed the Italian Lisa Vitozzi, who in turn ended the season due to serious health problems. In the short clip, Preuß encourages her colleague, who is also her competitor and won the yellow jersey last winter.
The party in the Ruhpolding beer tent is now entering the next round, the occasion will be the men’s relay on Friday. And by the time the fans move from the beer tent to Champions Park on Saturday after the women’s relay, they will appreciate the value of the beer tent. Because the famous “penalty loop” and the other party huts are even tighter than the biathletes on the cross-country ski trail.
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