Towards the Games, the world champion lets herself be towed by the men’s team: “I hope you help me make a turn”
& commat; sarcobelli
The choices always go against the trend of the golden woman of biathlon. Dorothea Wierer, world tricampionessa and 2 absolute cups won, is preparing the Beijing Games together with a quartet of men that Windisch, one of the 4, defines the “Doro body guards”. The other blues are Lukas Hofer, Tommaso Giacomel and Didier Bionaz. For once we must say: Doro blessed among men. The queen of biathlon talks about herself 40 days after her seasonal debut.
Doro preferred the male group to his partner-rival Lisa Vittozzi. How is the new experience going?
“Very well: we worked a lot in the summer. I’m the only girl in the group: especially the young people of 2000 (Bionaz and Giacomel, ed) are a great stimulus. They see us who have won, and they want to achieve something, they work hard and they never back down. This helps me to go fast. Every day, even if there is someone who may not be motivated, they push through double training sessions. They all give me a great boost. “
A turning point for the decisive year?
“I think the important thing was to have fun working, already with Hofer and Windisch, the most experienced, I had compared myself. I train well and a lot but then in biathlon many things have to coincide. Maybe you are fit, but the others are fit. more”.
Doro’s usual realism?
“At the Games I wasn’t strong and lucky enough, I also got sick, I only got on the podium in the relays”.
So did you extend your career?
“Everyone expects something important. Winning gold? Maybe … it would be something big. Everyone expects something important, I’m calm.”
So should the approach be like for the 2020 World Cup?
“I miss the individual Olympic medal. Even in Anterselva I thought I would not make a medal if someone had asked me days before. If it should go well better for me, if it should go less well, patience. Luck will also be needed. Because I know I gave everything. I’m realistic and I know it’s very difficult to always win at the right time. “
“Home and family. A few spritzes, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate: it’s in my diet”.
She has over 600,000 followers on Instagram: her popularity is boundless.
“I am better known abroad: I receive many messages from Russia, even in Cyrillic … It is a beautiful thing, it means that you are appreciated. Now we are focusing on Italy … I am an icon? of the Coppa Italia there are more girls than boys “.
How much do the Tokyo summer medals affect the Italian snow champions?
“Summer sports are a great example, they have given us so many emotions, enthusiasm and pressure. The golds of athletics but also the times were thrilling. Nothing else was talked about. Now everyone is expecting something similar. We will see . I think about the weather: yes, my fear is the weather conditions that we will find there. Sometimes the Chinese do not go out on the track for weeks. I will give my best: what will come out you can only dream of now. sport is sometimes cruel “.
Still only with the local public for other Games in the East: they will have to compete until Milan-Cortina 2026 … What experience will you bring from 2018?
“The sleep, the cold and the wind of PyeongChang. After two not so winter Olympics, we will have ours: everyone envies us the mountains, the culture. It will be a perfect Olympics”.
And Italy will not be able to do without its queen: but will it depend on the results of 2022 or on her desire for motherhood?
“If Olympic gold were so easy … but everything has to go perfectly. Biathlon is a complex sport. Now I still don’t know what I want to do: in 2026 I’ll be there in one way or another, but I don’t want to waste energy on what will be in a year or two, I only think about the present “.
At the Sochi Games he was distracted with crochet: does he still do it?
“At that time they all did it, until I got inflammation in my hand and I had to stop.”
There began the recent boom of the blue biathlon?
“They have been years of constant growth, even for me: since 2013 I have been really professional, before I enjoyed it more, maybe I would have won more, but I am happy with what I have done and have lived”.
Have you already crossed rivals?
“The opponents will always be the same, Eckhoff, Oeberg, Chevalier, but then every year young people always come out who are very strong, it’s the beauty of biathlon that you never know what you can expect”.
October 14 – 10:23
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