Enough snow fell in Hochfilzen this winter as well. Biathlete Benedikt Doll no longer finds that everywhere in winter.
Photo: imago/Harald Steiner
This time, Benedikt Doll decided not to visit his wife and their son, who was born in August. From the start of the season in Kontiolahti he went directly to Hochfilzen instead of the Black Forest. The 32-year-old now had a visit from his young family, to whom he had flown home for a few days between the final training camp in Vuokatti and the first World Cup races in Kontiolahti, 200 kilometers away. And so the team oldie of the German biathletes posted a photo before the competitions in Pillerseetal that showed him driving a pram in front of lightly snow-covered Austrian forests.
In the 1,300-strong community of Hochfilzen, from which the international biathlon elite said goodbye on Sunday afternoon with the men’s World Cup pursuit competition after four days, Doll was crowned sprint world champion in 2017. But the facility in Tyrol, which is almost 1000 meters above sea level, has a special meaning for him, especially with a view to the future. Because the biathlete from Kirchzarten is thinking intensively about what contribution his industry can make to environmental protection, especially as a newly minted father.
With his thoughts, he also ends up in Hochfilzen, where at the weekend snowfall and temperatures well below zero, as predicted, ensured a fairytale white ambience. The onset of winter goes well with a fundamental note that Doll had given shortly before the start of the season in an interview with “nd”: “Hochfilzen simply has precipitation and snow.” In comparison, he named the stadium in Antholz, which is 600 meters higher, where it Although it is »always quite cold«, the following applies: »There is not always the mega amount of natural snow there either. Anterselva is indeed very high, but maybe the climate is not right.«
Doll’s central demand is therefore: “You have to think about which facilities allow biathlon in a nature-friendly way.” Also with regard to the travel routes and the like. “Maybe,” he elaborates the idea further, “it’s an option to say: Okay, we’re looking at building facilities at an altitude where there’s still a certain amount of snow certainty for the next 30 years or so.” And where accordingly, the least amount of artificial snow has to be produced.
The World Biathlon Union (IBU), recently increasingly trying to give the summer variant on roller skis a boost, is quite active when it comes to environmental protection: In February, in its first sustainability report, it underlined the self-commitment to be climate-neutral by 2030. “It’s not easy to change a lot of things right away,” DSV runner Franziska Preuss points out. “You notice that in many areas.” For example, the IBU had to postpone the planned complete ban on the environmentally harmful fluorowax in August to the 2023/2024 season – in order to further refine the test procedure.
However, one could do without floodlit races – as they took place at the World Cup in Kontiolahti, Finland – in order to save energy, suggests Preuß’ teammate Johannes Kühn. And the Norwegian Sverre Olsbu Røiseland thinks: “It would be good to postpone the start of the season by a week or two.” This could curb the annual intensive travel in November in search of a spot of real snow, argues the new assistant coach of the German biathletes. And his boss, Mark Kirchner, also says: “We must never close our minds to potential savings.”
However, the national coach is also of the opinion that biathlon is »only a small light« in comparison. From which the Thuringian concludes: »As long as you only do it where it is relatively easy to do, but the effects are relatively small compared to other areas where things simply continue as before, I am only partially willing to make cutbacks close.”
