Her daughter is waiting at the start, she is standing at the top and watching. Mom has an overview from the stands. The 54-year-old is wearing a winter jacket, open at the top, it’s quite warm in the Oberhof sun. She also wears her hair loose, her flushed cheeks glow in the sun. Those cheeks. You know them.
Wednesday afternoon in the Oberhof Biathlon Arena, 2.30 p.m., Block U, row eight. Jeanette Herrmann stands in the midst of the people. And she stands here quite undisturbed, nobody recognizes her except her companions in the block, despite this resemblance, despite the cheeks. Recently, her great-grandparents were there, now she has a friend standing next to her, and a group of her husband Lutz’s work colleagues. She, the mother, was always there from day one when her daughter started. Her initial hope: “I said she’ll come through one day.” So a medal, so the prognosis.
Her daughter, known to most under Denise Herrmann-Wick, has already won two medals, gold in the sprint and silver in the pursuit. That was pretty incredible, says mum, now that the Slovenian Polona Klemencic opened the individual race down the track. The pressure on her daughter is gone for now. And yet the mother is now tripping with her feet on the metal of the stands. Alright, she says. Of course she’s a bit nervous.
So golden and silver that everything shines now – it didn’t all go smoothly
While shots and targets are being fired below and cross-country skis are gliding through the cross-country ski run, Herrmann gives an insight into the family history in Block U, which almost always plays a central role in athletes’ careers. “If Grandma and Grandpa hadn’t bought one or two running suits,” says Jeanette Herrmann, “then things would have gotten complicated.”
They came from Brockau for the World Cup, where Lutz and Jeanette Herrmann live, in a small district of the town of Netzschkau in the north-east of the Vogtland district in Saxony. They drive about two hours by car to Zella-Mehlis, a neighboring town of Oberhof, where they sometimes stay with their son-in-law. Her husband, who works in Bamberg, doesn’t have the shortest of journeys either. “All in all, we’ve probably driven 2,000 kilometers so far” during this World Cup, she says. To see the daughter, today with start number 31. “Like in January 2020 at the World Cup in Pokljuka in Slovenia. She won then.” It’s her turn.
Mom starts talking. As golden and silver as it all shines now, it wasn’t all as easy as it seems with her daughter now and then. They didn’t quite agree at the time. Little Denise had it in her head to go straight from the normal school to the cross-country skiing base in Oberwiesenthal after the seventh grade. “I actually wanted her to wait another year,” says the mother. “But she was unstoppable.”
So the first daughter became a cross-country skier. And then Nadine, Denise’s sister who is seven years younger, also decided to do competitive cross-country skiing. For years it was about these questions: Did the girls run well today? Or did they break in? It was like this every weekend, winter after winter. She was often excited, says her mother, simply because there was so much going on for her two girls. “Lutz and I, we have left some nerves.”
Two shooting errors standing. Now every shot should hit the target. But that won’t happen. Not today
Mama Herrmann looks out into the stadium and sees hundreds of German flags. The stadium announcer roars it out: “Rounded applause for Deniiiiise, Heeeerrmaaaan, Wiiiiick.” Jeanette Hermann accepts it as if it were the most normal thing of all, but hardly anyone here knows like she does that it’s all extraordinary. When athletes’ careers experience such successful highlights as Denise Herrmann-Wick’s, then all of this is not only a reward for years of work by the athletes – but quite often also by their parents. In sports in general and in winter sports in particular.
Almost strange that both sisters, Denise and Nadine, finally found their fulfillment somewhere else than in cross-country skiing. The older one switched to biathlon at the end of 2016, while the younger one is now studying medicine. And so much should be noted, according to the mother: Compared to a career in cross-country skiing, the degree is “not exactly cheap either”.
First prone shooting. Mama Herrmann is tripping with her feet faster and faster, at the moment of the first shot she freezes, as if a plug had been pulled. A good 20 seconds pass, only then does Jeanette Hermann move again, her cheeks hinting at a smile. Only three more shots, well, what does that mean only?
Almost 15 minutes later, Jeanette Herrmann will tilt her head and clench her teeth. Two shooting errors standing. Now every shot should hit the target. But that won’t happen. Not today. Despite starting number 31; Denise Herrmann-Wick will end up in 15th place, four shooting errors in total. The best German is Sophia Schneider from Traunstein as thirteenth. This time gold and silver go to the Swedes Hanna Öberg and Linn Persson, ahead of the Italian Lisa Vittozzi.
Mama Herrmann looks a bit worn out after the race. With the nervousness, it will probably never go away completely. “Even though she has already won everything.” Her daughter had only learned to shoot very late. According to her mother, the national coach at the time, Gerald Hönig, was instrumental. “But in the end she has to score herself.”
The daughter is seeded in the women’s relay on Saturday and in the mass start on Sunday. Will Denise Herrmann-Wick start again in the single mixed relay on Thursday? While the mother relaxes her red cheeks upstairs, the no less red-cheeked daughter down in the finish area refers to the tight schedule of the World Cup when answering this question. Maybe Mama Herrmann can relax on Thursday.
