On the first World Cup weekend of her life, Julia Tannheimer did what her coaches expected of her: gain experience, enjoy moments. With ten shots, ten hits, the 18-year-old biathlete managed a fantastic sprint race, which was rewarded with 15th place. It was “crazy” to be “pushed” over the snow by tens of thousands of fans in the Ruhpolding Chiemgau Arena. But what happened next, she later described with a laugh as “even more exciting”: giving interviews. Many. She looked into the cameras with large, ice-blue eyes.
The enthusiasm that Tannheimer sparked with her performance on Friday shows how great the longing is for a new star in German biathlon. Since the end of Olympic champion Denise Herrmann-Wick’s career, only Franziska Preuß has been running and shooting at the top in the World Cup. A young athlete like Tannheimer quickly remembers Laura Dahlmeier or Magdalena Neuner, who became world champions and Olympic champions at a young age.
In the pursuit race on Sunday, even more eyes were on Julia Tannheimer. This time she had a different experience: after four shooting errors, she was passed on to 33rd place, while the world champions, Lisa Vittozzi from Italy and Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold from Norway, fought for victory. With the better ending for the Italian. But Julia Tannheimer wasn’t worried: “It was really fun.”
“She’s a rocket”
In the hustle and bustle at the shooting range, almost shoulder to shoulder with her competitors, she kept her nerve. When she missed the first shot, she took her time and the next four projectiles hit the mark. “I always think to myself, this is just a race like the others,” she described her strategy and added casually: “I don’t see the others when they’re shooting.”
What sets Tannheimer apart, besides her coolness: she can run fast. She gets the time she lost at the shooting range back on the cross-country ski trail. “She’s a rocket,” says women’s national coach Sverre Olsbu Röiseland.
“The Rocket” comes from Ulm and lives in Furtwangen, where she goes to school and trains at the ski boarding school. The talent factory in the Black Forest has already produced many top winter athletes, such as the former ski jumper Martin Schmitt and the active biathletes Benedikt Doll, Roman Rees and Janina Hettich-Walz. Simone Hauswald graduated from high school there 25 years ago as a pioneer – as a 15-year-old, she was the first girl to move into the boarding school dormitory. In 2010 she won two Olympic bronze medals in biathlon in Vancouver.
She now works as a mental trainer for athletes at the ski boarding school, including Tannheimer. Hauswald has been following their development for a long time: “I’m very happy when the seeds sprout and what we work on with the young athletes comes across like this,” she told the FAZ in Ruhpolding.
But she knows from her own experience: “With success, expectations grow from outside and inside.” What advice does she give young athletes to deal with this? “To concentrate on the essentials, what it takes to be successful,” says the 44-year-old. In the case of her sport, that means running fast and focusing at the shooting range. And: “The joy of knowing what you’re doing it for is a wonderful motivation to loosen up.” If Julia Tannheimer manages to keep her cool, “it could be the difference between victory and defeat .”
The first class of ski hunters
The contrast couldn’t have been greater for Julia Tannheimer: a week ago the student competed in the second-class IBU Cup, in Ruhpolding she met the best in her sport and took a selfie with Olympic champion Johannes Thingnes Bö.
Cool and fast: Julia Tannheimer makes up for lost time at the shooting range on the cross-country ski trail. : Image: AFP
She is the youngest in a group of young German biathletes around Julia Kink, 19, Johanna Puff, 21, and Selina Grotian, 19, who made people take notice last year with successes in the IBU Cup, the European Championships and the Junior World Championships and are now in the World Cup, the first class of ski hunters. The German Ski Association (DSV) wants to do exactly that, to fuel internal competition: “It’s competitive sport,” says sports director Felix Bitterling. “When pressure comes from below, I have to perform and develop further.”
Selina Grotian and Johanna Puff already had their chance in the World Cup, but didn’t take advantage of it and had to move back to the second row. In Ruhpolding it was Julia Tannheimer’s turn. With 15th place in the sprint, she achieved part of the association’s internal standard for the World Championships in February.
Published/Updated: Julia Basic, Ruhpolding Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3 Julia Basic, Ruhpolding Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3
She doesn’t yet know whether she will have another chance to prove herself in the upper house in Antholz next weekend. But she has other tasks ahead of her: This year she is taking her Abitur and important exams are waiting. The school leaving exam is at least as important to her as the sport. She is just as success-oriented at school as she is in biathlon, says Bitterling, who attests to her extreme commitment to achievement and is certain: “The future belongs to her.”
