Junge Welt: The Search for the X Factor – 2026

When the biathlon gold medals are celebrated in Antholz, the Germans are just spectators. While France’s super team around the three-time Olympic champions Julia Simon and Quentin Fillon Maillet has already collected ten medals and Norway has won precious metal nine times even after the retirement of dominator Johannes Thingnes Bø, Germany’s ski hunters only managed to win bronze once in nine races.

The worst performance ever at the Winter Games is looming – and the numbers confirm a trend: Germany has lost touch with the two top nations in biathlon.

“We have really good athletes who can perform well, who can also be among the world’s best, but we don’t have these X-factor athletes at the moment,” said sports director Felix Bitterling. What he means by that: There are no self-confident winners in outstanding form, there is simply no one in the team who can “just run out easily into a penalty loop”, put pressure on them with a “brutally fast shooting time” and then be able to lead again. »That’s how it is at the moment. You just have to accept it.”

But you can’t just accept that. “We are working very, very hard in the background to ensure that these athletes will exist again in the future,” said Bitterling. The problem: For years, not enough has been done, especially for men. The World Cup team didn’t get enough pressure because there was simply no good young talent. “And that’s never good,” said Bitterling. »We were missing one or two generations of athletes.«

More effective and targeted training for athletes and coaches should help change this. “It will probably take years. “It should have been done much earlier,” said Bitterling. The structures were fundamentally changed two and a half years ago and it is hoped that measures such as a shooting academy with specialists and a task force for trainer training will close the gap to the French and Norwegians.

David Zobel also knows how difficult this is, and in Antholz he pointed out “how many young athletes the French have. That’s going towards 200, and for us it’s 50. You need that one extra talent, otherwise it will be difficult.” The Olympic starter also asked why Germany’s national team is better at football than Norway’s? “Because we have more footballers,” answered the 29-year-old Bavarian.

Bitterling emphasized that the search for highly talented biathletes was a “Sisyphean task”: “Working with young talent in general is a matter that is becoming more difficult.” He has had the experience that in Germany “the group of athletes who actively decide on competitive sports and then go through with them is getting smaller and smaller.”

And then there are the location disadvantages. By moving the snowfall limit higher, young German athletes would be able to train on snow later than in Scandinavia. “At some point it will all be a mix that isn’t entirely easy,” said Bitterling, who is leaving office at the end of the season and returning to the IBU World Association in a different role. None of this should be an excuse, emphasized the Bavarian, for whom there is still no successor at DSV: “We have taken care of it. I think we’ve taken a lot of steps that are right, but it just takes time.”

In Italy, Germany narrowly missed out on medals in some cases. Since 1992 there has always been at least two precious metals. If there is no medal after mixed bronze in the mass starts on Friday (men) and Saturday (women), by far the worst Olympic performance would be perfect for the team that was once so spoiled for success. Two fourth places in the relay, fourth place for Vanessa Voigt and fifth place for Philipp Nawrath in the individual were good results. “But at the Olympics it’s the medals that count,” said Nawrath. And one thing is also clear: Without mistakes from the French and Norwegians, the podium was hardly achievable, even with their own top performances.

It is all the more important that successes can be seen in the next generation. Junior world champion Leonhard Pfund (22) caused a stir on his World Cup debut before the Olympics in the Czech Republic, and Elias Seidl (21) and Franz Schaser (23) are also expected to do a lot. In the women’s category, Selina Grotian (21) has already won the World Cup despite a weak Olympic performance, while Julia Tannheimer (20) has come a long way as an Olympic starter for her young age.

New forces are also needed, because Franziska Preuß (31), the last active German world champion, will retire in March at the latest. Among the men, Nawrath (32) and Philipp Horn (31) are the same age. It is questionable whether they will continue until the next games in France in four years.

“I believe that there are some very promising talents in Germany,” said Bitterling. But it is important to build it carefully. “If I send a younger athlete up there too early and he gets really upset, then he might get a small dent.”