Biathlon: Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and Johannes Thingnes Boe speak out for Dorothea Wierer
Last summer, Dorothea Wierer put the rifle away for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, when she was recruited as a consultant for Eurosport Italy. It was a choice perfectly made by the Italian, who drew the wrath of many observers by putting her training on hold during this period.
“I’m used to people criticising me, the Italian biathlete admitted to NRK during the opening Norwegian races in Sjusjøen (Norway). I’m not a normal athlete. I like to enjoy life, as well as being a top sportswoman.”
In the pre-season races, the native of Brunico (Italy) showed some promising early signs despite a summer season cut short by her time in the French capital: “It was great to finally be back. It’s the first good news I’ve had in a long time after a winter that I considered a failure,” she admitted to our journalists.
And despite a disappointing 2023/2024, Dorothea Wierer has no regrets about taking advantage of the Paris Games. “I’d definitely do it again. After the Olympics, I spent ten days in bed and I was very tired, she says. I was in and around Paris all day for interviews, and I was also in the studio. It was hard, but enjoyable.”
Ola Lunde, a consultant for the Scandinavian channel, struggled to understand the reasons for this truce: “She didn’t work hard enough during the preparation period, even though she was in good form this autumn”, said the former biathlete. An opinion that was not shared by some of the national team athletes .
“I fully support her in this approach”.Johannes Thingnes Boe at NRK
Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, head of the Norwegian team, was quick to defend the 34-year-old biathlete. “I think biathlon is a very mental sport. Biathlon requires great physical and mental strength, she admitted. If you have to stop for two months to be able to give 100% and train for a whole winter, then it’s the right thing to do.”
A view shared by Johannes Thingnes Boe, the outgoing world number one and himself concerned by these different summer preparations since becoming a father in recent years: “As long as she knows she can perform well in winter, I think she can have fun and do what she wants in summer. I fully support her in this,” he declared in Innlandet.
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