Biathlon: Anna Gandler and juggling, a great love story
For several winters now, it has not been unusual to see Austria’s Anna Gandler pulling out her juggling balls on the shooting ranges of the biathlon World Cup. A great fan of the exercise, the 23-year-old biathlete with 35 starts at the highest international level doesn’t hesitate to do one session after another during her warm-up.
The sequence is regularly filmed by international production cameras. But why on earth does Anna Gandler do it? “To activate my brain, she told Nordic Magazine at the start of the season. I’ve read studies which show that this activity helps to combine the two hemispheres of the brain.”
Cerebral activity… and important to avoid boredom before departure
According to a study conducted by three researchers from the University of Poznan (Poland) – entitled “The effects of juggling as a dual-task activity on human neuroplasticity” – this activity is indeed synonymous with numerous benefits.
These include stimulating simultaneous interaction between the two hemispheres of the brain through alternating-crossing movements, for better overall analysis of situations and emotions. A real plus for a biathlete like the Austrian.
“I juggle because it’s good for my head, and I do it especially when I feel I’m not concentrating properly, says Anna Gandler, adding that she doesn’t juggle when she’s too stressed. I started doing it six or seven years ago and it worked really well, so I’m continuing. It also keeps me from getting bored before the start. In the warm-up zone, sometimes you don’t really know what to do and it allows me to do something, to move around a bit and, in that way, I can concentrate.”
- Kontiolahti: Austria with Lisa Theresa Hauser, Simon Eder, Felix Leitner and Anna Gandler
- “I can’t wait to see how he performs”, “He’s progressed, he deserves it”: Emilien Claude’s return to the World Cup is a source of great joy to those close to him, Anna Gandler and Fabien Claude.
