Biathlon: the explosion of Lukas Haslinger
Last season, Austrian biathlete Lukas Haslinger exploded onto the international scene. He had just one podium finish in the Junior Cup up to that point, but three more followed, giving him not only his first victory, but also success in the Talent Team Challenge in Gelsenkirchen(Germany) over Christmas and, above all, the crystal globe as overall winner ahead of his compatriot Fabian Muellauer.
Lukas Haslinger started biathlon at the age of 10 and won a medal in the Tuffes individual event at the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne (Switzerland) in January 2020. At the time, he was far from imagining that he would have such a career path: “I was always last in regional and national competitions, he admits on the IBU website. But it wasn’t that important to me at the time, because it was all about having fun doing sport.”
Since then, the native of Zell am See (Austria) has gone from strength to strength, culminating in the winter of 2023/2024 with his discovery of the IBU Cup. Lukas Haslinger‘s hobbies include his love of animals (he has hens at home), music (he plays trombone in an orchestra) and cooking. “I look for recipes on Instagram with my girlfriend and we cook them. It’s one of my favourite pastimes,” he explains.
Finally, the Austrian is scared to death of flying. “It’s always incredibly stressful for me, he says. The rifle check at the airport takes forever and I can never sleep on the plane.”