Biathlon: Lisa Vittozzi talks about her injury-plagued year
A brilliant winner of the Biathlon World Cup crystal globe for the first time in her career in March 2024, Lisa Vittozzi was widely expected to win the title for the 2024/2025 winter season. However, after suffering an injury in the autumn, the Italian finally withdrew for the entire season in December without taking part in a single competition.
” It was a difficult period but one in which I learnt a lot. Of course, I wasn’t expecting it because I’d done some excellent preparation and I was very satisfied,” she admitted to Fondo Italia. I’d also improved on the previous year and I was very determined to defend my title. But in November, there was this incident that completely blocked me. I tried to hold on until December, but my back just couldn’t take it and I was really sore. And to have a mediocre season without being able to express my potential at 100% didn’t make much sense because I wouldn’t have had the time to recover.
It was a well-considered decision, and one that the Italian doesn’t regret. “Now I feel better and I’m happy. My body is responding well. I’m training and little by little, I’m feeling better and more serene,” she says. At the start, I wasn’t exactly serene. I was under a lot of pressure and worried. Obviously, skipping the season and watching it from my sofa was a first for me, and I was at a loss because it was very difficult.
However, Lisa Vittozzi now plans to start preparing for her comeback with a wealth of experience in her bag. “I’ve learnt to follow the signals from my body and mind and to take my time by resting. The previous year I lived a hundred miles an hour and maybe that was too much, I realised it too late,” she analyses. This period has made me realise even more that I love sport and that I will always fight to get back into it.
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