Vanessa Voigt stays on the mat for too long. The shots miss. Again and again the sound of the bullets. Her competitors are running past her feet, not the best start. Was it the nervousness? The cold or the wind? Minus twelve degrees in Zhangjiakou, the biathlon course is bathed in a cold light. The sun sets behind the bare mountains. The first biathlon race, the mixed relay. Four years ago, Germany just missed out on a medal. In China, the relay over 4 x 6 kilometers only came in fifth.
Denise Herrmann, second in the mixed team, can be seen calmly breathing at the shooting range, small clouds above her head. You can hardly see the athletes, hats, glasses, wrapped up against the cold. Colorful tapes are stuck to their faces to keep them warm. Before the competition, Herrmann had tried putting latex gloves under her gloves so that the heat accumulated in them. Samples for the extreme case. It became a reality in China on Saturday.
Go fast or stay calm?
Lying down, Herrmann shoots too timidly and reacts too little to the wind, which makes the red flag twitch. While running, she can catch up – from rank 15 to rank ten. She does better standing. After the race she says: “In the end I just trembled.” It is a fine art to choose the right tactics in such conditions. Do everything fast, reload more. Or stay calm?
After shooting, Herrmann races off in long turns into the last lap. Don’t overestimate yourself, that’s important, she knows. “The body reacts when you start running too fast,” she says afterwards. The few Chinese spectators in the stands jump up and down and wave their flags. The cold isn’t just a problem for athletes.
After the handover to Benedikt Doll, Herrmann kneels in the snow, sticks out her tongue for a moment, you can see her exhaustion. A cameraman films her up close at this intimate moment. Before the race, she had resolved not to feel a grain of energy in her body after the race.
Nawrath made up a few places
Even Doll had respect for height and nervousness even before the race. The cold also increases nervousness, he said. While France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Belarus and Russia are fighting for the first places, Doll is able to keep the place of the Germans. As he hands over to Philipp Nawrath, he yells, “Los, los, los, go, go, go.” And Nawrath sprints off, heated up by his colleague’s words. Even if the shooting isn’t perfect, he can make up a few places in the end.
The medals decide the favorites for the mixed relay victory. On the home stretch, Norway, France and Team ROC, the Russian athletes, battle it out for the gold medal. The Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Bö races in huge swings over the snow and wins the sprint. Silver for France, bronze for Team ROC. At the press conference later, even the Norwegians mention the extremely difficult conditions.
What do the German biathletes take away from the race? Voigt says: “I noticed that nervousness plays a big role for me. But I can do it well by Monday.” Then the women’s 15-kilometer individual is scheduled (10:00 a.m. CET in the FAZ live ticker for the Olympics, on ZDF and on Eurosport). Her teammate Herrmann says: “When shooting, I have to be braver when the wind is so strong.” Now they know how their bodies react under competition conditions – to cold and wind.