Friday December 24th 2021
Olympia after a bad fall of the stairs?
Preuss’ moving race against time
Franziska Preuss is in top form – then a fall down stairs puts her out of action. The biathlete then falls out longer than expected, for ten days she is not allowed to strain her body at all. Up to the big goal of the Olympics, it will now be a race against time.
Franziska Preuss had imagined the Christmas break very differently. Instead of laying important foundations for her Olympic dream, the hopeful of the German biathletes is forced to inactivity after her darned flight of stairs. While the competition is busy unwinding kilometer after kilometer, the 27-year-old has to take it easy. More than putting your left foot up is simply not possible for them over the holidays.
Her momentous faux pas in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand forced her to take a longer break at the wrong time – the way to top form will be damned arduous a good 40 days before the start of the Beijing Olympic Games. After thorough examinations, the doctors ordered a complete ban on exercise for ten days, after which she was only allowed to gradually approach full exercise.
Competitions before mid-January are unlikely to be possible, participation in the home World Cup in Oberhof seems almost impossible. It should also be tight for the races in front of their own doorstep in Ruhpolding from January 12th to 16th – and then only Antholz would be left for the final touches before leaving for Beijing (February 5th to 20th).
“Very stupid situation”
How badly the German biathletes need Preuss in top form became evident after their failure at the World Cup in France. Top positions without the front woman? Nothing! For Preuss it was “a very stupid situation”, expert Laura Dahlmeier had already said on ZDF. A break at this point “certainly feels like a long time.”
Almost everything went according to plan right up to the fall of the stairs. There were three top eight results in the first four races, Preuss was right in the middle of the top of the world. “In terms of running, she has never started the season so well. If it goes the same way as in the last few years, when she got stronger from week to week, that makes me very positive. It can be a very, very good season.” “, speculated her friend Simon Schempp at the time in the SID interview. But instead, Preuss has to win the race against time because of her foot injury.