Biathlon World Cup: Franziska Preuss is very close to your goal

Sometimes it just has to be the home couch. There, the biathlete Franziska Preuss, as she says herself, then “vegetates” there, even now in the final sprint of the season. After all, breaks are just as important in sport as training sessions, physically, but also in other ways. Just see, do and hear something else except biathlon, Prussia is good. That is why the 31-year-old had left the past two World Cup stations prematurely after the individual races to devote himself to her couch and other thoughts in Ruhpolding. Which does not mean that the latter in particular would be so easy.

Finally, a pink elephant sits in your head. And it can only be hidden with difficulty. Three races at the upcoming World Cup final in Oslo, then it is over. Then Franziska Preuss knows whether she managed to complete this season as the world’s best. She still has 20 points ahead of the French Lou JeanMonnot – a tiny in the World Cup. “Everyone always says: don’t think about it. It’s a bit like not thinking about pink elephants,” said Preuss recently on ZDF, “it’s a challenge.” In precision sports biathlon, this applies all the more: a wrong thought can steer the shots into nirvana.

So not concentrating too much on the result, this is the order of the day for Franziska Preuss, because it has never been as close to great success as now. Since mid -December of last year she has been at the top of the overall ranking, and since then the competition has been trying to snap away the first place for her. “I have the dream of defending the yellow jersey until the end,” says Preuss.

According to Martina Glagow (2002/03), Kati Wilhelm (2005/06), Andrea Henkel (2006/07), Magdalena Neuner (2007/08, 2009/10 and 2011/12) and Laura Dahlmeier (2016/17), the sixth German who succeeds. “This is one of the greatest achievements that can be achieved. Not only does one day count, but also counts for many days between November and March,” she says. It would be “really cool to win that”. Above all, it would also be an award for your newly obtained resistance. A year ago, Lisa Vittozzi from Italy secured the overall World Cup, but this season withdrew due to back problems.

Preuss has a hit rate of 92 percent – unsurpassed by the competition

Very good biathletes manage to train on a climax like a world championship and to be in top shape – but only the best can think about playing a role in the overall ranking. Prussia succeeded in both this winter. First she fulfilled several dreams with four World Cup medals in Lenzerheide in February, now she is still playing the leading role in hunting the large crystal ball. Not only on Johannes Thingnes Bö, who ends his great career, the eyes of the Holmenkollen in Oslo will be directed, but also on Franziska Preuss. Otherwise, she was always denied to get through the season healthy – only a successful surgery on the sinuses ensured that she became less susceptible to infections. And what she can do with full forces can be observed again and again. Their 92 percent hit rate is unsurpassed in the top of the world, and Germans are also on the move on the skis. However, her lead over the competitor JeanMonnot has melted threatening in the past few weeks.

With a 15th and a 13th place in Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic, Preuss lost valuable points, but then fought back in Pokljuka in Slovenia. The 20 points ahead of the Frenchwoman now mean that every second and every goal in the outstanding races could decide on the outcome of this season. 90 points are distributed for a win, 75 for second place, 65 the third place gets. If she is at the start or run her races, then don’t think about the points, says Franziska Preuss. This will continue until the mass start, the last race: “It will be ahead, I will be ahead. Then I set myself that every race is a fight and you can’t give anything.”

In the past two years, Preuss had had to withdraw from the season prematurely, was too weak due to illness. JeanMonnot had already become World Cup second in the previous year, which was also due to the beats of the competition. This year the 26-year-old is on the road as a high-flyer and was able to celebrate seven victories. Prussia reach two victories, a total of eleven podium places, and all in all: a fantastic season. Also financially: she has already won more than 260,000 euros in prize money.

So now Oslo, where an intermediate destination is already tangible at the sprint on Friday: Preuss could gain discipline rating there, and the mass start classification also leads her. The two small crystal balls brought her another 12,000 euros each. The World Cup victory would be financially even more worthwhile: the winner gets 40,000 euros, and the second-placed person still takes home 32,000 euros. But stop! It is better not to think about the grand finale.