Nations Cup and Pyeongchang

Despite this, the Germans won the Nations Cup, finishing more than 100 points ahead of Sweden last season. On the men’s side, by comparison, the top five teams were within a range of 100 points. In addition, Kati Wilhelm missed winning the Total World Cup by the slightest possible margin after she left the IBU World Championships in Pyeongchang with four medals; two Gold and two Silver, making her the most successful athlete there. In addition she won the small Crystal Globe trophy in the Pursuit.

Hopeful, Despite some Health Issues

For the Olympic Season, the team is rightfully, full of hope and looking forward to the competitions, and even though summer training did not always go smoothly. Martina Beck and Andrea Henkel, for example, missed the IBU World Championships Summer Biathlon plus a few weeks of training due to a virus infection. In general, Müßiggang was happy. “We are happy with our preparations for the season, although we don’t want to trivialize the problems we had, without a doubt. But we could do what we had planned with only minor changes, and a lot of them were due to the weather. Also, the health issues have not yet reached Finland,” he joked.

That is where the team currently is at their last training camp, just like the German men. “We worked on our weak spots, so that our shooting will be more stable. And we want to keep our strength, want to dominate the skiing, so that we can win because of our potential there and don’t have to wait for the others to make mistakes” is the strategy Müßiggang laid out for the next season.

Medals in Vancouver

That is also how the team wants to take home as many medals as possible from Vancouver. “No one would believe me if I said that we would be happy with being eighth, even though of course there have been situations like that before. And of course things can go a different way than planned again, but now, before we even go there, we have to say that we want to win some medals” Müßiggang clarifies.

While the team has their focus on the Olympic Winter Games, the coach does not forget about the e.on Ruhrgas IBU World Cups. “The World Cup is important as well because I don’t think that you can finish 15^th there all the time and then swipe the Olympics.”

Olympic Qualification

The World Cups are also important for the national qualification for the Olympic Winter Games where the German athletes have to be among the top 8 at least once or among the top 15 at least twice. Still Müßiggang expects to make a selection himself afterwards: “No one has a spot yet. The good ones from last season have a secure spot for the first World Cups in December. That way we want to take some of the pressure off so that they can do some things differently. . . (For the Olympics) it’s going to be our decision which we will make at the end of January.”

Hitzer, Gössner, and Bachmann

However, Müßiggang already had to make a decision for two out of three younger athletes before the season even started. For Östersund he gave Kathrin Hitzer and Miriam Gössner the thumbs up, in addition to Beck, Henkel, Wilhelm, Magdalena Neuner, and Simone Hauswald, who had previously secured spots.

“Tina (Bachmann) will start in Hochfilzen and Pokljuka, that’s what we agreed on with her. She had some kind of infection during the last few days and could not go as hard during training. We are very careful with these things.”

About Gössner he added, “Miri is here, as was Lena a few years back, in order to learn because she showed really good results. And it is great for us to have someone come up who fits in the team as seamlessly and adjusts so well.”

Biathlon and Cross-country

Gössner has something else that makes the German women similar to the Norwegian men. The athlete who started out as a cross country skier could have two arrows in her quiver, as for example Ole Einar Björndalen sometimes does, and start at Biathlon and at Cross Country competitions. This was also offered to the fastest Biathlete of last season, Magdalena Neuner, at least for the Olympic Games. Müßiggang would not mind: “We already talked about this with Jochen Behle (Head Coach Cross Country) as their relay takes place three days after our last event. And with the kind of running on our team, by Miri or by Magdalena, that would be possible…if they should ask I would not say no.”

However he immediately put that in perspective.  “Both of them prepare for a season in biathlon at the moment and we will see if they will start at a cross-country competition in addition to that.” This leaves the fans sitting and waiting if the German women will try to take home Olympic Medals in two different disciplines.