Franziska Preuß is not on the podium in the sprint either. Now she is pinning her hopes on the persecution. Vanessa Voigt shoots great, but she also has no chance.
Franziska Preuß still has to wait for her first individual Olympic medal. Germany’s number one didn’t make any mistakes in the Antholz sprint either. The loss of time due to a penalty lap was too great and seventh place was not what the overall World Cup winner from the previous season had hoped for. The next chance for the 31-year-old to make her peace with the Olympics comes in the pursuit on Sunday (2.45 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport). But even there, it will be difficult for the biathlon world champion to attack the podium places given her deficit.
“There is a sense of disappointment. Every race is an opportunity and now I haven’t made it again. You can never give up and tomorrow is a new day,” said Preuß somewhat resignedly on ARD.
To be on the safe side, Preuß moves into a single room
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However, Preuß has to adjust to a new situation in the team accommodation. She now moved into a single room because her teammates Janina Hettich-Walz and Vanessa Voigt were struggling with stomach problems. “It’s stable for me,” said Preuss. While Hettich-Walz couldn’t compete, Voigt was at least at the start, even though she could hardly eat anything lately. Other German athletes are currently not affected. “Luckily they had their own bathroom,” said Preuss.
The six German women had previously shared a large apartment with several rooms, but now the division was even more generous. “We don’t assume that it was a virus, but that they ate something wrong. It was just one night,” said sports director Felix Bitterling. Preuß initially shared a room with Anna Weidel. A Czech athlete and a Czech supervisor also suffered stomach problems in the shared accommodation.
“It takes a perfect race”
After 7.5 kilometers, Preuß was a full 1:00.1 minutes behind the victorious Norwegian Maren Kirkeeide. “You can’t always win, I’m a bit stuck in the top ten,” said Preuss. In the hunting race, the motto is now to “completely ignore the issue of medals and be in the here and now. You need a perfect race, that’s the goal.”
22-year-old Kirkeeide showed how it works. She had robbed Norway of a medal in the mixed relay with two penalties and also experienced a bitter disappointment in the individual after finishing 49th with five errors. Now, in a thrilling long-distance duel, she relegated the Frenchwoman Océane Michelon, who was also flawless, to silver by 3.8 seconds. Bronze went to overall World Cup leader Lou Jeanmonnot (+23.7 seconds) from France, who won her third medal in the third race despite a penalty loop.
Dahlmeier won the last sprint gold for Germany
Laura Dahlmeier, who died in a mountain accident last July, won the last German Olympic medal in the women’s sprint with gold in Pyeongchang in 2018. The DSV still has to wait for a successor.
In the individual, Preuß had been on course for gold for a while, but then gave up a possible medal with two errors in the last shooting. She came tenth. In the sprint, Preuß, who was cheered on by her partner Simon Schempp, would not have made it to the podium even without making a mistake. She was also 50 seconds behind Kirkeeide in terms of running time.
Voigt shoots like clockwork
The second best German was Voigt in twelfth place (+ 1:14.0 minutes). She once again lived up to her reputation as the best shooter in the entire field. The fourth-placed individual remained clean and has not missed a single shot in her three Olympic races so far.
It wasn’t even clear whether she could start. Because like Hettich-Walz, Voigt also just lay in the room for two days, as she said on ARD. “Until 10 a.m. my start wasn’t really clear. I’m absolutely proud because more was absolutely not possible today. It was a crazy sprint for me,” said the Thuringian.
Youngsters give up
In her Olympic debut, Julia Tannheimer achieved a better result in the prone shooting with two penalties and 300 extra meters. The 20-year-old made no mistakes while standing and came 20th.
The same fate befell Selina Grotian. The 21-year-old joined the team for Hettich-Walz at short notice. But Grotian missed twice in the first attempt. She had already left four targets in the individual as 55th. There was another missed shot while standing, so she had to settle for 52nd place in the end.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:260214-930-686027/6
date: 2026-02-14 15:01:00
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