The first win of the season by biathlon Olympic champion Denise Herrmann-Wick has positive effects on the entire German team.

"Of course, that also gets such a team going," said national coach Mark Kirchner. He praised the 33-year-old DSV ski hunter after her coup in Hochfilzen: "Athletes who have been there for a long time and have shown again and again that they go into the matter with the utmost motivation and consistency and do not rest even after success are for all the younger ones a role model."

Saxon Herrmann-Wick won the sprint over 7.5 kilometers in Austria and will be the favorite in the pursuit race on Saturday (11.30 a.m. / ZDF and Eurosport) with a lead of 18 seconds in front of the Czech Marketa Davidova. "If things continue like this over the weekend, it would be cool," said Herrmann-Wick after her ninth World Cup victory, which also brought her close to the yellow jersey of the overall World Cup leaders. She is only 25 points behind Julia Simon from France before the chase race. She has never been allowed to wear the coveted bodice before.

Early victory is good

The 52-year-old Kirchner, himself a three-time Olympic champion himself, was impressed by Herrmann-Wick in Tyrol. "It's doubly good that a sense of achievement comes so early," said the Thuringian about the former cross-country skier, who would like to win medals again in two months at the World Championships in Oberhof (February 8 to 19, 2023) before marriage she might end her career at the age of 34. "She's an ambitious athlete, otherwise she wouldn't be where she is," said the head national coach about Germany's currently best biathlete: "Once you've achieved that, you always want to go there again. That's your claim ."

The knowledge that Herrmann-Wick showed it to everyone at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in February with gold in the individual is also helpful now. "It's easier for yourself mentally," said Kirchner. But: "If you want to achieve something, then you can't let go, then you have to keep working hard."