Elvira and Hanna Öberg are among the fastest skiers in the biathlon circuit.
But at the Olympic distance on Wednesday, Elvira Öberg was almost a minute and a half behind the fastest runner on the course (Lou Jeanmonnot, France) and Hanna Öberg a full two and a half minutes behind.
– I have no pressure at all on the track today. “I don’t know why,” said Hanna Öberg after the race.
She didn’t want to say it that there was something wrong with what she had under her feet, and when head coach Johannes Lukas was asked questions about the material at a press conference on Thursday, he didn’t want to explain the travel times with such a “simple analysis”.
– We have competition skis. But it is always the case that one nation is doing a little better on one day and another is doing worse on a day. It’s the whole thing that counts. Wednesday was also a very special event that perhaps not everyone would like, said Lukas.
A distance race is also special, he continued, talking about the importance of proper race preparation.
The former World Cup and Olympic medalist Carl Johan Bergman would have liked Lukas to come forward and express himself more clearly. For the benefit of the drivers.
– I don’t like the strategy, says Bergman, now an expert in radio sports.
– There is no danger in talking about different skis. I think not talking about it raises more questions. Everyone knows they (the breeding team) work like hell, they are a fantastically talented bunch. But yesterday (Wednesday) they didn’t quite reach the summit.
For Bergman it is Obviously Sweden didn’t have as good skis as France.
– You don’t have to criticize, but these are cold facts, I think.
– Then I wish that you could relieve the riders a little. Does it cost anything to say: “We didn’t get the French result today, we have to work on it”? As a driver, you would probably appreciate this, so you don’t have to doubt yourself.
He hopes so The Olympic team spoke differently about the matter internally, Carl Johan Bergman continues.
Elvira Öberg says it’s difficult for her to determine whether the material played a role in the travel times on Wednesday.
– The (competitors) I raced with didn’t notice much difference. Therefore, I don’t have such an opinion myself. But it’s fickle with the distance at high altitude, the pace, a lot of things come into play.
Is it an unwritten rule not to criticize the skis or the team of riders?
“I think it’s mainly because we very rarely have bad material,” says Elvira Öberg.
– If I have bad skis, I take the dikes first. They don’t want to stand there and take down the levees without speaking to them, and that’s what we said, that we’re trying to address it internally.
Friday is waiting the men’s sprint, in slightly different weather conditions.
The biathletes are still waiting for their first Olympic medal in Italy.
“France stands out a little bit, but otherwise I think we had good things,” says Olympic hopeful Martin Ponsiluoma.
– But you know that the dikes do exactly everything they can every day.
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