“There is not just one body type that works in biathlon”

She is having the time of her life, the 153 centimeter tall Anna Magnusson.

The biathlete from Hemmingsmark grew up with the 178 centimeter tall Hanna Öberg and made her breakthrough.

But after the 2018 Olympics, the friends’ careers took a different turn.

Hanna Öberg, hon who won gold in Pyeongchang eight years ago, became one of the world’s best biathletes and multiple world champion. Anna Magnusson certainly collected medals (back then in relays), but for many years she struggled with injuries and poor results.

In the 2022 Olympic relay She was outside the gold team. But in recent years she has regained her starting position – and this winter exceeded all expectations.

Anna Magnusson, soon to be 31, is the best Swede in the overall World Cup in third place (Öberg is second best in fifth place). In December, she surprisingly led the World Cup after reaching the podium four times in a row.

– She was a little hidden, but now she has really come forward, says the sports director of the Swedish national biathlon team Anna Maria Uusitalo before the first Olympic women’s individual race in Antholz, the distance on Wednesday.

Hanna Öberg, the same age has won both Olympic and World Cup gold in this discipline. Now she says about the girl with whom she started biathlon training more than 20 years ago:

– I don’t think she’s achieved everything she’s good for before, but this year she did. It shows incredible stability. She doesn’t do bad races.

When DN wrote a report about the duo’s first World Championships together in 2017, the biathletes shared a number of childhood photos. Hanna is always a head taller than Anna. On the track, on the podium, with trophies in hand.

When to photograph them For this report, Hanna Öberg first jokingly points to the Olympia Hotel in the Italian Alps and goes even further.

“When we have to take photos, one is here and the other is here,” she says with a laugh and points with her hand.

But otherwise, height doesn’t play such a big role in a sport like biathlon, she continues.

– You have to work with your different strengths and weaknesses. But we also train so much together. I think Anna is incredibly used to being behind me, who is much taller, so she rides pretty tall for her size.

Anna Magnusson also laughs when it comes to the question of big and small in sport.

What are the advantages of being small?

– I guess I’ll take less wind! she says.

Is there a bow that suits you better?

– It may not have so much to do with the length, but also with the balance on the skis, the technique, if you have the strength in your upper body or legs.

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Anna Magnusson falls silent for a while, thinks and then says:

– Biathlon in general is a sport in which you can look completely different, as if it didn’t exist A Body type that works, but we also have many large, small and slightly different weights. I think that’s fun.

She continues:

– Then you still have to be strong, but it’s fun that you can try to find exactly your strengths that you can work with to get the most out of it.

Hanna Öberg can only agree:

– It is important to show breadth. You don’t have to look a certain way, that’s how it is.

Sports manager Anna Maria Uusitalo states that technically you can achieve a different gear ratio if you are tall, but also have the advantage of being “small and fast”. However, the side resistance when shooting standing can be influenced by the length.

– But it is a strength that in biathlon there is no (body) ideal, but many ideals. Then it is also a shooting moment that brings in a different aspect than just the physical.

The Olympic Games in Italy will be the third Olympic Games for Öberg and Magnusson. In the mixed relay they were the choice of the national team management in the women’s races. Now both have individual medal chances.

What does it mean that you are both at this level this winter?

– I think it’s a very cool trip we took. “We were a bit like that at the beginning,” says Anna Magnusson, making a swinging motion with her hand.

– Then Hanna withdrew a little. It’s a lot of fun now because we’re both at a point where we’re very happy with the results, the form and biathlon life. Then it’s fun to take this journey together.

Read more:

Elvira Öberg: “It’s scary to let go of control”