Dorothea Wierer does not retire, but continues to Milan-Cortina 2026
Dorothea Wierer does not retire, but continues to Milan-Cortina 2026
The woman, and the champion, who has taken biathlon to levels of popularity never seen in Italy, is not retiring, quite the contrary: Dorothea Wierer, in an online press conference organized by the FISI, decided to continue until the home Games of Milan-Cortina 2026, in which her sport, biathlon, will be contested in Anterselva, the resort in which the South Tyrolean fuoiriclasse grew up, thus resoundingly disproving some insiders who had publicly speculated about her final retirement, perhaps because she was pregnant. None of this. Here are her words.
“After the first months in which I had a lot of physical problems but also psychological problems, in particular I slept very little, I tried to stop a few days to try to prepare for the World Championships in Nove Mesto but I couldn’t do it and I had to stop permanently. I had a chance to reflect during these two months without sports in which I was practically a housewife and had numerous television commitments”
“I thought it would be a shame to interrupt my career like that and so together with the president of FISI Flavio Roda, who è been so close to me in these months as well as the whole federation, my spotive group and my coaches, I decided to continue until the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games. I have already started my preparation and I am very motivated both because I feel I can still give a lot to biathlon and because of my new television adventure (with Eurosport, a channel for which I will be a behind-the-scenes talent for the Paris 2024 Games, edrquo;)”.
Dorothea Wierer, “Doro” as she is confidentially called by many, è was born on April 3, 1990, making her 34 years old last month. Her palmares è already remarkable but she can even increase it. È was the first Italian national to win an overall World Cup, a world gold medal and an individual Olympic medal in this sport. She è took home two overall crystal balls, in 2019 and 2020, and four despecialities; two in individual (2016 and 2021), one in pursuit (2019) and one in mass start (2020).
In the World Cup, where she made her debut in the 2009 Oberhof sprint, she has won 16 races so far, including six individual, four sprint, four mass start and two pursuit, finishing, including individual Olympic and world races, another 34 times on the podium. Of those 16 victories, three were also world golds: in the mass start in Ostersund 2019 and in the pursuit and individual right at home in Antholz in 2020, to which there’s to be added the triumph in the women’s relay in Oberhof in 2023. In World Cup relays he has won five: two women’s, two mixed and one mixed individual.
At the World Championships she also won five silvers and three bronzes between single and relay races; seven of those races were also valid for the World Cup. At the youth Worlds she è took home two golds and two bronzes between 2008 and 2009, at the junior Worlds three golds and one silver, all in 2011. Last but not least, at the Olympic Games she collected three bronze medals: at Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018 in the mixed relay and at Beijing 2022 in the sprint.
