The story of Hanna, the team, and that Olympic relay is 100% my biathlon fandom origin story. Those few weeks in 2018 changed me from someone who never watched a single race ever into someone who will be making their 4th trip to Östersund in March to watch the World Cup. It’s great to hear someone besides me talk about it 😄
Makes me so proud of being a swedish woman in biathlon, to have been able to shoot on the same stadium as these guys and having them as my heroes. The biathlon community here is thriving now, and i promise we will have new young and motivated athetes soon, thanks to these girls
It really is crazy. I remember when AKO and Ekholm quit and there were zero, absolutely zero, athletes following in their footsteps. Now we are top 3 in the world. And they are all awesome persons as well, humble and friendly.
Man its really cool to see Hanna and Anna, 2 of my former classmates in gymnasium, both succeeding! They really deserv it, they were both very down to earth and kind people. Also dont forget, very talented in school with very good grades as well. Wish them nothing but the best! :)
Besides Wolfgang Pichler, Hanna's and Elvira's father Tomas Öberg played a great role in the success. He trained his daughters and Anna Magnusson for many years. Hopefully, there will be a more even supply of talents from below in the future, with biathlon colleges in place.
Elvira is the star of the future, and may become one of the all-time greatest, but it's hard to overstate the importance of the 2018 Olympics, and especially Hanna's win. Legendary performances like that create idols for young people and general hype for the sport. There's been a tangible resurgence of interest in biathlon since 2018.
Guy talking about Pichler success with Olofsson aka ACO from 2006 and had Magdalena Forsberg in the picture from the 90`s. Magdalena was the first Pichler product and later Pichler took over the national team of Sweden
Agree. He forgot to mention Magdalena Forsberg. 6 times world champion. And numerous world cup wins. She is so far by far our biggest star in biathlon imo...
@@SkyeVaradero still think she deserves mentioning to highlight wolfgang pichler's impact on the team. Guess the youngsters watched a lot of videos from her races. Maybe there was something to pick up...
Thanks for your vids mate. Great stuff!!! My plan when I retire Im gone buy a van and drive around Europe every winter, watching biathlon and xcountry skiing live. Living the dream:))
Not only did the major star, Helena Ekholm, quit in 2012 but also the no 2, often forgotten Anna Maria Nilsson quit at the same time which made the gaping hole of cometitive athletes even bigger
Really interesting, team Sweden made miracles in these years, and it's really nice to hear about their story. But you only talk about Öberg, Persson and Magnusson. But Mona Brorsson had a great improvement during her career, she was not good in junior, and in these years she was the best after Hanna and Elvira. I think without her, they couldn't win or reach the podium in so many competitions. So she had a great role!
Yes, and in some sense it's almost an understatement. Never has there been so many young kids trying biathlon, and so many clubs providing this possibility all over Sweden!
Is that so? I mean it's always been kind of big. Remember when Björn Ferry was at it? He is still a national idol for many. Magdalena Forsberg and Ekholm as well. But if what you are saying is true, it's absolutely great!
@@northbreeze0111 People have definitely always cared, there just seems to be more interest now. Higher viewing figures and it seems a lot more young people are actually trying biathlon. Hard to tell exactly why but as a team they are likely better than ever, every weekend there's a reasonable chance of one of them winning. SVT also got solo broadcast rights again from 2018 which surely helps popularity a lot.
@@northbreeze0111There were basically no clubs in the Stockholm area where kids even could try biathlon before 2018. Now there are at least 4 clubs with biathlon on their program.
From my standpoint Hanna Öberg and Linn Persson began their international careers with the Swedish Under 17's team and thus winning silver at the Junior World Championship in Finland 2012, way before the heroics in the major tournaments (I.e. Winter Olympics & IBU World Championship).
Sweden's gold in the Women's relay at the 2022 Olympics was basically the culmination of 10 years of hard work to rebuild the team after Ekholm and Olofsson retired.
As someone has mentioned, Pichlers connection to the swedish biathlon team goes back to Magdalena Forsberg (Wallin) and the 90s. She was swedish biathlon, and then there were some guys as well, one of which she married. Pichler does not work well in swedish "surroundings" because he pushed the athletes. Many people outside of the team think he is a relic of the past and he has been getting flack from the cheap seats almost all of his time working with swedes. The results does not matter to his detractors. However, after these girls bullied him to take the job again they called themselves "Pichlers Pinglor", a rough translation might be Pichlers Pinups, but it does not convey they tone of it correctly. Anyway, it is once again really good to be a biathlon fan over here, until they destroy the sport from Brussels.
Great video. It’s interesting to see considering how last season went. It’s going to be interesting to see next season since some are going to retire and new ones will get to start. 👍
One thing that was not mentioned, is that all the training for the Swedish National Team (both men and women) is done under "one roof". If you are selected to the National Team, you HAVE to move to Östersund, or you are out. Östersund is the centre of Swedish biathlon, along with the biathlon national sport high school ("skidskyttegymnasiet") in Torsby, where talents start their journey at age 16, and have the option to finish high school in four years instead of three, to train as much as possible.
Hey, i just wanted to give you a little feedback. Great video and content overall but i think you can tune down the music a tad bit, so its easier to focus on what you are saying. Atleast for me its a bit distracting. :)
Я же знаю где якорь надо бросать, я вырос на биатлоне и других зимних видов спорта, и я знаю что в Европе одни из самых красивых женщин являются как раз таки Шведки
Swedes blame everything that is wrong with Swedish winter sport on Norway. Reading Swedish media is beyond soap opera. Sweden has a natural tradition for winter sports but Sweden may have changed. They have a long way to go to live up to Norway. Swedish ski jump has been dead for 30 years. I have never heard of a Swede in Nordic combine. Well, alright, success may go up and down a bit. Currently Sweden is the second best nation in biathlon.
so proud of our women biathlon team...the men team not so mush, in fact I hate the mens team, just filled with a bunch of crybabies that blame their lack of success on irrelevant stuff.
I'm Swedish, and I don't fancy biathlon in the slightest. Stina Nilsson is the sports mystery of a century voluntarily going from a great cross country skier to a mediocre biathlete.
@@nillejoslin well, Stina was always an amazing sprinter and short distance ( 5 km relays) skier, but people forget that she was almost never really better than top 15 in most long distance races.. Also, now she has to keep her composure to be able to shoot, before she would just get across the finish line on pure willpower in the long distance races, that doesn´t work when you have to be able to shoot shoot. But that´s just my analysis..🙂
@@yara5502 Stina did well on longer distances too (remember Tour de Ski 2017, Olympic bronze in 30 km in 2018, WC finals in Canada 2019). Former sprinters like Denise Hermann and Anamarija Lampic do very well in biathlon.
Stina has had a couple of top-10 and a podium. She has started from scratch with a new sport, I don't know if Hermann or Lampic has had any previous shooting experience prior to taking up biathlon.
