The first impression of Hochfilzen is winter. Magic, fabulous, with all the attributes inherent in these words: thick incessant snowfall, multi-centimeter snow caps on the branches and buildings, skidding cars and snowdrifts, snowdrifts, snowdrifts that continue to grow along the roads before our eyes. For biathletes, fresh snow is always a problem, but the ex-coach of the Russian national team Ricco Gross, who now fosters the Austrian national team, shrugged his shoulders.
“It's just winter.
Absolutely normal for these places.
Well, yes, the forecasts did not imply such a heavy snowfall, but it did happen.
I don't see anything wrong with that.
There should be no snow tomorrow, which means that with the current humidity the track will roll down well, and there will be no difference in which group you go to the start - in the first or the last, ”the mentor estimated the weather.
Hochfilzen is always a great organization.
The stadium is based on the territory of a military unit, so everything is always clear in the army here: discipline, cleaning the territory, the work of all related services and even the amount of firewood prepared for the winter and generously covered with snow caps.
The barracks' woodpiles are so vast that it is hard to understand whether they are a means of saving energy, or the responsibility for harvesting and stacking has a purely educational function.
The current Hochfilzen is probably the first truly severe stage in terms of disciplinary requirements during the pandemic. Just a month ago, Austria lived in a fairly preferential regime: it was required to wear masks only in grocery stores, cafes and restaurants worked everywhere, and not everyone was asked for the QR code prescribed by the rules. Lockdown changed everything. For example, the owners of Tyrolean guesthouses (and this, consider the entire population of mountainous Austria) is strictly forbidden to accommodate tourists.
We managed to book accommodation only after convincing the owners that we had all the permits on hand: accreditation for competitions, that is, official confirmation that you arrived in the country on official business, vaccination certificates, PCR test, which must be passed every three day. Actually, the accreditation card itself has also undergone changes: the days on which a person can be freely admitted to the stadium are marked in the usual font. Then there are red circles, reminding the owner of the need to pass the next test on time.
"In Ostersund, this was not, but now - alas ..." - Brigitte Bentele, the permanent secretary of the IBU in charge of the work of the accreditation center, commented on the innovations. Ironically, the third stage of the World Cup fell exactly on the last three days of lockdown: on Monday, the country returns to its usual pre-Christmas life and looks forward to it with colossal impatience.
In the meantime, the situation is the most that neither is a military one. All movements are strictly recorded at the stadium. At the entrance to the press center, the scanner writes on the screen: Go. At the exit you get: Out. The procedure does not change, even if you leave the press working area for just a couple of minutes. Exactly the same control near the door leading to the cafeteria. It is somewhat easier for those who are in the stadium: the coaching exchange is separated from the rest of the world by a two-meter sanitary zone in the form of an empty corridor fenced off with low fences, but this does not hinder communication. Rather, on the contrary: a common siege reality humanly rallied the people. So at least it seems from the outside: everyone waving to each other, asking about business, sharing news.
The mood of the people is high: Hochfilzen after the ever-chilly night of Ostersund is perceived festively, and besides, here the athletes will have an extremely successful program in terms of compactness: two sprints, two pursuit races, two relay races.
All this is packed into three competition days and, as is usually the case before the start of the competition, everyone is filled with optimism.
The Austrians are looking forward to the victory of Lisa-Teresa Hauser, who currently has the yellow jersey of the leader, but has never, surprisingly, won at home in her career.
The Norwegians hope that their main hope, Tiril Eckhoff, is about to take shape, and they are punishing with might and main that since Hochfilzen is the place where biathletes see the sun for the first time, the Eckhoff star must certainly rise here too.
Well, the male intrigue is traditionally connected with the Norwegian-Swedish confrontation: Sebastian Samuelsson twice became the king of the sprint in Ostersund, but the yellow jersey of the leader from Sweden was taken away by the Norwegian Vetle Shostad Kristianssen. It is not yet known how actively the representatives of Russia will be able to intervene in the medal showdown, but the head coach of the men's team, Yuri Kaminsky, noticed that he was waiting for gold. True, he did not specify: whether we are talking only about the men's relay, or about personal races too.
Another ex-Russian coach Wolfgang Pichler, who came to Hochfilzen from Ruhpolding (44 km straight through the mountains, or 65 km - along a mountain serpentine by car) on Thursday was perhaps the most noticeable figure in the stadium. The well-known specialist talked to everyone in a row: with Russians, Germans, Norwegian Frenchman Siegfried Maze, Swedish coaches, whom he consults from time to time on current problems.
When I caught him near the press center, I confessed that he came to the biathletes rather out of friendship, since the official necessity, namely, the contract with the Swedish Olympic Committee, implies cooperation not so much with biathletes as with skaters and the women's ski jumping team ... Well, since both are preparing for the Games in Beijing near Ruhpolding, the service requires you to go back, without waiting for the start of the competition in Hochfilzen. When asked if the coach missed the times when he himself stood on the stock exchange with a telescope, Wolfgang broke into a smile.
“You can’t imagine with what impatience I drove here to see my friends as soon as possible.
Still, the pandemic severely deprived us of our normal life: my brother Klaus even went to study after he resigned as Mayor of Ruhpolding last year.
Now he goes to Salzburg to listen to a course in theology, but I got out to biathlon.
We talked so well with colleagues, but, you know ... just being here, I very keenly felt a colossal inner freedom from the fact that I was no longer a coach.
Therefore, I am leaving home without regret, "Pichler answered, and then, after a pause, he winked conspiratorially:" We, real fans, know that it is best to watch biathlon at home on TV! "