PHOTO: Bildbyrån
They grew up together and made it through together.
Now Hanna Öberg and Anna Magnusson will chase WC medals together.
And Magnusson is moved to tears by teammate Öberg’s kind words about her.
The childhood friends Hanna Öberg and Anna Magnusson has followed two different paths to reach the world elite in biathlon. Öberg broke through as a super talent in the 2016-17 season and was mentioned early on as Swedish biathlon’s great hope for the future.
Öberg’s gold
Since then, the 27-year-old has won double Olympic gold and WC gold. While Magnusson has taken a significantly longer and more tortuous path to the top tier since his breakthrough in the same season as Öberg.
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She was also seen as a great talent but has had many tough years with injuries and weak results behind her. That’s why it was so incredibly long-awaited when Magnusson took the very first individual victory of his career at the World Cup at the end of last year.
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Beautiful words
The 27-year-old took home the sprint in French Annecy on December 16 and if Anna Magnusson was happy, teammate Hanna Öberg was even happier for her childhood friend.
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The duo started practicing biathlon together 18 years ago and Öberg opens up about the great joy and pride after that race.
– There is no one here that I wish for such success as much as Anna. We have been closely followed for a long time, I know that she has struggled a lot with various types of adversity and not been able to achieve what she is capable of. So that she got that confirmation, that she was the best in the world… It means a lot to me too, says Hanna in an interview with Dagens Nyheter.
Anna’s tears
Magnusson is then moved to tears when she hears her friend’s beautiful words to her.
– She is so cute, I almost get a little moved. It means a lot. It was the nicest thing when I won that there were so many people who were very happy for me, she admits to the daily newspaper.
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Now the teammates enter the WC to chase medals together seriously for the first time in their careers. Already in Friday’s sprint, Öberg and Magnusson stand next to each other on the starting line.
– Of course there will be nervousness in the same way as before, based on the fact that you want to do your best. But I’m still more relaxed than I’ve been before. In the past I have had to fight to start, says Anna Magnusson about her chances in the Biathlon World Cup.
– The biggest difference is that I have another season behind me. I think if things were to go bad now, it wouldn’t all come crashing down because of it. It doesn’t feel like I only have one chance, but that I’ve done very well.
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