Sebastian Samuelsson’s brutally honest words after the leaden era – which everyone loves: “Many laughed at me”

Sebastian Samuelsson comes from a lead-heavy period.
But he doesn’t feel worried about the WC.
– Many people laughed at me before the WC last year, he says to SVT.

Sebastian Samuelsson had a dream start to the season when he won the single mixed relay and the pursuit start during the premiere weekends in Östersund. But since then, the podium places and the nice competitions have not happened, and the competitions of the last few weeks have not given any dream message for the WC that is coming up.

Wonderful words before the WC

During the last two weeks’ competitions, in Ruhpolding and Antholz, Samuelsson’s best finish was 13th place. Samuelsson is our biggest medal hope in the WC on the men’s side, but despite the weak form, he feels no worries.

– I like this period before championships. I feel almost every day when I wake up that my body feels a little better than the day before, he tells SVT.

Samuelsson believes that the weak results of the last few weeks are primarily due to poor shooting, something he calls “frustrating”.

– I had a few tougher weeks, especially in Antholz, where I shot very poorly. In the last race I got 18 hits on the mass start and it was very nice. Since then, I have had some very good shooting sessions here at home. I’ve never been worried about the shooting in the long run, but it’s clear that in that situation it’s frustrating, says Samuelsson.

“Then everyone laughed…”

Sebastian Samuelsson entered the WC last year with a worse period behind him. Before the championship, he believed that he himself had a medal chance in all races, which was met with scattered reactions.

– Many people laughed at me when I said that, because I had had a tough season. I see that I have just as good a chance this year, but biathlon is such a sport where things change quickly and you can do good races without getting any medals.

Norway has completely dominated the World Cup so far. In the overall World Cup, you find a Norwegian skater in place one, two, three, four, five and six. Only in seventh place is another rider found, and it is a Swede in the form of Martin Ponsiluoma. It is also worth noting that superstar Johannes Thingnes Bö had a tougher season.