Sweden has been hugely criticized for its performance during the Biathlon World Cup.
Now Sebastian Samuelsson defends himself.
– There are few people who win medals in all races, he says to SVT.
Last year’s WC in Oberhof was historically good for Sweden. The previous record was completely broken when it comes to medals, when Sweden collected a total of eleven. The same cannot really be said about this year’s championship in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
Now striking back
It was an initial bronze in the mixed relay, but after that it has been a fiasco in every competition. Yesterday, during the single mixed relay, Sebastian Samuelsson and Hanna Öberg were the team that had the most misses of all, and that has been the theme during this year’s WC. There has not been a single individual medal, and the tone in the media and on social media has been harsh.
But now Sebastian Samuelsson is giving up. With two competitions left – relays and mass start – he believes that the criticism is unnecessarily harsh.
– We are compared a lot to the Oberhof WC last year, but we are not worse biathletes now than we were then, it’s just about getting to these races and we haven’t got that so far in this championship, says Samuelsson to SVT.
“Don’t win every race…”
Sweden had a whopping 13 misses during yesterday’s single mixed relay, but Samuelsson believes that you can’t get caught up in that.
– That’s how it always is: You always compare yourself to those who win a medal, and they always shoot well because otherwise you don’t win a medal, says Samuelsson, and continues:
– It is clear that we need to shoot better to win a medal. But that applies to everyone. It’s easy to stand here every time and say the shooting is too bad, but that’s always the case when you don’t win a medal and there are few people who win medals in any race.
However, Johannes Lukas, head coach of the Swedish national biathlon team, is critical of the effort.
– In a single mixed relay, it is decided on the shooting range, and there we do not do well enough. It is too bad to win a medal, he says.
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