German biathlon star Erik Lesser will end his career this weekend. Lesser’s final spring will include an imaginative rapture into the Ukrainian war, but also early-year help for a Russian rival.
Nina Old House,
Roope Visuri
19.3. 07:33 • Updated March 19 07:39
One of the biathlon color spots will end his career this weekend. A German who became known for his strict statements Erik Lesser competes in the World Cup for the last time at Holmenkollen.
Lesser grabbed three Olympic medals in his career. The highlight of his career was the World Championships in Kontiolahti in 2015. At that time, Lesser won World Championship gold in both the pursuit and the message.
The 33-year-old German star plans to move into coaching positions. Lesser, who has a lifetime contract with the German army, says he will take next year’s Sabbath leave. Lesser, a member of the IBU Athletes’ Committee of the International Biathlon Association, plans to spend more time with his family.
– I will start my university studies in Cologne in the autumn of 2023. Maybe then I will also start coaching, Lesser said in an interview with Sport a couple of weeks ago in Kontiolahti.
For Lesser, Finland has therefore been an important place in his career. In addition to the two world championships, the German took his first podium finish in the World Cup in Kontiolahti when he joined the German mixed media team in March 2010. The competition was also the first in the World Cup in Lesser’s career. 12 years later, Kontiolahti came in perhaps the last podium place in his career, when Lesser was second in pursuit.
When the head coach of Finland Jonne Kähkönen will stop this spring in his wash, Sports asked Lesser about his interest in coaching positions in Finland.
– That sounds very easy. Well no…, Lesser chuckled at Kontiolahti first until he got serious.
– Family is most important. Then second to nothing. Third, nothing. Maybe 12th place is some work.
Helped the Russian and imagined the events of the Ukrainian war
Lesser has always been one of the critical voices in his sport and has also held the sides of other athletes.
Before the Beijing Olympics, Lesser showed his sporting spirit. In January, the World Cup was competed in his hometown of Oberhof. Russian competitor Eduard Latipov was quarantined due to a positive corona test result.
When Lesser heard the news, he delivered an exercise bike to Latipov. In this way, the Russian was able to prepare for the Beijing Olympics despite isolation.
– I offered him a bike because I live here and I have no shortage of bikes.
Since then, the world has changed. Now, Russian athletes like Latipov have been shut down from world cups because of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Lesser has not been inactive in this case either. Lesser borrowed a Ukrainian biathlete from his Instagram account last week Anastasia Merkushynan and a tennis player Sergei Stachowskin for use.
Lesser wanted his account to convey a picture of the real situation in Ukraine in the war started by Russia. Lesser had 30,000 Russian followers on Instagram to whom he wanted to tell about the real events of the war.
– I don’t think the Russians know what’s really going on in Ukraine, Lesser told ZDF.
Teases sports decision-makers, and doesn’t want to just end their career in celebrations
However, lesser has not ironed out sports decision-makers. Recently, during the Beijing Olympics, a German star insulted the German chairman of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bachia.
Lesser was disappointed at how compatriot Bach ignored critical questions about the Beijing Olympics.
Lesser would have liked Bach to have spoken in a more critical tone with the Chinese administration. China was in the headlines during the Beijing Olympics for, among other things, its human rights violations. In addition, the strict corona protocol prevented the human element from racing, according to Lesser.
In his career, the experienced German star of the three Olympics believed he could reminisce about the Beijing Games in a gloomy way even fifty years from now.
– People, just the same no matter what happens, can say that Beijing has always been worse, Lesser shook.
Over the weekend, the career ends with many other biathletes like Lesser. Of the merited athletes, World Cup medalist and Olympic medalist Simon Desthieux and the 2019 World Champion Dominik Windisch will be seen for the last time at the World Cup starting line on Sunday.
Lesser plans to pull to the full end.