PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Sweden had its best Biathlon World Cup of all time.
And Norway was once again dominant and won the medal league.
That makes the Swedish expert and former national team skier Carl-Johan Bergman very worried.
It was an incredible end to the Biathlon World Cup for Sweden when both gold medals were awarded to Swedes on Sunday. Sebastian Samuelsson exceeded all expectations when he sniffed the gold favorite Johannes Thingnes Bö on the WC gold in the mass start.
Öberg WC gold
A few hours later wanted Hanna Öberg not to be outdone and struck with a super race to win his second WC gold in Oberhof. Öberg was thus crowned WC queen and Sweden also wrote blue and yellow sports history.
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Never before has a Swedish national team won so many medals in the Biathlon World Cup. Altogether, there were 11 medals for our Swedish heroes, but it was still only enough for second place in the medal league.
READ MORE: Sebastian Samuelsson’s wonderful greeting to all of Norway – cocky words after the World Cup success: “Now I am…”
Swedish concerns
Because once again it was Norway that took home the most medals with its 13 and the great WC king was of course the dominant Thingnes Bö with three individual gold medals and two relay golds. But behind Sweden and Norway, there is a considerable gap down to third on the medal list.
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There we find France with only four medals and in total there were only six different nations that won a medal during this year’s Biathlon World Cup. That’s what the Swedish expert and former national team skater does Carl-Johan Bergman directly concerned.
– Yes, I’m actually starting to get a little worried. Maybe not this World Cup, because we have many nations who are there fighting for it. But Sweden and Norway have the biggest resources, Sweden and Norway have the biggest fencing teams. And if there is now a fluoride ban on this, I think the distance between the best and worst teams will be even greater. We cannot afford that. The association, IBU, must do something, he tells Radiosporten.
READ MORE: Hanna Öberg’s tears after the mighty WC gold – reveals the strong emotions after the huge success: “It was a struggle”
“That’s the danger”
The radio expert then continues his explanation about the future of biathlon.
– The danger is that those who have the best resources have the best skis and so there will be a very large gap between the average nations that do not have so many resources. Then it will be the big nations that are always on the podium and always ride well. But we want to see diversity within the biathlon world, says Bergman in his analysis.
He puts a lot of emphasis on bigger nations like Germany, France and Italy needing to step up to provide more competition at the top of the world.
– Absolutely, we want to be present throughout Europe and all nations must have their idols. not only us Scandinavians, but all of Europe is important for biathlon, both for the resources, for the money but also to become a great sport, he says to the radio channel.
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