Biathlon World Championships: Germany Scores a Medal Coup

Originally published in SPORT1 on February 22, 2025

The German biathlon relay team achieved a medal coup at the World Championships, securing bronze in a race where the dominant Norwegian squad won gold.

The German men put in an outstanding performance from start to finish, overcoming pre-race doubts. Not long ago, a DSV quartet had managed to obtain a medal in Antholz, also finishing third. In this race, start man Phillip Nawrath showed a minor wobble at the standing shooting stage but recovered with a third extra cartridge, thereby avoiding a penalty round. Danilo Riethmüller then kept the team in medal contention with a solid performance using three extra rounds, before Johannes Kühn delivered an exceptional leg without any extra rounds, pulling the team into third place.

Kühn Overcomes “World Championship Trauma"

After the race, Kühn explained in an interview with ARD, "At the shooting range, it was one of my best performances; the skiing was very challenging." He expressed his surprise at his own form, shedding tears of joy after years of unfortunate outcomes in relay selections. ARD expert Arnd Peiffer celebrated Kühn’s overcoming of his personal trauma at World Championships and his perfect relay performance.

Strong Finishing by Philipp Horn

The medal was further secured by the resilient anchor, Philipp Horn. Although he experienced a brief wobble in the prone shooting (using three extra rounds), his excellent performance in the standing shooting helped the team clinch the bronze. In the final shooting stage, Horn, competing alongside Swedish athlete Samuelsson, remained calm and hit all five targets, while Samuelsson required one extra cartridge. Horn, visibly exhausted, later explained on ARD’s microphone, "That was the toughest round I have ever had. At the finish, all I could think about was just coming to terms with life."

Gold was claimed by an extremely strong Norwegian relay (with a shooting sequence of 0+4), who had pulled clear early in the race and were never challenged thereafter. Silver went to the French team, which had won all four relay events in this World Cup season. The German team, with a total of ten extra rounds, finished 1:35.9 minutes behind the Norwegians, while Sweden came in fourth.

With Sport-Informations-Dienst (SID)