"The squabbles are still in the back of my mind"
Interview with Sport1 before the start of the season 2003/2004

He is known for not wearing gloves. No matter if it is -18°C, Sven Fischer competes without gloves and he does rather successfully. He achieved 2 olympic gold medals, 6 world champion titles and 23 world cup victories up to now. The 32-year old is optimistic before the season’s start in Finnish Kontiolahti: “ If I’m able to confirm my training results, it should be good enough for good placings.” In the interview with Sport1 Fischer also talks about characterizing experiences, the misunderstandigs of last winter and the biathletes' excursion to a recording studio.

Sport1: You started slowly into the seasons during the last years. Will you also be running behind in Kontiolahti?
Sven Fischer: I hope not. I feel better than same time last year, if I can trust my body and the results of our test competitions.

Sport1: Could you put that in more concrete terms, what are your goals for the beginning of the season?
Sven Fischer: I want to confirm my training performance. If I manage to do that, this should be enough for good placings.

Sport1: Good placings – that’s still rather vaguely. Could we agree on a top 3 result?
Sven Fischer: I wouldn’t say that. I don’t know how the others will do – and so I can’t judge the situation. So: I won’t make a prognisis.

Sport1: Previous season there was a great rumble in the men’s team. When the team wasn’t successful in the beginning of the season, it was said the athletes are too old. This year the youngest athlete of the team is Alexander Wolf, aged 24. Exept for Michi Greis (27) and Jörn Wollschläger (25) all the athletes who have arrived in the World Cup are older than 30. Are there no newcomers in Germany?
Sven Fischer: Yes, there are. But there are not as much as there were in previous times.

Sport1: How come?
Sven Fischer: That’s a problem politicians should think about. If you look at the status of sports in school, I’m not taken by surprise about missing newcomers. We have to strengthen the basis, if we want to see top results in the future.

Sport1: In alpine skiing a model of financial bail was introduced before that season. Older skiers are allowed to start, if they pay a bail of 10.000 €. If they are in the top 15 in the end of the season, they get their money back. Do you think this could be a model for biathlon aswell?
Sven Fischer: There is no holiday-mentalitiy in the team, that had to be abolished that way. What ist the criterion for participation in the World Cup? It should be performance, not age.

Sport1: Despite of the successful World Championships the atmosphere in the team was everything but good. It was said Ricco Gross received special treatment. How are things this year?
Sven Fischer: That’s right, bad blood was created. We had problems with the material mainly. We drew obvious conclusion, a technician as exchanged.

Sport1: What was the problem? It look like the team had split in two parts. Oberhof with Peter Sendel, Frank Luck and you on one hand, the Ruhpolding athletes Ricco Gross and Michael Greis on the other.
Sven Fischer: That was just pure coincidence. The problems with the materials were fought out. The team was split. On the one hand the athletes using Fischer Skis, on the other hand the Rossignol team. That was the problem.

Sport1: Is all that a thing of the past now?
Sven Fischer: The squabbles are still in the back of my mind of course. But the atmosphere in the team is o.k.

Sport1: Fritz Fischer, national co-trainer and head of Ruhpolding training camp is known for his special ideas in training. To improve gliding the biathletes joined Anni Friesinger on the ice rink and they are urged to play golf for mental training. Do you also do things like that?
Sven Fischer: I wasn’t on the ice, though I would have liked to do a few laps with Anni. I think it is much more important to listen to what your body tells you and to recognize your own strength and weak points. That’s what you have to work on.

Sport1: What is you strength?
Sven Fischer: I can put up with a lot of things. When I was a little boy I saw lots of things not going as planned, in life and especially in competitive sports. A training companion of my father ended up in a wheelchair. That relativates everything. You can put up with disappointments much easier. I am grateful for every competition I can do. I don’t have to win.

Sport1: Financially spoken, a World Cup victory in biathlon isn’t worth as much as one in cross country or alpine skiing. You get 7.500 € for a number one from your federation, the others get 15.000 €. That’s not really fair…
Sven Fischer: You have to see it that way: first we got nothing, now we get more and more. I don’t delude myself, but I’m not envious. Money is the wrong motivation.

Sport1: The season the World Championships in Oberhof, just around the corner of where you live, are your goal. You won your last gold medal as a soloist four years ago. What about this time?
Sven Fischer: I don’t focus that at the moment, though it’s an aim worthwhile. But I don’t put myself under pressure.

Sport1: You have already dealt with one task concerning the World Championships. “We are on the top”, that’s what the song, sung by the German biathletes, is called. Will you be next candidates for a star search TV-show?
Sven Fischer: No, that was just for fun. The result is fun. But none of my teammates wants to start a career as a singer. And there was no hidden talent discovered.

The interviewer was Anja Schramm