Total Score Importance Changes Training

In an era filled with coaching specialists for everything from stretching to nutrition to shooting, Pichler recalled that coaching thirty years ago, “was much easier. In 1992-93, we did not have all of this help. We had a video camera and lactate tests. I was one of the first ones to use lactate testing. I worked a lot with the fax. You could not see what the athletes were doing at home. The World Cup Total Score was introduced and became very important, so you had to change the whole training plan. Before this, you really just trained for the World Championships, but with this new organization, the IBU and the TV contract, the whole World Cup season was suddenly important. The training had to be changed so the athletes would perform well all season and still have the top performance at the World Championships.”

Developing a System

Pichler was prepared for this new season-long preparation with a program that had its roots when his wife was in university, studying sports. “My mentor was my first wife, who needed a thesis subject; her advisor suggested cross-country and lactate, based on the studies of Alois Marder who brought lactate testing to the West from East Germany. We knew nothing about this. Our only (training) tool was a heart rate monitor. In those days, we thought that you could only go 3-4 minutes at threshold level, but through using lactate levels we found out that you could go much farther.”

“Unbelievable how it changed”

“Biathlon has changed so much in the last 30 years. It is unbelievable how it changed. Biathlon was a really small sport and this was our luck. Our nose was never too high to not change something. Secondly, in the IBU every nation has only one vote so we always work together. By working together, we built up a big sport. If we had not worked together, we would never have the mixed relays. It gave the smaller nations a chance to be competitive in relays. Now winning the mixed relay is a big deal, but it is the hardest to win. And all of these other sports like athletics and swimming followed us with these mixed competitions.”

Serious Personalities: JT, Ole, Martin, Magdalena, Sebastian and Hanna

All of the names on the long list of champions and medalists developed by Pichler had a common thread that ensured success. “All of the best were serious in training and trained a lot. They were serious personalities. None of them were super talents, but I taught them to train really hard; to live their life as a champion. They focused on recovery, food, everything. To be the best in the world, you have to do it like the best in the world. Johannes Boe, in my opinion, has changed his life and become more serious. He is an extraordinary talent. All of these superstars like Boe, Ole, Fourcade and Magdalena are super serious. To win the Total Score six times like Magdalena, you have to be serious. Sebastian Samuelsson may not have that same talent but he can really train and knows how to be prepared for the big events. Hanna Oeberg is a champion in the same way. Before the 2018 Olympics, she was not that good, but became an Olympic Champion because she was so serious.”