Tarjei Boe, multiple Olympic medalist, multiple World Champion and World Cup Total Score winner, talks about Maren Kirkeeide’s Olympic gold in the Sprint, her incredible strengths and the joy the biathlon kids from Stryn, where the famous Boe Brothers and Kirkeeide come from, take with them as they take on the world and conquer it.

Maren Kirkeeide has just become the youngest Olympic Sprint champion ever. It was such a great feeling watching her. I felt so much love in so many different ways: Maren had a tough start to these Olympic Winter Games in the Mixed Relay and Individual, she is a former teammate and, of course, she comes from the same town as Johannes and me. It often takes world-class athletes one Olympics to learn about the greatest event in the world, to soak in the atmosphere and process everything before they can perhaps fight for medals at the following Games. But Maren just won a gold medal in only her second individual Olympic competition; she is an incredibly strong woman.

It is clear that she won the Sprint on the last lap, she dug deep, erasing a 9-second deficit. Skiing-wise, her race was perfectly paced. But it was her bouncing back from both disappointing shooting performances in the Mixed Relay and Individual that impressed me the most. It is very tough to open the Olympics with disappointment and regroup overnight. But Maren did; she shot 10/10 and worked really hard to stay in the moment and put the last shot into the target.

Can Winning Olympic gold at such a young age can change expectations overnight? Of course, but Maren’s case is specific. She is a young athlete, but she is also a very successful athlete, standing fourth in the World Cup Total Score after the first two trimesters and thus aware of the expectations. She possesses enormous inner strength and, if anything, the Sprint gold only lifted a great weight from her shoulders and she could do more great things in Antholz.

Like Johannes and me, Maren comes from Stryn. We are the town of biathlon champions, a little bit special, at least I would like to believe. I remember being a kid in our local club, just going to training once a week, shooting a bit, just for fun, playing with friends in the snow, with no training philosophy, just having a blast in the nature. Of course, the training got more serious and more structured as we were growing up, but we never lost the feeling of that initial joy of just doing things for fun. And that is an incredible gift given to the kids there. It can carry you to the top, as we can see. As a kid, you dream about the Olympic Games, winning a medal, watching your idols. It is a long way. It is an achievement in itself just to make the Norwegian national team. Johan-Olav Botn and Maren won their gold here, and I feel they are only starting. I am looking forward to seeing more of them here and in the coming seasons.