He was ill over Christmas, but has not missed a single race day this season. And on Tuesday he makes his fourth, out of probably seven, races in the WC in Oberhof.
When the season was tough, Sebastian Samuelsson – of course – thought about whether it wouldn’t be better to go home and train, he says.
At the same time, his line is crystal clear:
– We train all summer and all autumn. Then we’ll compete in the winter, that’s what we’re doing. My ambition is always to compete.
Colleagues Hanna Öberg and Elvira Öberg have missed races due to illness. Others have failed to qualify for hunt or mass races.
But unlike in the cross-country circus, there are few biathletes who skip competitions to, for example, save their bodies or stay at home and train.
Cross-country skiers don’t always reason like you. How do you see it?
– As a cross-country skiing lover, when you watch, for example, the Tour de Ski when you’re at home on Christmas and New Year, it’s boring. Because the best aren’t there, says Sebastian Samuelsson, newly crowned third in the WC.
– It feels like you are often afraid to compete for many different reasons… that you will get tired, or I don’t know.
He continues:
– But when we had finished competing in Ruhpolding in January, we had six competitions in ten days… Then it is also “Tour de ski” in that case.
Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT
Are you more endurance biathletes? Or does the World Cup mean more to you?
– I absolutely do not think that we are more persistent, but I think that the World Cup is more important for us and I think that is because everyone drives. If, for example, Johannes Thingnes Bø (Norway) had won all the competitions in December and then said that “now I don’t want to compete in January because I’m going to win WC gold”, then the World Cup would have received a bad status.
– So it is somehow an agreement, even if it is not stated, that everyone runs everything.
It is somehow an agreement, even if it is not stated, that everyone runs everything.
Maybe should the International Ski Federation (FIS) review its program, continues the 25-year-old.
– Because if it is the case that several (cross-country skiers) feel that it is not feasible to run all competitions, then it feels like there is something wrong with the organization.
Read more:
Championship winter 2023 – here are the Swedish medal hopes
