Four years ago, also at the beginning of the Olympic winter, Davidová dominated the endurance race in Östersund as the reigning world champion in this discipline, thus laying the foundation for winning the small crystal globe. Since then, however, a lot has happened in her biathlon life.
Last winter, she managed only one fifteen-kilometer race in Kontiolahti, in which she finished 30th, the rest of the season was marred by a herniated disc, for which she had to undergo surgery in the spring.
However, her return to the elite is still going beyond her own expectations. On Saturday, she finished third with the women’s relay, and on Sunday, she took the mixed quartet to fifth place. In both cases, she had the third best time on the most well-attended section.
“Before the start of the season, we didn’t have a comparison with the competition, but we ran two races in Vuokatti. We know what kind of runner Lucka is, so we also had an indication with Makula that it might not be bad,” reminds Jakub Procházka, a newcomer to the women’s coaching team, on the website biatlon.cz. In Finland, Davidová won both test races ahead of Charvátová.
The 28-year-old biathlete herself knows that she has not definitively won, she must be more careful with her back. “She started well and now we will try to keep her in shape and in a state of health that will allow her to compete. There are still better and worse days. We deal with her condition on a daily basis,” says Procházka.
However, she is clearly the biggest Czech hope for the endurance race, which is why the coaches put her in the opening group. She will start at 15:32 as the fourth out of 106 biathletes at the start. Davidova can benefit from the fact that she was only 33rd in the World Cup after missing most of the season and is not in the two highest-seeded groups that come later.
Last season’s top competitor Franziska Preussová from Germany and Lou Jeanmonnotová from France will not hit the track until fifty minutes later, which may play a role.
“On Monday it was very cold here, minus three, but on Tuesday morning it should rain, it will be above zero and it will get warmer during the race. We expect that the track will break down over time,” Procházka describes the coaching strategy.
Tereza Voborníková sets off with number 22 at 15.41, followed five and a half minutes later by Lucie Charvátová with number 33, who shows excellent running form. “She trained a lot, both in terms of hours and quality. She didn’t have any major setbacks in her preparation, both races were perfect for her,” says Procházka.
But shooting will be important, there are twenty targets waiting on the track, every minute means an extra minute. Number 78 belongs to Jessica Jislová, who had time off on Sunday after training due to health problems, Tereza Vinklárková will start with number 93 for the first time in Östersund.
“She pleasantly surprised me with her running performance in Vuokatti, compared to the girls she wasn’t doing bad at all and here we saw how Makula and Lucka are doing. She didn’t do so well at the shooting range, so she and Čika worked a lot on that here,” says Procházka, who forms a coaching tandem with Lukáš “Čika” Dostál.
In Wednesday’s men’s race, a recovered Jonáš Mareček should already be at the start, on the contrary, Jakub Štvrtecký will probably be absent due to illness.
