Willing to help China's biathlon development (Olympics and me)

My name is Bjør Darren, I was a biathlon player on the Norwegian team, participated in six Winter Olympics since 1994, and won 8 gold medals. In 2019, I accepted the invitation of the Chinese team to start my seventh Winter Olympic tour as the coach of the Chinese biathlon team.

I work on a team of 6 people, and I'm the head coach and coach of the men's team. The coach of the women's team is my wife, who is also an excellent biathlon and has won 3 Winter Olympic gold medals. We also have two shooting instructors, a video analyst and an instrument specialist. As the training unfolded, my coaching philosophy and training methods were accepted by the athletes and staff of the Chinese team.

I came up with a systematic and targeted annual training program. The players are very clear about what they want to do, and in every training session and every competition, they can devote themselves wholeheartedly to achieve their stage goals. During these two years of training preparation, we were unable to train and compete abroad for a long time, but the athletes overcame these effects and achieved the goal of full participation in biathlon. In my opinion, the players have performed very well and this progress is the result of their tireless efforts.

Biathlon includes cross-country skiing and shooting, and the shooting hit rate of the team members is relatively good, but if the shooting speed and hit rate are combined, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Cross-country skiing is our weakness, and the team's cardio-lung endurance level is very good, but there are deficiencies in skiing technology and special ability. In the next step, we need to strengthen snow practice and improve the efficiency of skiing.

At this Winter Olympics, the players sometimes played erratically, but overall, the performance now is significantly better than before. In the same competition with the world's best players, the players can learn more directly and recognize the gap.

I am very honored to participate in the Winter Olympics again, the Beijing Winter Olympics provide athletes with excellent venues and event organization services, this is a simple, safe and wonderful Winter Olympic Games. I love biathlon and am willing to help the development of biathlon in China.

(The author is the head coach of the Chinese biathlon team, and the reporter of this newspaper, Fan Jiayuan, interviewed and sorted out)

People's Daily (2022-02-15 10th edition)