Wolfgang Pichler: A lifetime in biathlon

Wolfgang Pichler has been one of the most influential, successful, innovative and controversial coaches in biathlon for much of the past three decades. Most of this time was spent in Sweden, guiding the Swedish team to unprecedented success, bringing cross-country skiers, who became Olympic medalists into the sport while also identifying and developing young unproven talents into Olympic and World Championship Gold medalists. At least one of Pichler’s athletes won a medal at six of the seven Olympic Winter Games between 1994 and 2018. His many protégés include Magdalena Forsberg, Anna Carin Olofsson Zidek, Bjorn Ferry, Sebastian Samuelsson, Helena Ekholm, and Hanna Oeberg. In his 64 years, Pichler has seen biathlon grow from a dozen competitors shooting at paper targets across an alpine lake to a world-wide sports phenomenon that regularly attracts 100,000 spectators to massive stadiums each winter weekend. A couple of months ago, we sat down with Pichler to talk about his long career and his future plans which include working, of course. in Swedish winter sports.