The ski mountaineering World Cup starts this Friday in Val Thorens, France, with a sprint competition.
The two Lenggrieser Skomo cracks Tatjana Paller and Thomas Kletzenbauer will be there.
Lenggries - Geierstein, Spitzkamp, Brauneck - if you want to show top performance on snow in winter, you have to be in good shape in summer.
So what could be more obvious for the two Lenggrieser ski mountaineering cracks Tatjana Paller and Thomas Kletzenbauer than to complete the summer training in the Isarwinkl mountains.
The two received the finishing touches together with the ten-strong perspective team from Team Germany last week during a week-long glacier training session in the Stubaital before the World Cup season begins with a sprint this Friday in Val Thorens.
Until the final on April 11th, the World Cup stops at a total of seven locations where the disciplines sprint (individual and team), vertical and individual are held.
The highlight of the season is the World Championships in the Pyrenees at the end of February 2023.
The new national coach is Florian Steirer
The Stubaital is also the home of the new Skimo national coach Florian Steirer.
The 40-year-old from Neustift took over from Thomas Bösl in the summer and will look after the national team full-time for the upcoming Olympic cycle – the sprint (individual and team) will be an Olympic discipline for the first time in Milan in 2026.
Although Steirer is new to ski mountaineering, he is by no means an unknown quantity in winter sports, having looked after the German national team for biathlon women for the past four years.
The Tyrolean proved to be a real medal maker: Denise Herrmann and Co. won ten World Championships and two Olympic medals under his direction.
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Wilder Reiter: Thomas Kletzenbauer starts as an all-rounder in all three Skimo disciplines, but calculates that he has better chances in the vertical and especially in the individual than in the sprint.
© SkiMoStats
Can this record of success be continued with Team Germany?
Probably not to this extent, but Steirer already has one medal contender in mind: 27-year-old Tatjana Paller from Lenggries.
“Of course you will only see more details after a few World Cups.
But based on my impressions so far, I'm convinced that Tatjana can compete with the best in the world in her favorite discipline, the sprint.
Physiologically, she is ideally equipped for the sprint and has the potential for the podium.” Paller originally comes from track cycling (U-23 European Champion 2017) and has mostly completed short, crisp units since she was young – just like the roughly four-minute ski mo- Sprint is required.
What Steirer appreciates most about Paller's performance: “She is able to run the fastest qualifying time in the prologue.
Tatjana Paller was close to the podium a couple of times
The Isarwinkler came very close to the podium a few times last season with fourth and fifth place in the World Cup and fourth place at the European Championships.
This year the button should open.
"I've scratched my podium often enough, the time is ripe for a medal," says Paller, German champion in all three disciplines, confidently.
With a varied training plan, the student has made herself fit to the point with bike, roller ski and high-speed strength units.
"It's the first time I've trained in a really specialized way.
The season can begin.”
Thomas Kletzenbauer is aiming for the top 30
For the time being, Thomas Kletzenbauer would like to cover the entire Skimo spectrum with all three disciplines, but with a focus on the individual, where not only the fit ski mountaineer but also the experienced downhill skier is required.
"I can get a lot out of that," says Kletzenbauer, taking sixth place (under 23s) at last year's season finale in Flaines to prove it.
The 23-year-old Lenggrieser has outgrown this age group.
Another handicap: The ski train in Reichenhall, to which Kletzenbauer belonged for two years, was dissolved.
Now the industrial mechanic has to cope with the double burden of work and professional sport.
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Medal maker: Florian Steirer is the new national coach of Skimo-Team Germany.
© Nils Lang/DAV
That worked quite well in the summer, even if it was "a bit stressful".
"But things are really moving forward with the individual training plans," he says, attesting to the new national coach's knowledge of competitive sports.
Of course, Steirer doesn't want to raise the bar too high: "Thomas is incredibly hard-working and focused, but the leap from the U23s to the men's division is immense.
You have to go into the competitions with correspondingly muted expectations and not expect anything utopian.
If it goes towards 30th place, it would be a positive surprise.” Thomas Kletzenbauer is also aiming for the top 30: his U 23 time in Flaines would have been 31st place for the men.
