The past World Cup weekend was all about important qualifications and comebacks for German winter sports. In Ruhpolding, biathlete Selina Grotian secured the team's internal qualification for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games with a 14th place in the pursuit race. Franziska Preu declared the race as the best German in seventh place, while the Frenchwoman Julia Simon took the victory. In the men's competition, Justus Strelow impressed by finishing fourth in the mass start, which was won by the Norwegian Johannes Thingnes B0.
At the same time, the Nordic Combined competitions were the focus in Oberhof. Nathalie Armbruster made an impressive return after being disqualified the day before. She reached second place on Sunday and had already stood on the podium in third place on Saturday. Despite these successes, Armbruster voiced criticism of the basic conditions of her sport; in particular, the fact that women's Nordic Combined is still not included in the Olympic program is discouraging for the athletes.
The competitions were accompanied by difficult weather conditions, which demanded a lot from the organizers and athletes in the various disciplines, including ski jumping and luge. Nevertheless, the results underlined the competitiveness of the German teams in the current World Cup season.
