The poor shooting in the three first competitions this autumn has made biathlon star Martin Ponsiluoma lose confidence in achieving a top result in the overall World Championship. He is currently in 27th place before this week's competitions in Oberhof, with sprint today.
Instead, he sees the World Championship in Lenzerheide in February as more important now.
I feel an extra motivation towards the World Championship, where I really want to do something good, he says during a digital press conference.
Ponsiluoma changed the stock on his rifle before the season and says that he has never shot as well before the competition season as this autumn.
Find the flow and have fun
What happens then when it's competition time and he shoots himself out of top placements?
99.9 percent is the mental part. It's very small things that make you get into a negative spiral downwards, says Ponsiluoma's shooting coach Jean-Marc Chabloz.
Ponsiluoma explains it by saying that when the shooting started going badly, he made it too complicated.
It was very frustrating when you didn't get the results you wanted. I tried and tried. It became too much trying, I got tense and overthought a bit too much. It became a negative spiral, he says.
It got tougher the more bad competitions I did. Then it was about breaking the pattern. It was very important to get a break.
To break the negative spiral, Ponsiluoma put the rifle aside completely for several days during Christmas to find the flow again.
I just want to try to have fun and not think too much about the results, trust that the work I've done before has been very good and build on my self-confidence.
"Tough process"
Chabloz hasn't found anything in the shooting itself that Ponsiluoma needs to change, but the national team coaches are instead trying to help the biathlete build up his self-confidence.
We lift the positive, that if he shoots a miss in training, we lift the four shots that were good. And try to see to it that he can be satisfied with shooting 80 percent in a competition, says the shooting coach.
It's a tough process, but if he can do his routines, the work on the mat, then we're satisfied regardless of the result. It feels exciting to follow him and be with him in this process.
Born: September 8, 1995, in Östersund.
Lives: Östersund, cohabiting with Hanna Öberg.
Club: Tullus.
Main merits: Olympic silver in mass start 2022. Gold in sprint, silver in relay and bronze in mixed relay at the World Championship 2021. Silver in mass start, bronze in relay at the World Championship 2023. Gold in relay and bronze in mixed relay at the World Championship 2024. Two World Cup victories.
