The 24-year-old from Norway won two Olympic gold medals and a bronze last winter, a national championship title, and a string of victories both inside and outside the World Cup. Now he wants to abandon the setup behind his extraordinary season.

Einar Hedegart got everything right with the program he ran alongside Team Anlegg Øst Entreprenør throughout last season.

The core of the approach was an altitude regime that both Hedegart and the rest of his teammates point to as the key to their success, and which coach Emil Hosøy describes as “completely outside the traditional framework.”

In the lead-up to the Milano-Cortina Olympics, Hedegart and the rest of the team spent nearly 100 days at altitude. The 24-year-old from Inderøy returned home with two Olympic gold medals and a bronze. He also added seven further victories, including four in the World Cup and one national championship title, and stood on the podium in every event he entered this winter.

Now Hedegart is considering dropping altitude work ahead of the coming season.

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Must prioritize differently

The reason is not that Hedegart has lost faith in altitude training. It is that he has returned to biathlon as part of the junior national team.

The 2029 World Championships in Holmenkollen are now the main focus for Hedegart, who hopes to break into the World Cup circuit from the very start of the season.

And to achieve that, there are entirely different areas he needs to prioritize now that he is no longer going all in on cross-country skiing.

“It may be natural to drop altitude training in order to become a better biathlete,” Hedegart told Trønder-Avisa, and explained:

“For me, altitude is not where the shoe pinches anyway. If I had chosen cross-country skiing, altitude training would have been a no-brainer, because I know it works for skiing fast. For my part, the physical side is not what holds me back. It is the shooting. If I can get the shooting right this year, I will have come a long way. And then I can afford to ski a little slower.”

Leaving Olympic stars behind on the course

Hedegart has proven on several occasions that he can ski past the world’s best biathletes.

He demonstrated that most recently in April at the national championships in Os, where he took silver in the sprint. Despite three missed shots, Hedegart finished just 13 seconds behind Olympic champion Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, who was clean at the shooting range.

No confirmed altitude plans

Hedegart is now preparing for his first camp with the biathlon national team. It begins in mid-June and will be held in Lillehammer, which is far from any altitude destination.

Whether the junior national team will go to altitude at all this season has not yet been confirmed.

The team has previously prioritized altitude heavily. But in the wake of the Olympic season, there have been major changes in the leadership and support staff. The federation has replaced and reorganized almost the entire coaching team, with the final piece falling into place only last week.

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