Lucie Charvátová enters her fourteenth biathlon season in complete mental ease. After a successful year as a key member of the relay team, she feels her body is tired, but her motivation remains strong.

“I’m completely fine now, and I enjoy biathlon,” Lucie Charvátová said in an interview with biatlon.cz at the start of her preparation for her fourteenth season with a small-caliber rifle on her back.

The thirty-three-year-old biathlete is entering a new Olympic cycle with a positive mindset. She has just completed a season where she became a cornerstone of the Czech relay teams and returned to the flower ceremony after six years. According to her, thoughts of retirement are far from her mind – biathlon still excites her, and she finds motivation without much trouble.

Unconventional start to preparation

While most of the team kicked off their summer training traditionally in Nové Město na Moravě, Charvátová chose a different path and headed to a multi-day cycling training camp in Mallorca – a choice that many athletes opted for this year after the Olympic season due to the increased space for volume training. However, she insists it was definitely not a vacation: during the camp, she cycled for over thirty hours, and fatigue grew with each passing stage.

This different approach to preparation was evident as, while her teammates in Nové Město quickly transitioned to intense training, she remained focused on volume and moderate intensities for a longer period. According to her, the training intensities should align during the August camp.

Read More: Czech biathlon teams for season 2026/2027

No major changes

After a successful season, Charvátová sees no reason for drastic changes in her training – at her age, she feels she wouldn’t even allow herself to make such changes.

She admits that her musculoskeletal system has been signaling some issues lately, including knee pain from cycling.

She is also critical of the trend where athletes let themselves be overly influenced by what they see from other teams on social media when planning their preparation, preferring to rely on her experiences, feelings, and collaboration with coaches and the biochemist who was part of the training camp.

Stable support for the relays

She evaluates the past season as one of the best in her career, primarily due to her performances in the relays. Although she believes her individual results could have been better, she values the stability and calm atmosphere in the team, and the absence of significant stress.

This year, the national team has welcomed Heda Mikolášová and Kateřina Pavlů, with whom Charvátová feels she has a good rapport. She sees the more experienced team members as motivation for newcomers, demonstrating that biathlon can be pursued long-term and reach a high level.

Also Read – Lucie Charvátová: Czech biathlon up close

Tax advisor

Charvátová has long been involved in accounting and tax matters for athletes and sports organizations.

She even organized a sports-financial quiz for her younger colleagues to introduce them to the topics she professionally engages with.

This spring, she processed tax returns for young athletes across various sports and found that awareness of this area is generally insufficient among them – hence, she published a practical guide for them.

New destinations and concerns about Summer heat

This year’s preparation has led to a division between the men’s and women’s teams, which does not bother the biathlete.

On the contrary, she looks forward to the new training camp in Font-Romeu, France, which she has yet to experience, despite being involved in biathlon for about fifteen years. She considers two three-week altitude camps sufficient, especially since the World Championships will be held in Otepää, Estonia – she believes last year’s preparation was overdone due to the Olympics.

She does have mild concerns about the summer heat during the camps in Oberhof and Nové Město.

Support for Štvrtecký

At the end of the interview, Charvátová, who herself transitioned from cross-country skiing to biathlon in the past, commented on Jakub Štvrtecký’s switch.

She supports his move to cross-country skiing and believes it could be a refreshing change for him – especially since he will be free from the typically long morning training sessions at the shooting range and can tailor his training to his preferences.

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