Janina Hettich-Walz - Biathlon
- Successes
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2-time Vice World champion
Bronze medal at World Championships
- Birthday
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06/16/1996
- Profession
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Armed forces athlete
- Club
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SC Schönwald
- Hobbies
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Cooking, piano, card games
- Role model
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Laura Dahlmeier, Gesa Felicitas Krause
- What's important to me
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Family, home, roots, working with young people
Having a close, trust-based relationship is very important to me. That is why I’m glad to have Viessmann at my side as a long-term partner.
Career
At the age of ten, Janina has her first contact with skiing. After graduating from the sports boarding school in Furtwangen in 2014, she joins the Todtnau sports training group. One year later, she participates for the first time in a Youth World Cup in Minsk. The following season, she competes for the German team in the IBU Cup and achieves her first podium finish in 2019, with a third place in sprint in Lenzerheide. She finishes fourth in the overall ranking, enabling her first World Cup start in Oslo in the same season. She achieves her first podium place at the World Cup in Pokljuka in the 2019/20 season with the mixed relay team. Together with the mixed relay team, she achieves her first podium finish at the World Cup on the Pokljuka in the 2019/20 season. The first world championship medal followed the following year at the same venue: Janina won silver with the relay team. In 2022, she was unfortunately unable to fulfill her dream of taking part in the Olympic Games, but a year later she competed at her home World Championships in Oberhof. In 2024, she crowned her career to date by winning silver in the individual and bronze in the relay at the World Championships in Nove Mesto.
Participation in the Junior World Championships
After her international debut in 2015, Janina competes in her first-ever Junior World Championships in Cheile Grădiștei in 2016.
First race in the IBU Junior Cup
Janina secures second place in her first IBU Junior Cup race and competes in the IBU Junior Cup on a regular basis this season.
First World Cup competition
Janina secures her first podium finish in the IBU Cup in sprint in Lenzerheide, taking third place. She wins silver with the mixed relay team at the European Championship in Minsk. Janina takes fourth place in the overall rankings for the IBU Cup, thus qualifying for the World Cup final in Oslo.
World Cup podium finish and first World Championship events
Janina kicks off the season in the IBU Cup again, but is then allowed to compete in the World Cup in Annecy Le Grand-Bornand. In Pokljuka, she secures her first podium finish in the World Cup with the mixed relay team. Janina celebrates her World Championship debut at the 2020 World Championships in Antholz.
Vice world champion in the relay
This year Janina celebrates her sportive breakthrough and competes in the World Cup over the whole season. With a relay victory in Oberhof and another podium place with the relay team in Antholz, she can even stand on the podium twice. But the highlight of the season and her career so far is undoubtedly the silver medal with the women's relay team at the 2021 World Championships on the Pokljuka.
Just a small step back
After her successful pre-season, Janina starts directly in the World Cup. However, the strong performances from the previous year are missing, so that she unfortunately misses the season highlight, the Olympic Games in Beijing. In the final World Cup races Janina's form shows an upward trend again.
Qualification for the home World Championships in Oberhof
Janina starts the season in the IBU Cup, but quickly becomes part of the World Cup team thanks to her good performances. In Antholz, she secured direct qualification for the World Championships with seventh place in the sprint. At the World Championships, she also competed in the sprint, as well as in the pursuit and in the singles in front of her home crowd in Oberhof. But Janina has also been on the World Cup podium this season and has celebrated two relay podium finishes.
The breakthrough
The 2023/24 season gets off to a bumpy start - Janina is set back by an infection. Overall, however, her form is steadily improving and over the course of the winter she collects several top 10 finishes. At the highlight of the season, the World Championships in Nove Mesto, she crowned her career to date with an outstanding race and sensationally won silver in the individual event. She also won a bronze medal in the relay. In the last third of the season, she confirms these performances and comes second in the mass start in Canmore.
