Dorothea Wierer: 7 facts about Italy's biathlon queen

From party girl to World Cup winner

Especially in her first professional years Dorothea Wierer was notorious as the party queen of the biathlon circus. "It was difficult during puberty. For me it was first party, then training," Wierer looks back. Nevertheless, Wierer made it to the top of the world. In 2018/19 and 2019/20 she secured the overall World Cup title. At her home World Championships in Antholz, Italy, in 2020, she won gold twice and silver twice. In total, Wierer has won ten World Cup medals. And she also took bronze at the Olympics with the mixed relay team in both 2014 and 2018.

Wierer also became only the second biathlete ever in February 2019 to claim at least one World Cup victory in all of today's disciplines.

Dorothea Wierer - The biggest social media personality in biathlon

Dorothea Wierer’s Instagram is an institution in the biathlon with over 600,000 fans. Among active winter sports, only alpine ski star Mikaela Shiffrin (approx. 1 million fans) can top that. By comparison, the reigning overall World Cup winner Tiril Eckhoff has "only" 255,000 fans on Instagram.

Dorothea Wierer photos and reels on Instagram are breaking records in terms of views among biathlon fans around the world. 

The number of Dorothea Wierer Facebook followers is as much as 372, 000!

Crazy speed at the shooting range - with one exception

At the shooting range a Dorothea Wierer in top form is hard to beat: At the World Cup 2020 in Antholz she needed just 19 seconds for the five targets.

But things can also turn out differently: In Östersund at the beginning of 2021 she stood at the shooting range for more than two minutes, needed almost one minute in windy conditions alone to fire the first shot. Looking back: "The first one and a half minutes flew by, but at some point I said to myself: 'Doro, you know that everybody else has already finished shooting! Then I just shot it. I was a bit ashamed of that scene and asked myself: what does my coach Andreas Zingerle think of me now?"

Dorothea Wierer private: Married since May 2015

Dorothea Wierer has been married to Trentino cross-country skiing coach Stefano Corradini since 2015. Both live in Castello-Molina in the Val di Fiemme. Corradini trained young cross-country skiers for the Trentino regional association from 2012 to 2021, helping talents such as Simone Dapra and Paolo Ventura into the World Cup. In May 2021, Wierer's husband announced his temporary retirement from cross-country skiing.

Doro Style: Dorothea Wierer's own ski fashion collection

The Italian ski and cross-country clothing manufacturer Sportful has launched its own ski fashion collection with Dorothea Wierer: "Doro Style" is the name of the line, which has already included seasonal new models from thermal jackets to equipment since 2017. A new line with 14 new products has also been launched for winter 2021/22.

Dorothea Wierer: Popular with sponsors

The fact that Italy is now hot for biathlon is mainly thanks to Dorothea Wierer. "Sempre Doro" was the headline of the otherwise football-dominated "Gazzetta dello Sport" when Wierer won her home World Cup gold in 2020. The then prime minister congratulated her - and biathlon achieved unprecedented viewing figures on state television.

With her success, look and personality, Wierer is the perfect pioneer for her sport and a sought-after face for sponsors - not only in Italy. Red Bull is one of her advertising partners as well as Rizzoli or her home region South Tyrol.

Dorothea Wierer's sponsors, partners and suppliers at a glance:

• Sportful
• Sanitary Heinze
• Young
• Rizzoli
• Skyalps
• South Tyrol
• Divus
• Red Bull
• Kettle
• Joka
• Anschütz
• Rossignol

Wierer and sustainability: Between shitstorm and climate challenge

Dorothea Wierer's Instagram fame also has its downsides: When Wierer posted photos of a flight in a private jet to Sweden in autumn 2021, the response on Instagram was scathing in view of the disastrous ecological footprint. From the ironic "very environmentally friendly" to "Of course with a private jet for climate change".

Wierer's penchant for flying has been a topic of discussion before: Swedish biathlete Sebastian Samuelsson appealed to Wierer, alluding to her frequent helicopter flights to competitions or training, saying he hoped "the helicopter would be parked at home". Wierer herself, however, is also involved in the FIS Biathlon Climate Challenge, which aims to plant a total of 100,000 trees.