The pressure of internal selection was brutally tough at times, higher than in an Olympic final, says Nina Christen. The Olympic champion from Tokyo is traveling to the 2024 Games mentally invigorated.
What the Swiss women are currently showing in the supreme discipline of shooting, the three-position match over 50 m, is extraordinary. The qualifying competition for the two starting places in the small bore rifle was held at such a high level that even an Olympic champion was in danger of being knocked out: there is the 15-year-old shooting talent Emely Jäggi, who won an Olympic qualifying place at her second (!) elite event and took bronze at the European Championships in Osijek last May. There is Chiara Leone, who even won gold at the same European Championships in Croatia. And there is the highly decorated Nina Christen, who ultimately achieves the highest score in the internal ranking during the Swiss Shooting qualification period from January 2023.
"I was the hunted, the others were the hunters. And as a hunter, you can go 'all in' more than a hunted person. That's a big difference mentally," emphasizes Nina Christen, who won the supreme discipline together with Chiara Leone.
Completely new situation
"I had to face up to this situation, a completely new situation," she says and comments on the purely sporting component: "We spent half a year working hard." An Olympic final absorbs you for a few days, but here everything took half a year. "New strategies are suddenly required. You have to be open to new things."
Nina Christen is proud to say that she passed this test. She has emerged stronger from this situation, she can compete first in the 10 m air rifle, as she did in Tokyo 2021 - in this discipline she represents the Swiss colors with Audrey Gogniat - and she is spending the days in France with a larger team than expected, because small bore shooter Christoph Dürr and Jason Solari with the pistol have also cleared the Olympic hurdle.
A better shooter
It remains to be seen whether Nina Christen can repeat her successes from Tokyo (bronze with the air rifle and gold in the three-position match with the small bore rifle). In any case, she will travel to Châteauroux, where the medal sets will be awarded 250 km south of Paris at France's national performance center, in good spirits.
"I'm more relaxed than I was three years ago," she emphasizes, "I can handle the pressure better." She finds a better balance in her head between "completely focused and easy".
According to the budding helicopter pilot, she has become an even better shooter. She knows when to rest and recover, how to improve the quality of her training, how often she should go to the physio or work with a psychologist, which competitions she should enter or deliberately skip, and what steps she needs to take to get her private pilot's license. "I can handle the pressure better. I can immerse myself better in the different worlds," she emphasizes.
