Meet: Amy Baserga!

The 18-year-old talent is one of Switzerland's big hopes to win a medal at the upcoming Youth/Junior World Championship on home soil. Her recent results play a big part in this: at the Youth Junior World Championships 2019 in Osrblie, Baserga managed to show her full potential. The young Swiss won the silver medal in the sprint competition and followed it up with a gold in the pursuit competition the very next day -- both in the Youth class. Now she is focusing on what might be the most important competitions in her career: the YJWCH 2020. She is giving us a sneak peek into her preparations at the host arena – Lenzerheide.

The alarm rings at 07:10: wake-up time for Baserga who lives in Lenzerheide, about 500 meters from the biathlon arena, conditions that every biathlete could dream about. Today a road-bike tour with the Swiss team is on the menu followed by individual shooting training. The first training is scheduled for 08:30. "I eat my breakfast which consists of swiss muesli, pack my rucksack and scroll on social media before heading down to the biathlon arena", the 18-year-old said about her start to the day.

Direction Chur-Thusis

After meeting both the Swiss junior and senior women's team at Biathlon Arena Lenzerheide, they head out. Together with Elisa Gasparin, Aita Gasparin and Lena Haecki, Baserga cycles on a more difficult route in the direction of Chur-Thusis, while the other girls take an easier cycle tour. "I choose the harder route simply because I love cycling, and I'm not bad at it", Baserga joked.

Baserga admits that during the 3.5-hour ride, the girls usually talk a lot amongst each other, often about random topics . "On these long trips some technical problems can also occur. We had a flat tire. A bit of Girl Power was needed to fix it and get back on track", Baserga continued. The team cycled a loop via Alvaschein, reached Chur-Thusis and headed back to Lenzerheide.

Recovery

After the bike tour, a starving Baserga went to eat in the Bualino, which is a cafeteria located directly in the Biathlon Arena. According to the two-time Swiss Junior Champion the food there tastes awesome. "After lunch, I normally take a 30 minutes power nap. Afterwards, I visited our physio to take a massage as a recovery. It’s the best regeneration before the second training in the afternoon. I am very thankful to Bianca Görner. She is doing a fantastic job. During the session, I chat with her about the day so far and catch up on things as I have not seen her since my injury healed in December last year", Baserga explained. Her medals in Orsblie earlier this year had come as a surprise to the Swiss since she had been labouring with foot issues during last autumn.

Working on the aim

After a visit to the physio, it is time for the afternoon training. Baserga did some individual shooting training, which is a good recovery from the morning session. The training started with SCATT: an optical sensor, attached to the rife and combined with special software. It allows the shooter to see immediate and detailed visualized feedback on the entire aiming process followed by some target games with her teammates.

"Using the optical sensor gives me important information about my shooting. It shows where the shooting mistakes are and I learn from them. When it comes to the target games it is very fun and good balance from all the hard work we do in the pre-season, I'm not the best at the shooting range in our team, and I handle losing this type of competitions well. Otherwise, I would say I'm a competitive girl"

With the YJWCH 2020 only four months away, Baserga admits that she can not hide the excitement imagining herself at the very same place, but in a more nerve-racking and pressured time.

Cooking at home and time to reflect

After an exhausting training day, Baserga and her good friend and teammate, Annatina Bieri, cook a healthy meal to end the day. "We cooked some couscous with pepperoni, carrots, tomatoes, avocado and some fruits for dessert. I am not a professional cook, but most of the time the food I cook is yummy. It is fun to cook with some company and while listening to good music", the Swiss explained.

When speaking about her goals at YJWCH 2020 the young Swiss is holding the cards close to her chest, but she is very much looking forward to competing at home and in front of her friends and family:

After the dinner, Baserga and Bieri met up with two more members of the Swiss junior team and went out for a local festival in Lenzerheide to end the day.