Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says biathlon at Winter Olympics is 'completely the same' as big UEFA Champions League nights
Updated 21/02/2026 at 11:06 GMT
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Jurgen Klopp told TNT Sports that "setbacks" athletes can experience in football and biathlon are "completely the same", likening competing at the Winter Olympics with an important UEFA Champions League fixture. Klopp has been soaking in the action at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, ringing the bell in the biathlon men's relay, and expressed his admiration for those competing.
Watch: Klopp opens up on similarities between biathlon and Champions League nights
Video credit: TNT Sports
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said the pressures biathletes face are "completely the same" as those experienced by footballers on big UEFA Champions League nights.
Klopp ended his legendary spell in the Anfield dug-out when he left the club in the summer of 2024, replaced by Arne Slot.
It brought an end to nearly nine years on Merseyside, during which he won the Champions League in 2019, and followed up with Liverpool's first Premier League title in 30 years the following season.
Klopp now works at the global head of soccer at Red Bull, but has managed to carve out some time to get involved in the biathlon action at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics - ringing the bell for the final lap of the men's relay.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Klopp expressed his admiration for the mindset of Olympians, whose hopes and dreams boil down to just a single day in a four-year cycle.
"What they do, and all the Olympic sports with four years in between, the mental side of it, so immense," he said. "You have to be fit and at the top of your game on exactly that day."
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Weston enjoys ‘surreal’ 30-minute chat with 'sound guy' Klopp
Video credit: SNTV
And asked whether there are any parallels between biathlon and a big night of Champions League action, Klopp replied: "There are a lot of similarities, that's clear.
"It's completely the same, you have to deal with setbacks constantly. We in football miss big chances, concede easy goals, that's probably the most similar to missing the target, and still have to go on.
"You have to keep believing, there are a lot of similarities. The bigger the stake, the bigger the pressure."
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Klopp on 'love' for Olympics and his favourite event
Video credit: SNTV
Klopp is a big fan of biathlon icon and 14-time Olympic medallist Ole Einar Bjorndalen, with his admiration first noted in 2019 when he featured in a documentary about the Norwegian.
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The German football coach has since been able to enjoy watching the biathlon alongside one of the best to ever compete in it.
"It isn't always cool to be well-known, famous, however you call it," Klopp said. "But I'm pretty sure if I'd have not been working for Liverpool for such a long time I'd have never met Ole Einar Bjorndalen.
"He was great. He knows everything about the sport. He knew each guy, he knew 'this guy is good under pressure, not good under pressure, he's better in the lead' - it was fantastic."
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Video credit: TNT Sports
Klopp's sights are now on trying the sport for himself, under the tutelage of Bjorndalen.
"I will get a crash course in biathlon," he said. "It's like Pele teaching you football!"
While a career in biathlon now seems unlikely for 58-year-old Klopp, he has been tipped for a return to management, most recently being heavily linked to the Real Madrid job after Xabi Alonso was sacked in January.
Instead, Alvaro Arbeloa was appointed from within, promoted from the club's Castilla team. They have enjoyed an upturn of form, winning their last eight La Liga matches and sitting two points clear at the top of the table.
Watch every event of Milano Cortina 2026 live on discovery+. Available across all subscription plans, starting at £3.99.
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