From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
U.S. Biathlon Association women’s coach Jonne Kähkönen checks in with Kelsey Dickinson after an uphill running time trial in 2014.
When Jonne Kähkönen was hired to be the women’s national team coach by the US Biathlon Association (USBA) in 2010, there wasn’t much of a playbook to follow.
The Finn couldn’t mimic the footsteps of his predecessor, because there wasn’t one.
For the first time, the women’s team was going to have a coach of their own.
“The men’s program was on a really high level going into Vancouver [2010 Olympics],” USBA Chief of Sport Bernd Eisenbichler – then the high-performance director – said on the phone this weekend. “It was a deep program and the men’s relay was having pretty good potential. And we saw the women coming up having the same potential to go up to the top as well.
“We knew that if we wanted to build up a strong women’s program, we needed to have a dedicated coach for them,” he explained. “Really just focused on their development, and putting the group together to make it a really good environment.”
Enter Kähkönen, who had spent the previous four years as the head coach of the Finnish biathlon team.
US women’s coach Jonne Kähkönen, left, and men’s coach Jonas Johansson on the range in Sweden in 2014. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus.com)
“Obviously the first quad [four-year Olympic cycle] felt like it went by really quick, because everything was new,” Kähkönen said in a phone interview last week. “I think looking back, we made really good decisions overall with the philosophy of the team for both the men and the women. Especially for the women, in the early years, to get them up to speed, to be competitive. And it was successful already after the first couple years.”
In 2009, the U.S. women were ranked 20th in the World Cup’s Nations Cup standings. Eight years later, they have had numerous top-20 performances from multiple athletes, World Youth and Junior Championships flower ceremonies, and World Cup podiums and a World Championships silver medal by Susan Dunklee.
“When we started, we didn’t think we were capable of that,” Eisenbichler said. “We saw the potential, but to win a silver medal with Susan, to have these multiple top 20’s by six or seven different athletes, I think we can be really happy with what the women’s program has looked like the last eight years and where we are right now.”
And after leading that charge for eight years, Kähkönen is leaving the team to take back his role as the head coach for Finland – a program that has also risen in that period, with Kaisa Mäkäräinen winning three overall World Cup titles, Mari Laukkanen scoring two World Cup victories, and the mixed relay team finishing sixth at the 2018 Olympics.
“It has been a process,” Kähkönen said of the transition. “I definitely have been thinking of each quad [cycle] as a project. At the end of the project it is always good to evaluate and think about the next steps and what’s good for me professionally, but then I want what’s best for the team and the athletes also. And I feel like now with the few retirements, it’s probably good in a way to make the changes now.”
“I think that the women need a new stimulus,” Eisenbichler said. “Not that the old stimulus wasn’t good or wasn’t working anymore, but after eight years it’s normal. And Jonne and I see that the same way. I could not be more thankful and grateful to Jonne. And now it’s time for him to have a new era with the Finnish biathlon association.”
The Fun-Loving Finn
The US Biathlon women’s team after an uphill interval session up Koli, the highest point in southern Finland, with coach Jonne Kähkönen (l) and his wife (r), who also rollerskied up, and Finnish World Cup champion Kaisa Mäkäräinen (second from l). (Photo: Jonne Kähkönen)
“I think that having a women’s coach changed something in the heart of the women’s team, because it felt like a validation that we were improving and deserved someone that was there specifically for us,” 2014 Olympian and five-time World Championships competitor Annelies Cook, who retired in 2016, wrote in an email last week.
“Personally, I am really grateful that I had Jonne as a coach,” she continued. “Jonne was there in my life through many big changes and I could always talk to him and I always felt supported by him. He was always positive for us, and that is something you really need in a sport that can really get you down sometimes. Biathlon is different from cross-country skiing in where the differences in performances from day to day don’t change that drastically. Biathlon can change instantly from good to bad, and that can be really emotional sometimes.”
Kähkönen said that he learned a lot in his years of coaching in the U.S., not least from the athletes and the team’s international staff, who hail from Sweden, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Germany.
“It makes me think what works and what doesn’t work, and also to take that into account working with the athletes,” he said.
But what he learned the most was to have fun.
“I know that having fun seems dangerous to say [in a serious environment],” he said. “It’s not only about having fun, but enjoying your work and enjoying what you’re doing — I think that’s more descriptive. But, at times, having fun as well!”
Sara Studebaker, Lanny Barnes, Annelies Cook, and Susan Dunklee, with coach Jonne Kahkonen, model their new hairstyles at 2012 World Championships.
Case in point: in 2012 at World Championships, Kähkönen dyed his hair purple. He had told the team that if any of the women finished in the top 10, he’d do it. Susan Dunklee placed fifth in the 15 k individual. So purple it was.
“I think those types of things are important, whatever it is, just to try to lighten it up a little,” he said. “Me being Finnish, people say that I’m not a typical Finn. I’m more open or more lively or whatever.”
Quite apart from the hair, Dunklee’s fifth-place finish in Ruhpolding was one of Kähkönen’s favorite moments from his tenure with the team. At the time, he was midway through his second winter leading the women’s squad, and Dunklee had competed in just two weekends of World Cup racing.
“Probably one of the most exciting moments was Susan’s first breakthrough at Ruhpolding World Champs in that individual,” Kähkönen reminisced. “She had the lead for a good while, and her being really surprised by it. That was definitely, maybe not the start of it all, but one of the very good results that we had early on.”
The previous year, Sara Studebaker and Laura Spector had broken into the top 20 on the World Cup, and Haley Johnson had been close in 21st. One year later, Cook made her own jump into the land of top-20’s. And later still, Hannah Dreissigacker and then Clare Egan would hit the top 20, along with Dunklee’s four World Cup podiums and her World Championships silver medal.
“Obviously after all the hard work, all the medals, Tim [Burke] in Nove Mesto and then Susan and Lowell [Bailey] in Hochfilzen last year, those are on top of the list,” Kähkönen said.
Back to Finland
Kähkönen hesitated to say that he was headed for home.
“It may be a cliché to say that home is where your heart is, but Lake Placid has been my home,” he said. “I’ve said this to a couple of people, but it hasn’t hit me yet because I’m still here. It has been great. The community is so supportive. There are great people there and we made good friends. So it will be tough to leave when that day comes.”
The family will move this summer, after his oldest son graduates from high school in June.
U.S. women’s coach Jonne Kahkonen talks to his team between intervals at a training camp in Bend, Oregon, in 2012.
But it is an interesting assignment for Kähkönen to retake the reins of a program that has changed a lot since he last worked there.
“With Kaisa [Mäkäräinen] being the star, it is exciting to go back and work with her, if she decides to continue [racing], which remains to be seen,” he said of an athlete who had five podiums the last time he worked with the team, but now owns 23 international wins and 54 more podiums. “We worked together in the past, so it will be fun to be reunited.”
But the other pieces of Finland’s biathlon puzzle are no less compelling.
“At the same time, I think as big a part of it is seeing the rise of the next generation,” Kähkönen said. “They won a couple medals at the junior level. It’s not just the juniors and youth who won the medals, but even behind them, there are just more people doing biathlon now, which is good to see. And just seeing the good results that the men’s team is starting to post on the World Cup now. That’s inspiring to me.”
And in the end, the fun is one thing that he hopes to bring back to Finland.
“I just read in one of the Finnish papers today, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, who is part of the cross-country team — she has trained a bunch with Kikkan Randall and the U.S. women — she made a comment that what she was missing a little bit in the last couple of years was having this sort of North American type of relaxed and having fun atmosphere while doing the work that everyone is committed to.”
US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey (l) and Susan Dunklee after teaming up for bronze in the single mixed relay at 2018 IBU Open European Championships on Sunday in Ridnaun, Italy. (Photo: Manzoni/NordicFocus)
IBU Open European Championships (Ridnaun-Val Ridanna, Italy): Single mixed & mixed relays
Susan Dunklee and Lowell Bailey teamed up for the final day of the 2018 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Open European Championships in Ridnaun, Italy, and raced to a bronze medal in the single mixed relay.
The American duo, both of which earned individual medals at last year’s IBU World Championships, finished just 9.1 seconds out of first, which went to Norway’s Thelka Brun-Lie and Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen. The Norwegians won in 35:39.6 with zero penalties and six spares. They took the lead after Brun-Lie’s second leg, where she cleaned both stages without spares.
France placed second, 8.6 seconds back, with Julia Simon and Emilien Jacquelin, who combined for no penalties and 11 spares. They led the first half of the race, but slipped to second behind Norway on Simon’s second leg.
Dunklee put the Americans off in second on her first leg, which she cleaned with a spare in each stage, then they slipped one place to third on Bailey’s first leg, where he cleaned as well and used three spares. In all, they used 10 spares and avoided the penalty loop, and finished half a second out of second place.
“Over Christmas, we trained a little bit with the French athletes, including Jacquelin,” Bailey said, according to a US Biathlon press release. “So I know that he has quite a fast finish, and I thought I am kind of an old man here, I should maybe try to go harder on the first part of the lap. But he stayed with me all the time and had me in the end.”
“It was a good opportunity to tune up the race shape, build some confidence and find that sharp feeling heading into the Olympics,” Dunklee told US Biathlon. “The single mixed relay is one of my favorite race formats and today was a blast!”
Canada’s Sarah Beaudry and Carsen Campbell placed eighth of 24 teams in the single mixed relay, finishing 1:03.6 out of first with just eight spares and zero penalties. In 11th after the first leg, they moved into eighth on Campbell’s first leg, which he cleaned with one spare. Beaudry then cleaned her second leg without any spares, and Campbell anchored them to eighth.
The U.S. entered a team in the mixed relay that followed, with Chloe Levins, Deedra Irwin, Paul Schommer, and Alex Howe placing 17th (+5:55.5) of 19 teams with no penalties and 12 spares.
Ukraine won the mixed relay to conclude the championships, with Yuliia Zhuravok, Iryna Varvynets, Artem Pryma, and Dmytro Pidruchnyi combining for zero penalties and six spares and finishing in 1:11:40.1.
Russia placed second (+11.7) with Victoria Slivko, Anastasia Zagoruiko, Evgeniy Garanichev, and Alexander Loginov combining for zero penalties and nine spares.
Norway followed in third (+33.2) with Emilie Ågheim Kalkenberg, Kaia Wøien Nicolaisen, Håvard Gutuboe Bogetveit, and Fredrik Gjesbakk combing for no penalties and just four spares.
U.S. SuperTour (Craftsbury, Vermont): 5/10 k freestyle
Two Alaska Pacific University (APU) athletes topped the podium on Sunday at the SuperTour in Craftsbury, Vermont, with David Norris winning the men’s 10-kilometer freestyle individual start in 21:54.9 and Becca Rorabaugh topping the women’s 5 k freestyle in 12:06.4.
Norris won the men’s race by 6 seconds over Canada’s Andy Shields (Lappe Nordic) and Kevin Bolger of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) placed third (+15.8). Kris Freeman (Caldwell Sport) was the third American in fourth overall (+23.7), and three Canadians took fifth through seventh with Michael Somppi (Lappe Nordic) in fifth (+27.9), Evan Palmer-Charrette (NTDC Thunder Bay) in sixth (+37.5) and Scott Hill (Barrie Cross Country) in seventh (+37.6), ahead of Brian Gregg (Team Gregg/LNR/CXC) in eighth (+39.4), Tad Elliott (Ski Club Vail) in ninth (+44.3) and Jack Hegman in 10th (+50.4).
Rorabaugh won the women’s race by just 2.2 seconds over her APU teammate Rosie Frankowski in second, and Erika Flowers of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team placed third (+4.6). Two Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) skiers finished fourth and fifth, with Kaitlynn Miller in fourth (+12.1) and Liz Guiney in fifth (+22.5), Kelsey Phinney (SVSEF) was sixth (+25.8), and Canadians Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt (Rocky Mountain Racers) seventh (+26.4) and Frederique Vezina (Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre) eighth (+36.0). Corey Stock, of the Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) placed ninth (+39.9), and Felicia Geisor (CXC Team) was 10th (+44.4).
On Saturday, the Craftsbury Outdoor Center hosted its 37th annual Craftsbury Marathon, with Nils Koons winning the 48 k men’s race in 2:28:51.0 hours and Hannah Dreissigacker winning the 48 k women’s race in 3:01.48.7.
Hannah Halvorsen of the U.S. Ski Team and APU on the start line in Ulrichen, Switzerland, after finishing fifth in the sprint qualifier. (FIS screencap)
FIS Cross Country World Junior Championships (Ulrichen, Switzerland): Freestyle sprints
World Junior Championships kicked off today with freestyle sprints in Ulrichen, Switzerland. Moa Lundgren of Sweden claimed with women’s title by 1.89 seconds over Kristine Stavås Skistad of Norway in the final, with Sweden’s Frida Karlsson finishing third (+1.89).
Hannah Halvorsen of the United States qualified in fifth place before skiing to second in her quarterfinal heat. Halvorsen hovered around third or fourth place through much of her semifinal and was unable to snipe any spots in the finishing straight, ending up fourth in the heat and eighth on the day.
Fellow Americans Margaret Gellert and Sofia Shomento also made the quarterfinals, finishing 18th and 23rd, and Canada’s Hannah Mehain wound up 29th on the day.
The new men’s junior world champion is Tom Mancini of France, who nipped Norway’s Jørgen Lippert by just 0.10 seconds to take the win. Valerie Grond gave the Swiss crowd a thrill by making it all the way to the final and taking home bronze, despite qualifying in just 21st position. The Swiss junior narrowly edged France’s Vincent Buiatti for the final step on the podium.
Canada’s Graham Ritchie finished second in his quarterfinal after qualifying in 28th position, earning an automatic spot in the semifinals. There he finished sixth (+9.30 behind Mancini), winding up 12th on the day. Teammate Antoine Cyr also made the quarterfinals where he had an impressive crash, slinging off the trail and into the infield, finishing 30th on the day. For the U.S., Gus Schumacher was the lone qualifier for the heats. He finished fourth in his quarterfinal and was just 0.22 seconds away from a “lucky loser” spot in the semifinals. Schumacher finished 19th on the day.
In the junior women’s race, Hannah Rudd of the United States finished 35th in qualification, +18.15. For Canada, Annika Richardson finished 52nd (+24.09), Catherine Reed-Metayer 56th (+28.25), and Alexandra Racine 69th (+37.27).
In the junior men’s sprint, Canada’s Reed Godfrey finished a tough 31st, just 0.21 seconds out of making the quarterfinals. Etienne Hebert rounded out the Canadian finishers in 36th place (+11.81) in the qualifier. Canyon Tobin was 41st in qualification for the U.S. (+13.46), followed by Karl Schulz in 54th (+16.90) and Luke Jager in 60th (+18.15).
FIS Nordic Combined World Cup (Seefeld, Austria): Individual normal hill/15 k
Japan’s Akito Watabe after winning the 2018 Seefeld Triple Nordic Combined World Cup. He is the only athlete besides Germany’s Eric Frenzel to win the event. (Photo: FIS Nordic Combined)
On the final day of the Seefeld Triple, Japan’s Akito Watabe completed his sweep of the three-day weekend and Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber reached the podium for the third-straight day, placing second. Germany’s Fabian Rießle placed third for his second podium in the last two days.
Watabe jumped to first on the normal hill and started the 15 k Gundersen 48 seconds ahead of Riiber in second. He went on to win the race by 1:14.9 minutes in 34:58.6, becoming the only man besides Germany’s Eric Frenzel to win the Seefeld Triple in its five-year history.
After jumping to fifth, Rießle won a photo finish for third (+1:57.9), edging Germany’s Vinzenz Geiger by less than a tenth of a second. Geiger moved up from ninth in the jump to fourth overall (+1:57.9).
Norway’s Jørgen Graabak followed in fifth (+2:02.4),Frenzel placed sixth (+2:07.4), Norway’s Jan Schmid was seventh (+2:09.8), Finland’s Eero Hirvonen eighth (+2:13.5), Norway’s Espen Andersen ninth (+2:28.0), and Austria’s Mario Seidl 10th (+2:42.1) out of 28 finishers.
No Americans contested the final day of the Triple, the last World Cup before the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Jessie Diggins of the U.S. Ski Team (center) celebrates after winning the 10 k mass start freestyle in Seefeld, Austria, over Heidi Weng (left) and Ragnhild Haga of Norway. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Seefeld, Austria): 10/15 k mass start freestyle
In the final World Cup race before the 2018 Olympics, Jessie Diggins achieved the ultimate goal to give herself the utmost confidence heading into PyeongChang — winning the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle mass start at the World Cup in Seefeld, Austria, on Sunday.
The win was her first of the season and fourth individual victory of her career. Diggins, a 26-year-old U.S. Ski Team member, pulled it off by attacking on a long climb and leaving Norway’s Heidi Weng, Ragnhild Haga and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg chasing. While Diggins was several seconds ahead over the top and all alone on the long descent that followed, Weng and Haga worked to close the gap — and nearly did in the finishing stretch. But Diggins held them off, winning by 0.7 seconds over Weng in second place and 1 second ahead of Haga in third, and threw her fists down in celebration as she crossed the line first in 23:08.5 minutes.
“I just put my head down and it wasn’t pretty, but I just hammered,” Diggins told the International Ski Federation (FIS) in a televised post-race interview.
She was the only non-Norwegian in the top five, with Østberg in fourth (+8.7) and Marit Bjørgen in fifth (+16.7). Austria’s Teresa Stadlober placed sixth (+16.9), Norway’s Kari Øyre Slind was seventh (+19.1), and American Sadie Bjornsen placed eighth (+20.5), ahead of Switzerland’s Nathalie von Siebenthal in ninth (+30.3).
The U.S. had three in the top 15 with Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team) in 14th (+48.5), and two more women in the top 30, with Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) in 23rd (+1:00.7) and Liz Stephen (USST) in 29th (+1:18.2). Rosie Brennan (USST) finished 53rd (+2:26.9).
Emily Nishikawa led the Canadians in 35th (+1:36.5), followed closely by teammate Cendrine Browne in 37th (+1:36.6). Dahria Beatty finished 45th (+1:58.9).
Dario Cologna of Switzerland (center) won the men’s 15 k skate mass start in Seefeld, Austria, over Alex Harvey of Canada (left) and Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway (right). (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
The Olympics are nearing and so Switzerland’s Olympic legend Dario Cologna is ramping up: after winning the Tour de Ski, he took another win in the 15 k mass start skate in Seefeld, Austria, on Sunday.
With much of the field staying relatively close together until the finish, Cologna nabbed the win by 1.4 seconds over Canada’s Alex Harvey, who took his second podium of the season in addition to also finishing third in the overall Tour de Ski.
Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby was third (+2.9), then teammate Didrik Tønseth in fourth (+5.9) and France’s Maurice Manificat in sixth (+7.5).
The U.S. Ski Team’s Erik Bjornsen had a breakthrough day finishing ninth (+9.3), followed by Simi Hamilton in 12th (+12.4). Behind them, Scott Patterson placed 27th (+23.4), then Patrick Caldwell 49th (+1:26.2), Ben Lustgarten 55th (+1:42.7), and Tyler Kornfield 77th (+3:00.0).
Canada’s Devon Kershaw and Graeme Killick finished 30th (+26.5) and 31st (+27.4), respectively. Len Valjas placed 58th (+1:53.1), Knute Johnsgaard 82nd (+3:23.1), Bob Thompson 87th (+4:27.5), and Julien Locke 92nd (+4:56.9).
Emily Dreissigacker (CGRP) at the start of the women’s sprint at the 2017 US Biathlon Rollerski Championships on Aug. 12 in Jericho, Vt. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
Say this name three-times fast: “Dreissigacker”.
Not so easy at first.
Break the four-syllable surname into discrete parts: Driess (with a hard I) – i – gack – er.
It then rolls off the tongue … Dreissigacker.
In northern Vermont and in particular around the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, Emily Dreissigacker, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) is as well known a name as any. Her parents, Dick Dreissigacker and Judy Geer, bought the Outdoor Center in 2009. Both are Olympic rowers.
And both of Emily’s siblings are biathletes. Her older sister Hannah, 30, was a 2014 Olympic biathlete who retired in 2016 and younger brother Ethan, 26, formerly raced for the Green Racing Project.
At 28, (she’ll be turning 29 in November), Emily Dreissigacker is on the cusp of making it onto the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup representing the US Biathlon Association (USBA).
“I’m not really feeling the pressure,” Dreissigacker wrote in an email about a possible World Cup nod. “I’m just excited to get out there and ski on snow and get in some really solid training.”
Perhaps this is a reason why the USBA’s high-performance team recruits and promotes older athletes — with age and experience comes a calmness. With time comes wisdom: winning or losing in sport doesn’t define a person.
There’s been both winning and losing and the in-between for this Dreissigacker, who grew up near Craftsbury in Morrisville, Vermont, and married her teammate Alex Howe last summer.
Emily Dreissigacker shooting clean during her first prone stage of the women’s 15 k individual race at 2017 IBU Open European Championships in Duszniki-Zdrój, Poland. She finished 41st. (Eurovision screenshot)
“At this point, competing at the Olympics had been a dream of mine for so long that it felt inextricably entwined with who I was as a person,” Dreissigacker wrote in a June 2015 blog post. “I could feel it slowly but surely slipping out of my grasp and yet I couldn’t let go. I thought about quitting, but there was always something pulling me back. Don’t get me wrong, I loved racing. I loved racing against my teammates in practice, I loved lining up side by side for a 2k or blindly pushing myself past all reason in an interval start. But the training, the whole process had gotten stale. I felt like I was slogging my way through each steady state workout, counting down the minutes rather than enjoying the time I had. Meanwhile, I jealously eyed the skiers leaving each morning for what looked to me like exciting adventures. They got to go biking and hiking and running and rollerskiing (yes, I was jealous of rollerskiing)! But it never really seemed like a viable option to me. I was a rower.”
Since that 2015 blog post, Dreissigacker has been a biathlete.
After eight years training as a rower, she tapped into her adolescent and teenage years as a skier. Like some of her peers — Reid, Egan and Dunklee come to mind — Dreissigacker learned to shoot in atypical fashion: she didn’t train as a junior biathlete and came to biathlon later in their athletic careers. (Reid, Egan and Dunklee all competed at the NCAA Division 1 level.)
“I skied in high school and tried biathlon once, so I had shot a rifle before but not well and not for long,” Dreissigacker wrote. “I also hadn’t trained for skiing, other than a bit of cross training here and there, so I’m definitely playing catch up on that side of things too. Rowing is much more of an anaerobic sport so building up my aerobic base has been and still is a big focus. As well as pretty much re-learning how to ski. I definitely still have a lot to work on in both regards.”
Despite her perceived deficiencies, Dreissigacker’s results show what any coach desires — positive trends when it comes to skiing speed and shooting accuracy. Dreissigacker spent the 2016 and 2017 race seasons on the IBU Cup, a step down from the World Cup.
In March of last year, Dreissigacker earned a top 20 on the IBU Cup. This year, she skied and shot consistently enough in the four-part 2017 USBA rollerski trials series to get picked for the Canmore preseason camp. In the first half of the trials, she placed fifth in both races in mid-August. A month later, she jumped the ranks with first and second place finishes at Part 2 of trials in Jericho.
Emily Dreissigacker (CGRP) racing to fifth in the women’s mass start at 2017 US Biathlon Rollerski Championships on Aug. 13 in Jericho, Vt. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
As she ramped up for trials, Dreissigacker spent time in Europe with the Green Racing Project. That trip also gave her time to train with national-team biathletes.
“Our European camp this year had much more of a biathlon focus,” Dreissigacker explained. “We did essentially the same trip as the National team so we were able to train with them some. We got to race at German summer rollerski nationals which was a great opportunity to get in more racing and also to experience a really high level of racing. And we got to ski on snow in the Oberhof tunnel. The trip was also a little earlier so after we got home I had a really solid training block in Lake Placid before an easy week at home leading up to trials.”
According to USBA Chief of Sport Bernd Eisenbichler, this year’s version of the European training swing was beneficial for Dreissigacker.
“The camp setup that the Craftsbury team had this summer, accompanying us on the Europe camp instead of going to the Dachstein glacier, choosing to go to the ski hall in Oberhof, helped also to have her performance level in the fall,” Eisenbichler wrote in an email. “Last year we saw that August was quite okay but then the fall, she was really really tired. I don’t know if I would get agreement from Craftsbury, but I would argue that the camp setup was smarter this year and that is why she was in better shape this October.”
Finding form and peaking when it counts isn’t an outcome hard science can unfailingly predict. Be it her modified camp in Europe or the confidence that comes with experience, Dreissigacker performed at this year’s USBA rollerski trials.
“Em has been on the biathlon development program for the last 2 years and on the biathlon team training plan, she works with [USBA Development Coach] Jean Paquet now most of the time,” CGRP Head Coach Pepa Miloucheva wrote in an email. “Last year the Craftsbury biathlon team did travel to Europe for a camp on snow with the skiers, this year the biathlon team The Europe ski trip was more biathlon specific at the ski tunnel in Oberhof with the USBT [US Biathlon team].”
Dreissigacker’s shape and shooting accuracy could serve her well as she transitions to snow in Canmore. The Canmore camp on Frozen Thunder will conclude Nov. 10. And as for the rest of the season, the IBU World Cup could be seeing a new Dreissigacker this winter.
The start of the 2017 Merino Muster 42-kilometer on Sept. 2 at the Snow Farm near Wanaka, New Zealand, with Americans Jessie Diggins and Simi Hamilton (in blue) up front. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)
Visibility was thin and temperatures were below freezing last Saturday at the Snow Farm. Opaque white clouds of fog swept over the landscape near Wanaka, New Zealand, showcasing a skyline that seemed to play on the country’s largest historical farm industry: sheep. If bluebird skies and sun had greeted competitors in previous years, racers in the 2017 Merino Muster experienced temperatures around -5 degree Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) and a four-meter radius of visible track, then fog, for most of the 42-kilometer marathon.
Simi Hamilton (U.S. Ski Team) leads Phillip Bellingham during the 42 k Merino Muster on Sept. 2 at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. Hamilton ultimately won and Bellingham placed third, 2 seconds back. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)
The flutter of his own pole grips passing in his peripherals might have been the only company U.S. Ski Team (USST) A-team member Simi Hamilton saw during the race, had it not been for American Brian Gregg and Australian Phillip Bellingham.
The two contenders followed Hamilton from the start, and within the first few kilometers, all three had broken away from the rest of the 80+ men’s field to form a lead group. Together, the two Americans and Australian forged through the next 40 k, taking turns leading through the day’s scrim that hid the panoramic views of the Pisa mountain range that surround the Snow Farm.
“It was incredibly foggy all morning,” Hamilton wrote in an email. “I think we would have all gotten a little lonely out there if we had been skiing on our own.”
The trio kept each other company for the entirety of the race, but by the final two kilometers, Hamilton had staked his spot in the front. As Hamilton headed into the finishing stretch, both Bellingham and Gregg pushed to keep up with his pace. He ultimately held off Gregg by a second and Bellingham by 2 seconds to take the win with a finishing time of 1 hour, 40 minutes and 33 seconds.
“My energy felt good both years, but last year I had trouble accessing my sprint/[Level 4] gear in the final 2 kilometers of the race,” Hamilton wrote. “This year, I felt more comfortable skiing level 3 and I found that it was much easier to access my sprint gear at the very end.”
The victory is Hamilton’s first in the Merino Muster, which has been running for 23 years, the last three of which its been part of the Worldloppet marathon series. He first raced the marathon last season and finished second to his then-teammate Noah Hoffman (who won in 1:45:08 by 23 seconds over Hamilton). Upon returning, Hamilton had some specific objectives.
“The primary goal (both last year and this year) is to get in a really solid level 3 workout, with a hard effort at the very end,” Hamilton wrote. “It’s great terrain to be able to do that on because it’s all very rolling and you can maintain a really consistent effort the whole time without burying yourself too deep. And I think it’s always important to put on a race bib this time of year from time to time in order to start getting back into the race routine before the season really starts.”
Simi Hamilton (c) of the U.S. Ski Team after taking the win in the 2017 Merino Muster marathon on Sept. 2 at the Snow Farm in New Zealand. He held off fellow American Brian Gregg (r) by one second and Australia’s Phillip Bellingham by 2 seconds.(Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)
Gregg’s second-place result came at his first Merino Muster, an event he was able to enter since he was in New Zealand for a training camp with his wife and Team Gregg teammate, Caitlin Gregg. The two arrived in New Zealand on Aug. 22 and planned to train there until the second week of September.
“Our dates ended up aligning with the USST camp dates as well and it has been a lot of fun joining them for workouts,” Brian wrote. “At the start of the second week down here athletes from Craftsbury, Stratton and Sun Valley arrived so we have had a large US representation. My brother and sister in law also made the trip down to race the Muster and help support our training. They both work remotely for their companies and it has been a blast to have them here with us.”
While he indicated that his summer training had been going well, the race itself was an invaluable opportunity for Gregg to tackle technique. Following Hamilton for an extended hard effort was one of his primary aims, not to mention testing his sprint speed against one of the U.S.’s top sprinters.
“One of my specific goals for this race was to ski with Simi,” Gregg wrote. “I think he is one of the better technical skiers in the world especially in V2 and following his smooth rhythm has been helpful for my own technique. Technical adaptations on snow has been my biggest goal of the camp and the race offered a focused 1 hour and 40 minutes of that.
“Swapping leads with Simi allowed me the opportunity to make technical adjustments through mimicry and then I could take the lead and make the technique more my own,” Gregg continued. “Although my goal was also to win the race I can hardly complain about being able to match the finishing sprint of a World Cup Winner.”
Bellingham, an Australian national team member, rounded out the men’s marathon podium in third, just two seconds out of first. A week prior to the Merino Muster, Bellingham competed in the 2017 Kangaroo Hoppet in Falls Creek, Victoria, where he placed second to American Miles Havlick.
Diggins 1st Woman, 4th Overall
In the women’s 42 k race, which started with the men, USST A-team member Jessie Diggins took the win with a time of 1:51:42 for fourth place overall. Diggins explained that while she was able to ski with the front group of men for the first few kilometers, she eventually settled into a pace that was more her own.
The all-American women’s podium at the 2017 Merino Muster on Sept. 2 at New Zealand’s Snow Farm, with Jessie Diggins (c) of the U.S. Ski Team in first, Hannah Dreissigacker (l), formerly of US Biathlon, in second, and Britta Clark (r) in third. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)
“We all started together but after 3-4km I knew I couldn’t hang with the lead guys the whole race, so I dropped back a bit,” Diggins wrote in an email. “I didn’t have to ski alone though, which was really nice!”
For much of the race, Diggins skied with Estonian Joosep Tammeme, a change from last season when she paired with her USST teammate Liz Stephen for most of the marathon.
“Last year was super fun because I got to ski with Liz the entire race,” Diggins wrote. “This year I had a really nice Estonian man to partner with but nobody can replace Liz Stephen!”
Thirty-one seconds behind Diggins, Tammeme, the fourth male, finished fifth.
With the Merino Muster behind her, Diggins will look to finish off the remainder of the USST’s three-week training block in New Zealand.
The start of the 2017 Merino Muster 42-kilometer on Sept. 2 at the Snow Farm near Wanaka, New Zealand, with Americans Jessie Diggins and Simi Hamilton (in blue) up front. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)
“The Merino was a fun way to get a long intensity session in during the week and ski hard while also enjoying the feeling of racing again!” Diggins wrote. “Huge, huge thanks to the entire crew here at the Snow Farm. They always treat us so well and make sure the trails are groomed perfectly for great training. This is my favorite camp so I’m really grateful to them for making space for us down under!”
The second woman after Diggins, 10 minutes and 17 seconds back, was retired American biathlete Hannah Dreissigacker, who has been working at the Snow Farm over the past few months. Dreissigacker, 30, explained that the race was her first since her retirement in the spring of 2016, and though she had remained relatively active leading up to it, gunning for the win wasn’t a goal.
“I’ve been doing a variety of work in the office as well as coaching and instructing and I’ve been trying to get out and ski whenever I can,” she wrote in an email. “But I definitely went into the race with low expectations.”
The Vermont native, instead saw the race — which ended up being her longest workout of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter — as more of an opportunity to do something she loved: skiing.
“The race split up immediately for me — I knew better than to try to stay with Jessie at all,” Dreissigacker wrote. “I skied with an older Russian skier, and then by myself, keeping the pace comfortable and I was very happy to feel good the whole time! There was some low-visibility off the start but the trails were in great condition and it was a fun first race as a ‘master blaster’.”
Rounding out the women’s podium in third (+17:24) was American and 2016 Bates College graduate Britta Clark.
In the 21 k “Snow Rake”, USST A-team member Sophie Caldwell took the overall win in a time of 51:21. Just one second behind her was Caitlin Gregg in second place, while the third woman was U.S. Paralympics Nordic Head Coach Eileen Carey (+5:48). The first man in third overall (+4:44) was U16 skier Campbell Wright, of New Zealand.
Susan Dunklee (USBA/CGRP) leading the pack in the women’s mass start on Sunday, Aug. 13, at USBA Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt. She won by nearly 47 seconds. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
Special thanks to John Lazenby for providing photos from 2017 US Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho. For a full gallery, click here.
Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Lowell Bailey, Susan Dunklee and Bernd Eisenbichler.
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This past weekend, the US Biathlon Association (USBA) Rollerski Championships returned to Jericho, Vt., for two days of racing at the Ethan Allen Firing Range inside a National Guard military base. Just as it has in the past, the format included men’s and women’s sprints on Saturday followed by mass starts on Sunday, and this year, the races drew nearly 100 competitors from across the U.S. and even some from Canada.
US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey (r) on his way to winning the men’s sprint at US Biathlon Rollerski Championships on Aug. 12 in Jericho, Vt. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
A perennial winner at Jericho, Lowell Bailey won the senior men’s 10-kilometer sprint on Saturday in 24 minutes, 58 seconds with a single standing penalty (0+1).
“Summer nationals is a good chance to assess where you are in the training season,” Bailey wrote in an email. “Of course, roller skiing is quite a bit different than on-snow skiing, and it is important to keep that in perspective when assessing the results. However, I’m happy with the way the weekend went and I feel like I am on track in terms of where I want to be in the training season.”
Fellow US Biathlon A-teamer Sean Doherty placed second, just 5.2 seconds back, with two prone misses (2+0). Rounding out the top three, Biathlon Canada’s Nathan Smith (the lone Canadian in that race)placed third, 21.4 seconds behind Bailey with a single standing miss as well (0+1).
Another 0.2 seconds back in fourth overall, Travis Cooper of National Guard Biathlon was the third American after shooting two prone penalties (2+0). A total of 23 racers competed in the senior men’s event on Saturday, compared to 11 in the senior women’s sprint. (Other categories included girls, boys, youth, junior, and masters.)
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon/Craftsbury Green Racing Project) racing to a win this past Saturday, Aug. 12, in the women’s sprint at US Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
In the women’s 7.5 k sprint, Susan Dunklee, of US Biathlon and the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), won despite five penalties (2+3) in a time of 22:10.7.
In an email, Dunklee described the conditions as “very hot and muggy.”
“Between that and the uphill range approach, these races have some of the most difficult shooting conditions we see all year,” she explained in an email.
“I’ve been working on learning new wind shooting skills this summer,” Dunklee wrote. “It has been going well in practice but truly trusting those skills under race pressure is a mammoth challenge. The goal is to build that trust before winter. My shooting percentages weren’t great this weekend, but I am happy about the way I stuck to my work plan on the range.”
Dunklee finished 46.9 seconds clear of her teammate and runner-up Joanne Reid (USBA/Colorado Biathlon), who had a miss in each stage (1+1).
A minute behind Dunklee, Kelsey Dickinson, representing Craftsbury’s Collegiate Summer Team, placed third with four penalties (3+1). No Canadian senior women competed on either day.
On Sunday, racers returned to the range for the men’s and women’s mass starts, where Dunklee proceeded to take another victory with a time of 40:12.8 and seven penalties (1+2+2+2).
Her teammate Clare Egan (USBA/CGRP) placed second, 23.6 seconds back with five misses (1+0+2+2), while Dickinson repeated in third (+33.8) with five penalties as well (2+0+1+2).
Biathlon Canada’s Nathan Smith (14) leading US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey (l) up a climb in the men’s mass start on Sunday, Aug. 13, at US Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt. Smith went on to win by 21.3 seconds over Bailey. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
In the men’s mass start, Smith cleaned two stages and tallied three penalties (1+0+0+2) en route to the win in 38:09.8. Bailey finished 21.3 seconds back in second after three misses (1+0+1+1), and his teammate Tim Burke (USBA) took third (+1:09.8) with five penalties (2+1+2+0).
“I was happy with how the first day of racing went, but I definitely could have been more aggressive in the Mass Start’s standing stages,” Bailey reflected. “The wind came up during the shooting and I let that distract me a little bit when I should have stayed with my planned cadence and shooting speed.”
“With faster shooting, I may have been able to catch Nathan’s wheel and contended for the win on the last loop,” he continued. “As it was, those two standings left me with an insurmountable gap for the final loop.”
Paul Schommer was the third American in fourth overall (+1:23.0) with six misses (2+1+2+1).
The USBA Rollerski Championships typically serve as the first of two weekends of trials (the other being in October) for US Biathlon in selecting a pre-World Cup training camp group. From that group of athletes, the U.S. usually fills out its early season International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup roster.
In an email, USBA Chief of Sport Bernd Eisenbichler explained that two athletes particularly stood out with their performances this weekend.
“On the women’s side Kelsey Dickinson and on the men’s side Travis Cooper made a big improvement compared to last year and even last season and both will get rewarded for that with a camp invitation to [Lake Placid] in mid-September to work with the A Team and the National Team Coaches,” Eisenbichler wrote.
“I was happy to see a very competitive men’s field and a growing women’s field as well,” he continued. “We could see, that it was the first real races this summer and as Jericho is a pretty hard range to shoot at, we saw a good reminder what to work on still, especially on the shooting side. The A Team comes from a really long and hard block of training, so they weren’t fresh at all going into the races, so for sure, you make a few mistakes more, as if you would be preparing fully for a race weekend like you would e.g. do for a [World Cup] weekend.”
US Biathlon’s Sean Doherty (front) and Lowell Bailey (12), along with their competitors, taking aim during a prone shooting stage of the men’s mass start at 2017 USBA Rollerski Championships on Aug. 13 in Jericho, Vt. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
American Susan Dunklee (l) and the Canadian men’s relay, with (from l to r) Christian Gow, Nathan Smith, Scott Gow, and Brendan Green, earned FasterSkier’s biathlon performances of the year with their results at the Presque Isle World Cup and World Championships, respectively. (Photos: USBA/NordicFocus & JoJo Baldus)
We’re entering the homestretch for the 2015/2016 FasterSkier awards, chosen by our staff based on performances last season. While not scientific, these points of recognition are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review.
The following set of honors goes to outstanding North American male and female biathlon performances of the year. Cross-country performances of the year will follow.
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon): Presque Isle World Cup 10 k sprint
Both Susan Dunklee and teammate Lowell Bailey seemed to have breakthroughs after the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia: they had notched best-ever finishes for Americans, with Dunklee 11th in the mass start and Baily eighth in the individual, and then picked up their first World Cup podiums in the weeks post-Olympics.
Heading into 2015, the team (as well as its fans) was giddy with the possibility of more podiums. But none came.
Dunklee delivered this season in Presque Isle, Maine, exactly where those fans could most appreciate it. Shooting a perfect 10-for-10 in the 10-kilometer sprint, she sped past many pre-race favorites and finished second, 17.8 seconds behind Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic (who later won the World Cup Total Score).
“I knew I probably had one of my best races in my life and I’d done it at home and my parents were there,” Dunklee said after the race. “I just felt really good about my performance. I was really happy.”
It was close, with second through fourth place separated by fewer than three seconds. But Dunklee, an early starter, got to watch her time hold despite challenges from the likes of Marie Dorin Habert of France.
“You still need to fight like hell,” Dunklee recalled of heading out on the final loop knowing that times were tight. “When you’re having that sort of race, you don’t want to lose a second anywhere … I’ve just got to fight for the next seven minutes or whatever it takes.”
Dunklee had a solid season, just as she has for each of the last several years; consistency on the World Cup circuit landed her in 14th place in the Total Score, the best ever for an American woman.
But consistency doesn’t breed excitement quite the same way that podiums do.
“It’s unbelievable,” U.S. women’s coach Jonne Kähkönen said. “Just to be able to grab the podium on the home soil, home World Cup, even if it’s not the hometown, but there’s a lot of friends and family and fans that are great support. The local community is just awesome, so it means the world to us.”
Dunklee is now tied for the best performance ever by an American, along with Tim Burke, Anna Sonnerup, Joan Smith, and Josh Thompson, all of whom also won silver at World Cup or World Championships events.
Next up? The U.S. is still waiting on a gold.
Canadian men’s relay team (Christian Gow, Nathan Smith, Scott Gow, and Brendan Green), World Championships men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay
While Dunklee’s second-place finish was historic, it didn’t send the same shock waves as another record-setting result which came a few weeks later: when the Canadian men’s team broke through for bronze in the World Championships relay in Oslo, Norway, earning their country’s first-ever relay medal.
“In a relay anything is possible,” anchor racer Brendan Green said at the time. “Today we all really put it on the line together. Every single one of us raced really well. When that happens, when things come together like that, it’s really incredible.”
It was easily the most surprising result of the championships, and the athletes themselves said that they hadn’t seen it coming – they had thought a top five was possible. The medal? Maybe in a few years, they had hoped.
Some aspects of the performance were predictable. The Canadians tied with Germany and the U.S. for the best shooting on the day – not surprising because they already were a great shooting team, with Christian Gow the fourth-most accurate shooter on the World Cup and Smith the fifth-fastest.
And seeing Nathan Smith bring the team to the front of the field? He has won an individual World Cup, so that wasn’t unusual.
Seeing Green anchor the team like a pro? He has done it dozens of times, and also has five individual top-10 finishes to his name – although shooting a perfect ten-for-ten when a medal is on the line is a whole different story. Green was stone-cold as the anchor even though he said his nerves were a nightmare.
Perhaps what fans hadn’t been expecting were the stellar performances of the Gow brothers, who are the younger members of the Canadian team. Christian Gow, then 22 years old, tagged off just 14.7 seconds behind the leaders on leg one, handing over to Smith, who skied into a more or less dead heat with the leaders on leg two.
Older brother Scott, 25, turned in one of the best ski performances of his career, casually hanging with Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø, a many-time World Cup winner who later went on to take gold in the 15 k mass start.
“Watching Christian tag off really close, and then Nathan obviously moved us right into contention… I thought, OK, I have to [stay with him], I don’t have a choice,” Scott said. “I don’t know if I believed I could, but I had to, to try and keep our team in it. I’m just happy that I was able to stay right behind Johannes for most of it and hang on.”
He did hang on, tagging off in third; Green sealed the deal; history was made.
“Every year you kind of think it’s coming,” National Team Coach Roddy Ward said. “It’s close, it’s close, and we’ve been close for a couple of years. We were close enough, I guess, that on the right day we were there.”
Maybe next time the commentators won’t be so surprised.
Honorable mentions:
Canadian mixed relay team (Rosanna Crawford and Nathan Smith), single mixed relay at Östersund, Sweden, World Cup
Nathan Smith and Rosanna Crawford celebrate their second-place finish in the World Cup single mixed relay in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Canada had actually started the year off with a relay “bang”: in the very first World Cup competition of the season, Nathan Smith and Rosanna Crawford teamed up for silver in the mixed relay.
Despite a rocky start and nine spare rounds, they managed to avoid the penalty loop and finished 11.9 seconds behind Norway, claiming Canada’s first ever World Cup relay podium.
“It feels amazing,” Crawford said at the time, before pointing out that she’s still hunting for her first individual podium. “I don’t want to downplay it. Those team events, it feels so exciting and I feel so lucky to share the podium with my teammate who I’ve trained with for so long. But also, it’s probably not the same as an individual podium, which is definitely what I’m gunning for this year.”
U.S. (Susan Dunklee, Hannah Dreissigacker, Tim Burke, and Lowell Bailey) and Canadian (Rosanna Crawford, Sarah Beaudry, Macx Davies, and Brendan Green) mixed teams, Mixed relay at Canmore World Cup
Perhaps team events were just the thing for North American biathlon teams this season. In Canmore, Alberta, both the Americans and Canadians were in the hunt for the podium until late in the race. The U.S. ended up fourth, less than two seconds off the podium, and the Canadians ten seconds behind them in sixth.
The result was a best-ever mixed relay for the U.S., with Canada tying its previous best in the two-man, two-woman event.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Oh man, if I had known, I would’ve skied two seconds faster,’ but I really don’t think I could’ve,” U.S. anchor skier Lowell Bailey said of finishing less than two seconds out of third. “I put everything I could have into that last lap. It’s bittersweet, but it’s also our best result ever in the mixed relay. … Fourth is where we ended up, and I think we have to be satisfied with that and keep that momentum going forward.”
Hannah Dreissigacker of the United States finished 33rd in the 15 k individual at World Championships on Wednesday. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
OSLO, Norway — In the last race of her international biathlon career, it came down to the last shot.
Hannah Dreissigacker, standing on the range in the U.S. suit one last time, had knocked down the first four targets in the final stage of the World Championships 12.5-kilometer mass start. Then it got to her.
“In biathlon the last shot is always hard because you always think, I got this,” she said. “But this one I actually thought about how it was my last shot ever in a biathlon World Cup race or international race, so it was like, ‘Oh, I just really want to hit it!’ And then I totally missed. I just imagined Jonne [Kähkönen, the national team women’s coach] watching me and being like, Damn it!”
Perhaps a frustrating way to go out, but Dreissigacker still had 2.5 kilometers on the trails before she reached the finish line, and she made the most of it.
“I would’ve liked to hit that one, but then I passed two girls on the last lap,” she said. “I had a little battle with the Swedish girls and got them both, so that was good.”
It was just the second mass start of her career, and Dreissigacker was able to add a 27th-place finish to her roster of results from these Championships. She’d been 18th in sprint a week ago.
Despite all the emotion, Dreissigacker, 29, tried to approach the race professionally and felt she had succeeded.
“I wanted to have a good race and I was taking it seriously,” she said. “You can’t be swiveling your head [looking at the crowds] too much, but [Holmenkollen] was really awesome. It was just cool. It’s a cool place to have your last race.”
Her inclusion in the mass start was part of a banner day for US Biathlon, which also fielded Susan Dunklee (who finished 11th) in the women’s race and Tim Burke, Lowell Bailey and Leif Nordgren in the men’s mass start.
“I think this is going to be a record for us,” Dunklee said. “I don’t know what the numbers are, but that’s phenomenal. The guys are psyched, we’re psyched, and it’s a special day to have the last race with Hannah. We’ve been doing this so long. Hannah’s been my teammate almost as long as I can remember skiing: the Northeastern Vermont [team], the BKL team, the New England teams for Junior Olympics, Dartmouth, Craftsbury, here…”
Dreissigacker decided almost a year ago that she would call it quits after this season.
“Last year after Kontiolahti [World Championships], it didn’t feel like quite the right way to go out,” she explained. “I also wanted to make the decision before the season. So I made the decision last spring. I wanted it to be something that I wasn’t waffling about all year, when I had a bad race and would decide, ‘I wanted to quit,’ and I would have a good race and think, ‘I want to keep doing it.’ I just wanted to try to enjoy the whole season and have my decision already made, and try my best to separate that decision from my biathlon.”
Dreissigacker was challenged in that plan, as she had a hard early part of the season. After struggling on the World Cup early, the 2014 Olympian was bounced down to the second-tier IBU Cup, where she initially continued to flounder.
“I had some really hard parts of the season where I just wasn’t doing well skiing or shooting, and it just wasn’t what I wanted for the year,” she said. “I wanted to quit and I almost quit in January, but then I was like, ‘No! This is what you decided, that you were doing it this year, and it goes both ways. You’ve got to finish this year, you owe it to yourself.’ And I’m very happy I did. It definitely turned around and this is a pretty perfect way to end.”
After re-finding her results on the IBU Cup, Dreissigacker raced the World Cup again, tallying top-30s in Canmore, Alberta, and Presque Isle, Maine. Then she headed to Oslo for World Championships, where she placed 18th in the sprint.
She still has a few races left, at North American Championships in Fort Kent, Maine, in two weeks’ time, but after that her biathlon days will be over.
“This is a pretty perfect way to end.” — Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon), on retiring
“I love biathlon,” Dreissigacker mused. “I have to say, it’s a really really amazing sport. There’s so much to it. So much up and down. Such a mental challenge as well as the physical challenge, and the drama, and the emotion… oh my God. It makes it hard to do, but really fun to watch and be a part of.
“That said, I’m not planning on having it be a focal point of my life in the future,” she continued. “I would love to be involved on some level, whether it’s coaching kids on the side, or something else. But I also think that I need a little bit of a break for a while. I need to do everything else. I think if I was too involved I’d feel too sad.”
A multitalented and interdisciplinary thinker, Dreissigacker has a Dartmouth College degree in engineering modified with studio art, as well as a bachelor’s of engineering, which took one more year at Dartmouth. She has kept making art all through her biathlon career, some of which is posted on her blog, and has had a gallery show as well as taking custom orders for paintings.
“Mostly I think I’m just really excited to have a little more freedom,” Dreissigacker said. “A little less always having to be very disciplined. I’m excited not to have to be paranoid about germs. I’m excited not to have to follow a training plan every day to decide what I want to do – to wake up and see that it’s raining and decide to not train, or to wake up and see that it’s a beautiful day and not have to have a rest day, or do some specific workout. I’m excited to go for a ten-hour adventure in the mountains if I feel like it and not worry about being exhausted the next day.”
She’ll probably stay in very good shape, she laughed, whether that’s from skiing or running or hiking or mountain biking.
She’s not quite sure what’s next profession-wise, but there are several options which might keep her feeling fulfilled.
“I’m excited to have more balance in my life, whether it’s art, or being more involved in my values when it comes to the environment and how we treat the world,” she said. “There’s a lot of things that I really care a lot about that I’ve had to push aside a little bit. Ultimately I’d love to do something where I feel like I’m really making the world a better place. That sounds really cheesy, but that’s how it is.”
“I’m excited not to have to be paranoid about germs. I’m excited not to have to follow a training plan every day … I’m excited to have more balance in my life, whether it’s art, or being more involved in my values when it comes to the environment and how we treat the world.” — Dreissigacker
However, the detour through World Cup biathlon and a 23rd-place finish at the 2014 Olympics was worth every minute, she said.
“I have no regrets for making this imbalance in my life that gave me this focus on biathlon,” she concluded. “It definitely felt necessary to make it a bit of an imbalance if I was going to really focus on biathlon. And that was hard for me. I’m a person who really likes balance, and I have so many interests. So it was hard to do that, but I also loved it.”
Marie Dorin Habert of France on her way to mass start gold in the last women’s race of 2016 IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU/Twitter)
OSLO, Norway—After showing good form all week, Susan Dunklee was hungry going into her last race at World Championships: the 12.5 k mass start.
But the American biathlete didn’t have a good start on Sunday, missing two shots in the first bout and immediately heading to the penalty loop. Twice.
“It was disappointing,” she said of coming out of the loop in 28th place, third from last in the elite 30-woman field.
But Dunklee was able to work her way back up. After making up ground on the trails, she calmly knocked down all the targets in her next two shooting bouts and moved into the top ten.
“I’ve had a lot of practice over the years with biathlon, even if you get off to a bad start. You never know what can happen. A little bit of the pressure is off, but it also means that you have a lot more hard work because you’re skiing by yourself… In some ways it’s better to miss one early, because the pack is still skiing together and people aren’t usually making breaks that early.”
It had seemed like her chance of a medal was gone after those first two missed shots, but by the final stage Dunklee found herself all of a sudden in seventh place, with the leaders in sight.
Then she missed one more target.
“On the last bout I think I was shooting on point seven or something,” she said. “So it was right there. I had one miss in that last stage, so it was close, but I could have really been right there.”
Once out of the penalty loop, she attacked on the trails, able to move from 14th up to 11th and crossing the line one minute and four-tenths of a second behind race winner Marie Dorin Habert of France.
She was also just a few seconds behind Nadezhda Skardino of Belarus.
“I didn’t know where I was standing until the last hill, when Jonas told me that the top ten was right there, and to go after her because she was getting tired,” Dunklee said. “So I tried. But she rallied at the end and I didn’t quite catch her.”
In a way, the race was disappointing, she said. Dunklee had the third-fastest ski time of the field, and has had comparable speed all week. With three misses, she somehow still managed to be near the top ten.
“I was certainly dreaming of medals here, and I feel like my level is high enough that I’m capable of being on the podium at an event like this,” she said. “It didn’t come together this week, but one of these years it will.”
Still, she was able to call it a successful World Championships, with individual finishes of eighth, 10th, 11th, and 18th as well as two strong relay legs.
She wasn’t able to match her career-best Championships result of fifth back in 2012, but as a group of results, it was her best Championships yet.
And there’s still one week of World Cup racing to come, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.
“I want to have a little bit of fun today,” Dunklee said. “But I definitely have some motivation left, probably more than some of these ladies, so we’ll see what happens next week.”
Following an opposite trajectory to a similar result was Rosanna Crawford of Canada, who cleaned the first stage and was skiing in the lead group. But then she missed one shot each in stages two and three.
“One miss would have been okay,” she said. “For sure, the prone, both of them I shouldn’t have missed. I think I just jerked the trigger for my second shot in prone. The skiing felt good, but just not quite as good as the relay.”
Still, Crawford cleaned her final standing stage and crossed the finish line in 15th, +1:25.7.
“You always want to make big gains every year,” Crawford said. “But the reality of the sport is that as you get older, the gains get smaller and they are harder to get. We’ll have to put in that extra couple percent to make it next year.”
To try to stay grounded, she had set “realistic” goals for the Championships: to make a top fifteen, and to qualify for the mass start (qualification goes to the top 15 athletes in the World Cup standings, with the field filled out with medalists and athletes with the best combined results from the Championships).
“I achieved the realistic goals,” said Crawford, who also finished 14th in the 15 k individual on Wednesday. Before this season, her best Championships result was 17th in the individual in 2013.
So like Dunklee, she had to be happy with the sum and total of her week, even if she wished she had hit one more shot.
Hannah Dreissigacker also toed the start line for the U.S., crashing on the first loop and then collecting three penalties to finish 27th.
It was her last international competition before retiring; teammate Annelies Cook, also retiring, was done after the relay, as was Canada’s Zina Kocher.
“Big hugs to Zina and Annelies and Hannah,” Crawford said. “We’re going to miss them very much. It won’t be the same.”
Sixth Medal for Dorin Habert as French Biathlete Takes Gold
Dorin Habert capped off a perfect week by shooting 20-for-20, the only woman in the field to do so. She earned gold, which was her sixth medal in as many start.
Those results had exhausted her, and the mother of an 18-month-old said she was relieved to have shot clean.
“I think today was hard for me,” she said. “I am happy to be the only woman with no misses behind the rifle… I didn’t think that I could have no misses in a mass start. Because all of the starts of the season I make some misses on the standing shooting. So today was very perfect. I tried to do my best today, but on the loop it was very hard.”
Three women with a penalty apiece left the range on the final stage together behind Dorin Habert. They were Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic, the overall World Cup leader; Laura Dahlmeier of Germany; and Kaisa Makarainen of Finland.
Dahlmeier and Makarainen attacked and Soukalova could not keep the pace, slipping to fourth over the course of the 2.5 k loop. For the other two, it was a tough battle as both said they were tired from the week so far.
“Perhaps I don’t look very tired, but I am tired, I’m really tired,” Dahlmeier said in the press conference. “We had a really hard fight on the last loop, Kaisa and me. I thought I had to be directly behind her and then perhaps it would be possible to win the bronze medal.”
Makarainen had a bit of a disadvantage as the German had faster skis, and the finish of the Holmenkollen course is downhill into the stadium.
“My only plan was that I try to make the gap in the uphills, and I wished that the gap was big enough that nobody would pass me,” she said.
She did lead Dahlmeier up the last big hill, Hellnerbacken, as well as up the steep hill behind the range. But the German stuck to her tails and was able to pass her just before the finish line to claim silver.
“I just could take more speed with me, you can see that she has to start pushing earlier, I could just create more forward drive,” Dahlmeier told German broadcaster ZDF. “It’s absolutely gigantic that it was enough for silver. I really wouldn’t have thought that would be possible while the race was going on.”
With the medal, Dahlmeier nearly matched Dorin Habert: in five starts (she sat out the mixed relay), she earned five medals.
Makarainen, a former World Champion and World Cup Total Score winner, was happy with bronze.
“I had no chance against Laura on the last downhill,” she said. “I am sure that our wax team worked really hard these last two weeks, and today they only made skis for me, so I don’t want to blame them. It’s a big thing for our small team to win a medal… We have seen that it’s only the big teams who win most of the medals, the ones with a lot of athletes and support, so this is great for our small team.”
Annelies Cook finishing out her international biathlon career, anchoring the U.S. women’s relay team to 13th at 2016 IBU World Championships. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
OSLO, Norway — The women’s 4 x 6-kilometer relay wasn’t just the last race of 2016 World Championships for part of the US Biathlon team, but also the last international race of some of their careers.
With both Hannah Dreissigacker and Annelies Cook set to retire – and neither are attending the final World Cups in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia – it is the end of an era for the team.
“I’m really sad to be saying goodbye to Annelies and Hannah as teammates,” Clare Egan said. “Really, really sad. They are just great teammates, relay day or not relay day. Summertime, wintertime. We have big shoes to fill.”
But before they could laugh and cry and reminisce about so many training camps and racing trips done together, the women had to get through the relay, and they wanted a good result.
“I said last night in our race meeting, we definitely want to approach every day until the end of the World Championships very professionally,” U.S. women’s national team coach Jonne Kähkönen said. “Sure, there are a lot of emotions. You have to put those on the side, and finish the day first, and then celebrate the retirements. But have a good focus all the way through.”
“We want to have fun on this last day, and we want to put together a good result to have a good memory to go out on,” Susan Dunklee agreed. “When you’re seeking fun, that doesn’t mean that you don’t work hard and it doesn’t mean that you’re unprofessional or you’re not doing the focused work that you need to do. But I think that’s the common misconception when we talk about fun. Fun means keeping yourself motivated to be hungry and to want to do the work.”
Dunklee led things off for the United States, cleaning prone with no spare rounds and going out with the leaders.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much contact in the women’s field in a mass start situation,” she said of the early going. “People were bumping elbows and poles, and stepping on each others’ skis, and I saw a couple different people go down. People were moving back and forth across the trail more than they usually do. It was really difficult to move up today.”
American Susan Dunklee (14) chasing Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi (2) while skiing the first leg of the women’s 4 x 6 k relay at 2016 IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway. She tagged her team in 10th and the U.S. went on to place 13th. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Dunklee tried to attack on the second loop, but was quickly caught.
“I don’t think I felt as sharp on skis,” she said, comparing the effort to her leadoff leg in the mixed relay a week ago, where she tagged off in first place.
“I didn’t have the gas to quite go as hard, and when I did go hard I didn’t recover. I think all this racing is starting to get to me a little bit. I attacked off the front, and then people passed me on that downhill leading into the big hill. They caught right back up, so I thought it was stupid to waste that much energy if I’m not going to make a big break.”
Dunklee then used two spare round in standing and tagged off in tenth place, 28.2 seconds back. Her ski time was the second-fastest of all leadoff skiers.
She tagged off to Dreissigacker, who was in the last relay race of her career. Things didn’t go perfectly, and the team fell to 16th.
“Shooting, I had to use three spares,” Dreissigacker explained. “I am not that happy with my shooting, but it still wasn’t terrible. It’s just a tough competition out there today. There are all kinds of teams at the top.”
Egan moved up to 14th with two spares, before tagging off to Cook.
Cook had only announced her retirement publicly in the last 24 hours, and of all the emotions running rampant on the team, hers were the strongest.
“I was so nervous, oh my god,” she said. “I wanted to be able to finish in a good way, with my team. I had the worst butterflies all day long. But I was just really happy to ski.”
And after being frustrated in the sprint, after a bout of pre-Championships illness, Cook felt her ski speed come back around as the week went on. She used just one spare round on the anchor leg and was left with a performance she could feel happy about. She crossed the line smiling in 13th place, 3:47.1 behind the winning Norwegian team.
“I think Annelies did a great job today,” Kähkönen said. “Cleaning quick in prone, and then just one reserve in standing. That was excellent execution. To her potential, I mean, that’s how Annelies Cook shoots.”
Still, even out on the course there were bits of emotion.
“On the last little bit I saw Hannah, and Susan and Clare, and they are such a great team,” Cook said, tears wellling up in her eyes. “I’m going to miss them so much. It has been a really amazing adventure with a lot of really good people.”
The result wasn’t the best of the season. The U.S. had finished tenth in the last World Cup relay before World Championships, at home in Presque Isle, Maine.
Clare Egan skiing the third leg for the U.S. women in the 4 x 6 k relay at 2016 IBU World Championships. After receiving the tag in 16th, she brought the team to 14th and the U.S. finished 13th. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
“We maybe just didn’t have the energy on the skis today,” Egan said. “It seemed like some of the other teams were performing extremely well. I don’t think we were performing poorly.”
Kähkönen thought that was a fair assessment.
“At the World Champs, that’s just the level [of competition],” he said. “You need that good shooting, and even better shooting, and the best shape of the day. And as usual, we had a few surprises mixed in there. Like the Slovenian team, and Kazakhstan definitely had a great day today.”
Now, the team is looking forward to Dunklee and Dreissigacker competing in Sunday’s mass start, the first time ever that two American woman qualified for the 30-woman event at a Championships.
From there, Dunklee and Egan will go to Khanty-Mansiysk to finish off the World Cup, while the retirees will go home, and then to North American Championships in Fort Kent, Maine.
After that, it’s time for the team to contemplate life with two fewer members.
“I’m going to miss them so much. It has been a really amazing adventure with a lot of really good people.” — Annelies Cook (US Biathlon) on retiring
“It will be a great challenge,” Kähkönen said. “We’ve talked about this for the last two years now. Ever since Sochi I guess. Just trying to find ways to bring in more resources and effort into development, because it’s a long path. I typically say it’s four, five, six years, depending on where you start from, to get to a true World Cup level. I mean, even Clare [Egan, who started biathlon three years ago], she is doing awesome, but still on the way. She is in the process of getting there.”
Dunklee and Egan both agreed that there is plenty of opportunity for their team, naming Maddie Phaneuf and Joanne Reid as women they are excited to work with more next season.
“We have some candidates,” Dunklee said. “It’s going to be a fun challenge, getting some new people up to speed. There’s hope. We have a bright future.”
Kähkönen sees Dunklee, who has had world class performances each of the last several seasons and turned in a top-ten sprint result earlier in World Championships, as the ‘captain’ of the team going forward.
But team cohesion and a supportive atmosphere are hallmarks of the U.S. women’s team, and he doesn’t see any problem fitting new candidates into that group.
“The others members took Joanne into the team immediately,” Kähkönen said of Reid’s first World Cup experience. “It was good to see. And I must say, it was almost out of the blue that she raced national trials, and then IBU Cup, and then most of the [World Cup] athletes had not seen her, had not even met her. So I think they did a good job, and at the same time that’s just how the team operates.”
Memories of the atmosphere that Cook and Dreissigacker helped create will inform the group moving forward.
“These awesome experiences you have with your teammates, these bonding moments whether it’s training in the mountains in the summer or in the pouring rain when nobody wants to be out but you’re out there and you’re badass, those keep you motivated,” Dunklee said. “Your teammates make it fun.”
Susan Dunklee’s parents wave an American flag in the stadium. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Sarah Beaudry of Canada is urged on by head wax tech Tom Zidek. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Julia Ransom en route to 20th place for Canada. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Susan Dunklee pushing over a hill for 18th place. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Marie Dorin Habert of France won her first individual gold of these World Championships. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Sarah Beaudry of Canada. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Hannah Dreissigacker of the United States finished 33rd in the 15 k individual at World Championships on Wednesday. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
A scene outside of the race course at Holmenkollen. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Laura Dahlmeier of Germany earned bronze in the 15 k individual. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Hannah Dreissigacker earned her first mass start qualification after today’s race. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Canadian tech Tom Zidek showing an athlete their shooting group. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Clare Egan en route to 66th place. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
On course in the 15 k individual. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Rosanna Crawford of Canada finished 13th, the best World Championships finish of her career. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Annelies Cook of the United States placed 77th. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Oslo 2016 IBU World Championships – Clare Egan of the United States. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
The scene at Holmenkollen stadium in Oslo during the women’s 15 k individual of IBU World Championships. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic, the overall World Cup leader, placed fifth. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Annelies Cook of the United States on course in the women’s 4 x 6 k relay at 2016 World Championships in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Zina Kocher of Canada placed 54th. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
OSLO, Norway—After frustration on the shooting range in the World Championships sprint and pursuit competitions, the Canadian women’s team were pleased to up their percentages in the 15 k individual, translating to top-20 performances by both Rosanna Crawford and Julia Ransom.
Crawford missed just one of her targets, finishing 14th, 2:15.3 behind new World Champion Marie Dorin Habert of France.
And Ransom was one of only two women in the whole field to shoot 20 for 20, finishing 20th, +2:33.5.
“It always is a big focus,” Ransom said of perfection on the shooting range. “I’m just glad it came out today, because those one minute penalties hurt. I was more calm and confident today.”
As in Antholz, Italy, earlier this season, Ransom gained momentum as she knocked down target after target: first five out of five, then ten out of ten, then 15 out of 15.
But not so few athletes cleaned three stages. It’s the fourth one which can be trouble. The gold and silver medalists, Dorin Habert and teammate Anais Bescond of France, had each hit 15 for 15 before missing a shot on their last stage.
So did last year’s World Champion, Ekaterina Yurlova of Russia, who ended up 11th after that one miss. And so did several other women, as well.
Ransom was able to keep her focus.
“I think it’s easy to get into your own head, especially if you shoot 15 for 15,” she said. “So I was happy to stay solid.”
Crawford after the sprint had complained of a “nine out of ten curse”, but started off her 15 k with ten straight hits before missing a shot in her second prone stage.
“Shooting was so good,” Crawford said. “It’s always so good in training so I really tried to bring that feeling to the race today. As I was cresting the top of Hellner’s hill [the last big climb before the stadium], I kind of just said to myself, OK, now for the easy part, which is shooting. That was really nice to have that feeling. I really took my time on the last standing. I didn’t want to have a repeat of the pursuit.”
On the tough and hilly Holmenkollen course, Crawford was satisfied to finish 14th, her best World Championships or Olympic result to date, and also one of her best of the regular season.
“My best was 13th in Östersund [the first week of the World Cup] in an individual with 18 for 20 I think,” she said. “So the ski speed is coming around. It would’ve been really nice to have that top 10, especially for funding for the team. This will probably secure me a spot for the mass start so I’ll just try again on Sunday.”
Canada also started Zina Kocher, who finished 54th with four penalties (+5:33.6) and Sarah Beaudry, who finished 60th with two penalties (+6:02.3).
“I’m happy I hit 18,” Beaudry said. “I didn’t feel great skiing, but I did some of the things I was hoping to do. To push with the hills – there are so many long tops of the hills, and I find that I struggle with that, so I focused well on that in the race, which is good. I’m just happy that I feel better than during my sprint.”
In her first senior World Championships, Beaudry was thrilled to see Ransom hit perfect shooting. Separated in age from Beaudry by just a year, Ransom got her senior World Championships debut last season and has already made good on her accumulated experience.
“We’ve known each other longer than we haven’t known each other,” Beaudry said. “I’ve always watched Julia do everything one year before me. So it’s so neat to watch and say, that could be me next year. She leads the way and I have someone to follow.”
So perfect shooting next year?
“That would be great,” she laughed.
Dunklee Leads U.S. in 18th
After two top-tens in the sprint and pursuit, Susan Dunklee missed a few more shots on the range to finish 18th in the individual, +2:29.5.
She missed a shot in each of the first three stages, but cleaned her last one for three total penalties.
“I finished on a good note,” she said. “I’m making that a habit, which is nice.”
Earlier in the week Dunklee talked of shooting feeling good and easy, and that didn’t necessarily change. She thinks she’s still got it for the rest of the week.
“Today felt a little more average, to be honest, but it still felt in control, which is exactly what I want,” she said. “I was really surprised I only missed one in the first standing because I was kind of seeing spots a little bit. Spots beyond just the five dots. It was hard to stay focused.”
That might be from exertion: Dunklee had the fourth-fastest course time behind medalists Dorin Habert, Besond, and Laura Dahlmeier of Germany. The four were separated by just 6.8 seconds.
“Today I was feeling good,” she said. “Ideally you would want to start out a little slower then speed up as the race goes on in a long race like this. But when I’m feeling really good I don’t worry too much about that. I just go and then deal with the consequences later. I was definitely hurting on loop four, but Doro [Wierer of Italy, who finished eighth] was right there. She was on her finishing loop so I just kept her within reach and that helped a lot.”
With two penalties, Hannah Dreissigacker finished 33rd (+3:45.2).
“The shooting has been feeling so good lately,” Dreissigacker said. “Like in practice yesterday, I missed one shot the whole time and I was feeling so solid. Today, also, I just felt like I didn’t even need to miss those two, I could’ve just hit them. That’s a great feeling, that’s how it should feel, close.”
Along with an 18th place finish in the sprint and 36th in the pursuit, the result was enough to qualify Dreissigacker for her first ever mass start competition.
It’s a cherry on top of what has been a good World Championships, the last before Dreissigacker retires.
“This will be my second mass start,” she wrote in an email after the mass start qualification list was announced. “I started with bib 30 in the mass start in Khanty-Mansisk last year. It was definitely a goal of mine for this year do another mass start, and I really didn’t think that it would happen for a while there so I am just SO happy about it! It will be the perfect way to end my biathlon career.”
Clare Egan had four missed shots, three of which came in one stage, to finish 66th (+6:41.9). Annelies Cook finished 77th with seven missed shots (+8:49.4).
“I had one bad stage,” Egan said. “I was pretty bummed out. But I was psyched that I was able to keep it together after that and not go downhill… I’m happy to have another race with 80% shooting. My goal this year was to average 80%, and I’ve only had one individual race (sprint or pursuit or individual) below that. With my shooting I’m doing way better than I could have hoped this season.”
The U.S. women are now looking toward the relay, which has extra significance since with Dreissigacker set to retire next year.
“This is our last relay as a group, and it’s going to be sad but it’s also going to be a nice way to go out,” Dunklee said. “I’m going to miss being on a team with [her] a lot, and I’m going to try to savor this last one.”
Will that added emotional aspect make it harder to focus?
“I’m just going to try to go out and do what I always do,” Dunklee said. “We’ll see.”
Laura Dahlmeier of Germany on her way to her first individual World Championships gold.
OSLO, Norway—On Saturday it was unbeatable skiing that brought Laura Dahlmeier a bronze medal in the 7.5 k sprint at World Championships, despite one penalty when most other top competitors shot clean.
On Sunday it was shooting that brought her gold. The 22-year-old German was a perfect 20-for-20 on the range and took the lead in the 10 k pursuit after the final shooting stage, with such a comfortable margin that she never had to look back.
“It was really a perfect day for me, a perfect race,” she said in a post-race press conference. “I hit all targets… The last loop was amazing. I had a little bit of time to look around and thank the whole team, and get the German flag. It was great for me to come to the finish as the World Champion.”
She finished 48.3 seconds ahead of Dorothea Wierer of Italy, who moved up from fifth place with just two penalties. Marie Dorin Habert of France was third, +57.3, after leading early, but missing three targets in her standing stages.
It was the first individual World Championships medal for Wierer, who has a reputation as a sharpshooter.
Julia Ransom of Canada (left) and Hannah Dreissigacker of the United States on course in the 10 k pursuit.
“The medal was something special,” she said. “I knew it was not easy because everybody is preparing well for the World Championships. I had so much problems last week. I was changing the position of the shooting maybe five times and I wasn’t able to make a zero in the shooting in training. And I also had a strange feeling in the body yesterday, like I was getting sick or something. But today is a new day, and I’m really happy.”
Dorin Habert earned her medal on the last loop. Though she left the range in fourth position, behind Franziska Hildebrand of Germany, she managed to pass Hildebrand and, with gritted teeth, hang on for the medal all the way to the finish.
“I’m very happy to be third and I don’t care about my standing shooting,” she said.
Dunklee a Hard-Fought Tenth
U.S. biathlete Susan Dunklee had only one missed shot through her prone stages, moving from bib eight into the top five.
Then came standing. The first standing stage, Dunklee called a “distaster.” Missing three shots, she dropped all the way to 20th.
“I’m not sure what happened, but it didn’t feel as in control as all the rest of the stages I have shot this week,” she said. “I was really glad to come in and clean the next stage, to get back on the horse right away, so to speak.”
That clean final stage had her leaving the range in 15th with the race far from over.
Dunklee charging hard.
“It was exciting, because Gabi [Soukalova] and Anais [Bescond] came out of the penalty loop right ahead of me,” she said. “I thought that was sweet because they are both really good skiers, so I got a ride. Then I was feeling good on that little hill halfway around the course. They boxed me out – one was on one side, the other was on the other side, and they were passing someone else, but I wanted to pass them. I couldn’t.”
Never one to let a challenge defeat her, Dunklee found a way past.
“Clare [Egan], my teammate, was there yelling, ‘Come on Susan! You have to go now! You have to go now!’” Dunklee said. “So I did a little slalom on the uphill to get around them. I knew they would just hang onto my tails because they are good skiers. So I charged, and we caught a few more people. It was a fun last loop.”
That put her in tenth by the finish, something that she wouldn’t have thought possible with four penalties on the day. Dunklee had the second-fastest ski time behind Kaisa Makarainen of Finland, who finished seventh.
“You don’t know until you try,” she said of her last-loop heroics. “You have to always try. I am happy with [the result] given the shooting. I’m still kicking myself on that one stage. Luckily we still have a few races this week.”
Even though she can’t pinpoint what went wrong in her first standing stage, Dunklee isn’t letting it worry her.
The Susan Dunklee fan club (made up partly of her parents).
“Tomorrow is a day off and I’m going to take a break from thinking about biathlon,” she said. “Honestly I’ve had a better feeling on the range this whole week than I have all season. I’m still on a roll with that, and it hasn’t gone anywhere. Yeah, it was gone for one stage, but it’s still there. I’m going to feel very confident going into the next few races.”
Teammate Hannah Dreissigacker was 36th with four penalties, crossing the line +3:43.2. Both had to battle the wind, which was, if anything, worse on course than on the range.
“My three middle loops I didn’t have anyone to ski with,” Dunklee said. “That was extremely tough because it was really windy.”
Both also got caught up trying to ski with other women, which they guessed might have contributed to a few of their problems on the shooting range.
“Maybe I pushed it a little harder on the last section of the loop, and maybe that affected me a little bit,” Dreissigacker said. “And I was shooting at the far end of the range, which means you have less time to shake out the legs as you ski in. I think that might have been a little bit of a factor in the standing. I shot in 29 and 30 and you have to do a sudden snowplow to a stop and then shoot immediately. That’s a little tough.”
Still, the two U.S. skiers were happy with their execution.
“My goal was to ski my own race and shoot my own race,” Dreissigacker said. “I felt like I did that, but it just wasn’t a perfect day out there. It was okay. It wasn’t bad, although two on the first one was a bummer. That really sets you back a bit. But anyway, it could have been worse, could have been better.”
For Canada, Rosanna Crawford led the way in 27th (+3:14.9). After missing four shots, she finished the day frustrated.
“I threw it away in my last standing,” she said. “I had a chance for a top 20. As I came down the hill I was saying my cue words and focusing, but then I think my brain just went blank. I didn’t do what I trained to do.”
But there were also positive points: for instance, she felt good on skis, and was able to work the sections of the course that she had tactically focused on.
“It was fun,” she admitted. “I love pursuits and I felt quite good on skis. If you really work the downhills, you can make up a lot of time. I passed maybe four or five people on the last loop on the two downhill sections.”
Julia Ransom also competed for Canada, finishing 42nd (+4:38.2) with three penalties.
Tim Burke of the United States leads Canada’s Macx Davies in the World Championships 10 k sprint in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus)
OSLO, Norway—Hannah Dreissigacker didn’t even know if she would be competing at World Championships this season. A month ago, the 2014 Olympian was on the IBU Cup, and floundering.
But she began to turn things around, and then turned in top-30 results in Canmore, Alberta, and Presque Isle, Maine, when she was moved up to the World Cup.
So on Thursday she found herself leading the World Championships mixed relay after receiving the tag from Susan Dunklee in first place, and on Saturday she placed 18th in the 7.5 kilometer sprint, a season best.
“It’s funny how fast your expectations can change I guess,” Dreissigacker said after the race. “Definitely there was a little while after Christmas where I was racing on the IBU Cup and doing badly that I thought I might not even come here. That really re-set my expectations, so that I had to re-think and say, I need to race for myself and I need to have fun and enjoy it and do the best I can do in these last few races… It’s funny though, because as soon as you start to do well again, you want to do well and you want to do better.”
With Dunklee placing eighth, the Vermonters’ one-two punch was one of the best World Championship days for the U.S. women’s team ever.
Hannah Dreissigacker finished 18th in the 7.5 k sprint at World Championships. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus)
“I’m really excited for Hannah too,” U.S. Biathlon Association President and CEO Max Cobb said after discussing Dunklee’s result. “That was a super performance. Her best of the season so far… I’m so excited that we have two women in the top 20!”
Dreissigacker shot clean, and was able to ski the 48th fastest ski time to land in the top 20.
“It’s biathlon,” Dreissigacker said. “You can always wish you did something better. Today I guess I wish I skied better since I shot well. But I gave it everything I had. I felt like I actually paced myself pretty well so I could still push it on the last lap.”
The other two American women will miss the pursuit. Annelies Cook was ill in the run-up to World Championships and couldn’t find her legs. Despite a single penalty, she landed 63rd and said she was disappointed not to be able to use some speed on the final loop.
Clare Egan finished 84th after taking only a single penalty, but forgetting her penalty loop and accruing a two-minute penalty as a result.
On the men’s side, Tim Burke finished 14th (+1:09.1) with one penalty and Leif Nordgren was a season-best 18th (+1:16.8) with clean shooting.
“Finally I put good shooting together,” Nordgren said. “Zero-zero, that’s the first time in a long time in a sprint. That’s what I needed today. You know, for me it’s been kind of a bad year as a whole. So it’s nice to finally have a good one at World Champs.”
Burke had a similar feeling, after having many races this year where things just didn’t go his way.
“I feel like I was headed definitely in the right direction, in Canmore and Presque Isle,” Burke said. “It was really good for me. I think today was a good start to World Champs. I felt good, but I wasn’t great. Sometimes I struggle a little bit with the taper. The first race back is a challenge for me. I was a little bit flat today but I really expect to feel better and better each race.”
All four Americans will be in the pursuit, with Lowell Bailey finishing 29th (+1:34.8) and Sean Doherty 43rd (+1:56.5).
“I’m really happy with it,” Doherty said of his effort. “I’m really happy with it. I felt very strong skiing, which was really fun. It’s nice to have the shape come around for the Champs here. And I shot one penalty each time, which I mean that’s not perfect, but I can’t really complain either. I felt really good… It’s nice to belong in this field. It really is fun, it’s really fun. Instead of being the little kid who is kind of wide-eyed with everything, it’s fun to really be here to race and fit in.”
Crawford Leads Canada
Rosanna Crawford was the top Canadian, finishing 29th in the women’s sprint. With one penalty she was one minute and 34 seconds behind race winner Tiril Eckhoff of Norway.
“Shooting nine out of ten is my curse,” she joked. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to hit ten for ten.”
That said, Crawford was happy that her ski form was coming around after competing while ill in the Canmore World Cup.
“It took a long time to get rid of that sore throat,” she said. “I had a sore throat for about, oh, 27 days. I was able to train through, though, and just to be at home was nice, and to be around my family and my dog and get to ski the trails that I never get to ski. It was a good recovery for us.”
She will be joined in Sunday’s pursuit by Julia Ransom, who placed 50th (+2:14.6) with one penalty.
Sarah Beaudry finished 71st with two penalties and Zina Kocher 82nd with five penalties.
“I had one huge standing mistake,” Ransom said. “I could see that I almost didn’t even hit the backboard. I just pulled it too soon and wasn’t really ready. But other than that, it was good. I’m feeling more like myself on skis.”
This is the second World Championships for the Kelowna, British Columbia native. And she can tell the difference.
“My World Championships last year, it was the first pursuit I ever made so I was pumped, I think I finished 58th or something,” she said. “It is nice to feel like I’m competing more instead of just participating.”
For Sunday’s pursuit, she’s hoping she can replicate a performance in Antholz, Italy, earlier this year, where she cleaned all four stages and moved up from 46th to 19th.
And she’s also simply enjoying competing in Oslo for the first time.
“Oslo is amazing,” she gushed. “You can hear the rumbles of cheers from our hotel.Last year I went home for a few weeks rest, so I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. Holmenkollen is the place to be. And it’s above and beyond my expectations.”
For the Canadian men, Brendan Green was tops with one penalty in 35th (+1:44.1). Like the rest of the team, before World Championships Green had not competed since the Canmore World Cups, having skipped Presque Isle to train.
“We’ve had a little longer break away from racing than we usually do, but I think there were positives in that,” he said. “Especially for myself, with my back I was able to give it a rest after Canmore. And that allowed the team to get a solid block of training in. So in terms of our preparation it went more or less exactly as planned. It’s still early in the Championships so hopefully we can build on it and it goes up from here.”
Nathan Smith was disappointed with three penalties in standing, ending up 46th (+1:58.7) and Scott Gow was one spot back with a single penalty (+2:03.6).
“Standing was a disaster,” Smith said. “I missed three standing. I think my skiing was good, but you have to shoot well too, right?”
Macx Davies also made the cut in the pursuit, making the Canadian men’s team four for four.
In his first senior World Championships, Davies, like Ransom, is soaking up the Oslo scene.
“Coming through my last loop, [Ole Einar] Bjørndalen passed me by a little bit, so I came through the stadium just after him,” Davies explained. “I was finishing as he was shooting. The whole crowd was going up. It was impressive.”
France’s Martin Fourcade crosses the finish first to meet his teammates after anchoring the mixed relay to gold to open the 2016 IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway, Germany’s Simon Schempp secures second behind him, and Norway’s Tarjei Bø comes onto the final stretch to claim bronze. (Photo: IBU/Evgeny Tumashov)
Martin Fourcade versus Simon Schempp: Two perennial rivals who still greatly respect each other’s performances, duking it out on the final loop of Thursday’s mixed relay.
It was a fitting end to the first race of the 2016 International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships in Oslo, Norway, a finish sprint into the famous Holmenkollen ski arena with two athletes at the top of their game, in a repetition of a scene similar to what biathlon fans have witnessed repeatedly in recent seasons.
This time, France’s overall World Cup leader Fourcade prevailed against Germany’s anchor, skiing over the last bridge in the stadium and taking a little bow in the style of a telemark ski turn. He crossed the finish line in 1:14:01 and celebrated the gold medal with his excited teammates. Combined, the four-person French relay had no penalties and seven spare rounds.
Martin Fourcade celebrates with his teammates after anchoring France’s mixed relay to gold in the first race of 2016 IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU)
“Today was really emotional, because it was my first, our first victory in a team race in World Championships since 2009,” Fourcade said at the post-race press conference.
“Of course we were among the favorites so we were thinking about [the gold medal],” Fourcade added in an interview with the IBU. “But in biathlon you never know until the last shooting. We were fighting for gold as well as for the fourth place.”
Germany finished second, just 4.3 seconds back, and also with seven spares.
“I tried to bring out everything I had, but in the end I honestly was too exhausted,” Schempp told German TV broadcaster ARD. “We are totally happy about silver.”
“The way Fourcade threw himself into the snow afterwards, I think that shows Simon [Schempp] pushed him to his limits,” Germany’s third leg skier Arnd Peiffer told ARD. “Martin definitely didn’t have it easy on the final loop today … With that ‘telemark’ move he was just showing his excitement, that had nothing to do with arrogance.”
Another 10 seconds back, Norway’s anchor Tarjei Bø secured the bronze medal for the home team (+14.4), with ten spares, to the huge joy of the audience.
The U.S. finished 10th (+2:19.6), with five spares, falling back on the last three legs after starter Susan Dunklee rocketed through the first exchange in first place. Canada placed 11th (+2:30.8), with 11 spares, unable to quite keep up with the leaders throughout the race due to too many misses on the shooting range.
After a festive opening ceremony at a central square in Oslo on Wednesday night, the Biathlon World Championships opened with the mixed relay, including two women and two men per team, with all other rules just like in a traditional relay.
The two women begin, and each ski 6 kilometers with one prone and one standing shooting stage, while the men have to ski 7.5 k each. The athletes can use three spare rounds per stage, and if they fail to clean their targets with those spares, they have to ski a 150-meter penalty lap for every miss.
The IBU first experimented with mixed relays 11 years ago as a special event during the World Cup finale. Since 2007, the discipline has been part of the official program at World Championships.
Initially it was a bit of an afterthought, with a number of countries with large teams using it as an opportunity to give their lower-ranked biathletes a start at championships, and saving their best ones for the individual starts and the traditional women’s and men’s relays.
That has changed in recent years, since the event also became part of the program at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. This year in Oslo, small and larger teams alike certainly pulled out all the stops, with almost every nation entering the its best athletes.
Low-hanging clouds and fog on the range had been predicted, but for Thursday’s competition, the view of the targets on the shooting range was actually clear despite a cloudy sky and a little fog shrouding the big ski jumps that tower over the Holmenkollen arena.
The French team, with Anaïs Bescond, Marie Dorin Habert, Quentin Fillon Maillet, and Fourcade, initially hit a snag when Bescond required all spares to hit her targets in her standing stage, narrowly avoiding the penalty lap and coming through the exchange in seventh place, 35 seconds behind Dunklee.
Then Dorin Habert crashed in a ski tunnel out on the course, in snow conditions some athletes described as “glazed” in certain sections.
“Nothing terrible, it was just a mistake by me,” Dorin Habert said of her fall at the press conference.
She quickly recovered and moved her team into third place at the next exchange, with Fillon Maillet and finally Fourcade able to close out successfully by pushing hard up the final small climb and U-shaped turn in the arena to create a little gap.
Similarly to France, Germany’s starter Franziska Preuss initially lost 20 seconds to the top due to two misses in her first prone stage, but moved back up to fourth place at the exchange. Then Franziska Hildebrand and Peiffer kept the team in contention for the podium, before Schempp was able to claim the silver medal.
Germany’s Simon Schempp after one of his shooting stages during Thursday’s mixed relay at IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway. He anchored Germany to second, 4.3 seconds behind France. (Photo: IBU)
In his last shooting, Schempp thought he had hit all shots taking down his rifle to head back out on the course, before realizing he had missed one and — like Fourcade -– still had to use a spare. Schempp made his shot and left the range just 1.7 seconds behind Fourcade. While Schempp was able to catch up on the course, he did not have the energy left to beat his rival in the final sprint.
Ahead of World Championships, fans and the media put a lot of expectations on the home team from Norway with Marte Olsbu, Tiril Eckhoff, Johannes Thingnes Bø and his older brother Tarjei Bø.
At the 2014 Olympics, Norway had won the gold medal in the mixed relay, though only Eckhoff, who grew up just a stone’s throw away from the Holmenkollen arena, was a part of the lineup back then.
In front of thousands of spectators, including Norway’s King Harald V, the team did not disappoint, with Olsbu and Eckhoff delivering some of their best performances of the season to tag off in second and first place, respectively. From there, the Bø brothers kept the team in podium contention.
“I was very nervous,” Olsbu said at the press conference. “I am just so happy that I made a good race today.”
Johannes Bø tried to make a move on his last loop, yet the other teams just behind him closed the gap again before the exchange.
After needing all spares in his prone shooting on the anchor leg, his brother Tarjei fell back 18.4 seconds, but was able to reduce that again to 7.4 with fast skiing and a clean final shooting stage. While he tried everything in his power, he could not quite catch up to Fourcade and Schempp again.
“Of course we are happy to have a medal at the Championships [at] home,” Johannes said during the press conference. “But we are athletes who want to win. So we are 90 percent happy [with bronze], and we take the last 10 percent next week.”
“Simon and Martin were too strong for me,” anchor Tarjei Bø said.
When a French journalist asked his rivals if Fourcade maybe gained a psychological advantage for the remainder of the World Championships after a win on Thursday, Tarjei Bø laughed and exclaimed: “Yeah, he is unbeatable. He’s so unbeatable that I will not race any more at these World Champs!”
“That’s a good idea,” Fourcade replied with a big smile on his face.
For a long time, four teams had been in close contention for the medals, but after a strong race Ukraine, with Valj Semerenko, Olena Pidhrushna, Sergey Semenov and Dmytro Pidruchnyi, could not quite keep up on the anchor leg with two spares in the last shooting. Ukraine finished fourth (+29.8), with nine spares.
Fifth place (+1:07.1) went to Austria, with Dunja Zdouc, Lisa Theresa Hauser, Simon Eder and Dominik Landertinger, which combined for a team total of just three spares, the fewest of any nation. Meanwhile, the defending world champions in the mixed relay, the Czech Republic, with Veronika Vitková, Gabriela Soukalová, Michal Slesingr and Michal Krcmar finished sixth (+1:23.3), with five spares.
Dunklee in the Lead
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) trails France’s Anais Bescond during the first leg of the mixed relay at 2016 IBU World Championships on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. Dunklee went on to tag off in first, 1.6 seconds ahead of Norway. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
For US Biathlon, Dunklee started out strong, shooting clean in the first prone stage to leave in second behind France’s Bescond. Then she again hit all of her targets in standing to leave the range 4.5 seconds behind Norway’s Olsbu and Italy’s starter Dorothea Wierer (an athlete with multiple World Cup victories this season. Italy went on to finish eighth).
This time, Dunklee was not satisfied just staying behind the athletes at the top, immediately attempting to overtake Wierer and move up to Olsbu.
“I love the thrill of starting relays,” Dunklee wrote in an email after the race. “I have been close behind the leader tagging off many times, but I have never tagged off in first. On the last loop I was hungry to finally win my leg today and I wanted to give Hannah [Dreissigacker] the experience of leaving in the lead in front of a packed Norwegian crowd.”
Of all the first-leg skiers, Dunklee’s course time was the fastest.
“I do love the Holmenkollen crowds and the hilly course,” she wrote. “I felt relaxed and focused on the shooting range and felt very strong skiing. Our staff put together incredible skis today.”
“I love the thrill of starting relays. I have been close behind the leader tagging off many times, but I have never tagged off in first. I was hungry to finally win my leg today…” — Susan Dunklee, who put the U.S. in first at the first exchange on Thursday
Dreissigacker initially was able to keep up on the course with France, Norway, Ukraine, and Germany at the top.
“It was a fun race and definitely a real thrill [to] get the tag in first place,” Dreissigacker wrote in an email. “Susan really did us all proud out there. I did my best to ski my own race, but it’s always hard when you have lots of adrenaline and find yourself in first place.”
After requiring a spare in prone, she was still in third place, only 1.7 seconds back. Then having more trouble maintaining the leaders’ pace on the next loop and with another missed shot in standing, she fell back 22.7 seconds to fifth place. On her final loop, Soukalová, the overall World Cup leader, passed her on the course, and Dreissigacker lost another half a minute to the leaders, tagging off in sixth, 51.3 seconds back.
“I felt like I was in control on the first and second laps, trying to keep in touch with the leaders as much as possible without overdoing it,” Dreissigacker explained. “But I definitely didn’t have too much gas left in the tank for the last lap, and it didn’t help that I had really lost all contact with the women ahead of me. But that was also a group of the very fastest women in the world, so I am not surprised that they put lots of time on me in the last lap.”
The U.S. team’s third leg, Lowell Bailey had a strong performance on the shooting range and stayed clean both times just like Dunklee, but continued to lose time on the course, and his course time ultimately ranked 19th of the third-leg skiers. He tagged off in eighth place, 1:35.5 minutes back.
“The course was tricky today,” Bailey wrote in an email. “The new snow packed down and glazed, making some of the downhills and especially the stadium fairly treacherous. It wasn’t my best day on skis, but hopefully I’ll feel better as the Championships roll forward.”
Anchoring the U.S. relay, 20-year-old Sean Doherty required a spare in both his prone and standing stages, and with the 16th-ranked course time on his leg, he slipped two positions to finish 10th (+2:19.6), one position ahead of Canada.
“Today’s race was an exceptionally high level,” Doherty said in a US Biathlon press release. “We showed that we can shoot with the best teams and be very competitive. I am really happy with my leg and feeling strong looking ahead to the sprint.”
“The mixed relay is a format we often think of as one of our best medal hopes, so from that perspective our result today is disappointing,” Dunklee wrote. “After our 4th place in Canmore I think we all went into today with high hopes… On the range we put together an excellent performance, one of our best I would say. Tenth is solid, but we know with that good of [a] shooting we can be capable of much more. The good news is that we have many races still to come.”
“It was just tough, tight competition out there and I think we had a really solid team performance,” Dreissigacker commented. “Using only 5 spares for the whole team is great shooting!”
As Bailey pointed out, a top 10 is a top 10.
“It is a tight field and we were close to the leaders for a significant part of the race,” he wrote.
The Canadian team with Julia Ransom, Rosanna Crawford, Nathan Smith, and Brendan Green was hoping to build on its ninth place in the mixed relay in Östersund, Sweden, and sixth place at home in Canmore.
On Thursday, Ransom started in bib 5, and had some trouble to keep up with the leaders. With one miss in both her prone and standing stages, she found herself 36.5 seconds behind going onto the final loop, and then lost more time to tag off in 11th place, 1:03.4 minutes back.
Crawford was able to maintain the pace with the seventh-best course time on her first loop, before dropping off a bit the third time around the Holmenkollen 2 k course.
“It was nice on those first two laps to be working with Sweden and trying to stay with Soukalová,” Crawford wrote in an email. “I had a tumble on the same hill as Dorin [Habert] in warm up and broke a pole, but the race was smooth and I didn’t have to deal with any sketchy people on the downhill.”
But she couldn’t make up positions or time with a miss in her prone shooting and two spares in the standing stage, where she had some additional issues.
“I had some trouble with standing where my shell got stuck, and I wasted some time getting that fixed, and then missed two targets on top on that,” Crawford wrote. “So I am quite disappointed with my shooting. Getting the jitters out before Saturday’s race though hopefully!”
She handed off in 14th place, 1:27.7 back.
Currently the highest-ranked Canadian on the World Cup, Smith skied fast on the course, posting the fifth course time on his leg.
“I’m very happy with my skiing today,” Smith wrote in an email. “I’ve been struggling over the last 7 weeks to feel good on the skis. I wouldn’t say I felt like a total beast skiing, but I knew my shape was good just because I was able to more or less maintain position with top guys like [Russia’s] Garanichev and [Austria’s] Eder… I don’t actually particularly like this arena. I find the gentle ramp through the stadium surprisingly challenging. The ski loops are interesting though, and obviously great views.”
But like his teammates, he could not quite stay clean on the range, requiring two spares in prone and another one in standing.
“Shooting conditions were perfect,” Smith stated. “Very little wind and no fog. Earlier in the day it looked nasty but everything cleared up for us.”
Smith moved up the team a few positions to tag off in 10th (+1:35.9).
“I wouldn’t say I felt like a total beast skiing, but I knew my shape was good.” — Nathan Smith, who skied the fifth-fastest course time on the third leg to bring Canada from 14th to 10th
Canada’s anchor, Green also did not have a perfect day on the range, needing one spare round in prone and two in the final standing stage. Combined with his skiing (13th ranked course time), he lost some additional time to the top, with Canada closing out the race behind the U.S. in 11th place, 2:30.8 behind the winners.
“In my portion of the race there wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary,” Green wrote in an email. “The track was really glazed in some sections and the skiing in general felt like a bit of a balancing act at times.
“There has been a bit of wind during the last few days [of] training, but it dropped a bit this afternoon which was nice,” he wrote of the shooting conditions. “A slight but manageable wind from the left. I was a bit worried about the fog that was lingering throughout the day but fortunately it moved off and the range was clear.”
Asked if their team result was within expectations, Crawford wrote, “11th is a disappointing result for our team, we are capable of a top 8 on an average shooting day and for sure top 6 if we all have a great day on the range. 11 spares is not a normal day for our team I’d say.”
“11th is nothing to write home about but still a decent result,” Smith stated. “We knew everyone would be putting in their best teams.”
“Overall, today wasn’t a true representation of what our team is capable of,” Green wrote. “It’s day one of the Championships and I know we’re all hungry for more.”
Races in Oslo continue on Saturday with the first individual races: the men’s and women’s sprints. All races as well as shorter recaps can be streamed live or time-shifted (most with English commentary) on Eurovision Sports.
“I just want to get one [individual] title, that’s my aim,” Fourcade said at the press conference.
“The atmosphere was great!” Bailey wrote. “Cheering along the track and extremely loud in the stadium. I think it will be even bigger on the weekend.”
“On Saturday we’ll come out fighting,” promised Green. “The atmosphere was pretty awesome today. The stands were full and the stadium was loud. It’s a good vibe and if today is any indication, we’re going to be in for a fun couple weeks of racing.”
The Czech Republic women’s team, which won the 4 x 6 k relay on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine, with (from left to right) Eva Puskarcikova, Gabriela Soukalova, Lucie Charvatova, and Veronika Vitkova. (Photo: IBU/NordicFocus)
“It’s good to try a romantic atmosphere,” World Cup leader Gabriela Soukalová of the Czech Republic joked about the dark and cold course conditions at the end of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup women’s 4 x 6-kilometer relay in Presque Isle late Saturday afternoon, when the sun had long set behind the trees and hills of northern Maine for the final 6 k. “I appreciate it so much. I was thinking about my boyfriend,” she said in an post-race team interview with the IBU.
“Candles…” her teammate Eva Puskarcíková added.
The Czech women had every reason to be in a good mood. In the final race before the upcoming IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway, their team had asserted its intention to be on the podium there in March, achieving the first relay victory of the season in a time of 1:07:11.0, with one penalty and 14 spare rounds.
After narrowly avoiding a penalty lap in the last shooting, anchor Veronika Vítková had a large enough lead to ski to the side of the track and look for a national flag for the final stretch, but none was immediately available from coaches or fans, so she celebrated across the line just by raising her arms, before her teammates hugged her at the finish.
The women’s relay was moved up from Sunday to Saturday due to extremely cold temperatures in the forecast, with a start time of 4:10 p.m. following the men’s relay, giving the athletes the rare experience of racing in the dark on the final loops, dimly lit by portable lights on a few sections of the course. (Evening Biathlon World Cup races are occasionally on the schedule, for example in Oberhof, Germany, but that course is equipped with large fixed floodlights.)
With the athletes emerging from the darkness into the slightly brighter Nordic Heritage Center stadium, the race for second and third place on the podium was decided in an exciting sprint finish between the relays from Germany, Ukraine, and Poland.
Germany’s exhausted anchor Karolin Horchler tried to rescue her once-comfortable lead after the final shooting that had diminished precariously into the finish, with a double-pole effort on the final meters before she collapsed across the line.
Ukraine’s Olena Pidhrushna passed her with quick skating steps to claim second place, 25.2 seconds behind the winners, with a team total of zero penalties and 12 spares. Pidhrushna edged Horchler by just 0.2 seconds as the Germans took third (+25.4), with one penalty and seven spares, after erasing a 30-second deficit on the final loop. Poland’s Krystyna Guzik came into the finish narrowly off the podium in fourth place (+26.0), with a team total of zero penalties and seven spares.
The U.S. with Susan Dunklee, Hannah Dreissigacker, Clare Egan and Annelies Cook finished the race in 10th (+2:12.4), with one penalty and 12 spare rounds. It was their best result in a women’s relay this season.
Czech Republic joins this season’s other podium finishers — Ukraine, Italy, France, Germany, and Russia — as the favorites for the women’s relay in Olso, with a few more “dark horses” also in the mix.
After the flower ceremony, several women fielded questions at the indoor post-race press conference, still wearing protective tape on their cheeks and noses.
“Today’s race was very hard because of the very big cold,” Czech Republic’s starter Puscarcíková said. “My fingers were frozen. But I am happy we are first again. Last year we won in Oslo this time of the year. It’s very fantastic and unbelievable for me.”
“I had trouble because I shot my third bullet under the target,” Lucie Charvatová explained at the press conference. She had a penalty on her second relay leg and fell back to 11th, before tagging off 47.7 seconds back in ninth place. “After that I was so, so nervous. I ran fast and tried to do the best I could. But I am also happy.”
“I don’t know what I can say,” World Cup leader Soukalová said at the press conference, trying to explain how she had moved her team back into first place on the third leg, following two straight individual wins in Presque Isle. “It was a really fantastic weekend. It’s amazing. I was feeling really good during the race. I don’t remember when I [last] have been in the same shape. It’s a perfect performance before the World Championship.”
“It was very hard because on the track it was dark,” Vítková recalled of the anchor leg and the final shooting. “I have seen nothing. On the shooting range, too. And I was a little bit nervous, because I needed three extra [rounds of] ammunition.”
Ukraine, winner of the relay in Ruhpolding, Germany, earlier this season, was in fourth place with its lineup of Iryna Varvynets, Natalya Burdyga, Juliya Dzhyma and Pidhrushna for most of the race, before Pidhrushna moved her team up with the fastest skiing on the last loop, and beat Germany at the line.
“It’s difficult to recall a relay that was so close and tough,” a smiling Dzhyma said during the press conference, through a translator. “Maybe the one in Hochfilzen [where Ukraine finished third, though with a much larger gap to second and fourth place]. It was really interesting and tough, not just because of the close results, but also because of the frost in this cold weather. In the end we are really happy to be in second, and to be on the podium.”
“At the beginning of my leg, I couldn’t see any uphills, any downhills,” anchor Pidhrushna explained, via a translator. “It was like racing blind. When I came to the shooting range, my only thought was to shoot clean and not go to the penalty loop.”
“It’s already a legend,” a happy Pidhrushna later added in an interview with the IBU when asked about her final loop. “It was again a funny situation after the last shooting. I had no idea which place I was in, going away from the shooting range. One of our staff members shouted so loud, then I realized I was somewhere close, because I couldn’t see the screen, I couldn’t see anything because it was already dark. I just had to think that I was close so I had to fight for it again.”
“Krystyna [Guzik] from Poland was behind me, and we were running so fast to chase the German girl,” she explained. “But I couldn’t even think of doing that, actually.”
“I didn’t know what was happening behind me, I just tried to race,” Germany’s Horchler told ARD, after she had advanced her team from fifth to second, requiring one spare in prone and staying clean in her final shooting. “But I had brutal pain in my shins, and was already pushing into the downhill. I am really annoyed by that two-tenth of a second [at the finish]. But I am just pleased about my 0-5 shooting in standing, because with that I settled a few things in this competition so the relay could still make the podium.”
“Hats off to the organizers,” she added. “They put up makeshift lanterns, and I am happy about my prescription lenses in my glasses, otherwise it would not have been possible for me to see anything.”
“I as very nervous, because it’s been a long time since I took the starting position,” Germany’s Franziska Preuss said at the press conference. “The last time was Sochi [2014 Olympics, where Preuss crashed and got snow into her rifle sights, falling back far, as German failed to medal for the first time in an Olympic women’s relay]. But now I am really happy that it was a good race for me… I think nobody expected Germany on the podium today.”
Germany started a lineup without Franziska Hildebrand and Laura Dahlmeier, their two highest-ranked athletes on the World Cup.
“Temperatures were better today than yesterday,” second leg Luise Kummer told ARD. “We feared it would become really cold by now, but today it was bearable. And the audience is really participating with the action, so it was definitely fun. You actually get warm during the race. One would not believe that, in training we were also worried. But in normal competition it is no problem at all.”
“I just could not handle the standing position on the range here, and unfortunately also not today,” Germany’s third leg Miriam Gössner, who had her team’s penalty, told ARD. “I don’t know why. I really tried to do my best. In the prone shooting and out on the course I felt really, really good. So I think I could compensate for that penalty lap fairly well.”
Poland, with Magdalena Gwizdon, Monika Hojnisz, Weronika Nowakwska, and Guzik (formerly Palka) finished just 0.4 seconds off the podium, after losing the sprint against Ukraine and Germany.
“We had to fight not only with our rivals, but mainly with low temperatures,” Hojnisz later posted on Facebook, according to a translation, after she had avoided a penalty in her first prone shooting but lost about 45 seconds to the top. “I was not the best link in today’s relay, so thank you girls for your faith and fight to the last meter.”
“I held her until the end of the climb and tried to overtake on the flats,” Guzik said of Pidhrushna on the last loop, as told to Polish sports website SportoweFakty, according to a translation. “Unfortunately, none of the three attempts worked. Olena took it well tactically. It is a pity that the course was not a little bit longer, because I could fight to the finish. … I am sad that I could not lead us to a medal. We need this podium in the relay. I still believe that soon we will succeed.”
A number of teams started different lineups than they will likely have at World Championships, including France, which won the previous relay in Antholz, Italy, but on Saturday gave its top athlete, Marie Dorin Habert, a break. France finished sixth (+48.2), with one penalty and 13 spares, after Anaïs Chevalier had tagged her teammate Justine Braisaz in second place at the last exchange.
U.S. Achieves Season-Best 10th
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing the first leg of the women’s 4 x 6 k relay on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. Her team went on to place 10th for a season best. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Coming off a historic week for US Biathlon with Dunklee’s silver medal in the sprint and fifth place in the pursuit, the team’s leading woman was picked to start Sunday’s relay (after racing the second leg in the three prior relays this season), followed by Dreissigacker, Egan and Cook.
“We are still experimenting with the order,” Dunklee wrote in an email. “Last week’s mixed relay went well with myself leading and Han [Dreissigacker] going second so we tried that again.”
As for moving the race up to Saturday, Dunklee wrote, “I think most athletes would agree that moving the race to today was the right call in light of the cold forecast.”
But that made for a pretty hectic race day for the women, as they had very little time to prepare with the men’s relay only wrapping up about an hour before their own.
“Today was a great opportunity for dealing with unusual challenges on race day,” Dunklee explained. “We had some struggles getting to the venue on time, then I had a broken firing pin right before zero [target practice to adjust the rifle sights before the start], which is very tricky to replace, and finally 13 minutes before the start, I heard that the course got changed and didn’t get to preview it.”
“With the short turn around from the guys race, we only had 25 minutes to zero 4 people,” she continued. “I didn’t fit in more than 10-15 minutes of skiing warmup, a new record for me. Dealing with chaos is an extremely important skill for a biathlete to have and we all did well today in spite of the challenges.”
Dunklee’s performance didn’t seem to suffer much despite those unusual circumstances, she she used just one spare to clean the first prone stage, and another two in her standing bout. She also skied the fastest course time of all starters in 13:55.4, and second-best among every woman in the relay, behind France’s anchor, 19-year-old Braisaz.
Hannah Dreissigacker racing the second leg of the U.S. women’s 4 x 6 k relay on Saturday under darkening skies at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. Her team went on to place 10th for a season best. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Dunklee tagged off to Dreissigacker in fourth, only back 11.1 seconds behind Switzerland’s Selina Gasparin, who was then leading the pack (Switzerland went on to finish 12th).
For Dreissigacker, a regular member of the U.S. relays last year including at 2015 World Championships, it was her second World Cup relay of the season after spending some time on the second-tier IBU Cup, before returning to the World Cup in Canmore, Alberta, and Presque Isle, where she most recently placed 27th in the sprint and 24th in the pursuit.
Like Dunklee, she didn’t let the stressful race preparation get to her.
“It was definitely a little bit rushed today before the race for everyone,” she wrote in an email. “We had to rearrange things and it got a bit hectic. But it was fine for me anyways… a good adrenal warm-up, as I like to call it!”
Dreissigacker needed one spare in prone and two in standing, just like Dunklee, and lost a little more time on the course, handing off in seventh, 43.7 seconds behind the leaders.
“I am a little disappointed that I didn’t hit my last standing shot, and then took two spares to hit it, but it could have been worse!” Dreissigacker wrote. “I had a good battle with Austria [Lisa Theresa Hauser] and France [Anaïs Bescond] at the end of my leg which was fun and made me go hard.”
Egan, who had started the prior relay for the U.S. in Antholz, moved back to the third leg, which she had also raced in Ruhpolding and Hochfilzen earlier this season.
Clare Egan (US Biathlon) during her standing stage of the women’s 4 x 6 k relay at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. Her team went on to place 10th for a season best. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
In Presque Isle, she had finished 32nd in the sprint and 23rd in the pursuit. She continued her solid recent shooting performances in Saturday’s prone stage, cleaning her targets to leave the range in seventh position (+41.4).
After moving up to sixth place on the next loop, Egan came into the standing stage fighting for position with France, Ukraine and Austria. There she was unable to hit her last target with her three spares, having to ski through the 150-meter penalty lap.
“The conditions for my standing shooting were fine, I am just not as solid in standing as I am in prone,” Egan wrote in an email. “I missed two from the clip and then fired the first spare accidentally before I was ready. Then I had two bullets for two targets and unfortunately I only hit the first one. I should have taken more time to make a perfect hit on my last shot.”
She left the range in 12th, and tagged off to Cook in that position, having lost an additional minute to the leaders by the exchange (+1:50.6).
Just like it was for her teammates, Cook’s race leadup was a bit hectic.
“The preparation was actually funny today,” Cook wrote in an email. “I did not get to ski the course before the race started, and the girls actually had to tell me that they took out a sketchy corner, so I had never even done our course before I was on it racing it.”
On the shooting range, she matched the performance of Dunklee and Dreissigacker, requiring one spare in her prone stage and two in standing, but had to overcome an additional challenge: the sun had set when the anchors were on their relay legs, and large sections of the course had fallen into darkness.
“I was glad that nothing crazy happened on the downhills because it was definitely a shadowy course, not like the huge floodlights that we are accustomed to,” Cook explained. “But I didn’t mind. It reminded me of how night races were growing up at my local ski area, with little light bulbs hanging over the course. The range was a bit dark and the big movie screen flashed really brightly while I was shooting prone, so the light changed drastically and suddenly and that was distracting. But it worked out okay.”
She was able to overtake two more relays, moving the U.S. up to 10th in the finish. The U.S. women were satisfied with their result, though believed there was still additional room for improvement.
“As a team, we all had okay shooting performances and it is exciting to see us move up so much already even without a great day,” Dunklee concluded. “Oslo will be exciting.”
“I think we are all happy with 10th since its our best relay of the year, but we also know we can do better and today was a good sign of that!” Dreissigacker wrote.
“Despite my penalty lap this was the best relay result we have had with this group of four athletes,” Egan explained. “Our previous best was 12th which we got twice last year (World Cup 6 Antholz, World Championships). It is also a season best. Of course we can still do better and intend to do so in Oslo.”
“I still know we can do better in the relay, but it is a hard, hard thing for everyone to have stellar races on the same day,” Cook concluded. “And luckily, we know that all we have to do is have a good normal day and we can be right up there.”
With Some New Faces, Canada 17th
Without Rosanna Crawford and Julia Ransom, Canada did not have two women in Presque Isle who will likely be part of the women’s relay at World Championships in Oslo. Crawford and Ransom started in all three other relays this season where the team finished 10th in Hochfilzen, and ninth in both Ruhpolding and Antholz.
Instead, with veteran Zina Kocher (in her third relay this season), Emma Lunder (who had one relay start before in Hochfilzen), Audrey Vaillancourt and Erin Yungblut struggled on Saturday, quickly falling to the back of the field, with Kocher having to ski a penalty loop in her first prone.
After leaving the range in 16th out of 17 teams (with Norway and Slovakia pulling their teams before the start due to illness), Canada was never able to catch back up to the top 10, losing time to the leaders as the race progressed.
Kocher tagged off to Lunder 2:14.3 back, who then incurred another penalty in her prone stage (1+3, 0+1) to exchange 4:28.1 back in 17th place.
Vaillancourt then put in a strong performance on the range with two clean shooting stages, but was slower on the course and passed on the penultimate loop by the leading teams. She handed off to anchor Yungblut 6:38.6 back.
After requiring three spares to hit her targets (0+1, 0+2), Yungblut then was taken out of the race and scored as lapped in 17th position before her final loop.
On to Oslo
The athletes will now have two weeks of additional training and preparation, before traveling to Norway for the World Championships, beginning on Thursday, March 3 with the mixed relay.
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) leads Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen on the fourth of five loops in the IBU World Cup women’s 10 k pursuit on Friday in Presque Isle, Maine. Dunklee went on to place fifth while Mäkäräinen raced to second. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
When Susan Dunklee woke up Friday on a sub-zero morning in Presque Isle, Maine, it took her a moment before her eyes focused in on a shiny new object on a table in her room. Oh yeah, my silver medal, she thought.
“I had forgotten,” Dunklee said on the phone Friday evening, after her second of two IBU World Cup races in Presque Isle. The 29-year-old U.S. biathlete, who turns 30 on Saturday, had placed second in the sprint on Thursday to tie the best result by an American in a biathlon World Cup. It was a surreal moment back then, and even now, it was still sinking in.
But she had to move on. Dunklee had a pursuit ahead of her, one in which she’d start closer to the race leader than she ever had before.
“I knew for today, I had to set that aside and enjoy it for what it was and know I’ll have that to cherish for the rest of my life,” she said. “But today I had another race and another great opportunity in front of me.”
One of three US Biathlon skiers in the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit, Dunklee started second, 18 seconds behind Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic, who led the 60-woman field out in first. Soukalova had been the only woman faster than Dunklee in the sprint, beating her by 17.8 seconds.
And so she started first, but was in danger of being penalized for jumping the start. Soukalova quickly realized her mistake in starting too soon, and hesitated briefly before continuing on her first of five loops. She wasn’t penalized, and Dunklee — who had a front-row view of the slipup — said it was kind of comical.
“I had a good laugh at that, actually,” Dunklee said. “Normally, fifteen seconds or eighteen seconds before I’m starting, I’m very focused and I’m looking down the track and trying to stay serious and focused. But it was funny, Gabby started off and I think she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to go yet or not, so she stopped and came back, and she just looked very confused. Sometimes it is nice to have something silly like that to lighten the mood.
“I can kind of understand why it happened because we are used to being at venues where there’s a huge stadium with people roaring and counting down, ‘Ten, nine, eight, seven…’ ” Dunklee explained. “And it was so anticlimactic that way, it’s just like, ‘Oh, there’s a clock, and it’s at zero. It’s time to go.’ ”
Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic after winning the IBU World Cup women’s 10 k pursuit on Friday by 34 seconds. (Photo: IBU/NordicFocus)
Off went Soukalova, the overall World Cup leader, cleaning two consecutive stages before having some trouble on the range on a windy, 8-degree Fahrenheit afternoon at the Nordic Heritage Center. She led up until that point, while Dunklee hung in second through the first loop and first shooting stage, after starting 1 second ahead of Poland’s Krystyna Guzik, the third starter, and 2 seconds ahead of France’s Marie Dorin Habert in fourth.
“My plan for the first loop was to let the girls behind me lead because they are very strong skiers and I often ski more efficiently behind people,” Dunklee explained. “But they never came up alongside of me and tried to pass, so I wasn’t just going to stop and pull over, you know? I ended up holding on to second coming into the first shooting, which had not been the plan, but it was fine.”
There, rather than think about what could be — the possibility of winning or another podium — Dunklee focused on the four simple words she uses to get into the ideal mindset for shooting.
Open. That involves breathing, opening her “ventilation system, opening my eyes and seeing what’s going on in the range, what the wind flags are doing, opening my snow covers,” she explained. “The importance of a good key word is it’s one word that can cover a lot of things that you need to be done in an instant.”
Relax. “Take my rifle off my back, try to keep my movements smooth and relaxed, changing the clips quickly but relaxed, setting up, getting a good tripod sort of feeling with my body with my rifle sitting on top of it,” she said.
Set. This is what she thinks about when getting ready to shoot. “Set means ready. It has a feeling of readiness. My finger is set on the trigger, taking 90 or so percent of the trigger pressure so all I have to do is squeeze it very gently for the shot to go off,” she said.
Quiet. Once on target, that’s all that goes through her mind. “I’m trying to quiet my mind so it’s a very narrow thought focus,” she said. “Feeling quiet with my body, being quiet on the target and being quiet after the shot goes off as a good follow through.”
Dunklee nailed her execution on the first prone stage and cleaned all five targets to leave the range in second, 11.5 seconds behind Soukalova. Italy’s Dorothea Wierer, the seventh starter, cleaned as well to move into third, 8.3 seconds behind Dunklee. Guzik and Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen, in bib 5, cleaned as well to hang close in fourth and fifth, respectively, about 2 seconds behind Wierer, while Dorin Habert missed one to drop to seventh, another 20 seconds back.
One loop later, Soukalova — still skiing alone — hit every prone target to leave the range again in first, 11.7 seconds ahead of Wierer, who quickly cleaned her targets to move into second. Dorin Habert cleaned to take hold of third, 35 seconds behind Soukalova, while Dunklee had one penalty to slip to sixth, 44.6 seconds out of first.
According to Dunklee, the wind was much more variable for the second stage.
“The first shot the wind was strong, but I could see the wind dying down and I did what we call shading,” she said. “Instead of taking clicks to correct, you aim a bit off the center of the target so you correct with your aiming. It takes a bit more skill in a way and is riskier, but it is very useful in situations that the wind is fading.”
Despite over-shading, aiming too far off the target on her last shot, Dunklee was pleased to leave the range with one penalty.
“I was really happy with where my head was at that whole process,” she said. “In the middle of the race, I was thinking, this is fun, this is a game, this is a challenge, I got this. And I wasn’t afraid of messing it up. That is a pretty novel and cool mental place to be in a high-pressure situation for me.”
From left to right: Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic, Italy’s Dorothea Wierer and France’s Marie Dorin Habert line up for the first standing stage during the women’s pursuit on Friday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. Soukalova and Wierer both missed three, and Dorin Habert missed four on that stage. (Photo: IBU/NordicFocus)
On the third shooting — the first standing stage, things got interesting. Soukalova missed three, Wierer missed three, and Dunklee took her time to hit three of five targets for two penalty loops, which put her in third, 21.5 seconds behind Wierer, who had taken the lead.
“My legs started to shake and maybe I started to be afraid of the wind because it was a little bit stronger than before,” Soukalova said in a post-race press conference. “Sometimes it happens.”
“There was significant wind and it was changing,” Dunklee explained. “It would catch your body and rock you. I think you saw all the athletes waiting for the gusts to subside. I tried to take shots in between them and I missed a couple.”
The penalty loop in Presque Isle is unique in the fact that the ski lodge blocks the view of other racers in the loop. Dunklee couldn’t see Soukalova or Wierer, and didn’t have much of a sense where she stood until she received splits back out on course that she was still in the mix for a podium.
“You are usually not that high up after missing two in a pursuit, but it was tricky conditions and everyone was missing,” she said. “You can never give up a biathlon race because these things happen.”
Ahead of her, she could see both Wierer and Soukalova, in second by 2.3 seconds leaving the range. About four seconds behind Dunklee, Mäkäräinen moved into fourth with two misses, while Dorin Habert dropped to 10th, 49 seconds out of first, with four penalties.
“In the middle of the race, I was thinking, this is fun, this is a game, this is a challenge, I got this. And I wasn’t afraid of messing it up.” — Susan Dunklee, on the tricky shooting conditions during Friday’s pursuit
Mäkäräinen passed Dunklee on an uphill and led her into the range for the last time, positioned in third and fourth, respectively.
“It was really helpful,” Dunklee said of catching a ride off Mäkäräinen. “She is a good skier and I ski more efficiently when I am behind someone.”
By the final standing stage, the wind had subsided comparatively. Wierer once again shot quickly but missed three to fall into eighth place (and eventually finish ninth), while Soukalova cleaned to regain control of first. Mäkäräinen hit all of her targets as well to jump into second, 25.6 seconds back with 2 k to go, and Guzik cleaned to move back into third (after one penalty in the second stage, and two misses in the third stage), 39 seconds behind Soukalova.
Dunklee missed one to leave the range in fourth, 11 seconds behind Guzik and 1.7 seconds ahead of Dorin Habert in fifth. After a rocky previous stage, Dorin Habert took a pause before her final shot of the day to clean the all five targets.
On the final loop, Soukalova charged ahead to secure her 12th World Cup win (and fourth of the season) in 31:24.6 minutes, 34 seconds ahead of Mäkäräinen in second. Dorin Habert charged past Dunklee to take hold of fourth, then picked off Guzik as well to claim third (+38.8).
“It was not in my plan to have five penalties,” Dorin Habert, who ranks second to Soukalova in the overall World Cup, said in the press conference. “The coach told me after the last shooting that I had a chance to catch the podium. I felt good today and I made it.”
“It is awesome like yesterday,” Soukalova said of her second-straight victory in Presque Isle. “Maybe the atmosphere it a little bit easier than Europe, for example, there’s a lot of spectators. … It’s not so noisy and maybe it helps us.”
Guzik finished five seconds later in fourth (+43.9) and Dunklee placed fifth (+56.9) for her best-ever pursuit finish and second-best result of the season.
“I was happy to still be in the fight coming out of that loop,” Dunklee said. “Marie Dorin was right behind me and I hung with her for the first hill after she passed me, but she took off and I didn’t have that sort of gas today.”
Would she have liked to clean that last stage and fight for an even better result? Yes, but Dunklee said she had a plan, she executed it, and she could feel proud about that.
“Today my skiing felt good and felt strong, it felt a bit flat though,” she added. “I think there is still some peak form not there yet, but this is exactly where I want to be sitting going into Oslo [World Championships]. Having some great results here to feel really confident, but also knowing there is a little bit more.”
After one more race day in Presque Isle, the men’s and women’s relays on Saturday, the IBU World Cup will take a break until the 2016 World Championships in Oslo from March 2-13.
Dunklee will team up with Hannah Dreissigacker, Clare Egan and Annelies Cook in the women’s 4 x 6 k relay, which starts at 4:10 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday.
Egan 23rd, Dreissigacker 24th
According to both Dunklee and US Biathlon CEO and President Max Cobb, the U.S. women’s team had one of its best days in recent memory in the pursuit, with three in the top 24.
Egan improved from starting 32nd to finish 23rd (+2:34.0), with three penalties (0+1+1+1), and Dreissigacker placed 24th (+2:41.6) after starting 27th and missing three as well (0+2+1+0).
“I started about 5 seconds behind a big pack including Hannah, so from the start I had my eyes on the orange and purple,” Egan wrote in an email, referring to the US Biathlon team suits. “I caught her pack as we came into the first shooting.”
There, both Dreissigacker and Egan cleaned to move into 22nd and 23rd, respectively, about 1 1/2 minutes behind the leader. The two had to make some major adjustments on that prone stage after zeroing, or setting their rifle sights before the race, on Point 2 — where their teammate Dunklee was slotted based on her start position.
“Cleaning the first prone stage was a major accomplishment for Hannah and me,” Egan explained. “We zeroed our rifles on point 2, where there was strong wind, and then came into the shooting range for the first prone stage on points 29 and 30 — the opposite end of the range and there was no wind. We both took around 8 clicks, which translates to the entire width of the prone target. When I hit the first target I knew I had taken the correct amount of clicks and I was so psyched!!!”
Dreissigacker and Egan skied three of five loops together, with Egan passing her teammate on the second loop. After the second prone stage, Egan left the range in 18th with one miss, about 40 seconds ahead of Dreissigacker, who missed two in that stage to slip to 30th.
“On the last lap I knew she must have cleaned the final standing because I could hear our fans (!!) yelling both of our names on our last lap,” Egan wrote of Dreissigacker. “She was right behind me in the finish.”
With her best shooting in a four-stage race, Egan explained that she was satisfied.
“I did miss my 20th shot and I could have been in the top-20 with a clean last stage, so that is a bit of a let down but I can learn from this and hit it next time,” she added.
“It was fun to ski a lot with Clare,” Dreissigacker wrote in an email. “We were pretty close together for the first two loops, and then I had an extra penalty loop and got behind but then we were really close again for the last lap–I tried to catch her but couldn’t quite do it!
“I am very happy with my race today and really proud of our performance as a team,” she added. “And once again the wax techs and coaches did a really stellar job with the skis and support out there.”
Canada’s lone woman in the pursuit, Zina Kocher placed 46th (+4:36.5) after starting 42nd, with five penalties (2+1+0+2).
On Saturday, Kocher will ski the first leg for Canada’s relay, followed by Emma Lunder, Audrey Vaillancourt and Erin Yungblut.
American Susan Dunklee (l) after achieving her best IBU World Cup finish in second place on Thursday and tying the best World Cup result by a U.S. biathlete. She finished second to Czech Gabriela Soukalova (c), and Poland’s Krystyna Guzik placed third (r) in the women’s 7.5 k sprint in Presque Isle, Maine. It was the first IBU World Cup held in the U.S. since 2011. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Gazing out at the crowd, standing on the second step of the podium on Thursday, Susan Dunklee recognized dozens of faces: family, friends, people from her home base in Craftsbury, Vt., US Biathlon board members, colleagues from the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center, not to mention her team and support staff.
It had all the makings of a local-race feel, except for the implications of a World Cup podium — and the flashing lights, silver medal and media attention that came with it.
Two days before her 30th birthday, Dunklee had the best race of her career. The 13th starter, she raced to second in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint on the first day of the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine, finishing 17.8 seconds behind Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic, the winner in 20:02.2 and overall World Cup leader.
Nearly 400 miles and a seven-hour drive from her hometown of Barton, Vt., Presque Isle is less than a half an hour away from Canada. Yet in her first U.S. World Cup, and the first World Cup in the states since it was last held in Presque Isle in 2011, Dunklee felt somewhat at home.
“To be able to have a best result on home soil and we only have a North American World Cup every five years, I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Dunklee said on the phone after the race. “It’s just phenomenal.”
In order to achieve her best World Cup result by one place (she finished third in a sprint two seasons ago in Oslo, Norway), Dunklee rekindled her joy in both the sport and Presque Isle’s course specifically, putting herself in a happy place she had been struggling to find in the last week.
“Last week was a little tough for me,” Dunklee said of the last World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. “I felt like I was going through the motions but not really feeling hungry for it.”
That changed on the final day of racing there, when she skied the first leg of the U.S. mixed relay, which went on to place fourth for the team’s best-ever finish in the event. Being within two seconds of a podium recharged her and reminded her to stay the course.
“Coming here I was like, ‘OK, there’s going to be random things that happen that are going to throw me off, but I’m just going to take the positive things that I can and use those to my advantage,’” Dunklee said.
On the team’s first training day in Maine on Tuesday, she skied the Presque Isle World Cup course for the first time. Dunklee had previously raced a NorAm there in 2009, but missed out on the 2011 Presque Isle World Cup as the team’s fifth woman at the time, when it only took four.
That was frustrating, she said, but she moved on from it — taking advantage of an opportunity instead in Ruhpolding, Germany, where she raced and previewed the course a year out from 2012 Ruhpolding World Championships. There, a year later at her first World Championships, she broke through in fifth in the 15 k individual.
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing to a career-best second on Thursday in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Memories aside, Dunklee was excited about what she saw in Presque Isle earlier this week.
“I skied the course and I’m like, wow … this is a John Morton course. This is what I grew up skiing on and this is what I’m good at,” she recalled. “This is what I’m going to thrive on. I love the ups and downs, the steep climbs, the roller-coaster flow, and that’s what really set the tone right away.”
On Thursday, it was cold in northern Maine, but busloads of schoolchildren came out for the first of four days of World Cup racing. Dunklee wasn’t in her home state, but with everyone speaking English and cheering “USA!” out on the course, it was the closest she had felt to being there.
“The community is extremely welcoming and they go out of their way to accommodate us and make us feel like home,” Dunklee explained.
She started behind Soukalova, an early leader with perfect shooting in both her prone and standing stages. No sooner had Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen in bib 6 finished and taken the lead from Czech Veronika Vitkova (the second starter) by 20 seconds, Soukalova in bib 8 charged across the finish line moments later, 24.5 seconds faster than Mäkäräinen to take hold of first place.
The day was young, but most of the top-ranked skiers were on course at the beginning of the 88-woman field. Dunklee followed Soukalova out, cleaning prone as well to take the lead by 0.8 seconds after the first shooting.
Her shooting didn’t feel automatic, Dunklee recalled. That wasn’t necessarily a good thing, but it wasn’t bad, either.
“I was very aware of each shot I was taking; it wasn’t flowing automatically like it usually does, and usually you want that automatic flow in a race,” she explained. “Instead I had all these thoughts going through my head, but what was great about today is I was able to take those thoughts and just say, ‘It’s OK that I’m distracted. I’m going to put that thought aside and go back to what I’m focused on right now in the present moment.’ ”
She had similar feelings earlier this year in Ruhpolding, where she placed sixth in the mass start. Recognizing this, she resolved to keep calm.
On the second shooting stage — standing — Dunklee cleaned again and left the range with 9.3 seconds to make up on Soukalova.
A US Biathlon staff member (l) cheers on Susan Dunklee (r) as she races to a career-best second place in the 7.5 k sprint on Thursday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
What came to mind then? “You still need to fight like hell,” she recalled. “When you’re having that sort of race, you don’t want to lose a second anywhere … I’ve just got to fight for the next seven minutes or whatever it takes.”
With 1 k remaining, she was 17.6 seconds off Soukalova’s time. Half a kilometer later, Soukalova still held her ground, 17.4 seconds ahead. By the finish, Dunklee was 17.8 seconds back in second, and she wasn’t even sure she was second — but she smiled at the cameras anyway.
“I knew I probably had one of my best races in my life and I’d done it at home and my parents were there,” she said. “I just felt really good about my performance. I was really happy.”
US Biathlon Women’s Coach Jonne Kähkönen knew she was on track for a career best.
“I knew that if she would clean the race today, she would be fighting for the podium, even if there were a few fast athletes starting behind her,” he said on the phone. “Not nervous, but just wanted to wait and see what the later starters would do.”
France’s Marie Dorin Habert presented the most immediate threat. After starting 24th and cleaning prone, Dorin Habert left the range in first, 4 seconds ahead of Dunklee. However, during her second stage, she missed one standing shot. The penalty loop put her in fourth, 25.5 seconds behind Soukalova and 16.2 seconds behind Dunklee, with one loop to go.
Meanwhile, Poland’s Krystyna Guzik had started 20th and cleaned both stages to leave the range for the last time in third, trailing Dunklee by 4.4 seconds. She couldn’t catch the American on the final loop and finished 1.3 seconds behind her in third.
“Shooting is so hard; it is not sure that every day I will shoot well,” she said in a post-race press conference. “I thought that this was a new day and do my best to shoot well and run fast. I just could not catch Susan; she was too fast on the last loop. For me, the last loop today was really hard.”
Ultimately, the three podium finishers were the only ones in the top eight to shoot clean. Soukalova had the fifth-fastest overall course time, Dunklee’s course time ranked 12th and Guzik’s 15th.
Overall World Cup leader Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic racing to a 17.8-second win (over American Susan Dunklee) in the women’s sprint on Thursday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Phot: Fischer/NordicFocus)
“I have to say everything was perfect,” Soukalova said in the press conference. “I started to feel a little tired after the long trip from Canada, but I started to feel good after the start. … We had good service, good skis today so I am very satisfied with this result.”
Dorin Habert crossed the line in fourth, 20.5 seconds behind Soukalova and 1.4 behind Guzik, bumping Mäkäräinen, with a single standing miss, into fifth.
The top five would stand, and Dunklee would tie the best result by a U.S. biathlete (male or female) joining the ranks of Joan Smith (1994) and Anna Sonnerup (1991).
Current men’s team member, Tim Burke placed second in two World Cup races in 2009/2010 and earned silver at 2013 World Championships. Before him, Josh Thompson also took silver at 1987 World Championships.
“What a great day for @USBiathlon with 6 athletes in the top 30 and @SusanDunklee on the podium! #homecourseadvantage!”Burke tweeted on Thursday, after he, Sean Doherty and Lowell Bailey placed in the top 20 in the men’s sprint. Dunklee, Hannah Dreissigacker and Clare Egan finished in the top 32 of the women’s race.
“Today Susan cemented her place as a world class biathlete,” US Biathlon President and CEO Max Cobb wrote in an email. “It was a historic performance, matching the best World Cup finish by an American.”
“You spend years and years working on this, trying to perfect things,” Dunklee explained. “And at first progress is pretty good, you make big gains pretty fast, and then to get that last one percent or so of performance, it just takes so much more work.”
You need that 1 percent, she added.
“There’s times where you work your way at something for months and you just don’t make progress on it or you even go backwards because you’re trying so hard, she continued. “I don’t know, somehow things came together and I’m just amazed. It’s exciting.”
‘A Culmination of a Whole Lot of Effort’
What is it about progress, or maybe more specifically about biathlon, in which someone like Dunklee can turn a last-place finish in Canmore’s mass start, complete with a “dirty” stage (five missed targets), around less than a week later with a silver-medal performance?
“We’ve talked about this actually a couple of times over the season,” Kähkönen said of Dunklee’s ability to overcome adversity and less-than-desirable results. “It’s been a little up and down. We’ve been trying to track down in the training log if we can find some reasoning behind it and be able to narrow it down better in the future as well. But now it looks like everything is on track in terms of the physical training.”
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing to a career-best and historic second place in the women’s sprint at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
In the last World Cup before World Championships in Oslo in early March, Dunklee said the timing of this result was “perfect.”
“I think Susan, ever since last week, she was able to put distractions on the side and focus on what matters,” Kähkönen said.
“In order to have my best performances in biathlon or anything in life, to be a person that takes joy out of life … I really have to find what I love about it,” Dunklee explained. “… I think that hunger is honestly my most valuable asset as an athlete.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the races in Presque Isle, Dunklee had fewer than 24 hours to absorb what she’d done on Thursday and prepare for Friday’s pursuit. At 1:10 p.m. Eastern time, Soukalova will start the 10 k pursuit first. Dunklee will head out 18 seconds later in second, and Guzik 1 second after Dunklee in third. Dorin Habert will follow, 3 seconds after Dunklee.
“I’ve got the best setup I’ve ever had before going into a pursuit,” Dunklee explained. “Starting pretty close behind the leader, and that’s another wonderful opportunity to have a great result. I’m going to enjoy tonight and celebrate a bit, but at the same time I’m going to try to wind down a bit, have a little Susan-time to myself and get some good sleep tonight because I really want to see what I can do tomorrow.”
Asked about the task of refocusing after a result like Thursday’s, Kähkönen said that’s the key to consistent top results.
“With this schedule, we just don’t have the luxury of getting stuck on the current or especially the past,” he said. “You just need to stay focused on what’s coming up next.”
But Thursday was a pretty incredible day to be part of US Biathlon, in the same state (albeit 270 miles away) as its headquarters in New Gloucester, Maine.
“It’s unbelievable,” Kähkönen said. “Just to be able to grab the podium on the home soil, home World Cup, even if it’s not the hometown, but there’s a lot of friends and family and fans that are great support. The local community is just awesome, so it means the world to us.”
“It’s not just my success,” Dunklee stated. “It’s a culmination of a whole lot of effort over lots of years by this whole group of people who care a lot about our team.”
Dreissigacker 27th, Egan 32nd, Kocher 42nd
Joining Dunklee in the pursuit will be two other U.S. women and one Canadian. Dunklee’s teammate on the national team as well as Craftsbury Green Racing Project, Hannah Dreissigacker placed 27th for her fourth-best sprint result, finishing 1:33.7 behind Soukalova with a single prone penalty.
Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon) racing to 27th in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup on Thursday in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
“I was really happy to clean standing — I am normally a better prone shooter than standing, but I knew that I had to clean standing if I wanted to really do well,” Dreissigacker, the 41st starter, wrote in an email. “I’m very happy that I was able to concentrate for all of the shots and make it happen.
“It felt really special to have my family here, and so many other Americans out there cheering for us,” she wrote. “I actually started just after I heard on the loud speaker that Susan had cleaned. So then she came around the building and headed out on her last lap just a bit behind me. That was a fun lap — I was excited for her, and also all of the staff and fans were out there cheering so hard for her and I could tell that she was gaining on me, and also that she was probably going to podium. I felt like we were doing that lap together, though she only caught me at the very end.”
Also for the U.S., Clare Egan finished 32nd (+1:38.5) with one standing penalty. The 56th starter, Egan looked to be in contention for a top 20 after cleaning prone, but slipped into 28th after standing.
Clare Egan (US Biathlon) racing to 32nd, her second-best IBU World Cup result, in the women’s 7.5 k sprint on Thursday in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
“I was thankful to clean prone because it put a little less pressure on the standing, which is the harder discipline for me,” Egan wrote in an email. “I was very shaky in standing and I had to stop and reset my position after missing my 3rd shot, but that worked and I hit the last two.
“This is my 2nd best result ever and by far my best result since World Cup 1,” she explained. “My ski speed took a major hit in December but I am now recovered to where I think I should be so that is a huge relief. I had a top-30 ski time today and 90% shooting so that is an almost perfect day.”
Originally from Cape Elizabeth, Maine (and a teammate of Dunklee and Dreissigacker at Craftsbury), Egan described the experience of racing in her home state.
“My parents, my teammates’ families, and some USOC staff and USBA board members are here,” she wrote. “I heard my name all along the course from voices both familiar and unknown– and that was a first.”
Friday will be Egan’s second time racing a World Cup pursuit.
Maddie Phaneuf (US Biathlon) on her way to 65th in the second individual IBU World Cup of her career on Thursday in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
The fourth U.S. woman, 20-year-old Maddie Phaneuf, in her second individual World Cup race, placed 65th (for her best result by 28 places) with a clean prone and two standing penalties.
“My goal was to shoot well and ski strong … which I didn’t feel I reached fully,” Phaneuf wrote. “I felt pretty good on the skis, but not nearly as strong as I was in Romania.”
“My result-goal was to make the Pursuit, which I just missed,” she wrote of Thursday’s World Cup race, in which she needed a top 60 to advance to the pursuit. “But I’m still happy with the result and know that I have the potential to achieve more.”
On behalf of her team, Dreissigacker noted, “Our skis were phenomenal today. Our wax techs definitely deserve a share of the credit for the great day that we had as a team.”
The top Canadian, Zina Kocher placed 42nd (+2:02.0) with three misses (2+1). Overall, she had the 20th-fastest course time.
“I was focused on having consistent solid performances this week in order to qualify for World Champs,” Kocher wrote in an email. “Knowing that it is a trials situation though does bring a bit more nerves into the equation.
“I had thought I had focused on attacking from the start, however looking at the breakdown in ski speeds, looks more like I went out for a casual ski lap 1, & lap 3 an explosion went off,” she wrote of her course times, which ranked 54th on the first loop, then 46th on the second, and finally, third on the last loop. “I’d say I’m happy with 3rd fastest last lap but will work on a more aggressive warm up for the next sprint or relay I do to make sure I’m starting out a bit quicker!”
Also for Canada, Emma Lunder placed 68th with two penalties (1+1), Audrey Vaillancourt was 80th with four misses (2+2) and Erin Yungblut 87th in her World Cup debut, also with four penalties (1+3).
Note: In the men’s 10 k sprint, Sean Doherty led the U.S. in 13th (0+1), Lowell Bailey was 15th (0+1) and Tim Burke 20th (1+1).
“The men were just really consistent,” Kähkönen said. “Everybody close together and just the whole field for the top athletes, so it puts them into a very good place looking ahead for tomorrow’s pursuit race. Hopefully Susan’s podium will give them another push.”
Stay tuned for a separate report on the men’s race.
Watch the men’s and women’s pursuits live on Eurovision (Friday at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. EDT)
Susan Dunklee with her parents Judy (l) and Stan (r) after Dunklee tied the best-ever U.S. result in an IBU World Cup in second in the women’s sprint in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Dunklee celebrates a career-best second place in the women’s sprint at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Dunklee celebrates a career-best second place in the women’s sprint at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine, in February. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Norway’s Håvard Bogetveit leads American Lowell Bailey into the finish in a race for third in Sunday’s mixed relay at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. The U.S. placed fourth for a team best in the event’s 11-year history. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Considering anything better than sixth would have been a first-ever for either the U.S. or Canada in the IBU World Cup four-person (2 x 6 + 2 x 7.5-kilometer) mixed relay, that put Lowell Bailey in a bit of a position heading into the final loop of the last relay leg on Sunday.
Here he was, in fifth with 2.5 k to go, and just three seconds ahead of France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet in sixth and 4.6 seconds behind Canada’s Brendan Green in fourth. In front of both the Canadian and American teams, Norway set out on the final loop in Canmore, Alberta, 16 seconds ahead.
What or whom do you focus on? Should Bailey go for fourth? Should Green try to catch the Norwegian and the final spot on the podium? Or is it best to hold your own and not risk too much?
According to Bailey, a lot was going through his head after emerging from the final standing with clean shooting, thanks to two spares, shortly behind Green, who cleaned both stages without any spare rounds.
Tim Burke (l) after tagging U.S. teammate Lowell Bailey in fourth, about 36 seconds behind Norway in third, during the last exchange of the mixed relay at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
“To be honest, I know [Fillon Maillet] and I know how good of a skier he is, he’s top 10 in the overall [World Cup],” Bailey said in a phone interview after the race. “So the thoughts going through my head on the last lap was, ‘OK, I’ve got to stay focused here,’ … My goal was to ski the first half of the loop well enough that France wasn’t going to get into my draft.”
The second half of the course was uphill and into the wind, and tactically, a skier able to catch a draft off someone in front of them on that part could be fresher for the last 700 meters to the finish.
In his effort to drop Fillon Maillet and make sure he wasn’t on the losing end of that strategy, Bailey inadvertently caught Green on the second-to-last major climb before the finish.
“It just so happened that I felt pretty good so I just went for it,” Bailey recalled.
After passing Green in fourth, he looked up and saw Norway’s Håvard Bogetveit, a 23-year-old Norwegian B-team member, in third.
“I didn’t see Norway until about halfway up that climb,” Bailey said. “I’m not sure if the Norwegian, if he was tired or what, but it didn’t become clear that there was a chance at third until that last uphill. Our team and ski technicians and coaches and staff were cheering me on and hoping that I could catch that gap.”
Meanwhile, Green, who had been tagged in seventh and climbed into fourth with perfect shooting, started to come undone.
“I really tried to race more aggressive. I had to. After the sprint on Thursday and knowing that my form wasn’t where it needed to be, I knew I couldn’t afford to hold back at all this race,” Green wrote in an email, referring to Canmore’s opening sprint last Thursday, where he placed 40th with one miss. “As for the shooting today I think I was just feeling confident. Canmore is often a very difficult range to shoot on, but I felt that [Saturday] I was really able to get a grasp of the wind while training, and was able to bring that confidence and shooting form into today.
“When I left [the range] in 4th I knew I was going to have my work cut out, especially given the pace of my second loop with France,” Green recalled. “That said, I gave it my all. I started to blow up and just couldn’t maintain the pace, but I think with a bit better form I could have hung on.”
Racing up and over the final climbs and into the finish, Bailey pushed to catch Bogetveit. He came within 1.7 seconds at the finish, but Norway secured the final spot on the podium, 1:23.8 minutes behind the German winners, and the U.S. claimed the so-called wooden medal in fourth. Regardless, it was the best showing for a U.S. mixed relay since its inception, officially at 2005 World Championships.
US Biathlon’s previous best mixed relay was sixth place four years ago at the World Cup in Kontiolahti, Finland, with Jay Hakkinen, Sara Studebaker, Annelies Cook, and Tim Burke. This time around, Susan Dunklee, Hannah Dreissigacker, Burke, and Bailey teamed up for fourth, 1:25.5 behind Germany. (Earlier in the day, Annelies Cook and Leif Nordgren raced the single mixed relay, placing 16th.)
“It didn’t become clear that there was a chance at third until that last uphill. Our team and ski technicians and coaches and staff were cheering me on and hoping that I could catch that gap.” — Lowell Bailey, who anchored the U.S. mixed relay to a team-best fourth on Sunday
“It’s easy to say, ‘Oh man, if I had known, I would’ve skied two seconds faster,’ but I really don’t think I could’ve,” Bailey said of finishing less than two seconds out of third. “I put everything I could have into that last lap. It’s bittersweet, but it’s also our best result ever in the mixed relay. … Fourth is where we ended up, and I think we have to be satisfied with that and keep that momentum going forward.”
Behind him, Green anchored Canada to sixth, 3.6 seconds behind Fillon Maillet, who notched fifth for France (+1:30.7). The result tied the Canadians’ best in a mixed relay after placing sixth in 2011 in Hochfilzen, Austria. Like the U.S., that team only included one of the same athletes from Sunday’s relay — Green — who had teamed up with Megan Imrie, Zina Kocher and JP Le Guellec in 2011. (Julia Ransom and Nathan Smith raced Sunday’s single mixed relay, placing 12th.)
“We’ll get to the podium eventually — it will just be a matter of small consistent steps, nothing drastic,” Green wrote. “The team was awesome today. Everyone did a really great job and set the race up well for the next person. I couldn’t have asked for more from them today.”
Germany in It to Win It
Germany topped the podium with a 1:12.9-minute win in the mixed relay on Sunday at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta, with (from left to right) Franziska Hildebrand, Franziska Preuss, Arnd Pfeiffer, and Simon Schempp. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
In the race for first, Germany established itself as a frontrunner early when Franziska Hildebrand tagged Franziska Preuss in third, just 1.4 seconds out of the lead. Switzerland’s Selina Gasparin had moved to the front of the first leg after cleaning her standing stage and leaving the range five seconds ahead of Italy’s Dorothea Wierer in second.
Wierer had previously been the first out of prone, 3.4 seconds ahead of Dunklee in second. Both women cleaned prone without needing any of three possible spares. Dunklee left the range two seconds ahead of Kazakhstan’s Alina Raikova in third, and almost immediately, the American caught Wierer. The two remained together off the front of the pack for the next loop, skiing 4.2 seconds ahead of Gasparin in third while Raikova dropped 13 seconds back to sixth before the second shooting.
There, Wierer needed two spares to clean and Dunklee used all three, but both avoided the penalty loop to leave the range in second and sixth, respectively. Wierer followed Gasparin into the final loop before the exchange, 5.1 seconds back, while Germany’s Hildebrand cleaned with no spares to move into third, 7 seconds out of first.
“I didn’t expect anything special today,” Dunklee wrote in an email, a day after placing 30th in the mass start with 10 penalties. “To be honest, I’ve been struggling this week to find my normal race hunger and my physical shape has felt flat.
Italy’s Dorothea Wierer (l) leads Susan Dunklee of the U.S. in first and second on the second loop of their first leg of the IBU World Cup mixed relay in Canmore, Alberta. Italy went on to place second and the U.S. notched a best-ever fourth. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
“[On Saturday] I dirtied a stage,” she said of missing every target — the opposite of “cleaning.” “Probably my first time doing so on the World Cup. Today I felt like a completely different animal. It was a good reminder that things can turn around suddenly.”
After leaving the range in sixth, 22.5 seconds behind Gasparin in first, Dunklee made up one place on the next loop to tag Dreissigacker in fifth, 16 seconds back, at the first exchange.
Meanwhile, Crawford used one spare on each stage to climb from ninth after the first shooting to fourth after the second stage. She left the range just ahead of Dunklee, 21.1 seconds out of first with one loop to go, and came through the exchange just 0.3 seconds behind Dunklee to tag Beaudry in sixth.
Also on that loop, Sweden’s Emma Nilsson slipped from fifth to eighth, and Norway’s Marte Olsbu improved from seventh to fourth.
“Susan passed me like I standing still, it was very impressive, but then she slowed down again and I tried to hang onto Norway once they passed me,” Crawford explained in an email. “It was a tough fight on that last loop, my legs and lungs were screaming, but I knew that in about 3min I could collapse in the snow.”
On the first shooting of the second leg, Preuss cleaned prone quickly to move into first, 5 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Aita Gasparin, who also cleaned without any spares.
Dreissigacker leapt into third for the U.S. with flawless prone shooting as well, 17 seconds behind Preuss. She needed one spare to clean standing but remained in contention in fourth, just 0.2 seconds behind Sweden’s Mona Brorsson in third and 31.6 seconds behind Preuss up front with one loop to go.
“I’m happy with my whole race,” Dreissigacker wrote in an email. “One spare in standing is good for me. And I got some good rides, skiing behind [Norway’s Synnøve] Solemdal and then battling with Mona Brorsson on the last loop. Skiing with people really helps me ski more efficiently.”
Hannah Dreissigacker (r) skied the second leg for the U.S. mixed relay on Sunday and brought the team to fourth by the second exchange. Norway’s Synnøve Solemdal (l) tagged in second, 23 seconds behind Germany (not shown) in first. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
She held her position to the exchange, tagging Burke in fourth, 1.5 seconds out of third and 36 seconds from the lead.
“I think that confidence was the biggest key to my shooting today. I just told myself, ‘I can do this. Just do what I always do. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just normal,’ ” Dreissigacker explained.
After starting her season on the World Cup, Dreissigacker, a 29-year-old U.S. A-team member, was put on the IBU Cup squad in January. At the last IBU Cup in Arber, Germany, she placed 10th in the sprint and 16th in the pursuit to earn World Cup starts in Canmore. In the Canmore on Friday, she finished 28th in the sprint for one of her top-six career results.
“You have to really respect the trajectory that Hannah’s taken over the season,” Bailey, 34, said. “I’ve been there, I know what it’s like to start off a season with high expectations and fall short early on and have to refocus. A lot of athletes give up, but the fact that she stuck it out and really believed in her ability is a testament to her as an athlete and an individual.
“I think this week she showed that she can be there, and especially today — Susan had a great leg and handed off to Hannah in a fairly high-pressure scenario,” he continued. “… It was great to see Hannah handle that pressure. She had an awesome, awesome performance and kept us in contention for the medals.”
Last spring, Dreissigacker made up her mind that she would retire after this season. She explained that decision “has nothing to do with how this season has gone or will go. It’s a decision about my life and what I want to do with it and what will make me most happy. For this season I’ve been trying to not think about that decision and just ‘be here now’ and enjoy it,” she added.
In terms of pressure, she had a new way of handling that.
“I made a promise with myself a few weeks ago that I would be done with feeling pressure in a negative way about racing,” she wrote. “I definitely got nervous today, but I decided to call it ‘excitement’ and not think about pressure.”
“It’s a decision about my life and what I want to do with it and what will make me most happy. For this season I’ve been trying to not think about that decision and just ‘be here now’ and enjoy it.” — Hannah Dreissigacker, on her decision to retire after this season
Sarah Beaudry used just one spare to clean two stages during the second leg of the IBU World Cup mixed relay in Canmore, Alberta, to come through the second exchange in sixth. Canada ultimately placed sixth to tie the team’s best result in the mixed relay. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Canada’s Beaudry, also getting the call up from the IBU Cup for the Canmore World Cup, kept her team in sixth with a perfect prone and just one spare in standing. In her second shooting stage, she moved into fifth, 10 seconds behind Dreissigacker in fourth, but slipped one spot back to sixth when Italy’s Karin Oberhofer passed her on their last loop.
At the second exchange, she tagged Davies 1:07.3 behind Germany, while the Germans skied 23 seconds ahead of Norway in second place.
“On the range overall I wanted to be confident and relaxed,” Beaudry wrote in an email. “I shoot on this range all the time know the winds and wanted to use that as an advantage. The last lap I tried to give it everything I had to be able to give Macx every extra second I could. I was very happy with my performance and as a team we were definitely stoked with where we ended up tying Biathlon Canada’s previous personal best.”
Two days earlier, the 21-year-old British Columbia native posted her World Cup personal best in 38th.
“It has definitely been super exciting posting my best results at home in Canmore, for my family to be able to watch and all the Canadian Biathlon community,” Beaudry wrote. “I feel like I managed to take full advantage of my start spot in the sprint with the windy conditions being worse at the beginning. However this being my second World Cup weekend of the season and my other weekend [in Ruhpolding, Germany] being a last minute decision and three days of driving before the race I was able to be way more prepared for this event.”
The third-leg skiers for the U.S. and Canada, Burke and Davies, put their teams in fourth and seventh, respectively, by the final exchange.
Burke came within six seconds of third place after a clean prone without any spares, but had some trouble in standing, using all three spares and appearing to have problems loading at least one of them. He ended up with a penalty — the first and only penalty for the U.S. — and left the range in fifth, 1:36.6 behind Germany’s Arnd Peiffer, who shot flawlessly in both stages to take a 56-second lead over Norway.
Canada’s third leg of the mixed relay, Macx Davies used one spare to clean his standing stage and left the range in seventh before handing off to anchor Brendan Green (not shown) in the IBU World Cup mixed relay in Canmore, Alberta. Canada placed sixth to tie a team best. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Thirty seconds behind Sweden’s Tobias Arwidson with one loop to go, Burke caught the Swede and moved back into fourth by the exchange — 36 seconds behind Norway in third.
As for Davies, he used two spares in prone and one to clean standing, leaving the range in seventh after both stages.
“After getting tagged in sixth I was hard pressed to stay with [Switzerland’s] Benjamin Weger and lost a bit of time on the first loop, so I was a little worried that I was skiing slowly, but when it came to the shooting range, that’s where I know you can make lots of time,” Davies wrote in an email. “So I was very focused going into prone on a fast clean bout. … My performance today was good [on] skis and in the range, nothing exceptional but I had a good day out there and very happy that I could stay in 7th on the final lap.”
Germany’s anchor, Simon Schempp mostly had to go through the motions to ensure the win after receiving the tag in first, 1:02.9 ahead of Italy in second and 1:03.6 clear of Norway in third. (Bailey was 1:40 back at the tag in fourth.)
Schempp used one spare in both stages and ended up sealing the win in 1:05:38.8, by 1:12.9 over Italy’s Dominik Windisch in second place and 1:23.8 ahead of Norway’s Bogetveit in third.
“I still started out fairly hard, make my own race, work clean on the shooting range, and after the standing shooting I noticed that it would be sufficient,” Schempp said in a post-race interview with Germany’s ZDF. “But before that you are never sure, anything can happen, so you can’t relax.”
He felt comfortable enough to high-five some of his teammates on the final loop.
“I saw a few [national-team] green jackets out of the corner of my eye on the edge of the course. And on the prior loops I already heard a few familiar voices,” he recalled. “So when you have the time and the whole team is celebrating with you, that’s something you can enjoy very much.”
Italy placed second in the mixed relay at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta, with Dorothea Wierer (second from r), Karin Oberhofer (second from l), Lukas Hofer (r), and Dominik Windisch. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
For the Italians (Wierer, Oberhofer, Lukas Hofer, and Windisch), another podium in Canmore was beginning to create expectations. In Canmore, Wierer finished third in the women’s sprint on Friday, then won the mass start on Saturday and Windisch won the men’s mass start that same day.
“Everyone at home expects bigger things every week,” Italy’s third leg, Hofer told the IBU afterward. The team finished with one penalty (from Oberhofer’s prone stage) and required 10 spares.
And Norway’s B-team (with its top athletes opting to skip the Canmore weekend and come to Presque Isle instead) wasn’t surprised with a podium: “We always try to be on the podium, but you never know,” Olsbu told the IBU. Olsbu, Solemdal, Alexander Os, and Bogetveit combined for third with seven spares and no penalties.
For Bailey, fourth (with a team total of one penalty and nine spares) was one step closer to the medals — a goal US Biathlon has been focused on for the last several years, specifically in the mixed relay, he said.
“Sochi was the first Olympics where we had it as a medal event now it’s a legit medal event,” he explained. “We realized that we had strong women at the top and strong men at the top and when you combine those, we start to be able to compete with the powerhouses.”
While fourth was “bittersweet,” he added that it was promising.
“It was by no means a perfect race for any of us. I guess that’s a good thing… that means you can do better,” he said. “We can feel satisfied, but we also have the momentum and the knowledge that … if we put together an excellent performance, we can be on the podium.”
“I’ve dreamed of being in the top 6 in a world cup relay for years and to be 2 seconds out of third is absolutely incredible!” Dunklee wrote. “Today was a great team effort. Hannah had a very rough start to the season with injury and it’s been truly inspiring to watch her turn it around. Lowell skied a heroic last loop leaving his pack behind and almost catching Norway, who didn’t seem within reach when he left the range.”
Canada’s Brendan Green acknowledges the crowd at the IBU World Cup mixed relay in Canmore, Alberta, after anchoring his team to sixth, tying a team best. “It was really fun and definitely special,” he said of the experience racing at home. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Canada, with no penalties and six spares, was happy, too.
“We had a different team out there today with Brendan and I the veterans and Macx and Sarah the young guns in their first mixed relay!” Crawford pointed out. “We are showing more depth in our team that we can put together 4 athletes and come out with a pretty good mixed relay! We’ve been knocking on the door of the podium for mixed relay for a while and I am sure it will happen some day!
“It was so special having so many fans in the crowd, friends and family, that everywhere on course people were cheering for you, during warmup, the race and cool down!” she added. “Even though it was a disappointing sprint, it was super cool to have everyone cheering for me, and that they didn’t care how I did, they were just pumped to watch me race!”
On Monday, the U.S. team flew on a direct charter to Presque Isle, where the World Cup will pick back up again on Thursday through Sunday. The U.S. team will race on home soil while the Canadians still aiming to qualify for World Championships (Emma Lunder, Zina Kocher, Audrey Vaillancourt, and Erin Yungblut) will race in Maine, along with Smith, who ranks 19th in the overall World Cup standings.
Those prequalified for World Championships, including Crawford, Beaudry, Green, Davies, Ransom, Scott Gow, and Christian Gow, will train in Canmore until Feb. 22.
Canada’s Julia Ransom racing in front of a home crowd in Canmore, Alberta, to tie her IBU World Cup career-best 19th in the women’s 7.5 k sprint on Friday. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
The way some of the Canadians were tossing around the term “Chinook wind” on Friday, one might have thought that gusts hard enough to knock rifles off their stands was a regular occurrence in Canmore, Alberta. It wasn’t, according to one Canmore native, Rosanna Crawford.
“It was windier than I’ve seen it here in Canmore in a long time,” the 27-year-old Biathlon Canada veteran recalled in an in-person interview after the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore. “So it was definitely luck of the draw if you were going to get a calm range or not.”
She wasn’t one of the lucky ones. Crawford started sixth and missed two off the bat in the first prone shooting stage. She wasn’t alone; most of the rest of the top-seeded skiers failed to hit all five prone targets as well.
Early on, it appeared that France’s Anais Bescond, in bib 8, and Italy’s Dorothea Wierer, bib 17, might be fighting for a podium. Both were the only women to clean prone through the first 24 starters.
Then Krystyna Guzik, a 32-year-old Polish biathlete who last reached the IBU World Cup podium two seasons ago in third in a pursuit in Hochfilzen, Austria, entered the mix. In bib 25, she cleaned prone to leave the range in first, 6.7 seconds faster than Wierer. Guzik went on to clean standing as well, while Wierer missed one, to hold a 7.3-second lead after the second shooting.
Poland’s Krystyna Guzik (l) trails France’s Marie Dorin Habert during the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. Guzik went on to place second while Habert finished 29th. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
On the final loop, Guzik stayed ahead of Wierer — who had initially finished first, 21 seconds ahead of Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic— to bump the Italian to second place by 12.4 seconds at the finish.
Meanwhile, Bescond had missed two in standing to slip out of contention and nearly 1 1/2 minutes behind Guzik at the finish. It might not have been her fault; the winds were extremely variable — those Chinook (western interior) winds.
Canada’s Julia Ransom, who has lived and trained in Canmore for the last five years, started 38th and later said she felt the wind in prone and adjusted accordingly.
“I knew the wind. I know Canmore. I know how Chinook winds work and I did correct for prone, a lot,” she told FasterSkier afterward. “Really cranked the sights, and it wasn’t a hurricane for standing so maybe I lucked out a bit there.”
Ransom, who turned 23 on Thursday, cleaned both stages and was one of seven women in the field to do so. Initially 12th at the finish, she ended up 19th, 1:19 behind the winner and the top North American on the results sheet.
Moreover, Ransom tied her World Cup best, which she set two weeks ago in 19th in the pursuit at the last World Cup in Antholz, Italy.
Canada’s Julia Ransom racing to 19th in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
“Double nineteenth!” she exclaimed upon realizing she had secured the result again on Friday.
While she cleaned the four-stage pursuit in Antholz on Jan. 23, this was the first time she hit all her targets in a World Cup sprint.
“I knew leaving standing that my family was in for an exciting race,” Ransom wrote in an email. “I was hoping to maintain 12th, but that rarely happens when you start in the earlier seeds. However I am very excited with another top 20. It is a confidence booster going into world champs. I’ve got my sights on those single digits now!
“19th at home is obviously amazing!” she continued. “It’s always nice sharing personal bests with the friends and community that supports me all year round.
Originally from Kelowna, British Columbia, Ransom celebrated her birthday the night before with “a little wine and some little minion cupcakes from my Dad,” she explained in a Biathlon Canada press release. “It was a perfect pre-race meal. … [On Friday] it was a balance between not being too anxious with everyone here to watch and being so excited I couldn’t even contain myself at the start.”
It appeared that most of the racers who started 25th or later, including Guzik, benefited from the sudden calm once the winds subsided considerably.
“It was crazy windy on my first loop,” Crawford recalled of the late-morning (11:15 a.m.) start. “The wind was so strong that I was almost at a stop on one of the uphills…”
She placed an uncharacteristic 72nd, with four penalties — two in prone and two in standing. But considering she’s been sick for the last week and a half, Crawford said she couldn’t completely blame the wind.
“I knew that today was not going to be my best race of the season, but it’s still hard to go out there and have a tough race,” she said.
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) had three penalties en route to 35th in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta .(Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
The first U.S. starter in bib 18, Susan Dunklee watched from the start pen while the winds blasted through the stadium.
“When I was in the start gate, the first [competitors] were coming through the range and there were some crazy gusts,” Dunklee said. “We were in the start pen and this huge gust comes up and the rifles started falling off the rack.” They were caught just before hitting the ground.
“I hear this is what they call a Chinook or something like that,” the American added. “It made things interesting…”
Personally, Dunklee found Canmore’s altitude challenging, about 4,600 feet above sea level. Not feeling her usual self skiing, Dunklee placed 35th (+1:58.9) with three misses (1+2). Typically one of the faster skiers in the field, her course time ranked 35th.
“It wasn’t great, but it was OK,” she said of her result.
“It’s pretty nice to be here. I really like being in beautiful places with mountains like this,” she added. “This is my first time racing in North America for a World Cup and that’s something special. I mean, I’ve been looking forward to it for years.”
Dunklee wasn’t alone: Canada’s 33-year-old Zina Kocher, of Red Deer, Alberta, had been waiting to race a World Cup in Canada for at least the last two years, since deciding to continue her career beyond the 2014 Olympics.
“It was a dream I always had to race here and I finally accomplished it,” Kocher said in the team press release. “I was looking for a little inspiration last night and I started pulling out newspaper clippings and looking at photo albums of my career.”
In 2006, she became the second Canadian to reach the IBU World Cup podium when she placed third in Östersund, Sweden.
“I realized I will just miss all of my teammates and coaches. We worked hard at this together, and we were a family,” Kocher said. “It is nice to see the program now getting the results.”
While she told FasterSkier she was “overall not very happy with today’s result,” in 56th with five penalties (2+3), Kocher said she felt good skiing and might have been affected by some nerves on the range.
“But it was awesome to race at home and be in front of the home crowd and have my friends and family out there,” she said.
(Story continues below)
Women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) during the Women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Post-Retirement, Pidhrushna Takes the Win
While Guzik appeared to have locked up her first World Cup victory, several other surprises were making charges from behind. Ukraine’s Olena Pidhrushna, back after a one-year retirement, started 43rd and cleaned both stages to finish 7.5 seconds faster and seize the win in 19:56.9. She bumped Guzik to second and Wierer to third (+12.4).
For the 29-year-old Ukrainian, it was her second-career World Cup victory after winning a sprint in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, four seasons ago.
“This is why I returned,” Pidhrushna told the IBU in a post-race interview through a translator. “A year ago, I couldn’t imagine being back here and being on the podium. Only at the beginning of this [season] I realized how much I miss biathlon and how I need it.”
The women’s sprint podium at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta: with winner Olena Pidhrushna (c) of Ukraine, Poland’s Krystyna Guzik (l) in second and Italy’s Dorothea Wierer (r) in third. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Behind her, some names of the past and future like Poland’s Monika Hojnisz (bib 65) and Latvia’s Baiba Bendika (bib 63) made a run for the podium to end up fourth (+14.1) and fifth (+23.7), respectively.
“Good joke, wake me up when this dream is over!” Bendika, 24, posted with a photo of Friday’s flower ceremony on Instagram. She had shot clean for her first individual top 40. “I guess there is not much to stay, it’s just- CRAZY!!”
Also 24, Hojnisz previously placed fifth in the 2014 Olympics mass start and took bronze in the pursuit at 2013 World Championships. On Friday, she had one prone penalty and cleaned standing en route to fourth, 1.7 seconds off the podium.
Germany’s Franziska Preuss in bib 40 rebounded from a broken tailbone to place sixth (+33.2) with a single standing miss, just 0.4 seconds ahead of Soukalova in seventh. It was Preuss’s second-best result of the season after placing fourth in the Östersund sprint. She crashed in a race there and missed much of the next two months of competition.
“It was the first race of the new year for me,” Preuss told German TV broadcaster ZDF. “I am just happy that it worked so well, that felt good for my psyche. Those were some hard weeks. … sitting in the gym on the ergometer and having to watch the others race. But you learn from every situation and get stronger. Of course you ask yourself, ‘Why does this have to happen?’ but yeah… tick it off and now I am happy that the re-entry went so well.”
“Itʼs just been a weird season for illness and injury,” Tandy said on the phone Friday. “In Pokljuka, I passed out on course, and I struggled over the next weeks to feel fit and energized again. Then in Antholz, I finally had a day where I was like, OK, Iʼm starting to feel back in shape, the ski speedʼs there,ʼ and then this happened.
“Iʼm making the best of it, or trying to,” she added.
Dreissigacker 28th; Beaudry in the Points
Sarah Beaudry, who shares Tandy’s hometown of Prince George, B.C., started the sprint and rose to the occasion in her absence. The 21-year-old Beaudry notched her first World Cup points in 38th (+2:02.3) with Canada’s second-best result after Ransom.
In her fifth-ever World Cup, Beaudry started 77th, cleaned prone and had one standing penalty to set a new career best by 16 places.
“I was happy that I managed to hit nine, especially on this windy day,” Beaudry said. “Overall I’m happy with how I performed and to get a personal best, first points at home, and especially when you never know when the next opportunity to race at home will be, it’s exciting to be able to do well.”
She’s lived in Canmore the last four years.
“I’m excited that Julia and Sarah were able to represent with some good shooting today,” Crawford said. “Overall, the team seems to be a little bit flat ski-speed-wise so that’s unfortunate. There’s so much excitement around these races…”
Next week, she explained that the B-team will represent Canada at the next Word Cup in Presque Isle, Maine, while most of the team’s World Cup regulars recover and train in Canmore.
Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon) racing to 28th for her best IBU World Cup result of the season on Friday in the women’s sprint in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
The top American on Friday, Hannah Dreissigacker of US Biathlon’s A-team had received the call back up to compete at the World Cup in Canmore, where she placed 28th (+1:42.8) with one penalty in each stage.
“I got off to a really slow start this year, especially skiing-wise,” Dreissigacker noted. “I’ve been struggling to really get going on the course, and I think today I may have gone too fast on the first loop, but that’s better than never going fast at all.”
She spent the last several weeks racing the IBU Cup, where she’s been working to find her speed again.
“Today, two misses was good because it was windy and I got a little lucky with the shooting,” Dreissigacker wrote. “To be honest, I should’ve hit more than I hit. I gave one away in prone, my last shot, I just pulled the trigger too early I wasn’t even on the target. That was a bit of a bummer, but on the whole, I think 80 percent [shooting] was good today.”
Behind her, U.S. teammate Annelies Cook finished 47th with three penalties, all in prone.
“I’ve had a really rough string of racing so my confidence has gotten really low,” Cook said. “I missed three prone which was too bad, but for me, looking at how I shot, it was actually OK. I had a good group and I just didn’t take enough clicks that I needed. What was really important to me is that when I came back in standing, I cleaned and I cleaned fast, and that felt really, really good.
“I think three was kind of average shooting today,” she added. “It wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible, either.”
Dabbling in biathlon for the first time this year, Joanne Reid of the U.S. explained she just learned how to “click,” or adjust the sights on her rifle, one day before the race.
“I’d love to blame it on the wind but … I think I got a little overexcited about clicking,” Reid said after placing 57th, exactly 5 seconds back from Kocher and 2:33.2 behind the winner. Aside from her six penalties (3+3), her overall course time ranked 16th.
On Saturday, men’s and women’s mass starts will be held (at 10 and 11:30 a.m. Mountain time, respectively) with Dunklee qualifying in the overall World Cup top 30. Crawford and Ransom were listed as reserve athletes based on a provisional start list.
— Seth Adams, Harald Zimmer and Chelsea Little contributed reporting
“I’m super happy that we can show the world how awesome Canmore is and hopefully be able to get more races of this caliber here,” she said. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Beaudry finished 38th in the 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta, in 2016, before making her first trip to World Championships. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Joanne Reid representing the United States in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
She posted the 16th fastest overall course time. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
Women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
The victorious Italian women’s 4 x 6 k relay, with (from l to r) Federica Sanfilippo, Dorothea Wierer, Karin Oberhofer, and Lisa Vittozzi at the Hochfilzen World Cup on Sunday in Austria. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
The women’s biathlon 4 x 6-kilometer relay, marked by good shooting performances, perfect weather, and several unusual lineup choices came down to the wire, with the race decided on the last lap in a sprint between Italy’s anchor Dorothea Wierer and Germany’s Franziska Preuss. Wierer lunged over the line first by less than a ski length, in a time of 1:05:32.6. This secured the first World Cup win for an Italian women’s relay in history, celebrated extensively by her teammates and coaches in the finish.
After a number of changes between several countries vying for the final spot on the podium, Ukraine prevailed in the end, taking third 13.1 seconds behind the Italians. None of the three teams on the podium suffered a penalty lap, with Italy having to use eight spare rounds, Germany seven, and Ukraine 10.
After sweeping the podium in the sprint and securing first and second place in the pursuit race this weekend, Germany’s women had to be considered the overwhelming favorites for the relay. But on Sunday, Germany opted for a lineup of Franziska Hildebrand, Maren Hammerschmidt, Vanessa Hinz and Franziska Preuss, a group of athletes who had never been in a relay team together.
They were not alone in trying something new, with teams such as the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Russia, Ukraine, the United States, and Canada also experimenting with new athletes or at least order changes.
Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier, the winner of the pursuit race on Saturday and anchor of the gold-medal-winning relay at the 2015 IBU World Championships, rested on Sunday.
“This was my own decision,” she explained in an interview with German broadcaster ARD before the race. “The season is long enough, and the World Championships are what matters. And I believe as strong as we are as a team right now, the other four girls can do well without me.”
The German coaches are happy that they still have an ace up their sleeve for the next relays. “We know that there still is a long and tough season ahead of us,” Women’s Head Coach Gerald Hönig said. “We are planning with an eye towards the [2016] World Championships in Oslo in March. So a deep team is a nice problem to have, in contrast to always having to use the same two or three top performers.”
Miriam Gössner, who achieved a third place in the sprint on Friday, also took a break from racing on Sunday.
American Susan Dunklee racing the second leg of the IBU World Cup women’s relay on Sunday in Hochfilzen, Austria. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
With the Germans explicitly stating their goal to reach the podium, the day got off to a problematic start for Germany, with other teams charging ahead.
Hildebrand, the winner of the sprint race on Friday and fourth place in the pursuit on Saturday, skied a controlled race at first, and cleaned the prone stage with perfectly centered shooting. But then she required two spare rounds in the standing position and had trouble inserting them, setting her back to 14th position. After a good final round, she tagged off at the first exchange 11 seconds behind in eighth.
“Still in sight of the leaders,” Hildebrand recalled in the ARD interview. “And the other girls then turned it around.”
Italy’s first skier, Lisa Vittozzi, who also scrambled for Italy’s bronze-medal relay at World Championships last March, fared better, shooting perfectly (0+0, 0+0) and tagging off just 4.2 seconds behind the Czech Republic who was in first at that time. On the second leg, Karin Oberhofer kept Italy near the front, requiring only one spare round (0+0, 0+1), and tagged Italy just 1 second behind.
Throughout the race, Germany struggled a bit with technical details. Maren Hammerschmidt, the surprise second-place finisher in both of the previous races, had two misses (0+1, 0+1) and doubled the deficit she had been handed by Hildebrand. In slow-motion replays from the shooting range, she could be seen desperately trying to insert a spare round into her rifle, before it fumbled back out.
“That was a technical malfunction today, nothing I could do about it,” Hammerschmidt said an interview with ARD. “A shot hung up in the ammunition magazine. I did not expect this, and will have to check that clip again at home.”
She tagged 22.2 seconds behind the leaders in ninth place, one behind Canada’s Megan Tandy.
“I hope we can still secure a podium finish,” Hammerschmidt said in a mid-race interview.
It then fell to Vanessa Hinz, who placed 15th in the Hochfilzen sprint and 29th in the pursuit, to bring Germany back into contention. With two fast shooting performances (28 seconds prone) and requiring only one spare round, she steadily moved up through the ranks, and handed over to Franziska Preuss in first.
“I was really happy about the nomination [for the relay], and glad that it worked so well today,” Hinz later said.
On the third leg of the relay, Italy struggled a bit. Federica Sanfilippo, a surprising podium finisher during the first World Cup weekend in Östersund, Sweden, and not a member of Italy’s bronze-medal relay at World Championships, required five spares to clean her targets. She had the toughest time in standing (0+2, 0+3), but avoided the penalty and skied the fastest lap of the field, handing off to Wierer 21.6 seconds behind.
For Preuss, the 2014 Olympics ended in a minor drama during the relay, when she started for Germany at the age of 19 and crashed twice, getting snow into the sights of her rifle and costing her team their chance at a medal. Since then, Preuss has usually raced the second or third leg in relays.
But on Sunday, with her close friend Dahlmeier taking a break, she was called up to anchor the relay. Preuss headed out strong and required only one spare round to clean prone. But by the time she came back to the range for the final shooting, a group of athletes that included Wierer had caught up to her.
Preuss hit the first four targets, and was convinced that her fifth shot had also hit, closing the protective flap on the sights of her rifle, before realizing it was a miss. This forced her to load the spare and take aim again, hitting the target, and left the range with Wierer, who had also required one spare, right behind her.
On the last lap the lead changed back and forth. Preuss later told ARD she deliberately let Wierer overtake her. Then she accidentally stepped on the tails of Wierer’s skis near the top of the first climb, causing both to stop briefly, but neither Preuss nor Wierer fell or broke their poles. At the halfway checkpoint, they were just 0.3 seconds apart.
Preuss then decided to try and force a decision before the stadium by “slogging away on the last climb from the bottom to the top, 100 percent,” and managed to create a small gap. But Wierer refused to be dropped, and caught the end of Preuss’ skis again as they entered the arena. After a right turn into the closing stretch, Wierer double poled past her taking the middle lane, with Preuss on her right trying to hold on. But Wierer had more power left, and lunged over the line 0.2 seconds ahead, into the arms of her excited teammates.
“I know I’m not the best female sprinter. I have to work on that again,” Preuss confided to ARD during a group post-race interview. “The second place is a great result, I think we are all satisfied with that”.
Canada’s Megan Tandy blasts through the second leg of the women’s relay at the IBU World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria. Tandy’s clean shooting helped Canada move into eighth place at the end of her leg. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Her teammates also agreed with her that the Hochfilzen arena poses a difficult challenge for a finishing sprint, with a noticeable incline the last 100 meters.
Wierer had already beaten Preuss and Hildebrand in a sprint to the line in Östersund this season, so she had every reason to be confident that she could do it again.
“I was only thinking that I should run as fast as you can. She was close in front of me. I was hoping I could win in the final sprint,” Wierer told the IBU.
Afterward, both teams seemed happy with their results, with the women all smiling and posing for pictures.
“You can hardly ask for a better selling point for biathlon [than this race],” German coach Hönig said with a laugh. “That’s why millions of people watch us on TV and the arenas are full.”
Asked later why the Italians didn’t seem even more jubliant about their first-ever victory in a women’s relay, Wierer tried to explain: “I think we are just all so tired.”
The Czech Republic, who frequently had the best relay performances last season, also had been in the lead early in this race, thanks to Eva Puskarcikova and Olympic silver medalist Gabriela Soukalova. But then team rookie, Lucie Charvatova – who was sixth in Friday’s sprint and replaced Jitka Landova on Sunday – could not clean her standing shooting with the three spare rounds and thus incurred a penalty lap. After another difficult shooting by anchor Veronika Vitkova, they finished the race in sixth place (1+12), 29.8 seconds back from Italy.
Chervatova only recently took up biathlon training when she failed to qualify for the Czech cross-country senior national team again, and her new teammates are expecting great things from her.
“Just watch, she is incredible, her body is all muscle. In a few years she will be frequently at the top,” veteran Soukalova told the media in Hochfilzen.
The podium was in hot contention with 22 countries at the start line, and with the Czech Republic, Sweden, Austria, France, Ukraine, and Belarus (this year having to race without defending World Cup champion Darya Domracheva) in the top three at various points of the relay.
In the end, Ukraine’s team claimed the third, with anchor Olga Pidrushna requiring three spares but skiing the second best time on the final round. Overall the team, usually known for their excellent shooting, required ten spare rounds to clean all the targets.
“I think there are some things we could improve, so we will work on them this season,” starter Yuliia Dzhyma said in the press conference.
Poland placed fourth, 27.5 seconds back, while France was fifth, (+28.8).
Canada 10th, U.S. 15th
For the relay in Hochfilzen, Biathlon Canada put up a different lineup and order than in the last World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. Canada advanced as high as eighth in split times during the race.
Starting in the fourth row in bib 10, Julia Ransom kept the leaders within viewing distance.
“I always like relays so was excited for today!” Ransom wrote in an email. “My legs weren’t as snappy as usual the past two races but things came together for today and I felt much better. I am new to starting relays but I have a background racing cross country and feel comfortable in a mass. This helps with navigating the more technical areas of the course with a group.”
The 22 year old needed two spares to clean the first shooting, then one more in the standing stage. Ransom tagged Tandy in 11th, 20.6 seconds back.
Tandy was able to keep her gap to the best athletes at the top of the field and even improved position, largely helped by two clean stages (0+0, 0+0) and the shortest range time on her leg. At the exchange, she handed off 21.5 seconds back in ninth place. At that time Canada was ahead of top teams like Germany, Norway and Russia.
Emma Lunder took over, and while the 24 year old lost about a minute to the leaders and required four spare rounds (0+1, 0+3), Lunder avoided a penalty lap in the standing shooting. She tagged Canadian anchor Rosanna Crawford 1:23 back in 12th place.
“The 2 k course here is quite easy and has a lot of rolling flat sections, which really plays to my strengths in two skate and one skate,” Crawford wrote in an email. “It’s also a really fast 6 k — the race was only taking 16-17min, which is super fast for a relay. Skiing felt a lot better than it has this year and we had some super fast skis, thanks to our techs.”
Crawford cleaned her prone shooting stage, and only required one spare round in the standing position (0+0, 0+1), making up ground to the top by skiing the fourth-fastest course time on her leg.
“Prone has been feeling really good all year, but I’ve been struggling with one miss standing far too often!”
She finished the relay for Canada in 10th, 1:08.7 behind Italy and just 4.3 seconds behind the Russian team.
“I think this will be a great learning experience for our younger girls on the team,” Crawford continued. “Feel that excitement of doing well in a relay and allow them to be better prepared for the next relay. Overall we are happy as a team, but know with a few less spares that top 8 is within reach!”
“Canada did great today!” Ransom wrote. “All of us had solid races and were in the mix for the most part. I think this was a great place to start from for the season.”
The US Biathlon women’s team also experimented with a new order. Susan Dunklee, who has been the starter for several years, moved to the second leg while Annelies Cook started.
Canadian Emma Lunder racing the third leg of the women’s relay at the IBU World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
“We are experimenting [with our relay order] to see what combinations work best for the team as a whole,“ Dunklee wrote in an email. “Traditionally I have started off the first leg, which involves a lot of tactics and is exhilarating, but today Annelies tried it instead and did a fantastic job.”
In her first season starting on the World Cup circuit, Clare Egan, who anchored the team at World Championships and in the last relay of last season, was moved to the third position, with Hannah Dreissigacker closing out the race instead.
“My job today was to try the second leg and chase down the lead pack not far ahead,” Dunklee continued. ” Skiing feels strong and I had nearly regained contact with the leaders, then my extra rounds in standing set us back again. We didn’t have a perfect day and we look forward to improving on our 15th place in the future.”
Based on the U.S. relay performances last season, Cook started back in the seventh row in bib 20. She opened her race with two misses in prone, then one more in standing (0+2, 0+1), and tagged off to Dunklee 32.0 seconds behind the leader in 14th place.
Dunklee made up some positions, entering the prone stage in 13th place, then cleaned it. On the next lap she caught up with a few more athletes to move into seventh. But then she used all of her spare rounds in standing, narrowly avoiding a penalty lap but losing a lot of valuable time with the reloads. At the second exchange, she tagged Egan 41.8 seconds behind in 11th place.
On her standing stage, Egan struggled, missing four shots in a row and thus running out of spare rounds. In the end, she had to circle the 150-meter penalty lap twice (0+1, 2+3), and tagged off to Dreissigacker 3:08.6 minutes behind.
Dreissigacker fared better, cleaning her prone stage and using two spares in standing (0+0, 0+2). While the clean prone helped her catch a few teams ahead of her, Dreissigacker lost time on the final loop before the finish and ended up 15th (+4:10.9).
In the women’s Nation Cup rankings — important not only for prestige as an own end-of-season award, but also determining the number of starters a country can use in World Cup event — Germany is in the lead after this weekend’s races. Canada ranks 10th and the U.S. stands in 16th.
Rosanna Crawford (Biathlon Canada) racing at 2015 IBU World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. In the first individual race of the 2015/2016 season, Crawford, 27, placed 13th in the 15 k with 90-percent shooting.
If you were wondering whether a podium in the first race of the season took the pressure off Rosanna Crawford for the first individual women’s race on Thursday, the answer is no.
“I am very realistic that the single mixed relay isn’t like any other race we do and that it didn’t have most of the strongest women,” Crawford wrote in an email. “So I was quite nervous going into today’s race, wondering where I would land, to see if all my hard work over the summer had paid off.”
Crawford, a 27-year-old two-time Olympian and Biathlon Canada team veteran, had experienced success in Östersund, Sweden, well before last Sunday. At last season’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup opener there, she placed 12th in the sprint and 16th in the 15-kilometer individual distance race.
This year, she landed in between the two and placed 13th in Thursday’s 15 k individual, the longest format on the women’s circuit. It was her personal best in a 15 k, and it came right at the start of the season.
“It was a calm day on the range in terms of Ostersund, a little flutter of the flags, maybe a 2-3 click wind and it was quite consistent,” Crawford explained. “I knew a lot of girls would be shooting well, so I just made sure to stay focused on my self and my range routine.”
Italy’s Dorothea Wierer (l) smiles for cameras after her first-career IBU World Cup win on Thursday in Ostersund, Sweden. She won the 15 k by 14 seconds. (Photo: IBU/Evgeny Tumasov)
The 41st starter, she knocked down 18 of 20 targets, missing one on each of her standing stages to finish 2:41.6 behind Italy’s Dorothea Wierer, who shot clean to win her first-career World Cup in 42:17.
“I do not think the first win has hit me yet, but happy to win, not just for me but for our team,” Wierer, who started 46th, said in a post-race press conference. It was also her first time shooting 100 percent in a 15 k.
“I was a little sick last week so I was not so brilliant on the skis today, but it was okay,” Wierer added. “The shooting was good, though; I turned off the head and just shot like in training.”
Besides Wierer, three other women also cleaned and finished in the top 12: Ukraine’s Olena Pidhrushna, who placed third, and two Belarusians, Nadezhda Skardino in sixth and Nastassia Dubarezava in 12th. The second-place finisher, Marie Dorin Habert of France missed two on the second stage, but skied the fastest course time to reach the podium, 14.1 seconds behind Wierer. Pidhrushna finished 37.8 seconds back from the Italian in third.
Meanwhile, Crawford hung in the top 20 throughout the race, rising from 19th to 13th on her third of five loops. At the end of the day, her course time ranked a modest 35th, but her range time was notable: she was fourth fastest of 101 finishers.
“I really wanted to be control in the range. Last year I missed 2 in my last standing to hit 17/20, so I wanted to beat that,” Crawford recalled. “I learned a few things from the single mixed relay last Sunday. It reminded me not to stress too much in the range and to just remember that I am a good shooter.”
Her shooting time ranked sixth overall. After cleaning her second prone — the third of four stages — Crawford had a sense she was having a good race.
“Skiing felt strong and the targets were going down, so that just left my last standing!” she wrote. “On my last loop I knew the top 10 was close, but I just didn’t quite have enough gas in the tank to bring me closer!”
She started 13th and ended there, 8.2 seconds behind Dubarezava in 12th and about 22 seconds out of 10th. Previously, Crawford’s best finish in an individual race had been 16th last year in Östersund. At 2013 IBU World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, she placed 17th in the 15 k individual with 95-percent shooting.
“I am happy with my result but know that skiing isn’t quite where I want it yet,” Crawford wrote on Thursday. She reflected that she started too hard and forgot to control her skiing.
“In the end I don’t think it changed things too much ski speed wise, but I did get a bit slower as the race went on,” she added. “Looking forward to Saturday’s shorter race!”
The women’s and men’s races continue in Östersund with the 7.5/10 k sprints on Saturday and 10/12.5 k pursuits on Sunday.
“I definitely want to consistently be in the top-15, with hitting the top-10 more than last year,” Crawford said in a Biathlon Canada press release. “My main goal is a podium in a non-team event. These first three World Cups [in Östersund, Hochfilzen and Pokljuka] are my favourite venues, so I know they will be my best chance to be on the podium.”
After Crawford, Canada’s Julia Ransom finished 52nd (+5:25.6) with three penalties (1+2+0+0), Megan Tandy (formerly Heinicke) placed 67th (+6:54.2) with five misses, and Zina Kocher was 98th (+11:30) with nine penalties. For each miss in an individual race, a minute penalty is added.
Clare Egan finishing 44th in Thursday’s 15 k individual for her best result at that distance at that level. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Leading the U.S. in her first year on the World Cup team, Clare Egan placed 44th (+4:52.9) with 17-for-20 shooting. She cleaned both prone stages and missed one on the first standing and two on the final standing.
It was her second-best finish at the World Cup level after placing 40th in the sprint at 2015 World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. She started racing internationally last season.
“The conditions were perfect tonight. Clear skies, fast track, little wind,” Egan, 28, wrote in an email.
She started last in bib 103 and saw her teammate Susan Dunklee finish before she started.
“It was actually relaxing to take my time and hang out for 40 minutes in the cafeteria eating cookies while I waited,” Egan said in a US Biathlon press release.
“I really did not know what to expect, because anything can happen in biathlon, but in the best case scenario I was hoping to hit all my prone targets and only miss a few in standing,” she wrote in the email. “That is exactly what happened so I am really pleased.”
The key to her success was “Fake it till you make it!!!” Egan explained. “It is crucial to be confident on the range, so I am doing my best to convince myself that I am a super solid shooter even when it doesn’t look like it through my sights, and sometimes it works.”
She felt like her racing had come around since Sunday, when she and Sean Doherty teamed up to place 15th in the single mixed relay, and explained her skis “were also incredibly fast today so that was a big advantage.”
American Hannah Dreissigacker (r) rounds a corner with Poland’s Magdalena Gwizdon (l), Germany’s Vanessa Hinz (second from r) and others at the IBU World Cup 15 k individual in Ostersund, Sweden. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
After recording her best-ever shooting percentage at the World Cup level, Egan was excited about her chances to improve as she finds her race shape.
“I need to keep using every race opportunity to test out the things I work on in practice and fine tune the racing process so that it becomes second nature,” she wrote.
Her teammates, Hannah Dreissigacker, Dunklee and Annelies Cook placed 80th, 84th and 91st, respectively, in what appeared to be an off-day for the rest of the Americans. Dreissigacker missed five targets (0+1+3+1), and Dunklee and Cook each missed nine.
“Sometimes you just have a bad day on the range,” Egan wrote. “I missed all five standing targets in our pre-world cup season opener less than two weeks ago. You can also be really, really close to hitting the target but that doesn’t show on the results sheet. Our team is very strong and I learn from Hannah, Susan and Annelies every day. One of their most important lessons is about resilience. Having a rough day at the range is just part of this crazy sport.”
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![Susan Dunklee (l) and the Canadian men's relay earned FasterSkier's biathlon performances of the year with their results at the Presque Isle World Cup and World Championships, respectively. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus & JoJo Baldus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/04/unnamed-11.jpg")
![Nathan Smith and Rosanna Crawford celebrate their second-place finish in the World Cup single mixed relay in Oestersund, Sweden. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/11/Group29112015cm3.jpg")
![Hannah Dreissigacker of the United States finished 33rd in the 15 k individual at World Championships on Wednesday. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/IMG_5356.jpg")
![Marie Dorin Habert of France on her way to mass start gold in the last women's race of 2016 IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU/Twitter)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/Cdbcc4hW8AAhgb-.jpg-large.jpeg")
![Annelies Cook finishing out her international biathlon career, anchoring the U.S. women's relay team to 13th at World Championships. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus.com)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/Cook110316TU545.jpg")
![American Susan Dunklee (l) chasing Italy's Lisa Vittozzi while skiing the first leg of the women's 4 x 6 k relay at 2016 IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway. She tagged her team in 10th and the U.S. went on to place 13th. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/IMG_5453.jpeg")
![Clare Egan skiing the third leg for the U.S. women in the 4 x 6 k relay at 2016 IBU World Championships. After receiving the tag in 16th, she brought the team to 14th and the U.S. finished 13th. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/Egan.jpeg")
![Laura Dahlmeier of Germany on her way to her first individual World Championships gold.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/IMGP9160.png")
![Julia Ransom of Canada and Hannah Dreissigacker of the United States on course in the 10 k pursuit.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/IMGP9120.png")
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![Tim Burke of the United States leads Canada's Macx Davies in the World Championships 10 k sprint in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/Burke05032016cm21.jpg")
![Hannah Dreissigacker finished 18th in the 7.5 k sprint at World Championships. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/Dreissigacker05032016cm76.jpg")
![France’s Martin Fourcade is greeted by his teammates after winning gold in the mixed relay to open the 2016 Biathlon World Championships in Oslo, while behind him Germany’s Simon Schempp crosses the finish line for the silver medal, and Norway’s Tarjei Bø comes onto the final stretch to claim bronze. (Photo: IBU/Evgeny Tumashov)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/image1.png")
![Martin Fourcade celebrates with his teammates after anchoring France's mixed relay to gold in the first race of 2016 IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/2016-03-03_f3ccdd27d2000e3.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![Germany's Simon Schempp after one of his shooting stages during Thursday's mixed relay at IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway. He anchored Germany to second, 4.3 seconds behind France. (Photo: IBU)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/2016-03-03_d0096ec6c835753.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) trails France's Anais Bescond during the first leg of the mixed relay at 2016 IBU World Championships on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. Dunklee went on to tag off in first, 1.6 seconds ahead of Norway. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/Dunklee03032016cm61.jpg")
![The Czech Republic women's team, which won the 4 x 6 k relay on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine, with (from left to right) Eva Puskarcikova, Gabriela Soukalova, Lucie Charvatova, and Veronika Vitkova. (Photo: IBU/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/2016-02-14_f86a52165751ae9.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing the first leg of the women's 4 x 6 k relay on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. Her team went on to place 10th for a season best. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/Dunklee13022016cm18.jpg")
![Hannah Dreissigacker racing the second leg of the U.S. women's 4 x 6 k relay on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. Her team went on to place 10th for a season best. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/Dreissigacker13022016cm83.jpg")
![Clare Egan (US Biathlon) during her standing stage of the women's 4 x 6 k relay at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. Her team went on to place 10th for a season best. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/Egan13022016cm56.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) leads Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen on the fourth of five loops in the IBU World Cup women's 10 k pursuit on Friday in Presque Isle, Maine. Dunklee went on to place fifth while Mäkäräinen raced to second. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/Dunklee12022016cm32.jpg")
![Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic after winning the IBU World Cup women's 10 k pursuit on Friday by 34 seconds. (Photo: IBU/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/2016-02-12_468e240abc9d741.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![From left to right: Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic, Italy's Dorothea Wierer and France's Marie Dorin Habert line up for the first standing stage during the women's pursuit on Friday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. Soukalova and Wierer both missed three, and Dorin Habert missed four on that stage. (Photo: IBU/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/2016-02-12_5d0560fe658206c.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![American Susan Dunklee (l) after achieving her best IBU World Cup finish in second place on Thursday and tying the best World Cup result by a U.S. biathlete. She finished second to Czech Gabriela Soukalova (c), and Poland's Krystyna Guzik placed third (r) in the 7.5 k sprint in Presque Isle, Maine. It was the first IBU World Cup held in the U.S. since 2011 in Presque Isle. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/Group11022016cm23.jpg")
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![Norway's Håvard Bogetveit leads American Lowell Bailey into the finish in a race for third in Sunday's mixed relay at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. The U.S. placed fourth for a team best in the event's 11-year history. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Mixed-Relay-31.jpg")
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![Germany topped the podium with a 1:12.9-minute win in the mixed relay on Sunday at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta, with (from left to right) Franziska Hildebrand, Franziska Preuss, Arnd Pfeiffer, and Simon Schempp. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Mixed-Relay-35.jpg")
![Italy's Dorothea Wierer (l) leads Susan Dunklee of the U.S. in first and second on the second loop of their first leg of the IBU World Cup mixed relay in Canmore, Alberta. Italy went on to place second and the U.S. notched a best-ever fourth. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Mixed-Relay-6.jpg")
![Hannah Dreissigacker (r) skied the second leg for the U.S. mixed relay on Sunday and brought the team to fourth by the second exchange. Norway's Synnøve Solemdal (l) tagged in second, 23 seconds behind Germany (not shown) in first. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Mixed-Relay-11.jpg")
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![Canada's third leg of the mixed relay, Macx Davies used one spare to clean his standing stage and left the range in seventh before handing off to anchor Brendan Green (not shown) in the IBU World Cup mixed relay in Canmore, Alberta. Canada placed sixth to tie a team best. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Mixed-Relay-17.jpg")
![Italy placed second in the mixed relay at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta, with Dorothea Wierer (second from r), Karin Oberhofer (second from l), Lukas Hofer (r), and Dominik Windisch. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Mixed-Relay-33.jpg")
![Canada's Brendan Green acknowledges the crowd at the IBU World Cup mixed relay in Canmore, Alberta, after anchoring his team to sixth, tying a team best. "It was really fun and definitely special," he said of the experience racing at home. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Mixed-Relay-32.jpg")
![Canada's Julia Ransom racing in front of a home crowd in Canmore, Alberta, to tie her IBU World Cup career-best 19th in the women's 7.5 k sprint on Friday. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Women-7.5km-Sprint-23.jpg")
![Poland's Krystyna Guzik (l) trails France's Marie Dorin Habert during the women's 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. Guzik went on to place second while Habert finished 29th. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Women-7.5km-Sprint-13.jpg")
![Canada's Julia Ransom racing to 19th in the women's 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Women-7.5km-Sprint-12.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) had three penalties en route to 35th in the women's 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta .(Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Women-7.5km-Sprint-10.jpg")
![The women's sprint podium at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta: with winner Olena Pidhrushna (c) of Ukraine, Poland's Krystyna Guzik (l) in second and Italy's Dorothea Wierer (r) in third. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Women-7.5km-Sprint-43.jpg")
![Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon) racing to 28th for her best IBU World Cup result of the season on Friday in the women's sprint in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/BMW-IBU-WC7-Women-7.5km-Sprint-20.jpg")
![The victorious Italian women at the Hochfilzen World Cup, in Austria. Left to right: Federica Sanfilippo, Dorothea Wierer, Karin Oberhofer, and Lisa Vittozzi. Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/12/Group13122015cm7.jpg")
![American Susan Dunklee skates her way through the second leg at the IBU World Cup women's relay in Hochfilzen, Austria. Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/12/Dunklee13122015cm40.jpg")
![Canada's Megan Tandy blasts through the second leg of the women's relay at the IBU World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria. Tandy's clean shooting helped advance Canada to eighth place at the end of her leg. Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/12/Tandy13122015cm39.jpg")
![Canadian Emma Lunder powers through the third leg of the women's relay at the IBU World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria. Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/12/Lunder11122015cm201.jpg")
![Rosanna Crawford (Biathlon Canada) racing at 2015 IBU World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Crawford.jpg")
![Italy's Dorothea Wierer (l) smiles for cameras after her first-career IBU World Cup win on Thursday in Ostersund, Sweden. She won the 15 k by 14 seconds. (Photo: IBU/Evgeny Tumasov)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/12/2015-12-03_79406f6f7b8a089.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![Clare Egan finishing 44th in Thursday's 15 k individual for her best result at that distance at that level. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/12/Clare-Egan-of-Cape-Elizabeth-Maine-crosses-the-finish-line-in-the-womens-15k-individual-race-at-the-BMW-IBU-World-Cup-1-in-Oestersund-Sweden-on-December-3-2015..jpg")
![American Hannah Dreissigacker (r) rounds a corner with Poland's Magdalena Gwizdon (l), Germany's Vanessa Hinz (second from r) and others at the IBU World Cup 15 k individual in Ostersund, Sweden. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus), Manzoni/NordicFocus. Every downloaded picture is fee-liable.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/12/Group03122015cm120_800x500.jpg")