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.
Marte Olsbu Røiseland of Norway celebrating her victory after Friday’s IBU World Cup sprint in Nové Město. (Photo: biathlonworld.com)
IBU World Cup Nové Město, Czech Republic Women’s 7.5 k Sprint
On Friday in Nové Město, the women contested a 7.5-kilometer sprint. Norway’s Marte OlsbuRøiseland won the day in 19:44.6 minutes for her first IBU World Cup victory. Røiseland shot clean on the day. It was her second top five result this season after placing fifth in Pokljuka, Slovenia’s pursuit.
Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier finished in second 4.5 seconds back after missing one target for her only penalty. Third place went to Paulina Fialkova of Slovakia. Fialkova was 6.2 seconds behind at the finish after shooting clean.
Canada had two athletes in the top-20. Sarah Beaudry placed 12th (+42.7, 0+0) for her best career individual IBU World Cup result. Emma Lunder finished 17th (+57.9, 1+0), which also was a career best individual result. Rosanna Crawford was 54th (+1:59.9, 2+1), and Megan Tandy 81st (+2:50.9, 1+2).
For the US Biathlon Team, Clare Egan placed 26th (+1:11.1, 1+1), Susan Dunklee 39th (+1:32.4, 1+1), Joanne Reid 52nd (+1:57.2, 1+1).
Dorothea Wierer of Italy won Thursday’s sprint in Hochfilzen, Austria in a time of 21:04.9 minutes. (photo: biathlonworld.com)
Today in Hochfilzen, Austria, Dorothea Wierer of Italy won the sprint in a time of 21:04.9 minutes. Wierer missed one shot standing for a single penalty during the race. Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland was close behind in second, 0.6 seconds back. Mäkäräinen also had one missed target standing. Third place went to Russia’s Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht, finishing 24.4 seconds behind. Yurlova-Percht short clean in the race.
Susan Dunklee was the best placed American in 34th (+1:33.0, 0+2). Joanne Reid was 44th (+1:48.3, 0+1), and Clare Egan 65th (+2:22.1, 2+2).
On the non-racing front, the IBU released a statement about “Austrian state authorities” investigating five Russian biathlon officials and five biathletes due to their connections to doping. The IBU stated that the possible infractions occurred during the 2017 Hochfilzen IBU World Championships.
Russian sports journalist Dmitry Guberniev has posted the names of the individuals under investigation. According to tass.com, a Russian news site, Guberniev the following people: “Among athletes accused of violating anti-doping rules are 2014 Olympic champion Anton Shipulin, Evgeny Garanichev and Alexander Loginov. The list also includes biathletes Alexey Volkov, Irina Starykh, former coach of the Russian national team Alexander Kasperovich, doctors and massage therapists Artyom Kryntsilov, Alexander Selyavkin, Evgeny Shutov and Dmitry Topychkanov,” tass.com reported.
List of people under investigation according to Russian journalist Dimitri Guberniev (Screenshot from @guberniev_dmitry)
FasterSkier will post updates about this developing story as more information is discovered
– Harald Zimmer contributed
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NorAm and U23/JW World Championships Qualification, Canmore, Alberta
The Canadian NorAm series continued Thursday in Canmore, Alberta, with a combined NorAm and trials for U23 and Junior World Championships.
The three race weekend kicked off with classic sprints, run from the biathlon stadium which offers an uphill finish in place of the traditional long descent into the finish straight.
The selection criteria are involved, but it appears that each day four athletes will earn a spot in U23/JW World Championships in Lahti, Finland. The top athlete of each gender in U23 and junior each day should be automatically selected.
There are also World Cup period 2 (Tour de Ski) and period 3 starts on the line, with the possibility of Canadian women in the Tour de Ski for the first time since Sara Renner finished 16th in 2010.
Dahria Beatty (CNST) won the open women’s category in style, winning the qualifier in 3:51.06 by 4.96 seconds before winning all three heats by large margins.
Katherine Stewart-Jones (CNST) finished second in the A final in 3:49.60, 2.20 seconds behind Beatty after finishing second in the qualifier and winning her earlier heats. Maya MacIsaac-Jones (CNST) completed the podium, finishing 5.37 back.
Marie Corriveau was the top U23, finishing 6th in the A final after qualifying in 6th. Corriveau has struggled with results for two seasons, but her first race of the season is a very positive sign.
Anne-Marie Petitclerc (Mont Sainte Anne) won the qualifier and quarterfinal on her way to the junior win in 4:01.71. Molly Miller (Black Jack) was second at 0.68 seconds back and Anna Pryce (Foothills) took third at 7.25 seconds.
Bob Thompson (TBay) won the men’s A final in 3:19.43 by 2.31 seconds. Angus Foster (TBay) outstretched top qualifier Julien Locke (CNST) by 0.01 seconds for second. Graham Ritchie (Big Thunder) was the top U23 in 4th, 2.36 back after qualifying 6th.
Remi Drolet (Black Jack) won the junior A final in 3:31.94, after winning the qualifier and all his heats. Foothills teammates Tom Stephen and Xavier McKeever were second and third, 2.08 and 2.51 seconds back respectively. Stephen has two future seasons as a junior while McKeever has three.
All results, including live timing for the rest of the weekend.
The Women’s podium from the World Cup 15 k freestyle in Beitostølen, Norway. Norwegian Theresa Johaug (center) was first, Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla (left) second, and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (right) of Norway third.
FIS World Cup Beitostolen, Norway 15 k/30k Freestyle Individual Start
With snow falling and trees covered with fresh snow, Beitostølen, Norway’s wintery essence was on full display during the women’s 15-kilometer freestyle individual start on Saturday.
Keeping her distance win-streak alive was Norway’s Therese Johaug who won her fourth World Cup distance race of the season making it four for four in 2018/2019.
Jessie Diggins of the U.S. Ski Team on her way to eighth place during Saturday’s 15 k freestyle in Beitostølen, Norway.
Johaug won in a time of 38:39.8 minutes. The only blip of egalitarianism on the tracks was at the first time check at 1 k, where Johaug was tied for the best time with Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva. Otherwise, Johaug gradually pulled away from the fifty-eight finishers by the time she crossed the finish line.
Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla placed second (+1:05.9), and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg of Norway was third (+1:06.1).
U.S. Ski Team (USST) athlete Jessie Diggins finished in eighth (+1:29.6) for her first top-10 result of the season. Sadie Bjornsen (USST) placed 13th (+2:22.9), Rosie Brennan 15th (+2:33.9), Caitlin Patterson (CGRP) 32nd (+3:46.0), and Kaitlynn Miller 50th (+5:02.8).
Canada entered a women’s team for the first time this season. Emily Nishikawa of the Canadian National Team (CNT) was the best placed Canadian in 34th (+4:01.6). Cendrine Brown (CNST) was 38th (+4:16.4).
Sitting atop the men’s overall World Cup this season after Saturday’s racing is Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov. The young skier is a killer in the sprints and distance events. But it is perhaps Norway’s Sjur Røthe who has impressed the most this season in the distance events. Røthe has a slight seven-point lead in the distance overall.
The men’s podium from the 30 k freestyle individual start in Beitostølen, Norway. Sjur Røthe (center) placed first, teammate Martin Johnsrud Sundby (left) second, and Russia’s Andrey Melnichenko (right) third.
Røthe won Saturday’s 30 k skate individual start in a time of 1:09:53.5. It was his second World Cup victory this year. Teammate Martin Johnsrud Sundby, with his first podium of the season, placed second (+35.2), Russia’s Andrey Melnichenko was third (+49.2). For the twenty-six-year-old Melnichenko, it was his first career World Cup podium.
Canada’s Alex Harvey was the best placed North American in 13th (+1:49.8). Also skiing for Canada, Andy Shields finished in 63rd (+7:05.6).
Scott Patterson (USST)was the best-positioned skier for the U.S., placing 47th (+4:32.7). David Norris (APU)skied to 51st (+5:13.3.) Erik Bjornsen (USST) was 52nd (+5:14.9), Adam Martin (CGRP) 59th (+6:14.8).
Egan Leads North Americans in 15th Place in Pokljuka Sprint.
Just before her race on Saturday, US Biathlon’s Clare Egan seemed to be in a relaxed mood and could be seen on the broadcast joking with other athletes and posing for pictures in the warm-up zone. Starting into the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint in an early group in bib 26, Egan began the race fast and still managed to shoot clean in her prone stage.
She kept near the top at the split times during this early phase of the race.
“I am skiing way faster than I have in past years,” Egan commented on her improved course time in an email to FasterSkier, which in past seasons occasionally had prevented her from achieving positions in the points or qualifying for pursuit and mass start races. “I think my previous best ski time was in the 20’s, but my average was probably in the 50’s. So to have 11th ski time in the Individual [on Thursday] and the 6th today is a very significant improvement for me. It means that I can now aim for the flower ceremony, and even the top of the podium.”
In the standing shooting stage she then missed her very last shot of the race, having to ski once through the 150-meter penalty lap. After another fast final loop she came to the finish in fourth place. But after several athletes who began the race later finished ahead, she was pushed down in the standings, ultimately ending her day in 15th position (+1:08.8, 0+1). According to Egan she only narrowly missed a career-best result, having finished in 13th place in the sprint in Kontiolahti, Finland, during the last season.
“Today I would have been 4th or 5th if I had hit my last shot,” Egan wrote. “Overall my shooting is there, and now my skiing is too, so I just need some more races to get comfortable in this position. I really fought for my last two shots today and I got the 9th one and I’m very happy about that. Also my prone was perfect and I don’t take that for granted. I am focusing on the positive things and learning what I can to do better next time… which is tomorrow!”
Behind Egan, her teammate Susan Dunklee also had drawn a spot in the first start group starting early in bib 2, and remained clean in the prone stage as well. But in her second shooting she incurred two penalty laps, and ultimately ended her race day finishing in 45th place (+1:50.4, 0+2). The third U.S. starter, Joanne Reid, finished 57th with two penalties (+2:06.8, 1+1).
“Our whole women’s team did excellent training and it is paying off: last year at World Cup 1, zero American women qualified for the pursuit, whereas all three of us did today,” Egan commented.
She also credited their revamped coaching staff around which centers around Armin Auchentaller. Auchentaller spent the last few seasons coaching the Swiss women’s team.
“And it’s worth noting that with Susan’s 11th place in the Individual, we’ve now had two women go in the top-15 already in the first two races of the year (which is likely a first for US Biathlon). We are proud of ourselves and motivated to keep climbing. As usual, our ski service team is on fire. Tomorrow we’ll go for it again in the pursuit!”
For Biathlon Canada it was a difficult day on the shooting range overall, with Megan Tandy posting the best result in 73rd place (+2:46.6, 0+2). Her teammates Rosanna Crawford finished 77th with four penalties (+2:52.1, 2+2), Nadia Moser was 88th (+3:42.1, 2+2) and Megan Bankes was 99th (+4:39.6, 1+4). All missed qualifying for the pursuit on Sunday.
About a minute ahead of Egan, the race was won by Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen in a time of 20:08.1 minutes, with no penalties.
“I enjoyed today,” last season’s Overall World Cup winner Mäkäräinen commented in thepress conference. “I really tried to be confident. … Of course it gives you a lot more energy when you shoot clean. I know if I shoot clean that I can fight for the top positions. … But I still had to work hard and had a good last loop.”
In the finish she was 14.8 seconds ahead of Italy’s Dorothea Wierer, who also had no miss and recorded the fastest shooting time on the range on Saturday, but couldn’t match her Finnish rival on the course. Hitting all targets as well, Justine Braisaz of France finished third (+42.1, just two days after ending the individual race only in 82nd place with seven penalties. That’s the ups and downs of biathlon. Also shooting clean and just off the podium was Braisaz’s teammate Julia Simon in fourth place (+44.6), for her first top-ten result in a World Cup. Wierer’s teammate Lisa Vittozzi was fifth with one penalty (+46.9, 0+1).
Julia Kern (SMS) leads Dahria Beatty (CNST) into the final straight in the A final. (Photo: Peggy Hung)
Sovereign Lake Noram/SuperTour, Vernon, BC
North American racing resumed with free technique sprints at Sovereign Lake. The first weekend of the NorAm series was also the second weekend in the SuperTour.
SMS’s first year senior Julia Kern continued her strong start to the season, winning the qualifier and the A final and looking dominant throughout. National team member Dahria Beatty kicked off her season with a crash in the qualifier, but got up to finish 7th. Dartmouth and AWCA’s Laura Jortberg was in third, followed by national team member Maya MacIsaac-Jones. APU’s Hannah Halvorsen was fifth and Stratton Mountain School’s (SMS) Erika Flowers trailed in last after breaking a pole on the final downhill corner.
Andy Newell leads Antoine Briand into the finish straight in the A final. (Photo: Peggy Hung)
On the men’s side, Andy Newell (SMS) continued the American domination, winning the qualifier in 2:15.180, 4.050 seconds ahead of APU’s Logan Hanneman, before winning all of his heats comfortably. Antoine Briand represented for Canada and the Centre National d’Entrainment Pierre Harvey (CNEPH), placing second to Newell in every heat. Ben Saxton (SMS) completed the podium, edging out APU’s Logan Hanneman in a four way battle for third. Antoine Cyr (CNST) and Ben Lustgarten (Craftsbury Green Racing) trailed in two ski lengths behind.
“It was a cascade of issues,” jury member Dave Dyer told FasterSkier.
The short, short version is that the timing system has a number of redundant systems to detect errors. While the timing team was working on an unrelated issue, two athletes tied exactly. There are two sets of results zone4: the provisional (timed to 1/1000ths of a second) and the official (timed to 1/100th of a second). The bib list was generated from one list and the zone4 live timing database was populated from the other, with the two skiers who were tied shown in different order. From this point on, all the backup systems indicated errors and everything had to be hand checked. The results were right, the right athletes advanced, but live timing was switched off and delays ensued.
Full details and video interviews will be in Monday’s event wrap-up.
France’s Martin Fourcade shooting clean ans skiing fast as he won the men’s 20 k individual race in Pokljuka, Slovenia, site of the IBU World Cup’s first series of races this season. (Photo: Biathlonworld,com)
IBU World Cup Pokljuka, Slovenia 20 k/15k Individual
Not the least of the myriad variables affecting biathlon races, fickle weather has played games in Pokljuka, Slovenia, site of the first round on the IBU World Cup. The men’s 20-kilometer individual race was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but was postponed to Thursday due to fog.
For each missed shot in the individual races, athletes are penalized one minute. With a large cost for any shooting mistake, a single miss can punish a potential podium performance.
None other than France’s Martin Fourcade took the win today in 47:09.2 minutes. (Fourcade is a seven-time winner of the overall IBU World Cup.) Fourcade shot clean in all four of his shooting bouts. And shooting clean was the theme for the podium, the top-three finishers had no misses on the shooting range.
Second place went to Johannes Kuehn of Germany, finishing 4.2 seconds back. Third place was secured by Simon Eder, who stopped the clock 19.7 seconds back.
For Canada, Scott Gow skied to 14th (+1:43.3) with one miss. Brother Christian Gow was 16th (1:59.2) after also missing only a single target. Brendan Green skied to 100th (+9:04.1) after difficult shooting, during which he missed seven targets. Nathan Smith did not start.
For the U.S. Leif Nordgren was the best placed American in 40th (+3:24.5). Nordgren missed two shots. Teammate Sean Doherty was 59th (+4:28.2) after missing three shots, Max Durtschi was 102nd (+9:37.0), after missing six targets. Travis Cooper raced to 105th (+10:02.0), while missing six shots.
The women’s 15 k individual was won by Ukraine’s Yuliya Dzhima 43:06.6 minutes. She was clean in her shooting in her first career IBU World Cup win. Poland’s Monika Hojnisz had a single penalty as she placed second (+5.9). The result was a best-ever result for Hojnisz at this level of competition. The Czech Republic’s Marketa Davidova also missed a single target on her way to her first career podium, finishing 16.5 seconds back in third place.
U.S. biathlete Susan Dunklee missed one target on her way to placing 11th (+1:00.09). With each miss adding an additional minute to an athlete’s finishing time, it was a solid effort and indicator for Dunklee.
“I’m psyched to have a great result so early in the season,” Dunklee emailed FasterSkier.
Dunklee, the U.S. team veteran, made note of U.S. skier Clare Egan’s race day performance. “Clare also threw down an impressive ski split, so in spite of our 3 start quota challenge, our team future looks bright,” Dunklee added.
Egan placed 60th (+4:23.3) after amounting five penalties. She raced the 13th fastest ski time. Emily Dreissigacker, also for the U.S., placed 69th (+5:17.0). Dreissigacker has four penalties.
Canada’s Megan Tandy finished in 62nd (+4:30.4), after missing three shots. Rosanna Crawford, also for Canada,was 64th (+4:34.7) with four misses, Meghan Bankes 71st (+5:22.) with three misses, and Nicole Moser 98th (+10:20.4) with seven misses.
Megan Tandy (bib 51) won the women’s sprint during the second day of racing at Canada’s biathlon selection trials in Canmore. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)
Thursday in Canmore, Alberta day two of Biathlon Canada’s selection trials featured a sprint, with the men racing a total of 10-kilometers, the women 7.5 k.
Nathan Smith of Canada’s Senior National team placed first for the men in a time of 24:02.7 minutes. Smith missed one shot prone and cleaned standing. Christian Gow, winner of the trial’s Tuesday sprint, placed a close second (+4.2). Gow missed a single shot shooting prone and shot clean during his standing stage. Aidan Millar (Team R.A.D.) skied to third (+35.7) after missing two shots — one each in prone and standing.
With limited snow, the course is absent a penalty lap — male athletes were penalized 22 seconds per miss.
Megan Tandy, also part of Canada’s Senior National Team, won the women’s sprint in 21:17.5 minutes after cleaning her prone stage and missing one shot standing. Tandy placed second in Tuesday’s sprint.
Teammate Rosanna Crawford improved on Tuesday’s result, when she placed third, to take second (+5.7). Nadia Moser skiing for Biathlon Yukon, finished third (+21.2). Moser missed one shot in both prone and standing.
The women were penalized 22 seconds for each missed shot.
The selection trials will help determine Canada’s teams on the IBU World Cup, Ibu Cup and IBU Junior Cup for the first race period beginning the end of November. To date, only Scott Gow and Crawford pre-qualified for the 2018/2019 IBU World Cup.
Megan Bankes (Biathlon Canada) lunging at the finish of the IBU World Cup women’s sprint in Annecy, France. She placed 65th. (Photo: Glen Crawford)
Selection trials for Biathlon Canada began with a men’s and women’s sprint today in Canmore, Canada. Race results will help determine athletes representing Canada on the IBU World Cup’s opening races, and the first series of races on the IBU Cup and Junior IBU Cup.
Prior to Tuesday’s racing, only Scott Gow and Rosanna Crawford had prequalified for Canada’s IBU World Cup team based on a top-16 result last season.
Senior National Team member Megan Bankes won the overall women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint in a time of 21:43.2 minutes. Bankes missed one shot shooting prone and cleaned standing. Bankes’ teammate on the National Team, Megan Tandy, placed second (+22.8). Tandy cleaned her prone stage while missing one standing. Pre-qualified athlete Crawford took third (+52.4) while cleaning prone and missing two shots standing.
Women were penalized 24 seconds per miss due to insufficient snow for a penalty loop.
Christian Gow, a member of the Senior National Team won the overall men’s 10 k sprint in 24:39.5 minutes. He had no missed shots on the day. Older brother Scott Gow raced to second place (+47.9) while missing two shots, one prone one standing. Taking third place was U24 National Development Team member Jules Burnotte. Burnotte finished in 25:31.1 minutes and had two misses: one each in prone and standing.
With the course lacking a penalty loop, the men were penalized 22 seconds per miss.
Selection trials resume on Thursday with another sprint race.
While we covered who’s still skiing — casually, recreationally, backcountry, basically anything other than full-on training — last week, the start of May marks the beginning of a new season for year-round skiers. And with the first few days of May have come some training pics via social media. Here’s a roundup of some that caught our eye on Instagram:
Alex Harvey:
Alex Harvey hitting the weights hard: “May 1st ⏩ Back in training!💪”
Megan Tandy:
Another determined Canadian athlete in the gym: biathlete Megan Tandy at her training base in Klingenthal, Germany.
Emily Dreissigacker:
Newly minted US Biathlon High-Performance Team member Emily Dreissigacker skied up Stowe Mountain in Vermont on May 2.
Emma Lunder:
Meanwhile near Canmore, Alberta, Canadian biathlete Emma Lunder broke a pole while crust skiing at Burstall Pass.
Scott Patterson:
Looks like Alaska Pacific University skier and U.S. Ski Team member Scott Patterson is ready to go the distance, specifically 100 miles in May.
Sadie Bjornsen:
Scott Patterson isn’t the only one with a 100-mile goal for this month. His APU and U.S. Ski Team teammate Sadie Bjornsen is right there with him, getting out on snow in Anchorage, Alaska.
Erik Bjornsen:
Speaking of the Bjornsens, Erik (c) got some ski-specific training in yesterday as a substitute coach for the Anchorage Biathlon Club at Kincaid Park in Anchorage.
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Eirik Brandsdal:
Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (c) and Eirik Brandsdal (l) were still racing (and reaching the podium) last weekend at Bysprinten in Mosjøen, Norway.
Krista Pärmäkoski:
Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski was all smiles while listening to some tunes during a recent dryland workout. She wrote about the start of the new season and being well-rested and focused on her World Cup goals. “There is work and a lot, but that’s what this is about.”
Dario Cologna:
Swiss superstar Dario Cologna is “back to work,” according to one hashtag in this May 2 post, where he’s seen skiing on the Engstligenalp plateau in the Swiss Alps. “Let‘s start the new season,” he wrote.
Laurien van der Graaff:
Another Swiss skier Laurien van def Graaff (bottom and top right) is back at it in Sjusjøen, Norway.
Charlotte Kalla:
Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla (second from right) hasn’t wasted any time getting back on snow as evidenced by this photo she took with her Piteå Elit Ski Club teammates on Sunday in Finland’s Southern Lapland region.
Therese Johaug:
Looks like Therese Johaug has been logging some cold-water surf sessions on the Lofoten archipelago in northern Norway, as well as some fishing.
Martin Fourcade:
France’s defending IBU World Cup champ Martin Fourcade has been cross-training and logging some long-lost time in the saddle.
Franziska Preuss:
German biathlete Franziska Preuß (or Preuss) documented her “First mountain run of the new year” in Ruhpolding, Germany. And look, she’s higher than the mountains.
Leif Nordgren:
U.S. biathlete Leif Nordgren went road biking with his wife, Caitlin Napoleoni, whom he married in December.
Niklas Dyrhaug, Richard Jouve and Robin Duvillard:
Meanwhile athletes like Norway’s Niklas Dyrhaug (l) and France’s Richard Jouve (c) and Robin Duvillard are on the road to recovery, according to this FIS Cross Country post.
Russell Currier, Tim Burke, Lowell Bailey, and Leif Nordgren after a fifth-place relay finish in the IBU World Cup relay in Oberhof, Germany, in 2013. Currier, Burke, and Bailey are all retiring. (Photo: USBA.)
With the 2018 Olympics come and gone, many of biathlon’s athletes are calling it quits. Here’s a roundup of who you won’t see on the World Cup next season – and who’s still on the fence about their future.
USA
2017 Word Champion Lowell Bailey has long planned to retire after the 2018 season, and now that time has come. His first World Junior Championships was in 1999 and he got his first World Cup start in 2002. He raced 2003 World Championships before taking a break to go to the University of Vermont, before returning and competing in the 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018 Olympics. His eighth-place finish in the 20 k individual at the 2014 Games are the best ever by an American biathlete. Bailey is the Executive Director of the Crosscut Mountain Sports Center in Bozeman.
Susan Dunklee and Lowell Bailey celebrate after finishing second in the World Cup single mixed relay in Kontiolahti, Finland, in 2017. Austria won the competition. Bailey is retiring and Dunklee is undecided as to whether she will continue racing. (Photo: IBU/Twitter)
“I told myself this morning that I just wanted to go out on a high note,” he told FasterSkier in Oslo after leading off a U.S. relay team that finished seventh, in his last World Cup race. “I wanted to go out with a good result. And, I’m really happy to have shot clean in standing, clean from the clip in my last stage as a World Cup biathlete. That feels good. I’ll always remember that — that I went out with a clean stage.”
Longtime teammate and 2013 World Championships silver medalist Tim Burke will also retire. Burke has six World Cup podiums to his name including that silver medal, and led the World Cup partway through the 2009-2010 season. Burke started racing internationally at 2000 Junior World Championships, and made his first senior World Championships in 2004. Like Bailey, he is a four-time Olympian.
“It’s weird, I don’t honestly I don’t know if it’s truly hit me,” he said after the Oslo relay. “It might take weeks… I think it’s going to take a long time for all to settle in and for me to really reflect back on my career. Yeah, it’s a lot of emotion.” Burke says that his post-biathlon plans are not yet certain.
Tim Burke after placing sixth in a World Cup pursuit in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, in 2016. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Also retiring is Russell Currier, an off-and-on member of the national team and the Maine Winter Sports Center (now the Outdoor Sports Institute). Currier had two sixth-place World Cup results in 2012, and is a four-time World Championships team member. Since his World Cup debut in 2009, he has contributed to many U.S. relay efforts. He also competed at the 2014 Olympics, with a top finish of 49th, and was a member of the 2018 Olympic team though he did get any starts in PyeongChang.
“USBA nationals will be officially be the last race of my biathlon career,” Currier wrote in an email to FasterSkier this week.
The women’s team likely won’t see three retirements, and will thus have some more stability than the men’s crew, but there is more uncertainty regarding the women’s roster. Clare Egan wrote in an email this week that she was “Undecided!” about whether to continue racing. And in Oslo, after finishing third in the pursuit which was her last World Cup of the season, Susan Dunklee said the wasn’t sure if she would keep competing. “Ask me again in a month,” she said.
Canada
Julia Ransom retired in Oslo, as the 25-year-old is planning a career in dentistry and has many years of school ahead of her. “It’s just a good time for my partner and I to kind of move on,” she said after crossing the line in her final World Cup, the pursuit, hand in hand with teammate Rosanna Crawford.. “And it does feel right. It feels right.”
The Canadian men’s team (l-r) Christian Gow, Nathan Smith, Scott Gow, and Brendan Green celebrate bronze in the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay at 2016 World Championships in Oslo, Norway. Both Green and Smith are undecided on their future plans. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
Ransom scored two top-ten finishes at 2014 World Juniors, and made her first senior World Championships team in 2015. This season she had two top-ten World Cup finishes, and went to the Olympics in PyeongChang, where she finished 28th in the pursuit.
She is the only one from the Canadian team who is definitely retiring, but quite a few of her teammates are on the fence and there could be huge turnover on the team depending on what they decide. That includes Rosanna Crawford and Brendan Green, even though Crawford finally bagged her first World Cup podium this season.
“We’re not 100% sure yet,” Green said after the relay in Oslo. “Both Rosanna and I will sit on it a little bit over the spring. We will reevaluate a little bit and see what other opportunities arise. I think we both still love to race and train, and if we continue down that path I know we will still be motivated. But as of right now I’m not sure.”
2015 World Championships silver medalist Nathan Smith – who was also, along with Green, Christian Gow, and Scott Gow, part of a bronze-medal relay at 2016 World Championships – is also unsure. He missed most of the 2016-2017 season with health issues and though he returned to the World Cup and the Olympics this year, did not perform up to his own expectations.
Rosanna Crawford, Megan Imrie, Megan Tandy, and Zina Kocher celebrate a fourth-place World Cup relay finish in Annecy, France, in 2014. Crawford and Tandy may not keep racing after this season; Imrie retired in 2014 and Kocher in 2016. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)
“I’m kind of waiting to see what happens with Biathlon Canada,” Smith wrote in an email this week. “I think some very difficult years are coming for the organization, unfortunately. That will play a big part in my, and I’m sure many other athletes’, decisions. Of course, I’m also not looking to have a continuation of the health problems over the last two seasons, which made competing at the highest level really difficult. So I will be keeping a close eye on how my body is reacting to training. If it’s still not coming around that would certainly not encourage me to continue either.”
2010, 2014, and 2018 Olympian Megan Tandy also struggled with health issues this winter, and is likewise not sure what her future holds.
“Originally it was my intention to retire after this season, however it was literally my worst season ever!” she wrote in an email. “I was sick more in the past 6 months than in the past two years. Anyways, I have taken some time since the Olympics to followup about my health and to consider options for next season. I want to race a final season – one where I feel good and can put up a good fight (not necessarily results dependant, I just want to leave this sector of my life feeling like I gave it all I got), but a lot of things will need to fall into place for that to be realistic: sponsor support, coaching opportunities during the training season, and my health of course.”
Poland
Weronika Nowakowska is calling it a career. The 31-year-old picked up two World Cup podiums in the 2015 season before taking a break from competition to give birth to twins. She made a successful return this season and represented Poland in PyeongChang, with a top finish of 21st in the individual. She also had sixth- and fourth-place finishes on the World Cup this year and contributed to four different top-eight relay efforts, including one at the Olympics.
“I leave happy, fulfilled and cheerful,” she wrote on her Facebook page, according to a translation. “I was not outstanding, but so far no Polish biathlete has done better”
France
Back in Oslo, French star Marie Dorin Habert ended her career. Dorin Habert – then simply Marie Dorin – competed in her first senior World Championships in PyeongChang in 2009, where she had a top individual finish of 18th and was part of the bronze-medal relay team. Fast forward and she had racked up a sprint bronze at the 2010 Olympics, seven World Cup wins, ten more World Championships relay medals, and four individual gold, one silver, and one bronze medal at World Championships, four of which were from the 2016 edition where she did not finish a single race without a medal.
France’s Marie Dorin Habert celebrates her second win in as many races at 2015 IBU World Championships, after taking gold in the 10 k pursuit in Kontiolahti, Finland. (Photo: Kontiolahden Urheilijat/Jarno Artika)
She found herself back in PyeongChang for the 2018 Olympics, where, despite a frustrating season until then, she was fourth in the sprint, bronze in the women’s relay, and gold in the mixed relay.
“It’s so nice to end this way, to share it with all of the team, and the beautiful sun, and all the French people,” Dorin Habert said after winning the women’s relay in Oslo along with her teammates. “It’s a wonderful day for me. I would like to thank a lot, well, everyone, for being there in the biathlon family. I’m really happy to have this career, and I’m really happy for everything.”
Jean Guillaume Beatrix he told is also retiring. Beatrix was a World Junior Champion in 2009, before going on to be a five-time World Championships team member and a 2014 Olympic bronze medalist in the pursuit. He was part of three silver- and one bronze-medal winning men’s relay teams at World Championships. But this season, he did not perform well enough to make a very competitive French team for the 2018 Olympics. His retirement was “a decision precipitated by my results”, L’Equipe, according to a translation.
Czech
France’s Martin Fourcade leading Jaroslav Soukup of the Czech Republic during the men’s Olympic 12.5 k pursuit at the 2014 Olympics.
Jaroslav Soukup, the bronze medalist in the sprint at 2012 World Championships, where he was also part of the silver-medal mixed relay team, is retiring. Later in 2012, he suffered a horrendous accident while biking, including open fractures in his arm and neck and back injuries. By 2014, he made it back and won the same medals at the Olympics that he had at World Championships two years before: bronze in the sprint and silver in the mixed relay. Soukup qualified for the 2018 Olympics but only competed in the relay, which finished seventh. He had one World Cup top-30 this season.
Norway
Hilde Fenne, a staple of the Norwegian women’s team, retired after the last race of the season in Tyumen, Russia. Fenne never found breakout success as an individual; she had three top-15 finishes in her career. But she was an integral part of the women’s team and contributed to numerous World Cup relay podiums, as well as the gold-medal winning women’s relay at 2013 World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
The Norwegian women’s relay celebrates its second-ever World Championships title after winning the 4 x 6 k event in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. From left to right: Synnøve Solemdal, Tora Berger, Ann Kristin Flatland and Hilde Fenne.
In that final race, her teammates wrote her name on their cheeks. “She has been a very important piece for me,” teammate Synnøve Solemdal told NRK, almost in tears. “We have stayed in a lot of hotel rooms together. I’m going to miss her very much.”
On the men’s side, there is uncertainty as to whether some veterans will stick with racing or not. One is Ole Einar Bjørndalen, whowas left off Norway’s Olympic team, who for the first time since 1992 this season. And yet, the 44-year-old has not stated that he will retire, and some who know him are speculating that he may try to stick it out one more year and go out with better results than he saw this season.
Also with no stated plans is Emil Hegle Svendsen. Bjørndalen is the winningest athlete in World Cup history; Svendsen is number four. He won the World Cup overall title in 2010, and is a four-time Olympian. He won gold in the individual in 2010 and in the mass start in 2014, after which he suffered a total collapse anchoring the Norwegian men’s relay. In the past seasons he has been off and on, and he has only won two races since then. But this season he showed flashes of brilliance, and he was third in the mass start at the 2018 Olympics as well as anchoring the silver medal men’s relay and mixed relays.
Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway leaves the stadium in the 2016 Holmenkollen World Cup as thousands of his countrymen cheer him on. Svendsen has not officially announced his plans for next season. (Photo: JoJo Baldus)
“What Emil has done is absolutely fantastic,” teammate Tarjei Bø – who won the overall World Cup the year after Svendsen – told NRK two weeks ago. “He has won everything, and in addition done it several times, and he has come back again and again after being down. He has had a fantastic career and I hope he continues.”
Finland
She just won the overall World Cup crystal globe, but Kaisa Makarainen is not sure whether she will continue racing. In several previous years she had already discussed potentially retiring, but now she is reportedly waiting to think it over more as well as to discuss with the new team staff. U.S. Biathlon Women’s Coach Jonne Kahkonen, himself a Finn, was just announced as the new Head Coach for Finland.
Germany
Florian Graf, an athlete who finished as high as fourth on the World Cup in 2013 but has more recently been racing on the IBU Cup, is calling it quits at age 29.
Several other top athletes are suspected to be considering retiring, but there hasn’t been much on the record discussion by them. Stay tuned.
Gold medalist Laura Dahlmeier of Germany celebrates waiving a national flag as she crosses the line first in the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)
It was almost another start-to-finish victory at the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang for the current golden girl of biathlon, Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier. But it came with a painful price to pay.
After starting the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit on Monday evening local time in freezing temperatures and with a 24-second lead following her sprint victory, Dahlmeier began the race intensely focused, again cleaning the first prone stage.
But this time she was not uncontested.
After starting in 13th position and almost a minute back to begin the pursuit, Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina, who’s currently second in the World Cup Total Score standings, caught up to Dahlmeier after both had incurred one penalty in the second prone shooting and avoided more by performing multiple adjustments on their rifle sights to deal with gusts of wind.
After closing a nine-second gap, Kuzmina passed her rival on the next loop. But Dahlmeier did not seem to mind someone else helping her to set the pace in once again difficult conditions on the course and range (the race jury reportedly debated a potential postponement), and tucked behind Kuzmina to wait for her next chance in the standing shooting. There Dahlmeier cleaned again, leaving the range with a 38-second lead after Kuzmina had to twice ski through the penalty lap, but still retained second place as the closest pursuer.
“On the third loop we raced together, and on the uphill part Anastasiya was really strong and I just wanted to follow her and we had a good speed together,” Dahlmeier later recounted at the post-race press conference. “And at the shooting range, I felt really comfortable. I know about my good standing shooting, and I just looked to my targets and wanted to hit the middle and it worked … During the last years I could improve my shooting in wind situations, but I didn’t especially train wind situations [for PyeongChang].”
“Laura is a very hard opponent to beat,” Kuzmina said at the press conference, via a translator. “She is able to fully focus on the shooting and she is able to shoot very good also in the strong wind, so you can fight with her on the skis of course, but you need to shoot very good to beat her.”
In her final shooting stage, Dahlmeier again cleaned all targets and left the range with a 55-second lead on Kuzmina, with France’s Anaïs Bescond right behind the Slovakian.
“If I would already think that I might miss a target when approaching the range for the fourth time, I believe that would be the wrong mindset. I just tried to concentrate on myself, on my own targets,” Dahlmeier told German broadcaster ZDF when questioned about the final shooting, when she probably could have afforded to compensate for one penalty lap. “I have proven often enough that I can hit [when it matters], in training we simulate that every day. And I just firmly believed that it will work out again today. And it did, so I am very grateful for that.”
With such a comfortable lead, nobody could challenge her anymore on the final loop. On the finishing stretch Dahlmeier had enough time to reach for a German flag handed to her from the stands, before crossing the line in a time of 30:35.3 minutes, with one penalty (0+1+0+0).
Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia celebrates after crossing the finish line in second place in the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: IBU/ Biathlonworld)
Fighting for the positions on the podium behind her, Kuzmina crossed the line 29.4 seconds back to claim the silver medal, winning the finishing sprint against Bescond, who had to settle for bronze (+29.6).
Bescond moved up from a 19th starting position largely thanks to her 19-for-20 shooting with just one penalty lap (0+0+1+0), though she also skied the fifth-best overall course time, while Kuzmina overcame four misses (0+1+2+1) with the fastest course time of the day, just as she had done in the sprint.
Almost another minute back, fourth place went to sprint silver medalist Marte Olsbu of Norway (+1:07.3, four penalties), fifth to Hanna Öberg of Sweden (+1:08.9, three penalties), and sixth to Dahlmeier’s teammate Denise Herrmann (+1:19.4, two penalties), who improved from starting in 21st position. Sprint bronze medalist Veronika Vitková of the Czech Republic fell back to seventh (+1:37.3, three penalties).
Going to the stands a few minutes after reaching the finish, Kuzmina hugged her friends and relatives, including her husband and a teary eyed woman (presumably her mother) who was wearing a sports jacket embroidered with Russian emblems. Herself a mother of two, Kuzmina is the older sister of Russian star biathlete Anton Shipulin, who was not invited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete as part of the neutral Olympic Athletes from Russia team in PyeongChang. An appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) was denied just hours before the Opening Ceremony. Kuzmina has been racing for Slovakia since 2008, only competing for Russia at two Junior World Championships and never at senior-level championships.
“I am missing my brother. I hoped to the last moment that he will be able to compete here,” Kuzmina said about the topic when asked about it in the press conference, via a translator. “I don’t want to talk a lot about this issue. I am really sorry about what happened and that my brother is not here. I am here to fight for medals for my entire family. I won the one medal, and I want to win another medal for my brother.”
Kuzmina, 33, is an Olympic gold medalist in the sprint and silver medalist in the pursuit at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, and sprint gold medalist from 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
“This is a very special feeling to have the third medal from the third Olympics in a row,” Kuzmina explained. “Almost everybody who talked to me was [expecting] that I could win the sprint here, because I won the sprint in Vancouver and Sochi as well. That didn’t happen, but I am very glad that I managed to defend the silver medal in this event like in Vancouver eight years ago.”
For the 30-year-old Bescond it was her first medal at Olympic Winter Games, after she narrowly missed out four years ago in Sochi with two fifth places in the sprint and individual.
At 2016 World Championships she had taken silver in the 15 k individual in Oslo, Norway, and she’s also earned six medals with French relay teams. But last season was a down year where she started just one race at 2017 World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria, and finished outside the top 50 before she rebounded with a third place in the pursuit at the World Cup test event last year in PyeongChang.
“Of course it was never granted that I make the podium,” Bescond said in the press conference, via a translation. “It was very difficult for me not being able to do the World Championships [in Hochfilzen]. This year I really wanted to perform very well, and the Olympic Games is the best thing you could think of, the Holy Grail. So I did think about last year this time, and I was very happy to have a very good race.”
“Laura really dominates our sport, but there a lot of good athletes out there,” Bescond stated when asked how her opponent could be beaten at these Olympics. “They are strong, they got lots of qualities, what you need to do is be faster on the skis and shoot better and faster, that’s it.”
Sounds easy enough.
But if her opponents couldn’t quite yet do it in the pursuit on Monday, the weather conditions and all the increased attention on Dahlmeier, who usually guards her private life closely, pushed her to her limits.
“I am extremely happy that everything worked out so well again today,” Dahlmeier told German broadcaster ZDF right after the race. “I tried to be fully focused on the shootings, on the course I didn’t feel quite as relaxed. On the one hand the conditions were very demanding, and the past two days have taken a toll on me with a lot of media appointments, a lot of additional stuff. At the moment I am feeling quite well, but of course it is cold and when the fingers thaw up, maybe some viewers know it, that hurts quite a bit.”
Soon after, Dahlmeier was no longer in the mood to celebrate, as she had fully exhausted herself for the victory. And her frozen fingers exposed to the cold in thin race gloves now seemingly really hurt, even though in the press conference before she had claimed that “I always spend a lot of time in the mountains and there it’s normal to have wind and cold temperatures, so perhaps I am a little bit used to it.”
“Primarily it was the cold. She is in extreme pain,” Stefan Schwarzbach, a manager and speaker for the German Ski Federation, later told ZDF after she had to cancel a planned studio appearance. “So when [her hands] thawed up she really had tears in her eyes, it was painful to watch. After the doping control she put herself to rest, she is just completely finished.”
At last year’s World Championships in Hochfilzen, where she won five medals, she physically collapsed after two races to the point that the German team doctor did not want her to start the mass start. In the end her stubbornness prevailed, and she also won that race overtaking American Susan Dunklee on the final lap.
“We already know that from last year, we just have to be careful with the sum of the exertions in competition,” Schwarzbach said. “And I believe the spectators will be accepting if she reduces the media work a little bit, and then hopefully can stand at the start line for the individual with full strength. … She will be all right, but we will reduce her program to what is necessary, even if it would have been nice to celebrate the second gold medal.”
North Americans Moving On Up
Canada’s Rosanna Crawford finished 19th in the pursuit as the best North American, moving up from 53rd at the start, based on her sprint result, to finish 19th (+2:27.7) for her best individual result at her third Olympics.
Canada’s Rosanna Crawford (22) during the women’s 7.5 k sprint on Saturday, Feb. 10 at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. She finished 53rd then went on to place 19th in the pursuit on Monday. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
On the range, Crawford managed to cope well with the windy conditions, shooting 18-for-20 with one miss in each of her standing stages (0+0+1+1). In an interview with FasterSkier after, she said she would have liked to avoid one mistake she made in the final shooting.
“[The wind] seems to have been more consistent,” Crawford said. “My zeroing went really well, I had my sights, I knew exactly where they were and what corrections I would need to make. So prone I was really confident. … In my last standing I didn’t mean to pull the trigger on my first shot, so that was a bit of a disappointment.”
She enjoyed her race despite the harsh weather and demanding tracks, skiing the 19th-ranked overall course time.
“For sure I love the 2k [pursuit loop] here,” Crawford said. “I [also] was 19th with 18-for-20 last year at the World Cup here. Yeah, the 2 k is so much fun. You just have to grit your teeth up that hill and then just rip along the top and back down to the range, and I love it so much. My skis were amazing. Our techs did such a good job. So I just had some fun out there today.”
Asked how she got into a better mindset following the sprint, Crawford said she called her older sister, a 2006 Olympic gold medalist in cross-country skiing.
“I had some really good chats with my sister Chandra,” Crawford said. “She’s a huge motivator for me and my biggest cheerleader now. She really just talked some sense into me to not be so down on myself after the sprint, so that was really helpful.”
Julia Ransom (Biathlon Canada) during the women’s 7.5 k sprint at her Olympic debut in PyeongChang, South Korea. She finished 40th then went on to place 28th in the pursuit on Monday. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Teammate Julia Ransom also improved from her sprint position, moving up by 12 places to finish in 28th place (+3:03.0) with one miss in her last standing stage. She was one of just six women on Monday who shot 19-for-20, with no one shooting clean.
“I had some really solid shooting today hitting my first 15, missing my 18th or 17th shot,” Ransom recounted after the race. “I am a confident shooter in the wind, I know corrections fairly well, and I think you just have to make good shots and that’s all you can hope for”
On the course she skied the 44th-best course time after a faster first loop.
“My legs were not feeling as good as I was hoping they’d be, so I was really happy to keep it together in the range and just slowly work my way up and ski with the other girls,” Ransom concluded.
American Emily Dreissigacker racing to 47th in the women’s 10 k pursuit at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: Ross Burton/US Biathlon)
Emily Dreissigacker, the lone American to qualify for the women’s pursuit, improved by four positions after starting in 51st to finish 47th (+5:01.4) with four penalties (0+1+1+2).
That was another improvement on her personal best at the World Cup-level, which she achieved in Saturday’s sprint. Before these Olympics, Dreissigacker’s best result on the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup had been 56th place in a pursuit in Antholz, Italy, last month.
On the course she recorded the 54th course time, steadily holding her position on the three loops between the shooting stages.
“I think the skiing felt a little better than the sprint two days ago,” Dreissigacker said after. “Getting to ski with people is always really fun, and my skis were amazingly fast.”
Just like Crawford, she also preferred the loop the pursuit was raced on over other courses in PyeongChang.
“I really like the 2 k course,” Dreissigacker said. “You climb up and then you come back down, which is something that I really like. I think mentally especially, I’m like ‘All right, gotta get to the top of this hill and then I have time to recover,’ which is nice.”
“I really just like to try to keep things simple,” she said of her shooting performance and approach to the wind-exposed range. “Just relax, if the wind comes up just wait for it to pass or if it’s not going to pass take some clicks. I really think the simpler you can keep it the better.”
“The wind can be a little tricky,” she told US Biathlon, according to a press release. “In my first standing stage, actually, I had to wait out a pretty big gust of wind. All the people around me were waiting, too, and we’re all just standing there waiting for it to die. That’s kind of just how it is. You have to be able to deal with that … be able to wait and not freak out.”
Canada’s Emma Lunder finished 53rd (+6:16.8) after starting 54th then shooting four penalties (0+1+1+2).
“It was not great,” Lunder reflected. “Started out with shooting OK, unfortunately missed two in my last standing and just did not have it in the legs today, so the skiing was a big struggle.”
While not completely satisfied with her race performance, the 26-year-old Lunder said she was making the most out of her first Olympic experience.
“The whole time I was just trying to remind myself, I am at the Olympics, racing my first Olympics. It’s such a cool atmosphere, so even if the race isn’t going as well as I would like I am still pretty happy to be here,” Lunder explained. “The racing doesn’t feel different from a World Cup. It’s being at the Athlete’s Village with athletes from every sport all over the world, the best in the world, that’s been pretty special. I have [met] quite a few people who I never thought I would meet, so I have just been trying to take it all in and also try to perform as well as I can.”
Asked how she is dealing with the cold conditions and prepares for her upcoming races, Lunder added, “I would say a lot of it is energy management. When it’s this cold out I find I am a lot more tired, burning more calories just from shivering. So we have a therapist here with us. I will see her for some treatment, just take a bit of time to lay in bed and watch some movies, do whatever I can to rest up a little bit.”
The fourth Canadian, Megan Tandy, did not start,as she’s working to kick a cold in time for the next race on Wednesday.
“Disappointing news, but it is for the best,” Tandy wrote in an Instagram post before the race. “I have decided not to start the 10km Pursuit tonight in order to get healthy for our upcoming Individual Race. I will be cheering on my girls from bed, I know they can rock this stadium tonight.”
Estonia’s Johanna Talihärm, who skis collegiately for Montana State University and last year split her training time between Bozeman, Montana, and Estonia, finished 26th (+2:59.4) with another strong performance after a career-best 22nd place in the sprint. She incurred four penalties (0+1+2+1), and skied the 27th-ranked course time.
The biathlon competitions in PyeongChang continue on Wednesday with the women’s 15-kilometer individual and Thursday with the men’s 20-kilometer individual race.
Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier racing to her first Olympic gold (and first Olympic medal) on Saturday in the women’s 7.5 k sprint, the first biathlon race of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Canada’s Julia Ransom.)
“Perfectionist” is a term the coaches of Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier often use to describe her.
On Saturday, this quality helped Dahlmeier to brave difficult wind conditions on her way to winning the gold medal in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint that opened the biathlon competitions at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, ahead of Norway’s Marte Olsbu in second and the Czech Republic’s Veronika Vítková in third place.
“A childhood dream is coming true,” Dahlmeier told German broadcaster ZDF after the race, according to a translation. “I have always imagined this, that some day I would stand at the very top at the Olympics, that I could win a gold medal. And somehow exactly that happened to work out today. I am incredibly grateful and proud. It’s an amazing feeling, and I don’t think I have fully realized it yet.”
On the shooting range, Dahlmeier twice adjusted her rifle’s sights in the prone stage to successfully cope with changing winds. Coming into the standing stage, she hit three targets in rhythm, then waited for what seemed like excruciating seconds for a gust to pass, before triggering her fourth and fifth shots. Both targets flipped over to white.
She had taken so long that she only recorded the 76th-ranked shooting time in this stage in the field of 87 athletes, 22 seconds off the pace and almost as long as the time it takes to ski a penalty lap. But that she had hit all shots mattered the most. Only two other athletes managed to clean all 10 targets on Saturday.
Dahlmeier followed that up by skiing the fastest course time on the final loop, and fourth-best overall. She crossed the finish line in a time of 21:06.2 minutes, lunging to not squander even a tenth of a second more, before pounding her chest and raising her arms in jubilation, knowing the time she had set would be hard to beat. Indeed her mark could not be improved again by any athlete starting later.
“I believe if you want to win a race like this one, that doesn’t happen by chance,” Dahlmeier told ZDF. “A lot goes into that. It’s true, I really had to work for it in the race today. But also the team around me, what they had to work during the last days, weeks, months, years, that is embodied by today’s result. It’s just beautiful that I was allowed to fulfill that dream today.”
Olsbu claimed the silver medal, 24.2 seconds back with one penalty in her prone shooting stage and just 1.6 seconds ahead of Vítková on the bronze podium spot, who had missed one target in the standing stage.
France’s Marie Dorin Habert placed fourth (+33.1) with one penalty in prone, while Dahlmeier’s teammate Vanessa Hinz was fifth (+40.3), losing out on a potential medal when she missed the last shot of her competition. Several other favorites struggled with the wind conditions and incurred a number of penalties.
For the two runner-ups, winning a medal at the Olympics was also a dream come true.
“Of course I am happy, it was my best race ever,” first-time Olympian Olsbu, 27, said when asked in the press conference if she was satisfied with the silver medal. “It was difficult on the shooting range today because it was so windy, but I just stuck to my plan. And I was so happy when I crossed the finish line. … That was a dream from when I started in biathlon. Of course [compatriot] Ole Einar Bjørndalen was my hero when I was a child, and I was hoping that one day I will do the same. I don’t know what to say, it is just amazing and today I am sitting here with an Olympic medal.”
“Yeah, it was my dream too, like for Marte, and I am happy that my dream is here,” Vítková, 29, said of her first individual Olympic medal in her third Winter Games.
Starting early in bib 12, Vítková initially appeared dissatisfied when she crossed the finish line and saw that she had not managed to beat Olsbu’s time, after the Norwegian had finished the race just one bib ahead. The Czech feared more athletes would finish ahead of her and still push her several positions down, but aside from Dahlmeier starting in bib 23, no one managed to do that.
So at the “flower ceremony” in the arena, where the podium finishers each received a stuffed animal as their prize (a snow-white tiger called Soohorang that is the official mascot of the 2018 Winter Olympics), Vítková was beaming just like her two peers. The Olympic medals will be awarded in an separate ceremony later.
“I am very happy, because this medal is my first ‘big’ medal in an individual race,” Vítková explained at the press conference. “I had a [silver] medal from the Olympic Games in Sochi, but it was a mixed relay medal. And now I have MY medal!”
Last season, Dahlmeier set a record by winning five events at a single International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships, taking gold in every race but the sprint (where she placed second) in Hochfilzen, Austria. But winning the gold medal in PyeongChang was indeed the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. As an elementary school student, Dahlmeier reportedly had written two career goals into a class book: Olympic champion in biathlon and becoming the manager of an Alpine Club hut, since mountaineering continues to be her other big passion. One down, one to go.
“Today was a victory Laura had to work very hard for, that wasn’t automatic,” German women’s national team coach Gerald Hönig told ZDF, according to a translation. “My highest respect for how she withstood the conditions today. How she repeatedly had to make the right decisions by herself on the course and on the range in order to be successful. She did that great, and she is outshining a great overall team result.”
In 2014 at her first Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the biathlon competitions for Dahlmeier, who was 20 at the time, and the rest of the German women’s team had started off as disappointing with no individual medals, and then descended into turmoil when on the eve of the women’s relay, the doping case of Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle due to a tainted food supplement came to light (her suspension later was reduced to six months) and the team again failed to reach the podium.
“For our team this medal is particularly important,” Hönig said. “We still have the defeats of Sochi somewhere in the back of our minds. Well, I particularly do, so for me this is a gigantic moment. I believe having a medal in the very first race here makes the tasks that lie ahead much easier … It’s the prerogative of young athletes like Laura to chalk that off faster, but I have repeatedly thought about these days in Sochi … Laura showed coolness today, but also executed everything she had worked for in training.”
Dahlmeier, now 24, became the second German athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in the women’s sprint, after Kati Wilhelm claimed the title at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mixed Day for North American Starters
Canada’s Julia Ransom was the best North American in the sprint, finishing in 40th place (+2:08.8) after she shot fast and accurately, incurring just one penalty in her standing stage.
Julia Ransom (Biathlon Canada) racing to 40th in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at her Olympic debut in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
On the course she skied the 68th-ranked time of the day, consistently losing about 45 seconds on each loop to the blazing pace set by Slovakia’s defending Olympic sprint champion and current World Cup Sprint standings leader Anastasiya Kuzmina, who ended up 13th place with three penalties (2+1).
For Ransom it was her first start in an Olympic race, building on three appearances at Biathlon World Championships.
“It was amazing to start the race today,” Ransom wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “Some of my family were in the stands and the others had woken up early in Canada to catch it. Definitely feeling the love!”
She described the conditions as “windy with some extremely strong gusts,” Ransom wrote. “I noticed it more out on course than in the range. I was quite happy with my shooting today, but unfortunately my legs were just cooked (for whatever reason)! However, I think this was a good leg blowout, and after some rest, I’ll be ready for the pursuit!”
All four Canadian women that contested Saturday’s sprint finished in the top 60 to qualify for Monday’s pursuit, with Rosanna Crawford next in line in 53rd (+2:23.0) after shooting three penalties (1+2).
Canada’s Rosanna Crawford (22) racing to 53rd in the women’s 7.5 k sprint on Saturday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
“It was really tough,” Crawford told FasterSkier in the mixed zone after the race when asked about the conditions. “The wind made it hard for shooting and on the course, all of a sudden these gusts would come and blow your poles right out from underneath you. In prone, I made a correction and missed my first shot which shouldn’t have happened, and in standing I overheld [the rifle] for my second miss so I’m pretty disappointed.”
Starting fairly early in bib 22, the race was still going on at the time of her interview, so Crawford feared she might miss the cutoff for the pursuit. At least that did not happen.
“The sprint sets you up for the rest of the week, for two weeks, so I’m pretty bummed,” she continued. “I’m still looking forward to the relays, so that’s definitely positive. It’s just so unfortunate that the sprint dictates the other individual races, other than the 15-kilometer [individual race]. Hopefully I’ll qualify for the pursuit and can go out there and fight again. I love the 2 k course here, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
In her third Olympics, Crawford skied the 44th-ranked course time of the day.
Canada’s Emma Lunder racing to 54th in her Olympic debut on Saturday in the women’s 7.5 k sprint in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Just behind her, Emma Lunder in her Olympic debut placed 54th (+2:24.2) with two misses in the standing stage (0+2). Her course time ranked 65th.
Megan Tandy, in her third Olympics, finished 57th (+2:36.6) with a penalty in each stage (1+1). She skied the 69th-ranked course time.
“Although I am somewhat disappointed with today’s result (57th with 2 misses and heavy legs) I am thinking positive,” Tandy wrote on Instagram on Saturday. “8 years ago I was the only woman to qualify for the pursuit, this Olympics all 4 of us will be putting up a fight.”
(Note: FS missed interviewing Ransom, Lunder and Tandy in the mixed zone, and with the race in the evening local time they could not be reached for comments at press time.)
In her first Olympic race and on her first year with the senior women’s team, Team USA’s Emily Dreissigacker was the top American 51st place (+2:21.0) after shooting 9-for-10.
American Emily Dreissigacker racing to 51st in the women’s 7..5 k sprint on Saturday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. It was her career-best result at the World Cup level. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
“I did I shot zero plus one [0+1], so I’m pretty happy with that,” Dreissigacker told FasterSkier after the race. “The wind was a little tricky out there. I was just trying to stay calm and think about what I could control…. Happy to make the pursuit!
“It was kind of gusty and changing a lot,” she commented on the conditions. “Like on prone, I got a little lucky, the wind was pretty much what I had zeroed in [target practice], which was still pretty windy, but at least was consistent. Then in standing, I mean, it definitely wasn’t terrible, but I could feel the wind pushing my barrel around a little bit.”
Dreissigacker’s course time ranked 74th overall and she slipped 10 places on the final loop.
“I definitely died a little bit on the last lap,” she said. “I think the hills are hard. … You’re not really recovering [anywhere] before you climb back up to come back down into the stadium.”
Previously Dreissigacker’s best result on the IBU World Cup in a sprint had been a 59th place at last month’s race in Antholz, Italy, followed by a 56th place in the pursuit.
For the rest of the US Biathlon women, things did not work out as well as they had hoped on Saturday.
Clare Egan (US Biathlon) racing to 61st in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Also starting in her first Olympic race, Clare Egan just missed the cutoff for the pursuit race in 61st place (+2:45.4) with three penalties (1+2), only two seconds behind Emilia Yordanova of Bulgaria.
“Honestly as I was warming today it felt like I was warming up today for any other race, which I think is a good thing,” Egan told FasterSkier after. “I knew I was ready to go today and I was excited to do what I’ve been training to do and become an Olympian.”
But then her race began with a mishap on the course.
“I fell on the first loop at the bottom of the big hill, which is kind of a nightmare. I haven’t fallen in a couple years probably, but I don’t know, it just happened,” Egan said. “Weird things happen in big races I guess, but besides that I am really pleased with my skiing considering I was really sick in our pre-Olympic training camp.”
Skiing only the 71st course time on the first loop due to the fall, her pace improved from there, capped by the 30th-ranked time on the final loop (57th overall).
“I’m really happy with the prone,” she said of her shooting performance. “It was really tricky shooting today, windy, missed one but I am very satisfied with that. Standing I started out really solid, had three good hits and felt good about what I was doing and then I misfired actually. My bullet didn’t eject and I wish I had refocused better after that. I had to kind of pick the bullet out and I didn’t reset adequately. So then I missed my last two shots and I am not happy about that, but it was sort of a mediocre race overall.”
Team veteran Susan Dunklee incurred an uncharacteristic five penalties (1+4) to finish in 66th position (+3:06.9).
Starting early in the race in bib 6, she could be seen on the broadcast making a wind adaptation in the prone stage after missing her fourth shot, then went on to hit the last one having to ski once around the 150-meter penalty lap.
She came back on the course with what would later be the 28th-ranked split time, but in the standing stage, things then turned south and with four additional penalty laps, she could not make up the deficit.
“I’ve had better days,” the 2017 World Championships silver medalist told FasterSkier after the race. “I missed five shots. You can’t be anywhere close to where you need to be with 50-percent shooting. It’s very frustrating. You work for four years and you have big dreams, you see what’s possible, and it all comes down to one of these races like this and the sprint is so important for the rest of the races here. You really have to have a good sprint to qualify for the pursuit, to qualify for the mass start, so I’m really bummed about that, that’s for sure.”
Unlike her teammates, Dunklee skipped Friday’s Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics while “fighting off a small cold,” according to a US Biathlon Instagram post.
She skied the 42nd course time of the day and didn’t want to blame her misses all on the weather conditions.
“The conditions are actually really nice,” she said. “It’s a little bit cold but not so cold as it was when we first got here. You can feel your fingers, which is really nice. Seems like it’s fair. You’ve got really hard-packed good tracks.
“I think I’m going to have to figure out how to allow myself to be disappointed for another hour or so, get it out of the system a little bit and then put it behind me and move on,” Dunklee concluded.
Joanne Reid (US Biathlon) racing to 86th in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Also in her first Olympic race, the fourth U.S. starter Joanne Reid finished 86th (+5:12.6) with seven penalties (4+3), though she explained it wasn’t due to any race jitters already having competed in front of far bigger crowds on the World Cup before.
“I try and approach every race the same,” Reid told FasterSkier. “Same warm up. Same mentality. Just go out there and hope you hit your targets which didn’t really work out for me today.”
She skied the 67th-ranked race time of the day overall.
“It’s much worse on the cross-country side,” she said of the biathlon course and range conditions. “Everything is real open [to wind] over there. We have only the stadium area and the range [that] gets all the wind, but on the backside it’s pretty good, it’s sheltered. It’s actually really fun, it’s really ripping, it’s up and down with some swoopy corners.”
Reid explained that for her standing shooting she had planned to use the wind cover from a hill on the far left side of the range, as many athletes like Dahlmeier had also done, but that was not possible when she came in to her shooting stage as all those lane positions were occupied.
“Definitely in standing the farther lanes have less wind and when I came there was no farther lane,” Reid said. “It was 30, 29, 28, 27, 26 were all full and then big gusts coming in and that was pretty brutal. Then the longer you stand the more your muscles shake, so you know, that’s life.”
Career Best for Johanna Talihärm
Unlike for most of the North Americans except Dreissigacker, for Estonia’s Johanna Talihärm it was a career-best race in her second Olympics, finishing 22nd (+1:20.8) with one penalty (0+1).
The resident of Bozeman, Montana, is well known on the U.S. collegiate cross-country skiing circuit as a Montana State University junior and a second-team All-American at last year’s NCAA Skiing Championships.
This January leading up to the Olympics, she competed in cross-country races at the U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska, and in West Yellowstone, Montana.
Her previous best result on the IBU World Cup was a 29th place in a pursuit race in Hochfilzen earlier this season.
In the PyeongChang women’s sprint, she was the lone racers for Estonia. In Sochi, she finished 48th in the sprint for her best individual result and placed 16th in the women’s relay.
The biathlon competitions in PyeongChang continue on Sunday with the the men’s 10-kilometer sprint, followed by the women’s and men’s pursuit on Monday.
The start of the women’s 15 k skiathlon on Saturday, Day 1 of the 2018 Winter Olympics, with (front row, from left to right) Austria’s Teresa Stadlober, Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Norway’s Heidi Weng, American Jessie Diggins, and Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla leading out of the stadium in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
The 2018 Winter Games kicked off Saturday with the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon, which saw Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla take her second-career individual Olympic gold (third including relays) and first individual gold in eight years. Not far behind her, American Jessie Diggins achieved the best Olympic result for an American woman in cross-country skiing.
After Kalla established herself as a leader early in the opening 7.5 k classic leg, the Swede spent much of the race working with her teammate Ebba Andersson to counter any type of attack from the Norwegians, specifically Marit Bjørgen.
On rock-solid classic conditions in PyeongChang, Bjørgen led the second half of the classic leg up until the ski exchange, where she entered the “pit stop” first, just ahead of Kalla in second. Norway’s Heidi Weng was in third at the time and swapped into her skate gear fastest, leaving the exchange about 28 seconds later in first. Her Norwegian teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg followed her in second and Bjørgen emerged in third, just ahead of Kalla in fourth.
Meanwhile, Diggins skied consistently in the top 10 and within about four seconds of the lead throughout the classic leg, entering the exchange in 13th and leaving in ninth, 5.4 seconds after Weng.
While Kalla took the lead early in that first skate lap, Switzerland’s Nathalie von Siebenthal made a move into first on a climb just before 9.75 k, while Bjørgen kept her close. Andersson continued to keep herself in the mix, skiing in third, just ahead of Kalla in fourth and Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski in fifth. Diggins slotted behind two Norwegians, Østberg and Weng, while Austria’s Teresa Stadlober followed. At 9.75 k, 11 women were within 6 seconds of first.
Bjørgen reclaimed the lead shortly thereafter, but Kalla made her game-changing move on a climb about 34 minutes into the race, just before the 12.5 k checkpoint. There, the Swede had begun to gap the pack and was 5.5 seconds ahead of Bjørgen in second. Andersson remained in third, 5.9 seconds back, just ahead of von Siebenthal, Pärmäkoski, and Stadlober. Diggins in seventh pushed to keep herself in the chase group and was able to with about 2.5 to go.
One kilometer later, Kalla was nearly 10 seconds clear of Bjørgen, as well as Andersson and Pärmäkoski. The Finn moved ahead of Andersson on one of the last climbs to put herself in third as they headed down and back toward the stadium.
Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla celebrates her victory in the women’s 15 k skiathlon on Saturday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, and her first individual Olympic gold medal in eight years. She beat Norway’s Marit Bjørgen (behind) by nearly eight seconds. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
All alone, Kalla skied to the win in 40:44.9 minutes, what Bjørgen distanced herself from third place and claimed second, 7.8 seconds later. Pärmäkoski took the bronze medal in third (+10.1), less than a second ahead of Andersson in fourth (+10.9). Kalla’s previous Olympic gold medals came individually in the 10 k freestyle at the 2010 Games in Whistler, British Columbia, and with her team in 2014 in the women’s 4 x 5 k relay in Sochi, Russia.
Diggins finished fifth (+14.7) for a new all-time best for a female American cross-country skier at the Olympics (after Sophie Caldwell placed sixth in the sprint at the 2014 Games), about three seconds ahead of von Siebenthal in sixth (+17.6). Stadlober placed seventh (+26.6), Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva was eighth (+33.0), Weng was ninth (+40.7), Sweden’s Stina Nilsson 10th (+48.9), and Østberg 11th (+58.3).
In her first Olympics, Canada’s Cendrine Browne (Canadian U25 Team) led her team in 33rd (+3:17.0), ahead of American Caitlin Patterson (also in her first Olympics) in 34th (+3:30.0).
U.S. Ski Team member Kikkan Randall placed 40th (+4:02.3), Canadian World Cup Team member Emily Nishikawa finished 44th (
+4:31.7), Canada’s Anne-Marie Comeau was 48th (+4:57.9), Australia’s Jessica Yeaton (who trains with Alaska Pacific University) was 50th (+4:59.9), Canada’s Dahria Beatty 52nd (+5:32.4), and American Rosie Brennan 58th (+6:51.1).
The men’s 30 k skiathlon is the next cross-country event on the schedule in PyeongChang, set for Sunday at 1:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier racing to her first Olympic gold (and first Olympic medal) on Saturday in the women’s 7.5 k sprint, the first biathlon race of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
2018 Winter Olympics (PyeongChang, South Korea): Biathlon women’s 7.5 k sprint
While most others struggled on the range in the first biathlon race of the 2018 Olympics, Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier held steady and shot clean, then posted the winning time in the women’s 7.5 k sprint on a windy Saturday evening in PyeongChang.
The 23rd starter (out of 87 finishers), Dahlmeier had to wait a long time for her gold medal to be confirmed, but she had done it, winning with a time of 21:06.2 minutes for her first Olympic medal. She has seven gold medals from World Championships but this was her first at her second Olympics. And on Saturday, she was one of just two women in the top 20 to hit all 10 targets in the two-stage race. Russia’s Tatiana Akimova was the other and she finished 20th.
The 24-year-old Dahlmeier bested the time of Norway’s Marte Olsbu, who started 11th and had a single miss in prone (1+0), by 24.2 seconds. Olsbu’s time was good enough for second, just ahead of the Czech Republic’s Veronika Vítková, who started right behind her in bib 12, in third place (+25.8). Vítková also had to ski one penalty lap after a standing miss (0+1). For Olsbu, 27, this is her first Olympics. For Vítková, 29, it was her first individual medal in three Olympic Games.
France’s Marie Dorin Habert missed the podium by 7.3 seconds in fourth (+33.1), after one prone penalty (1+0). Germany had two in the top five with Vanessa Hinz in fifth (+40.3) with one miss, Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi was sixth (+40.5) with one miss, Sweden’s Hanna Öberg seventh (+40.8) with one miss, Switzerland’s Irene Cadurisch eighth (+45.5) with one miss, Belarus’s Darya Domracheva ninth (+46.2) with two penalties, and France’s Justine Braisaz 10th (+47.9) with two penalties as well.
Julia Ransom (Biathlon Canada) racing to 40th in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at her Olympic debut in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Canada’s Julia Ransom was the top North American in 40th (+2:08.8) with one standing penalty (0+1). Canada had all four women finish in the top 60 (thus qualifying for Monday’s pursuit) with Rosanna Crawford in 53rd (+2:23.0) with three misses (1+2), Emma Lunder in 54th (+2:24.2) with two standing misses (0+2), and Megan Tandy in 57th (+2:36.6) with a penalty in each stage (1+1).
One American finished in the top 60 to qualify for the pursuit: Emily Dreissigacker, in her first Olympics, in 51st (+2:21.0), after shooting 9-for-10 (0+1). Clare Egan just missed the cutoff in 61st (+2:45.4) with three misses (1+2), Susan Dunklee fell out of contention with five misses (1+4) to finish 66th (+3:06.9), and Joanne Reid finished 86th (+5:12.6) with seven penalties (+3:06.9).
Estonia’s Johanna Talihärm, a Montana State University student who lives in Bozeman, finished 22nd (+1:20.8) with one miss (0+1) for her best individual result at her second Olympics.
The men’s 10 k sprint takes place Sunday in PyeongChang at 6:15 a.m. EST.
APU’s Tyler Kornfield (126) leads APU’s Eric Packer (118) and DU’s Eivind Romberg Kvaale (124) to the line in the men’s 30 k classic mass start at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships on Sunday in Anchorage, Alaska. Kornfield, Packer, and Kvaale finished first, second and third, respectively. Kris Freeman (10, second from left) was fourth overall and the third American.
U.S. Cross Country Championships (Anchorage, Alaska): 20/30 k classic mass starts
Sweden’s Hedda Bångman denied Caitlin Patterson of her first outright victory of the week at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships, but Patterson as the first American racked up her third-straight national title in the women’s 20-kilometer classic mass start at Kincaid Park on Sunday in Anchorage, Alaska.
The top-three Americans in the women’s 20 k classic mass start on Sunday at 2018 U.S. nationals in Anchorage, Alaska, with Caitlin Patterson (1) of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) in first, Rosie Frankowski of APU (l) in second, and Kaitlynn Miller (r) of CRGP in third.
Bångman, a 22-year-old freshman at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), pulled off a 15.9-second win in the mass start, crossing the line in 1:00:55.3 hours. Patterson, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), finished second, but was the top American in the event for the third time this week, and Rosie Frankowski, of Alaska Pacific University (APU), notched third (second American), 19.6 seconds back.
Rounding out the top 10 was Jessica Yeaton, who trains with APU and races for Australia, in fourth (+44.1), Kaitlynn Miller (CGRP) as the third American in fifth overall (+1:13.5), Alayna Sonnesyn of the University of Vermont (UVM) in sixth (+1:25.3), Chelsea Holmes (APU) in seventh (+1:55.4), Norwegian CU skiers Christina Rolandson and Anne Siri Lervik in eighth (+1:55.7) and ninth (+1:56.1), respectively, and Erika Flowers of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team in 10th (+2:14.6).
The men’s 30 k classic mass start was incredibly close, with APU’s Tyler Kornfield taking his first-ever distance national title (he was the 2012 classic sprint national champion) in 1:21:43.6. He edged his teammate Eric Packer by 0.7 seconds at the line, and Eivind Romberg Kvaale, a sophomore at the University of Denver (DU), finished 1 seconds back in third.
Kris Freeman (Caldwell Sport) was just off the overall podium in fourth (+1.6), but was the third American. Another DU skier, Dag Frode Trollebø, also from Norway, finished fifth (+2.0), and APU had three in the top six with David Norris in sixth (+2.5). Noah Hoffman (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) finished seventh (+2.6), Scott Patterson (APU) eighth (+3.6), and Craftsbury’s Adam Martin and Ben Lustgarten followed in ninth (+14.7) and 10th (+14.9), respectively. With Brian Gregg (CXC/LNR/Team Gregg) in 11th (+16.1), the men’s top 11 were separated by less than 17 seconds.
IBU World Cup (Oberhof, Germany): Men’s and women’s relays
Racers on the range during the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay on a foggy Sunday at the IBU World Cup in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)
The Swedish men’s team and French women won the second relays of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup season on Sunday, with Sweden winning the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay by 1:10.8 over Italy, and France besting Germany by 32.4 seconds.
Notably, most of the top teams didn’t start all of their “A” teamers.
In the men’s race, Sweden’s Martin Ponsiluoma, Jesper Nelin, Sebastian Samuelsson, and Fredrik Lindström combined for their first win together — and the first win for most of the members on the team.
“It is a dream when you are a kid to compete in a World Cup,” Samuelsson said, according to an IBU press release. “To have a win is really amazing!”
The Swedish women’s team also landed on the podium in third (+48.2).
“What a race by the whole team,” said Lindström, who also has one non-relay World Cup win (from 2012) to his name. “It could not be better.”
Conditions could not have been much more difficult for shooting on Sunday, with the fog that had descended early in the day for the women’s race worsening for the men’s race. When there wasn’t fog, there was wind.
Misses were common throughout the two races, and even with racers being able to use three spares per shooting stage to clean, there were a high number of penalty laps.
But the Swedish men kept their penalties to a minimum, with just one for the entire team and a total of nine spare rounds used among them. After Ponsiluoma came through the first exchange in sixth, Nelin skied them into third, Samuelsson picked off another place despite skiing a penalty after his standing stage to put them in second, and Lindström anchored them to first.
“The conditions today were so special. Somehow I felt not so nervous, I was calm and had luck on my side,” Lindström said at a post-race press conference about his nearly flawless shooting (0+0; 0+1).
“I have never [been first] before,” he added. “Not like this in a relay at least. That’s really fantastic.”
“I had to look up to see if I was aiming the right way,” Nelin said after cleaning prone (0+0) then using two spares to clean standing (0+2). “I had no idea where I was aiming, so it was really difficult. But I hit, and it was good. Maybe these conditions fit me and I should never see anything.”
Italy placed second with Thomas Bormolini, Lukas Hofer, Dominik Windisch, and Thierry Chenal combining for two penalties and 11 spares. Hofer had skied them up from eighth to second, and Windisch then took the lead on the third leg to put them in first at the final exchange, 1 minute ahead of Sweden. But Chenal slipped with the seventh-fastest last leg time and a penalty after standing.
“Being on the podium with the team is always a special feeling,” Hofer said at the press conference. “For Thierry, it’s the first year in the World Cup, and he does a really good job, not just today. I am really happy that he could close out this relay. Second place is like a win for us.”
Norway placed third (+2:04.6) with Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, Henrik L’Abée-Lund, Lars Helge Birkeland, and Tarjei Bø. Together, they had three penalties (two from L’Abée-Lund and one from Birkeland) and 14 spares.
“I grew up on Holmenkollen so I practiced a lot there [in fog],” L’Abée-Lund said. “But today was really really hard, I didn’t see anything in prone. Standing was OK, but prone was really difficult.”
“It’s great to be on the podium,” Christiansen said. “Of course Norway always wants to win, but today we are very happy for our brothers in our neighbor-country Sweden.”
The Canadian men placed 10th (+6:23.1) out of 25 teams with Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Brendan Green, and Carsen Campbell having a combined six penalties and 20 spares. Three of those penalties came on Scott Gow’s second leg, two from Campbell’s anchor leg, and one on Christian Gow’s first leg.
After a penalty on his first prone stage (1+3), Christian cleaned standing with a spare (0+1) and tagged Scott in 11th, 53 seconds out of first. Scott then had two penalties in prone and three in standing, but managed to improve to eighth given how much everyone else was struggling with the shooting as well. Green kept them in eighth with two clean stages (0+2, 0+3), and Campbell, in his first World Cup relay, cleaned prone (0+2) but had two standing penalties (2+3) to put the team in 10th at the finish.
In an interview with German broadcaster ARD halfway through the race, Canadian coach Matthias Ahrens called the range conditions, which ranged from thick fog to unpredictable wind, “very hard to assess.”
“… To be honest, the good thing was that conditions were very bad,” he later added. “So regarding visibility, almost everyone was on the range at the same time [with the same irregular conditions]. They had to wait very long, and of course had bad conditions to shoot, but much of the field was there at the same time.”
The French women’s team, of Anais Bescond, Anais Chevalier, Celia Aymonier, and Justine Braisaz, celebrate their relay victory on Sunday at the IBU World Cup in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)
In the women’s race, with better shooting visibility, France’s Anais Bescond, Anais Chevalier, Celia Aymonier, and Justine Braisaz took the win in 1:12.42.4, with one penalty and 10 spares. After Bescond put them in first through the first exchange, 6 seconds ahead of Italy in second, Chevalier had to ski a penalty loop after prone but cleaned standings (1+3, 0+0) and tagged off in second, 23 seconds behind Italy, now in first.
One loop later, France was back in first thanks to Aymonier, who cleaned with just two spares (0+0, 0+2), and they extended their lead from 0.8 seconds at the last exchange to 32 seconds at the finish with Braisaz, who shot 0+1, 0+3, and skied the fastest anchor leg.
“I know that it’s always good for Justine to start in the first position, so I really wanted to pass the relay to her in that,” Aymonier said in a press conference after.
“I was nervous, too,” Braisaz said. “That kind of shooting turned my mind upside down, actually. The crowd was very loud, and … I wasn’t very focused on what I did. It was a bit foggy, too, so that made it harder. But finally it was a French day, maybe.”
“In my mind the whole team is really strong, and really able to get the first place,” Bescond said. “After years and years and years behind Germany’s team we finally did it. So just Oberhof spirit I think.”
Germany placed second with Vanessa Hinz, Denise Herrmann, Franziska Preuss, and Maren Hammerschmidt. They combined for two penalties and 13 spares; with a penalty on Hinz’s first leg and one more on Hammerschmidt’s last shooting. After being tagged in 14th, Herrmann skied them into fourth, 40 seconds out of first, and Preuss elevated them to second, which Hammerschmidt held onto.
“I was struggling a little bit in the prone shooting,” Herrmann said. “But the skiing was good today, and also the standing [shooting]. I tried to go fast on the track and catch some girls.”
Sweden, with Linn Persson, Anna Magnusson, Elisabeth Högberg, and Mona Brorsson, avoided the penalty loop and used eight spares to reach the podium for the first time in six seasons. In sixth place at the first exchange, they slipped one place to seventh on the second leg, but Högberg raced them up to fourth with near-perfect shooting (0+0, 0+1) with one leg to go. Brorsson then anchored them to third with clean shooting (0+2, 0+1) and the third-fastest last leg.
“It’s just super nice for us! I am super happy,” Magnusson said. “We were very emotional at the finish.”
When Brorsson was asked if she believe she could fight for the podium, she responded, “Not really. But I said to Linn, ‘Maybe it is our day today. Please let it be our day today.’ ”
The Canadian women finished 14th (+6:37.5), out of 20 teams, with two penalties and 13 spares. Sarah Beaudry initially put them in 15th after shooting 0+1, 0+2, then Julia Ransom had a standing penalty (0+2, 1+3) to slip one place to 16th. Megan Tandy picked off three places with clean shooting (0+0, 0+2) and tagged Emma Lunder in 13th, and Lunder had a penalty in prone but cleaned standing (1+3, 0+0) to finish in 14th.
The men’s overall 2018 Tour de Ski podium atop Alpe Cermis after the final Stage 7 hill climb: with Switzerland’s Dario Cologna (c) in first, Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby (l) in second and Canada’s Alex Harvey (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
Dario Cologna of Switzerland added a fourth Tour de Ski (TdS) title to his list of accolades on Sunday, winning the 2018 edition of the race in dominant fashion, with a 1:26.5-minute win over Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby. And Canada’s Alex Harvey scored his first TdS overall podium in third.
The 31-year-old Cologna started the 9-kilometer freestyle pursuit up Alpe Cermis 1:15 ahead of Kazakhstan’s Alexey Poltoranin in second. Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov, slated to start third, did not start due to a back injury. Thus Harvey was the third man off the start line, 1:23 behind Cologna.
(Sweden’s Marcus Hellner, 13th after Saturday’s Stage 6, also did not start the Tour’s final stage.)
Early on, Cologna started putting time into his competitors, extending his lead on Poltoranin to 1:20.5 and Harvey to 1:24 at 1.8 k.
By 4 k, however, Harvey had used his speedy skiing on the flatter portions of the race leading up to the climb to catch Poltoranin, and the two clocked through that checkpoint 1:19.4 behind Cologna. Behind them, Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov skied just ahead of Sundby, another 21 seconds and 22 seconds back, respectively, in fifth and sixth.
While Harvey clawed back a few more seconds on Cologna, he was still 1:17.8 back at 6.2 k, with Poltoranin just 0.7 seconds behind him in third.
Harvey remained in second until around 8.5 k; with just a half kilometer to go, Sundby had caught both Poltoranin and Harvey, passing them both. Sundby held that position and finished second, 1:26.5 behind Cologna, who won in 28:52.1.
Harvey stayed strong for third (+1:30.6) while Poltoranin dropped off the Canadian’s pace in the final half kilometer and finished fourth (+1:41.7). Norway’s Hans Christer Holund placed fifth (+2:17.8), Bolshunov lost a spot to finish sixth (+3:09.7), France’s Jean-Marc Gaillard finished seventh (+3:16.7), Sweden’s Daniel Rickardsson eighth (+3:20.8), and Russia’s Alexey Chervotkin and Andrey Larkov took ninth (+3:33.5) and 10th (+3:37.8), respectively.
France’s Maurice Manificat, known for his strength in freestyle hill climbs and pursuit races, rose from 14th to 11th (+3:45.7) with the second fastest time of day, 12.8 seconds slower than Sundby as the time of day winner in 28:36.4. Cologna’s time was fourth fastest (+15.7), behind Russian U23 skier Denis Spitsov in third (+14.3) (Spitsov started 20th and finished 13th). Holund’s time ranked fifth (+20.6) and Harvey’s time was sixth fastest (+23.6) of the 43 men that finished the race.
The lone American man to complete this year’s Tour, Paddy Caldwell (U.S. Ski Team) skied the 22nd fastest time of day for 38th overall (+11:54.8).
Heidi Weng (center) celebrates her second Tour de Ski victory, with teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg second and the U.S. Ski Team’s Jessie Diggins third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
In the women’s hill climb that kicked off the day, Heidi Weng raced to her second consecutive TdS title. The Norwegian started the day within two seconds of teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, and the two skied together for the flat section of the nine-kilometer stage of the competition. But when the climbing got steep on Alpe Cermis, Weng left her teammate behind and eventually racked up a 48.5-second win.
The battle for third was less predictable. Jessie Diggins of the United States started the day in fourth, but made up the ten seconds to third-place KristaPärmäkoski of Finland in the first few kilometers. The pair climbed together for a while before Diggins attacked. Pärmäkoski tired on the final sections of the Alpe Cermis and Diggins took the podium in definitive style, 2:23.2 behind Weng and 24 seconds ahead of Pärmäkoski. It’s the first overall Tour de Ski podium for Diggins or any American athlete.
Teresa Stadlober of Austria finished fifth (+3:09.4), Kerttu Niskanen of Finland sixth (+4:17.0), Russia’s Anastasia Sedova seventh (+4:49.6), and Switzerland’s Nathalie von Siebenthal eighth (+4:56.1).
Sadie Bjornsen started eighth and slipped one spot to finish ninth (+6:15.0), giving the U.S. two top-ten finishers in the Tour de Ski for the first time. Liz Stephen finished 16th (+8:25.8) and Rosie Brennan 24th (+10:59.6).
En route to her win, Weng notched the fastest time of the day on the 9 k stage. Stadlober’s time was second, Diggins third, Østberg fourth, and Stephen fifth.
32 women finished this year’s edition of the Tour de Ski.
Slovakia’s Anastasia Kuzmina celebrates her second-straight IBU World Cup win in Oberhof, Germany, on Saturday with a 1:04-minute victory in the women’s 10 k pursuit. It marked her fourth win of the 2017/2018 season. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)
IBU World Cup (Oberhof): Women’s and men’s pursuits
So far in 2018, Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina is undefeated after winning her second-straight race on Saturday at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Oberhof, Germany — this time by 1:04.4 minutes in the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit.
After winning Thursday’s sprint, Kuzmina started 35 seconds clear of anyone else on Saturday, while Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen headed out of the gate after her in second.
Veronika Vitkova of the Czech Republic started another 5 seconds back in third, and Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand set out in fourth, 47 seconds after Kuzmina.
Three Canadians finished in the top 60 of Thursday’s sprint to qualify for the pursuit, with Julia Ransom heading out ninth (+1:14), Sarah Beaudry starting 23rd (+1:39), and Megan Tandy starting 59th (+2:38).
Throughout the four-stage race, it became more and more evident that no one was going to touch Kuzmina. She cleaned the first prone stage to leave the range 55.8 seconds clear of Hildebrand, who also cleaned to move into second. Makarainen dropped to fourth with a miss and Vitkova left the range in third (+1:08.5) after skiing a penalty lap as well.
On the second prone stage, Kuzmina missed one target, but the penalty lap only cost her about 10 seconds; Hildebrand cleaned to keep herself in second place with three loops remaining.
The first standing stage that followed saw Kuzmina miss another target and Hildebrand clean, yet 34.6 seconds still separated them. Kuzmina finally cleaned the last standing to extender her lead back up to a minute, while Hildebrand missed one to lose sight of the podium, slipping to fifth and 1:22.4 back at the start of the final loop.
Italy’s Dorothea Wierer as the 16th starter steadily worked her way up to podium contention, cleaning all four stages with the third-fastest overall shooting time to put herself in second after the final standing, 1:00.2 behind Kuzmina. Ukraine’s Vita Semerenko raced up from 22nd to third with perfect 20-for-20 shooting as well, leaving the range 11 seconds after Wierer with one loop to go.
On the final loop, Kuzmina skied the 22nd-fastest time on that loop (compared to Wierer’s 28th-fastest last-loop time) to put a few more seconds into Wierer as the eventual runner-up, winning in 30:49.5. On the day, Kuzmina’s overall course time was eighth fastest.
“It was a very interesting race for me today,” Kuzmina told the IBU after. “My shape is very good now but I was worried if I could concentrate on the shooting … After the first shooting, I was relaxed and realized it was OK. I just gave the other girls two chances … I must apologize for my emotion [on the shooting range], but I was so happy and enjoyed the last loop.”
Wierer finished 1:04.4 minutes later for second place, and Semerenko crossed the line in third, 1:10.2 out of first. Poland’s Weronika Nowakowska finished fourth (+1:17.1) after starting sixth, with clean shooting, and Mäkäräinen ended up fifth (+1:23.4) with three penalties (1+0+1+1) and the fourth-fastest overall course time. Belarusian Darya Domracheva followed in sixth (+1:28.8) after starting seventh and shooting 18-for-20 (0+0+1+1), and Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier finished seventh (+1:28.8), up from 13th with one late penalty (0+0+0+1).
South Korea’s Anna Frolina placed eighth (+1:36.0, two penalties) for her best result since December 2012, France’s Justine Braisaz finished ninth (+1:37.0; three penalties), and another French skier Anais Bescond 10th (+1:37.1; one penalty). Hildebrand lost six places on the final loop to end up 11th (+1:38.7; one penalty).
Overall, France’s Celia Aymonier skied the fastest course time of the day to rise from 28th to 15th (+2:08.7; three penalties).
Ransom finished the day in 37th (+3:54.4) with three misses (1+0+0+2). She had been in 16th after her early miss in the first prone stage then hovered around the top 20 as she entered her final standing stage. There, she missed two to drop to 36th and she ultimately lost one more place to Finland’s Mari Laukkanen (who started the loop in 37th and passed Ransom, as well as four others, to finish 32nd).
In her first World Cup pursuit of the season, Tandy improved to 43rd (+4:31.8) with a single miss (0+0+1+0). Overall, her range time was the 18th fastest and shooting time was 23rd fastest.
Beaudry finished 51st (+5:36.6) with three misses (1+2+0+0), recovering one place from skiing in 52nd after the second shooting.
In the men’s 12.5 k pursuit that followed, France’s Martin Fourcade held the lead from start to finish and held off Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø by 6.3 seconds for his second-straight win in Oberhof. Both of the Bø brothers reached the podium with older brother Tarjei Bø placing third, 30.9 seconds back.
Fourcade as starter No. 1 had a single penalty on the first prone to keep himself ahead (1+0+0+0) and finish first in 32:23.6. Johannes Bø had three penalties (1+1+1+0) but still managed to rise from third at the start to second at the finish. Tarjei started fifth and shot clean to reach the podium.
The fourth starter, American Tim Burke had three penalties (0+2+0+1) and ended up 14th (+1:43.7).
Meanwhile, Canada’s Christian Gow rose from 36th to 21st (+2:19.2) to tie his career best (which also came in a pursuit this season) with 19-for-20 shooting (0+0+0+1). Scott Gow finished 50th (+4:45.0; six penalties), and Brendan Green placed 54th (+5:26.1; three penalties).
The Oberhof IBU World Cup concludes Sunday with the men’s and women’s relays. Canada has entered Beaudry, Ransom, Tandy, and Emma Lunder in the women’s 4 x 6 k, and Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Brendan Green, and Carsen Campbell in the men’s 4 x 7.5 k. The U.S. does not have enough athletes at the Oberhof World Cup to field a team in either race.
Alexey Poltoranin (l), Dario Cologna (c), and Alex Harvey (4) charge up the last climb of Saturday’s 15 k mass start in Val di Fiemme, Italy. Poltoranin took the win, with Andrey Larkov (behind Harvey) placing second and Harvey third at Stage 6 of the 2018 Tour de Ski. (Screenshot: ARD broadcast)
After a soggy and windy stay in Oberstdorf, Germany where the Stage 4 sprint was canceled and the Stage 5 freestyle mass stats were a cluster, the Tour de Ski (TdS) got back to a sense of normalcy in Val di Fiemme.
Or did they? After dominating the first part of the men’s 15 k classic mass start and picking up valuable Tour bonus seconds, Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov faded, eventually finishing 14th, 42.8 seconds out of the win.
Instead, Alexey Poltoranin of Kazakhstan made a big push to try to break for it about halfway through the race. Dario Cologna of Switzerland, the Tour de Ski leader coming into the day, followed, as did Canada’s Alex Harvey. The trio had a small gap of a few seconds consistently for several kilometers, before Russia’s Andrey Larkov caught up to them. Behind them, the field continued to fracture into chaos, claiming what would in past years have seemed unlikely victims like Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby.
After much posturing and pushing in the final kilometer, the lead pack of four came shooting into the downhill finish with Poltoranin claiming the win by 0.4 seconds over Larkov. Harvey finished third, +0.9, and Cologna fourth, +2.3. There was a bigger gap before Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov crossed the line in fifth, +15.0.
That means that Poltoranin takes over second place in the Tour, while Ustiugov lost ground.
The only American starter, Paddy Caldwell, finished 48th out of 52 finishers, +3:38.6.
The women’s 10 k classic mass start podium at Stage 6 of the 2018 Tour de Ski on Saturday in Val di Fiemme, Italy, with Norway’s Heidi Weng (c) in first, Finland’s Krista Parmakoski (l) in second and Austria’s Teresa Stadlober in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
The women’s race went off as planned: no snafus, only burning lungs and muscles. At the start of Stage 6, Jessie Diggins was ranked third overall in the Tour (+1:56.7). Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg wore the red bib as the TdS leader, while teammate Heidi Weng was second overall (+57.0).
As Saturday’s race transpired, Weng proved dominant. She won in 29:07.9. Finland’s Krista Parmakoski placed second (+7.6), and Austria’s Teresa Stadlober third (+8.6).
Diggins skied a gutsy race to finish fourth (+23.6). Østberg, who at times looked like she could dominate the pace, faded to fifth (+35.2).
U.S. skiers Sadie Bjornsen finished in 10th place (+1:11.3), Liz Stephen 24th (+2:18), and Rosie Brennan 30th (+2:47.2).
Heading into tomorrow’s final stage, the formidable climb up the Alpe Cermis, Østberg leads the Tour with a tiny 1.8-second gap on Weng. Parmakoski is third overall (+1:33.5), Diggins fourth (+1:43.1), and Bjornsen eighth (+3:33.1).
Slovakia’s double Olympic gold medalist Anastasiya Kuzmina en route to a huge win in her favorite race, the sprint, in Oberhof, Germany, on Thursday. (Photo: IBU biathlonworld)
For athletes who finished 2017 on a high note, the first race of 2018 can be a couple of two things. One is a continuation of the good competitions right like they left off. Another is a downgrade leaving them wondering if they’ve lost their mojo.
For some women in Thursday’s 7.5 k World Cup sprint in Oberhof, Germany, it was the former. Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia started in the yellow bib denoting the leader of the overall biathlon World Cup, and she wore it all the way to the top of the podium after a 35.4-second victory over Kaisa Makarainen of Finland.
Despite being a double Olympic champion – she won gold in the sprints in 2010 and 2014 – Kuzmina had never worn the yellow jersey until this season. But she’s continuing to show why she deserves it.
“It’s my first win here in Oberhof, and it’s always a really good feeling,” she said in a post-race press conference. “I’m really happy that I had fast and good skiing, and I just enjoyed the race.”
Both Kuzmina and Makarainen was well as third-place Veronika Vitkova of the Czech Republic (+40.1 seconds) had one penalty, as storms lingered over Germany after having caused the cancelation of World Cup ski races the previous day. The women dealt with large gusts on the shooting range, as well as slow ski trails from the rain that continued falling.
The podium from the Oberhof sprint, with (l-r) Kaisa Makarainen, Anastasiya Kuzmina, and Veronika Vitkova. (Photo: IBU/biathlonworld)
“I was lucky at the shooting range,” said fourth-place Franziska Hildebrand of Germany (+47.0 seconds), who also had one penalty. “If you were lucky enough to catch a calm phase then you could have a good race.”
“It was not easy weather conditions, I think for everyone,” Kuzmina said. “Today in zeroing I saw that it was not easy to shoot clean. I understood that I needed to be really concentrated on the shooting range. After one mistake in the prone position I was just thinking, ‘okay, it’s still good, it’s still good.’ For everyone the conditions on the shooting range were changing. So I knew that with one you still have a chance.”
Only three women managed to shoot a perfect 10-for-10, and two of them were Canadian. Julia Ransom rode that shooting to ninth place (+1:13.6), and Sarah Beaudry to 23rd (+1:39.0) in her first World Cup start of the season.
“I didn’t have any crazy expectations going into this week, but I am happy to see that the level of performance is still there,” Ransom wrote in an email. “Today definitely felt like a bit of a blow out for the legs, so I am excited to see what the pursuit will bring!”
For Ransom, a winter break spent in Europe – unusually, as the Canadian “A” team usually returns home for Christmas and even skips the Oberhof weekend to get in more home-turf training – was the perfect thing keep up her level of performance. Ransom had started out the season with a ninth-place finish in the 15 k individual in Östersund, Sweden.
Julia Ransom (Biathlon Canada) racing to 39th in the women’s IBU World Cup sprint in Annecy, France, earlier this season. (Photo: Glen Crawford)
“My winter break was exactly what I needed,” she wrote. “My brother and nephew had come out to Le Grand-Bornand [for the last World Cup weekend] and then later spent a week with me in Annecy [France]. We went into full tourist mode, eating lots of cheese and drinking lots of wine. Even got some beautiful powder turns in Chamonix. I then went to Zurich for the Christmas weekend to visit one of my childhood best friends before joining the team again in Obertilliach for a week of training. Safe to say, a week completely free of biathlon followed by a week of training paradise made for some good race prep.”
Shooting was the key to good results for Ransom and Beaudry; their ski splits ranked 44th and 63rd, respectively. But Canadian women’s coach and High Performance Director Roddy Ward downplayed the conditions in discussing his team’s excellent shooting.
“Overall the shooting conditions were tricky but not too bad actually,” he wrote in an email. “I’d even say quite good for Oberhof! It was actually quite fair for everyone, which is nice. No big gusts then calm, wind was always present and a bit swirly. I’m actually not surprised they cleaned but more surprised there were so few in total that cleaned.”
That’s quite a difference from the assessment of some of the other athletes. For instance: “I’m really really happy that I had only one penalty today, because it was difficult conditions and changing all the time,” said second-place Makarainen. “In standing I really felt the wind. It was not easy. But shot by shot I managed with only one [penalty], and I was really, really satisfied with that.”
But Beaudry agreed with her coach’s assessment.
“Personally I didn’t find the wind to affect my shooting much today,” she wrote in an email. “Both times when I came in it wasn’t too windy, and I just tried to shoot confidently and have solid hits. I did for sure give my last shot an extra second because that one can be a little stressful, but I hit it and that’s what matters.”
Sarah Beaudry with friend Caroline Seip in the Oberhof stadium after notching a personal-best 23rd-place World Cup finish in the 7.5 k sprint. (Photo courtesy of Caroline Seip)
As for Ransom, she simply approached the day’s shooting with intention, and it brought her success.
“I was mentally prepared for hellish race conditions, so when I got to the site and didn’t see v-boards flying away or five inches of slush, I was pleasantly surprised,” she wrote. “It was a little blustery in both prone and standing, so all I could do was focus on making good shots. In the standing, I aimed to shoot in lanes 28-30 because it is a little bit more sheltered, but other than that, there wasn’t any special trick! After a break from racing, I was glad to come back with solid shooting.”
Beaudry was coming off of IBU Cup finishes of 23rd in Sjujøen, Norway; 36th in Lenzerheide, Switzerland; and tenth and 24th in Obertilliach, Austria. Along with Megan Tandy, she got pulled up to the World Cup with just two weeks of Olympic qualifying possibilities to go.
“Megan and Sarah both performed well on the IBU Cup in trimester 1,” Ward explained. “Therefore, they were given a chance at [Oberhof]. I didn’t really have any expectations, but felt if we gave them a chance we could see a good performance. Sarah produced a great performance.”
In fact, it was the best result of her career. Her previous top World Cup finish was 38th in the sprint in Canmore, Alberta, in 2016, with a somewhat reduced depth of field. Before that, she had finished 54th in a pursuit in Ruhpolding, Germany.
But since her sprint qualifies her for the pursuit on Saturday, where she is guaranteed to be in the top 60 if she finishes, she is fast-tracked to meeting one of Biathlon Canada’s Olympic criteria and could be either the fourth or fifth member of the team.
That’s not what she’s thinking about, though.
The Americans didn’t master the Oberhof shooting range as well as their Canadian counterparts, with both Susan Dunklee (above) and Clare Egan picking up four penalties. They finished 62nd and 86th, respectively. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
“Like I have said before, this season I just really wanted to race well and show what I never was really able to show last season,” she wrote. “I was hoping for a solid result, but definitely not expecting the result I got today. The Olympic qualification definitely adds extra pressure but I know I race best when I am having fun. So I was trying to blast the dance tunes and just smile.”
The pressure came off in an unexpected way, too.
“In my warm-up I was trying out the big corner, as they had changed it from yesterday,” Beaudry explained. “I went a little hard and crashed and broke my ski — which weirdly had me laughing my entire warm-up.”
Joining the pair in the pursuit will be Tandy, who finished 59th (+2:37.5) with two penalties. Emma Lunder did not start for Canada, as she is recovering from a stomach illness that earned her a trip to the hospital, but Ward said that she should be ready to race in Sunday’s relay.
For the U.S., Susan Dunklee finished 62nd (+2:46.6) and Clare Egan 86th (+4:23.0), each with four penalties.
Although quite a number of competitors shot the same score or worse, it was nearly impossible to qualify for the 60-woman pursuit doing so: the only women to make it with four penalties were Germany’s Denise Herrmann (45th, +2:13.3), Switzerland’s Selina Gasparin (47th, +2:16.0), and Norway’s Hilde Fenne (56th, +2:29.0).
Biathlon Canada’s Emma Lunder (l) and Julia Ransom (r) after finishing 18th and 27th in the women’s 10 k pursuit on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in Annecy, France. (Photo: Glen Crawford)
Two hundred and thirty biathletes, 115 men and 115 women, will earn the right to be called a 2018 Olympian — 10 of whom will be Canadian.
The top-six teams in last season’s International Biathlon Union’s (IBU) final Nation’s Cup ranking can bring a full team of six men and six women to the Games. Canada’s men’s finished ranked 13th while the women ranked 15th, so each squad can bring five athletes.
Biathlon Canada’s criteria for the Games team are heavily weighted toward biathletes who can demonstrate success on the IBU World Cup. The Biathlon Canada High-Performance Working Group (HPWG) developed what it calls Internal Nomination Procedures (INP), which formulated the qualifying guidelines for PyeongChang. The Olympic qualification period, as established by Biathlon Canada, began last season on Nov. 25, 2016, and ends Jan. 22, 2018. Since the criteria began at the onset of last season’s World Cup, it also included results at the 2017 IBU World Championships.
The INP includes Priorities 1, 2, 3.1-3.7 and a Priority 4, a tiered and sequential system of results standards. Athletes meeting Priority 1 will be named to the team first, before those meeting Priority 2, and so on. In the event of a tie when determining rankings in the first three priorities, an athlete’s next-best World Championship or World Cup result during the qualification period will be used to break the tie.
It’s a tight go for all Canadian biathletes: there’s only 10 spots open, and each nation represented in the Olympics can field a maximum of four athletes in any individual biathlon race and a single team in the relay events.
“You can see pretty quickly here that the only way for anyone to get on the team now, and to supplant some of these people, is they need to score results on the World Cup,” Biathlon Canada’s High Performance Director Roddy Ward said on the phone in mid-November.
Ward was referring to this document detailing Olympic criteria standards met by specific athletes since June 1, 2017. Based on results from the first two World Cup weekends, positions have changed a bit when analyzing results through Dec. 9.
No Canadian biathletes have met Priority 1: a single top-eight individual or top-three relay result at a World Cup (WC) or World Championship (WCH).
Moving down one rung on the Olympic qualifying criteria standards and potential Olympic team spots begin to fill up. Prior to this year’s start of the IBU World Cup, Rosanna Crawford had already fulfilled Priority 3.1’s standard: three times in the top 30 on the World Cup or at World Championships (so had Scott Gow and Ransom, who will meet Priority 3.1 even if Ransom does not score another top 16 to meet Priority 2; she has turned in several more top 30’s, too).
Christian Gow (Biathlon Canada Senior National Team) racing to ninth in the men’s modified sprint at Biathlon Canada’s team trials in Canmore, Alberta. With the third-best performance percentage of the trials, Gow was the fourth man named to Canada’s IBU World Cup team for the first trimester of racing, and he has since turned in four top-30 World Cup results. (Photo: Peter Collins/petercollinsphoto.com)
Christian Gow is also currently qualified under the 3.1 standard after placing 21st, 26th, 29th, and 30th in races this season, and shooting consistently well in the process.
By doing so, Smith has definitely met Priority 3.2 benchmarks — two top-40 WC/WCH results — as have Brendan Green and Megan Tandy, both two-time Olympians already.
Green has several top 40’s from last season, and a 33rd-place finish in the pursuit in Hochfilzen. Tandy turned in her top 40’s last season as she did not qualify for the World Cup tour at trials in November, but has since torn it up on the IBU Cup circuit, collecting finishes of ninth, 11th, and 18th over two weekends of racing.
Macx Davies currently meets Priority 3.3 criteria: two top-60 WC/WCH results. Like Tandy, he started the season on the IBU Cup; there, he collected two top-30 results. Megan Bankes partially meets 3.3 after her 60th place on the first World Cup weekend, and is locked in for Priority 3.4 — one top-three World Junior Championship (WJCH) result after winning the individual race at 2017 IBU Junior World Championships.
The objective criteria set forth by Biathlon Canada extends through Priority 3.7 to determine the Olympic team, but as five athletes on both the men’s and women’s sides have already met higher priority criteria, they will not be used.
Julia Ransom (Biathlon Canada) racing to ninth in the women’s 15 k individual at the IBU World Cup opener in Östersund, Sweden. In her first World Cup race of the season, it was Ransom’s career-best result and Biathlon Canada’s best individual result since 2015/2016. (Photo: Biathlon Canada/NordicFocus)
Here’s the summary for the five available spots on the men’s and women’s side. Currently the women’s rankings are as follows: Ransom 1st, Lunder 2nd, Crawford 3rd, Tandy 4th, and Bankes 5th.
On the men’s side, it’s: Scott Gow 1st, Christian Gow 2nd, Smith 3rd, Green 4th, and Davies 5th.
As made clear by Ward earlier, the primary road to qualifying for PyeongChang is on the IBU World Cup. Even before this year’s results, the women already had four skiers meeting criteria from their World Cup results and a junior skier with a podium at Junior Worlds.
Similarly for the men, as of June 1, four skiers had fulfilled minimum criteria, while Smith recovered from illness he also had a 43rd place to partially meet Priority 3.4 — the two times in the top-60 benchmark.
“Just by virtue of this criteria, closed Olympic trials is not going to happen,” Ward said.
For now, 10 spots are open, and those spots are technically spoken for by skiers with World Cup opportunities.
Then there’s that 10-letter word — discretion.
This for sure can be debated, but in the case of making Canada’s Olympic biathlon team in 2018, it appears very clear what the criteria are.
“This is how we use discretion,” Ward began. “Either through current or historical results. That could be 50 results in the past or what is happening right now. For example, historical results would be how we prequalified Julia Ransom and Rosanna for the first tour here on the World Cup. That was based on last year’s results. Current result demonstrate the ability or the potential to meet Biathlon Canada’s objectives for the high-performance program.
“There is data on everything. But you know some form of discretion is necessary. You can never build criteria that is absolutely perfect in every scenario. Completely unrealistic. If you have to build with some notion of fairness and objectivity and also to give yourself a little bit of wiggle room to use discretion in those certain scenarios that pop up every year.”
Scott Gow (Biathlon Canada) after placing 16th in the IBU World Cup men’s sprint last month in Annecy, France. (Photo: Glen Crawford)
Once at the Olympics, as previously mentioned, only four athletes can start for each country in each competition. That means that a fifth team member on both the men’s and women’s side will be watching from the sidelines. And who that is will be formally known: of the 10 Canadian biathletes headed to PyeongChang, the fifth qualifier for the men’s and women’s team will be considered an alternate.
“The top-four ranked athletes in each gender get individual start rights, and the relays are up to coach’s discretion,” Ward stated.
In an email from Ward on Dec. 27, he noted Tandy, Beaudry and Carsen Campbell would get World Cup starts when the IBU World Cup resumes Jan. 4 in Oberhof, Germany.
“Due to their strong results on IBU Cup, they have earned an opportunity on the WC and to score criteria for the Olympics,” Ward wrote. “With a Sprint, Pursuit, Relay in Oberhof this will very likely be the last weekend to change the Olympic ranking. Qualifications end January 15th after Ruhpolding WC.”
Those three biathletes will join Lunder, Random, Smith and both Gow brothers all of whom have been racing on the IBU World Cup.
“This means we will also have a very strong team at IBU 4 with Davies, Green, Crawford, Moser, Bankes,” Ward explained further. “After WC/IBU4 there will very likely be another change up as we shift gears towards Olympic preparation and finalizing our top 4 who will start the Individual races at the Games.”
Three World Cup weekends remain until the PyeongChang qualification period concludes.
Emma Lunder, of Biathlon Canada’s Senior National Team, racing to second in the women’s modified sprint on Friday, Nov. 10, the last day of Biathlon Canada’s team trials. After reaching the podium three times in three races, she was selected to the IBU World Cup team for the first trimester. (Photo: Peter Collins/petercollinsphoto.com)
Note: This article has been updated to include comments and verification from Biathlon Canada High Performance Director Roddy Ward, and explain the modified shooting format used for Friday’s sprint.
***
Almost exactly two weeks before Biathlon Canada sends the rest of its World Cup team to Europe for the first trimeter of International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup racing, the national team held trials this past Tuesday through Friday on snow in Canmore, Alberta. Three sets of races in four days (all sprints*) determined which Canadian men and women will start the season at the World Cup opener in Östersund, Sweden, Nov. 26-Dec. 3.
The national-team trials, also known as the “Tour 1 Selection Trials”, ultimately boil down to what Biathlon Canada calls performance percentages, which measures an athlete’s finishing time in a given race against the average of of the top-three finishers’ times in that race. One bad race isn’t a deal-breaker; they consider the best two out of three. At the end of the trials, an athlete’s top-two results (specifically their performance percentages) are averaged for their overall ranking.
Going into the trials, two women and one man on Biathlon Canada’s senior team had prequalified for the first World Cup tour (World Cups 1, 2 & 3): Rosanna Crawford, Julia Ransom and Scott Gow, according to a national-team program dated Aug. 30, 2017.
According to the same document, two additional women’s spots and three men’s openings remained. Those went to the two highest-ranked women at the Nov. 7-10 trials — Megan Bankes and Emma Lunder, respectively — and the top-three ranked men — Nathan Smith, Brendan Green and Christian Gow, respectively.
Emma Lunder (r) with fellow Biathlon Canada national-team member Rosanna Crawford after the women’s modified sprint at Biathlon Canada’s team trials in Canmore, Alberta. Lunder placed second in that race to secure one of the last two spots on Canada’s IBU World Cup Team, while Crawford, who had been pre-selected for the team, placed sixth in that race. (Photo: Peter Collins/petercollinsphoto.com)
All of the eight aforementioned athletes were nominated to Canada’s 11-member National Senior Team in June. The three remaining biathletes are Sarah Beaudry, who had the third-best overall women’s percentage at trials, Megan Tandy, who ranked fourth and was reportedly coming off an illness after traveling from Germany, and Macx Davies, who ranked seventh in the men’s final percentages after Matthew Hudec of the Biathlon Alberta Training Centre (BATC) in fourth, Carsen Campbell (BATC) in fifth, and Jules Burnotte (Biathlon Estrie) in sixth. (Scott Gow, Crawford and Ransom were not factored into the final percentages.)
The eight athletes that just missed the World Cup team will start the season on the IBU Cup. Four men and four women earned spots on Canada’s IBU Cup team as a direct result of their performances at trials: Hudec, Campbell, Burnotte, and Davies, and Beaudry, Tandy, Nadia Moser (BATC), and Leilani Tam von Burg (BATC).
Biathlon Canada’s High Performance Director Roddy Ward described the recent team selections as “straight-up trials”. Based on its published criteria, Biathlon Canada has the option to use discretion in choosing a fourth man and fourth woman for its IBU Cup team, but instead stuck to results, selecting the fifth- through eighth-ranked athletes at trials.
“We filled the team based on trials,” he explained on the phone on Sunday.
Ward said he was “feeling really good” about how the World Cup team shook out, with four of their top men returning to the circuit. He mentioned that Smith is healthy and back at full strength, and noted Green’s consistency at trials.
“On the women’s side, it’s just really good competition … with places changing every day,” he continued.
Most of the 16 athletes selected to Canada’s World Cup and IBU Cup teams spent much of the offseason together “time-trialling and integrating,” Ward said, which has brought up the level of training as well as made for closer competition among them.
“My hope is we go to the World Cup and do well and go to the IBU Cup and do well,” he said.
The Canmore trials began with sprints on Tuesday, which Beaudry and American Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) won. The only woman to shoot clean, Beaudry topped the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint by 8.9 seconds over Crawford with a finishing time of 21:57.7 minutes. Crawford missed one in each shooting stage (1+1) for second place and Lunder placed third, 21.1 seconds back, after a single standing miss (0+1). Tandy followed in fourth (+1:05.5) with two penalties (1+1), and Joanne Reid was the top American in fifth (+1:13.9) with one miss (0+1).
Christian Gow (Biathlon Canada Senior National Team) racing to ninth in the men’s modified sprint on the last day of Biathlon Canada’s team trials in Canmore, Alberta. With the third-best performance percentage of the trials, Gow was the fourth man named to Canada’s IBU World Cup team for the first trimester of racing. (Photo: Peter Collins/petercollinsphoto.com)
In the men’s 10 k sprint, Bailey also cleaned to beat out Smith by 13.4 seconds with a finishing time of 25:02.5. Smith had to ski one penalty loop after a prone miss (1+0) and Green placed third (+14.5) after two prone penalties (2+0). Scott Gow and his younger brother Christian finished fourth (+29.4) and fifth (+38.8), respectively, and Tim Burke (US Biathlon) was the second American in sixth overall (+1:11.0).
On Thursday, Smith won the second sprint of the week outright with a 26.1-second victory in the men’s 10 k with perfect shooting and a finishing time of 24:25.3. Green once again followed in second with clean shooting as well, and Artem Prima of Ukraine took third (+1:09.3) with two misses (2+0). While the Americans didn’t compete on Day 2 of the trials, Team Ukraine did, accounting for nearly the same amount of competitors (40 in the men’s race, 20 in the women’s race, compared to 40 in the men’s race and 26 in the women’s race two days earlier).
Scott Gow finished fourth in the Day 2 sprint (+1:17.0), followed by Hudec in fifth (+1:29.4).
In the second women’s 7.5 k sprint, a new winner emerged, but second through fourth place were exact repeats from Day 1. Bankes claimed the win in 22:03.5 with clean shooting, while Crawford followed in second, 26 seconds back with two standing penalties (0+2), Lunder placed third (+1:02.8) with two prone misses (2+0), and Tandy was fourth (+1:16.2) with two prone penalties (2+0) as well. Beaudry placed fifth (+2:16.6) with three penalties (2+1).
After sitting out the first two days of trials, Ransom won Friday’s modified sprint (6.8 k for the women) by just a tenth of a second over Lunder. Ransom hit all of her targets and posted the win in 20:20.4, and Lunder was just off her mark in second place after “cleaning” as well. Per the modified format, each athlete could use up to three spare bullets per shooting bout, similar to a modified relay.
“We all know [sprints] are important races; they lead to pursuits they lead to mass starts,” Ward explained. “We want to make sure we’re picking good biathletes, but also favoring on the ski-speed side.”
In addition to giving an athlete more chances on the shooting range, the relay format showed who could excel in those types of races, Ward said.
Julia Ransom (6) racing to the win in the women’s modified sprint on the last day of Biathlon Canada’s team trials on Nov. 10 in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Peter Collins/petercollinsphoto.com)
As a result of the modified-sprint format, the top-five women avoided the penalty loop. Bankes placed third, 6.7 seconds off Ransom’s time. Bankes’s BATC teammate Nadia Moser finished fourth (+8.6), ahead of American Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) in fifth (+18.6). Crawford finished sixth (+48.0) with two penalties (2+0) and Tandy placed seventh (+1:13.9) with one miss (1+0).
In the men’s modified 7.5 k sprint on Friday, Smith emerged as the top Canadian for the third-straight race, winning in 18:42.0 with “clean” shooting. The top-eight men hit all their targets. Green finished second (+11.5) once again, and Scott Gow improved to third (+36.4).
Prima followed in fourth (+41.5), his Ukrainian teammate Sergey Semenov finished fifth (+1:05.9), Campbell and Burnotte tied for sixth (+1:08.2), and Davies placed eighth (+1:20.2). Christian Gow finished ninth (+1:40.9) with one penalty (1+0), Burke was the top American in 10th (+1:47.7), followed by Bailey in 11th (+1:47.9). Both Americans finished without any penalties.
Both the U.S. and Ukrainian teams raced two out of the three days of trials, contributing to the total field size of 45 men and 26 women on the last day. Ward emphasized that those teams’ presence made for “some really good competition”, and added that having Canadian juniors race alongside seniors (same distances, same races) showed them a clear path to reaching the World Cup level.
US Biathlon held the last of its own trials last month and planned to finalized its IBU World Cup team after its Canmore training camp.
For the Canadian World Cup team, Green and the Gow brothers planned to leave Sunday for Sjusjøen, Norway, where they’ll race at Norwegian biathlon trials. According to Ward, Lunder will depart on Thursday for Sjusjøen, where she’ll start her season with the first IBU Cup sprint on Nov. 23 before meeting the rest of the World Cup team in Östersund. Smith, Crawford, Ransom and Bankes planned to leave Canada on Nov. 22.
Most of the IBU Cup team will depart on Dec. 1, while Campbell and Beaudry will start their seasons earlier at the IBU Cup opener Nov. 23-26 in Sjusjøen.
(*Why were all of these trials sprint races? When it comes to individual events, IBU Cup and IBU World Cup venues typically open with sprints to determine which athletes qualify for the remaining races of the week at each stop. For instance, the top 60 in the sprint qualify for the following pursuit race, and approximately the top 30 in the overall World Cup rankings qualify for mass starts.)
Julia Ransom racing to 18th place in the 15 k individual at 2017 World Championships; that result was a career-best, and tied her for the second-best result by any Canadian athlete all season. (Photo: Glen Crawford)
Biathlon Canada has named 11 athletes to its senior national team for 2017-2018. The group is headlined by three athletes who scored World Cup top-20’s last season: Scott Gow, Julia Ransom, and Rosanna Crawford. Also returning is 2015 World Championships silver medalist Nathan Smith, who sat out most of last season recovering from a virus.
The senior team does not distinguish between ‘A’ and ‘B’ squads this year, instead functioning as one group.
“We are one Senior National Team because 1) there is no differences in service or resources to the athletes in Canmore with respect to training this year, and 2) we are one team on this path to the Olympics together, on equal footing,” newly hired High Performance Director Roddy Ward wrote in an email to FasterSkier.
Biathlon Canada saw its funding from Own The Podium cut this season, which means that all of the athletes will be spending more training time in Canmore and less time on the road this summer and fall. (Note: stay tunedfor a follow-up piece on the funding situation in the coming weeks.)
The youngest member of the senior team is Megan Bankes, who received the nod after winning gold in the 12.5 k individual at World Junior Championships.
The national team will also include a ‘Z’ team of up-and-coming athletes transitioning to the senior ranks, a junior national team, and a youth development squad.
Matthias Ahrens continues as head coach, with Ward maintaining his role as the women’s national team coach while also taking on the high performance director duties. Andy Holmwood remains as general manager and Jacqueline Akerman as the athlete and coach development manager.
Senior National Team
Megan Bankes (Calgary, AB)
Sarah Beaudry (Prince George, BC)
Rosanna Crawford (Canmore, AB)
Macx Davies (Canmore, AB)
Christian Gow (Calgary, AB)
Scott Gow (Calgary, AB)
Brendan Green (Hay River, NT)
Emma Lunder (Canmore, AB)
Julia Ransom (Kelowna, BC)
Nathan Smith (Calgary, AB)
Megan Tandy (Prince George, BC)
Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) racing to ninth in the men’s 12.5 k pursuit on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
The North Americans kept the momentum rolling two weeks after the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships, with US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey busting out a second place and Susan Dunklee placing fifth in back-to-back races over the last four days in PyeongChang, South Korea. On Sunday, the Canadians showed they’re rounding back into top form in team events, with its men’s team placing seventh and women’s team taking eighth for season bests in the relays. Here are the most interesting quotes that didn’t make it into the race reports (links below).
On the break after World Championships & the leadup to PyeongChang:
“After Worlds I went home to Canmore and enjoyed five days of R&R with some easy skiing. The ski conditions were very good and it was nice being able to relax in my own place and sleep in my own bed.”
– Scott Gow, Canada
“Rosanna [Crawford] and I traveled to France for five days to visit and train with Anais Bescond, who races for the French team. It was a nice break and was fun to ski and sightsee somewhere new. We also enjoyed some amazing wine and cheese!”
– Brendan Green, Canada
“It was really nice, there was great skiing, 30 kilometer loops in two different areas, we ate a lot of cheese and took part in a night race called ‘Nocturne de sleep’ where you ski 200m and then have to trade off giant underwear to each other in a team sprint style race, over your race suit of course! “
– Rosanna Crawford, Canada
“Over the past 10 or so days since World Champs I took a few days off to kind of rest, recover and just sort of try to step away from that high-intensity environment. Most of the team members went just outside of Ruhpolding [Germany] and we had a pretty relaxing training camp there. I didn’t shoot for the first couple days, and then just tried to get back into my normal routine…. we had pretty good travel from Ruhpolding, and we came here on the early side compared to a lot of other teams and I think that was an advantage.”
– Lowell Bailey, U.S.
“Last week I was home in Germany with my son, the best possible recharge for my heart and soul, but unfortunately my little guy got really sick towards the weekend which resulted in me coming down with a cold as soon as I arrived here in Korea. I simply cannot understand how it is that coming from a week of compromised training, with a cold and jet lag I am finally feeling good! I am definitely not complaining, although I clearly have some figuring out to do post-season.”
– Megan Tandy, Canada
On taking it day by day:
“Each race is a new opportunity and I try and do my best despite how I feel physically or mentally. I will spend time at the end of the season analyzing areas of my training where things went wrong for me. I am no doubt frustrated and disappointed after putting in so much hard work this year, but I am still motivated. There have been some really tough days this season, but I know I can challenge for the podium when I am in my best form and that’s what I will continue to chase next season.”
– Green
On sloppy snow in Sunday’s relay:
“Apparently the average high at this time of year is around 0ºC, so I guess we just ended up having unseasonably warm weather. Definitely not the easiest conditions, but the snow was managed well and late evening races allowed the snow to usually refreeze.”
– Nathan Smith, Canada
“That big puddle in the stadium was the only part of the course that was like that. I avoided it once or twice and went through it once or twice, I don’t remember exactly. I would say it didn’t seem to make too much of a difference for me, it seemed that that section was slow no matter where you went. Our skis were good today and actually went through the really wet stuff pretty easily.”
– Christian Gow, Canada
“The conditions have added to the difficulty both for us racers but also for the wax techs. Overall, the race organizers did a really good job preparing the course give the tough conditions.”
– Paul Schommer, U.S.
“It’s tough to ski when it’s 100% artificial snow and 40 degrees [Fahrenheit]. I was impressed that the snow actually held up for the entire week of racing. I’m hoping they have a deeper base next year, and handle the weather a bit better.”
– Maddie Phaneuf, U.S.
On the PyeongChang range:
“The range can be fairly windy, like tonight during the men’s race, and there isn’t much shelter if it happens to be a windy day, although I’d say it’s been 50/50 so far in terms of wind or no wind.”
– Scott Gow
On the PyeongChang trails:
“The course, in a sprint, has two hills, and my strategy was to push after the second climb, and push the downhills all the way into the stadium… , the two kilometer loop cuts out the second hill, so it’s a lot different from the sprint course. It’s just one giant climb that goes on forever, and then coming back into the range. It’s a couple of different pitches. There are a couple of short, flat downhill sections, but no longer than a couple seconds, and then you hit the really big part of the climb, about halfway through the loop. It’s a monster. Then it’s just downhill with lots of corners.”
– Susan Dunklee, U.S.
“I love this course! Uphills are my strength when I am in good shape and this is one of the hilliest 2.5 kilometer course I have ever raced on.”
– Tandy
“I really like this 2 kilometer loop, it’s hard off the start but you can really make up a lot of time on the top of the course and then the downhill back to the stadium.”
– Crawford
“The courses here are tough, but I like them. I preferred [the pursuit]’s 2.5 k course to the 3.3 k, but I think they are both good and challenging courses. I think that for next training season we will be focusing on getting ready for the climbs here and, with that preparation, I do think this could be a good venue for me.”
– Christian Gow
“We’ve timed how long the extended climb takes. You literally go from the low point to the high point in a single climb. That’s nearly unheard of on the World Cup. So we will be training for those long extended climbs, because you leave the starting gate, and you hit a one-kilometer steep climb, which is actually over the international limit, at times, for the grade… They’ve done a lot of work on the downhills, and improved them a lot. I’ve talked with the technical delegates, and I think they plan to bank some of the turns next year, that aren’t banked now, and that’ll make a difference. It’s a really challenging course.”
– Bailey
“In some ways this course is similar to Kontiolahti, with really steep hills. Historically I’ve done better with those grades instead of gradual 1-skate grinds. So I think if I’m in shape I could do some good performances here next year.”
– Smith
“I think in general our entire team (men’s and women’s) had great results at this course. It makes all of us excited to see what next year brings.”
– Phaneuf
On goals for the rest of the season:
“Because World Champs was a success, I feel like you still have a large part of the season left and I wanted to finish it out as best I can and really focus on these last three World Cups. So I spent the rest of the time [after World Champs] focusing on the races here and preparing of those, and just working on my skiing and shooting just like any other preparation for World Cup.”
– Bailey
“My goals are to maintain the ski shape I am in and bring my shooting back up to a higher level. I’m feeling quite good this week so I think the skiing aspect is definitely possible, and my shooting goal is achievable if I can get into the right head space.”
– Scott Gow
“It’s been nice to see the Olympic venue and test out the trails. I think it was the right decision to come here but I also think it’s the right decision to go home. These last 3 races have been just what I needed to motivate my self for one more season. Of course there is that little voice in the back of my head that’s saying the what if’s of finally skiing well to see what I can do, but there will be lots of opportunities for that next year.”
– Crawford (who is heading home instead of finishing out the World Cup season)
On cracking the top 30:
“Overall I am very happy with today’s result given how my season has been going. I think what made the difference for me today was being able to execute solid shooting in what were challenging conditions. The snow conditions were also quite difficult to race in tonight but I did my best and gave it my all.”
– Green, after the 10 k sprint
“This top 30 was an important part of me qualifying for some funding next year as well as a part of my Olympic qualification. Nothing is guaranteed until the end of the season of course, but squeaking into the top 30 today will open up some opportunities for next season.”
Germany’s Maren Hammerschmidt (left) and Canada’s Julia Ransom fist-bump for a job well done halfway through the 4 x 6 k relay at the IBU World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea, on Sunday. Germany won the race, and Canada ended up eighth.
To nobody’s surprise, Germany came out on top in the women’s World Cup relay in PyeongChang, South Korea, where biathletes are checking out next year’s Olympic venue.
Nadine Horchler, Maren Hammerschmidt, Denise Herrman, and Franziska Hildebrand cruised to 22.8-second win over Norway in the 4 x 6 k event, completing a clean five-for-five sweep of all the relays this season despite resting top star Laura Dahlmeier and relay regular Vanessa Hinz.
Sure, France made a valiant effort to best the Germans, and nearly succeeded, before Celia Aymonier – who had come into the last shooting even with Hildebrand – was stuck with two penalty loops. After that disaster, the French ended up sixth.
But perhaps the biggest surprise was to see Canada constantly in the podium mix through three of four legs of the relay. Canada’s best-ever women’s relay finish, fourth place, came in 2014, and so far this season their results had landed between 10th and 18th place.
The women’s podium of Germany, Norway, and Czech Republic after the IBU World Cup relay in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: IBU/Twitter)
Yet several team members were feeling the best on skis that they had all season, and Rosanna Crawford, Julia Ransom, Megan Tandy, and Emma Lunder combined for just seven spare rounds and no penalty loops, tying them for the best shooting of the day with Sweden.
“It has been a bit disappointing for us this year in relays,” Crawford wrote in an email. “In the first two relays we only used four and three spares total for the team, but we were really missing the ski speed. So it’s nice to have things come around for the final relay.”
Crawford started out by using four spare rounds, more than half the team’s total, and yet found herself constantly at the front of the race. She left the standing stage in tenth, and tagged off even with Anais Chevalier of France in first place.
“Even though I was quite disappointed with my shooting and needing four spares, it felt amazing to be able to ask my body to go faster and for it to respond,” Crawford wrote. “My last loop was really great… I just keep chasing each woman down, until it was just me and France!”
Crawford actually had the fastest ski time of all scramble-leg athletes. With that as a start, Ransom took the tag and cleaned both stages, although she said that doing so was harder than it looked.
“Today I had to work very hard for every standing shot,” she explained in an email. “It definitely wasn’t an easy shooting day for me (regaining my confidence after the relay at World Campionships). However, I was so happy to pull it together and hit them all. It’s a confidence-booster for me for the next two weekends of racing.”
Ransom’s confidence was also boosted by the previous day’s pursuit, where she had clocked the 25th-fastest ski time. For several loops, she skied with Germany’s Hammerschmidt and France’s Anais Bescond.
“Yesterday’s pursuit ski speed proved to me that I can really trust my fitness and perhaps push for faster times,” she wrote. “Skiing today with Anais and Maren felt comfortable! I felt like I belonged there.”
On the final loop of their relay leg, Hammerschmidt put the hammer down and left Bescond and Ransom behind. But Ransom still tagged off in third, 17 seconds behind Hammerschmidt and 2.4 seconds behind Bescond.
Tandy cleaned prone, regaining second place as other teams struggled on the range.
“When I left prone in second position I was pretty excited, but also a little bit surprised and relieved that I was still up there,” she wrote. “I didn’t feel too nervous, I mostly felt determined and excited. I was just reminding myself of my own game plan: how I wanted to ski, what I wanted to focus on during shooting.”
Tandy then used a spare in standing; she tagged off in fourth, 36 seconds behind the leaders. While she had felt good in the pursuit, her legs lost her a few places on the trails in the relay.
“I felt much more tired today than yesterday and it was a very tough fight out there,” she wrote in an email. “My poor legs were just done…I guess three races with a cold that to you! But I was composed on the shooting range, handled the wind well and gave it my best effort. Of course I wish I hadn’t missed my last standing shot, but I can be satisfied with one spare.”
That left it to Lunder to either win or lose sight of a podium position. For Lunder, the newest member of Canada’s World Cup team, it was a new experience.
“I’ve definitely never been tagged in a position like this in a World Cup relay before,” she wrote in an email. “Although it was a bit nerve-wracking to continue seeing Canada in the top three, I decided to just see what I could do today and not worry about any result or placing. I was pretty happy with how I handled things – I was our World Champs anchor as well, so that was a good practice run for today.”
Like Tandy, Lunder had been feeling under the weather, and got sick after World Championships. The top three slipped away, more because of skiing than shooting. Lunder used two spares in prone, but then quickly cleaned standing. She simply couldn’t hold her position on the trails.
“My skiing has felt quite weak this week, but even with slow skiing I’m happy to have brought my shooting up to a higher level,” she wrote. “I definitely felt a bit shaky in prone, but after hitting my two spares I was fairly confident in the rest of the race. I’ve been so happy with my consistent standing this year, and knew if I just focused on my cues it would be a good shooting bout, which it was.”
The team was thrilled to hang on to an eighth-place finish (+ 1:34.0) at the end of the day, even if some members wished they had skied or shot better.
“I am really proud of our women’s team right now,” Crawford wrote. “Julia did an incredible job skiing with Anais [Bescond] and cleaning both stages, Megan was also clutch on the range and holding her own on the skis, and Emma has been so amazing at standing this year that I knew she would be able to keep up in the top eight.”
“The relay was a good indicator of our potential,” Ransom agreed. “We all fought hard and put together a great performance. I was obviously thrilled to be tagged off right at the front! It’s very motivating to be going head to head with the top teams.”
Susan Dunklee collected the fastest ski time of all women on the second leg of the 4 x 6 k relay in PyeongChang. (Photo: US Biathlon Association/NordicFocus.com)
The United States had immediately gotten a tough start, with leadoff racer Clare Egan skiing a penalty loop in standing; she tagged off to Susan Dunklee in 19th place. Dunklee had collected fifth-place finishes in both the sprint and pursuit this week and skied the fastest of all second-leg skiers in the relay, but was still able to make up only 5.5 seconds on Hammerschmidt and move the team to 14th.
Joanne Reid, the third American, also used two spare rounds, moving the team up another three places to 11th. Finally, Maddie Phaneuf used three spares in standing and the Americans finished 14th (+3:08.3).
“Today’s relay was mediocre for me,” Phaneuf wrote in an email. “I felt okay on the skis but still not great. I was really happy with my prone, I took some wind clicks coming in and was pleased that it worked. Our team was the only team that cleaned all of the prone stages from the clip [without spares]! So that was exciting. I was pretty bummed with my standing, missing three from the clip, but was happy with how I handled the pressure to hit them with my spare rounds. I still can’t remember exactly what happened, I do recall it being a bit gustier when I was shooting. I felt like I was making progress on my standing during training and the Sprint race, but today I just wasn’t focused I guess.”
The women were not particularly satisfied with the result, but knew that they could do better.
“There are a lot of fighting hearts on this team,” Reid said in a USBA press release. “We’re not always the team with the best shooting, but I think every one of us has enough love for our teammates that we choose to fight for them, and for our staff that have put so much work into making our race successful… we are aware of every piece we have to work on, and every one of us is dedicated to the process of learning and training and practicing until we can make it to the top. One team, one goal. See you in 2018, PyeongChang, and we’ll be stronger then.”
Canada’s Alex Harvey (3) celebrates his win in the men’s 50 k freestyle mass start, his first individual gold medal at a World Championships, on Sunday at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. He beat Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov (l) by 0.6 seconds while Norway’s Sjur Røthe (9) can be seen coming in for sixth place, behind (not pictured) Finland’s Matti Heikkinen, Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave and Norway’s Martin Johnsurd Sundby, respectively. (Photo: NBC Sports screenshot)
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Men’s 50 k freestyle mass start
After a week of missing out on the medals at 2017 Nordic World Championships, Canada’s Alex Harvey, a four-time World Championships medalist from 2011, 2013 and 2015, achieved his first individual gold medal in the final race of this year’s World Championships in Lahti, Finland.
Harvey, 28, won the men’s 50-kilometer freestyle mass start in a drag race to the finish. Entering the final descent into the stadium with Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov, Harvey rode his fast skis past both of them then had the most finishing kick in the final straightaway for a 0.6-second victory. He finished in 1:46.28.9 hours, while Ustiugov followed him across the line in second and Finland’s Matti Heikkinen from behind for third (+1.4), after passing Sundby around the outside of the last corner.
Canada’s Alex Harvey (c) celebrates gold in the men’s 50 k freestyle mass start on Sunday at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland, with Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov (l) and Finland’ Matti Heikkinen (r) joining him on the podium in second and third, respectively. (Photo: Cross Country Canada/Twitter)
Sundby appeared to miss a pole plant soon after Heikkinen passed him and let off the pace a few meters before the finish. That’s where Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave continued to accelerate and took fourth place, 2.9 seconds behind Harvey and 0.1 seconds ahead of Sundby in fifth. Norway’s Sjur Røthe followed another 0.4 seconds back in sixth, Switzerland’s Dario Cologna was seventh (+8.9), Norway’s Petter Northug eighth (+12.3), France’s Maurice Manificat ninth (+13.4), and Norway’s Hans Christer Holund 10th (+14.3).
“I had really good skis,” Harvey said in a post-race interview with FIS. “I knew if I came into the corner in second place, that was the optimal position. So I was able to fight hard and hit that last corner in second and slingshot by Martin along the flat and then that was good after that.”
“This is the best race of my life, for sure,” he added. “So I’m really happy.”
Tad Elliott (Ski Club Vail) led the Americans in 27th (+3:16.8). Noah Hoffman (U.S. Ski Team) finished 50th (+8:53.1) and Kyle Bratrud (CXC Team) did not finish.
Canada started four men, with Devon Kershaw finishing 38th (+5:45.5), Graeme Killick 43rd (+7:04), and Knute Johnsgaard in 55th (+12:03.3).
For Harvey, the medal is his fifth at three World Championships and his first individual gold after winning the classic team sprint with Kershaw in 2011.
IBU World Cup (PyeongChang, South Korea): Men’s and women’s relays
Between the men’s and women’s relays on Sunday at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea, Canada had two teams in the top eighth, with its men’s team finishing seventh in the 4 x 7.5 k and women’s team eighth in the 4 x 6 k. Behind them, the U.S. men finished 10th and U.S. women 14th.
France won the men’s relay by 33.8 seconds over Austria, using a total of 10 spare rounds but avoiding the penalty lap. Martin Fourcade anchored France to the win in 1:12:09.5 hours, after Jean-Guillaume Béatrix initially tagged them in first, his older brother Simon Fourcade raced them into second with near-perfect shooting (using just one spare to clean), and Simon Desthieux picked off one more place to give Fourcade a 16-second lead for the final leg.
Austria achieved second place with Lorenz Wäger, Simon Eder, Julian Eberhard, and Dominik Landertinger combining for zero penalties and nine spares.
Norway finished third (+45.4) with Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, Ole Einar Bjørndalen, Vegard Gjermundshaug, and Henrik L’Abée-Lund. They had one penalty on Gjermundshaug’s third leg, and used a total of eight spares.
Canada’s Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Nathan Smith, and Brendan Green finished seventh (+3:03.1) with zero penalties and nine spares. After Christian tagged his older brother Scott in ninth, Scott raced them into sixth place before Smith slipped four places to 10th at the final exchange. On the final leg, Green raced them into seventh, requiring two spares to clean.
The Americans finished about nine seconds later in 10th (+3:12.8) with Lowell Bailey, Leif Nordgren, Paul Schommer, and Sean Doherty combining for zero penalties and nine spares, just like Canada. Bailey had originally put them in second at the first exchange, Nordgren dropped to seventh, then Schommer to 13th, before Doherty finally brought them back to 10th out of 24 teams.
In the women’s relay, Germany pulled off a 22.8-second win over Norway, with one penalty and eight spares. Nadine Horchler put Germany in third at the first exchange, then Maren Hammerschmidt raced them into first by the race’s halfway point. From there, Denise Herrmann, a former cross-country World Cup regular, had to ski a penalty lap and tagged off in second, 13.5 seconds out of first. With teammate Laura Dahlmeier sitting out the relay, Franziska Hildebrand anchored Germany to the win in 1:07:35.6 after she used just one spare to clean.
Norway placed second with Kaia Wøien Nicolaisen, Hilde Fenne, Tiril Eckhoff, and Marte Olsbu accumulating one penalty and 11 spares. Olsbu beat out the Czech Republic’s Gabriela Koukalová by one-tenth of a second at the finish, as the Czechs placed for third (+22.9), with Jessica Jislová, Eva Puskarčíková, Lucie Charvátová, and Koukalová (with a total of one penalty and nine spares).
Canada took eighth (+1:34) with Rosanna Crawford, Julia Ransom, Megan Tandy, and Emma Lunder. Crawford tagged in second at the first exchange, Ransom slipped one place to third, Tandy lost another place to tag in fourth, and Lunder ultimately anchored them to eighth.
The U.S., with Clare Egan, Susan Dunklee, Joanne Reid, and Maddie Phaneuf, finished 14th (+3:08.3) with one penalty and 10 spares. After Egan had a penalty on the first leg, Dunklee skied the fastest second leg to move the team from 19th to 14th, then Reid put them in 11th by the final exchange. Twenty-one teams competed in the women’s race.
Ski Classics 90 k Vasaloppet (Sälen to Mora, Sweden)
John Kristian Dahl (r) of Team United Bakeries outlunges Ski Classics sprint leader Andreas Nygaard (r) of Team Santander for the win in Sunday’s 90 k Vasaloppet in Mora, Sweden. (Photo: Visma Ski Classics)
[UPDATED] In Sunday’s 93rd annual 90-kilometer Vasaloppet from Sälen to Mora, Sweden, the ninth event of the Ski Classics series, John Kristian Dahl (Team United Bakeries) outlasted Andreas Nygaard (Team Santander) by one-tenth of a second for the win in 3:57:18.1 hours. The race came down to a five-way fight for first, with Stian Hoelgaard (Team Leaseplan) finishing 0.6 seconds back in third. The top 15 men were all within 21.7 seconds of the podium, and Brian McKeever, a member of Canada’s Para Nordic Ski Team, placed 20th (+2:31.1).
“It has been a fight all day,” Dahl said, according to a Ski Classics press release. Three days ago, he had been unsure about starting the Vasaloppet following a back injury. “I was tired already after 30 k and had to let go of the lead group, but I fought my way back taking it step by step and hill by hill.”
In the women’s race, Britta Johansson Norgren (Lager 157 Ski Team) broke away from the field to win by 1:37.9 minutes in 4:19.43.4.
Astrid Øyre Slind (Team United Bakeries) finished second, and Sara Lindborg (Team Serneke) placed third, 9 minutes and 4.2 seconds behind Norgren. Kateřina Smutná (Team Santander) dropped out of the race about halfway through.
“I am very tired but also so happy to win today,” Norgren said, according to the press release. “It felt pretty easy until Oxberg [Sweden] with 30 k to go, but then it got really tough and I had to fight all the way to the finish.”
It was Norgren’s first Vasaloppet win after placing second the last three years. She increased her lead in the overall Ski Classics to 215 points over Smutná, while Tord Asle Gjerdalen continues to lead the men’s overall standings ahead of his Santander teammate Nygaard, who is 349 points behind in second place. Gjerdalen did not race Sunday’s Vasaloppet.
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Weronika Nowakowska is calling it a career. The 31-year-old picked up two World Cup podiums in the 2015 season before taking a break from competition to give birth to twins. She made a successful return this season and represented Poland in PyeongChang, with a top finish of 21st in the individual. She also had sixth- and fourth-place finishes on the World Cup this year and contributed to four different top-eight relay efforts, including one at the Olympics.
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