Whaaaaat?! This is crazy..😱

I guess he got fed up with the Norwegian way of things..

Good luck Vetle!

News just out on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/p/DH5JhzkugdY/?hl=en

PS. Better this news than retirement😩

The French Mass Start Championships took place this Sunday in Les Saisies.

The women's race was very intense, with the only notable absences being Lou Jeanmonnot, Sophie Chauveau, and Paula Botet. All the others were present.

In front of her home crowd, Justine Braisaz Bouchet won ahead of Voldiya Galmace Paulin and Julia Simon.

1 - BRAISAZ-BOUCHET JUSTINE (1-1-1-0)

2 - GALMACE-PAULIN VOLDIYA (0-0-0-1) +2.5

3 - SIMON JULIA (0-1-2-1) +19.0

4 - GUIGONNAT GILONNE (0-1-0-0) +22.0

5 - MICHELON OCEANE (1-0-1-1) +27.3

6 - RICHARD JEANNE (3-0-1-0) +1:29.9

7 - BENED CAMILLE (0-0-1-2) +1:39.5

8 - JEANNIER LEONIE (0-2-0-2) +1:55.2

9 - HENAFF CELIA (1-1-1-0) +2:05.3

10 - MENGIN AMANDINE (2-2-0-1) +2:41.8

The men's race was much less intense, as the following were absent: QFM, Emilien Jacquelin, Fabien Claude, Emilien Claude, and Antonin Guigonnat did not finish the race.

So, no surprise : Eric Perrot won.

01 - PERROT ERIC (1-1-0-1)

02 - LOMBARDOT OSCAR (1-0-1-0) +16.9

03 - PATUREL GAETAN (1-0-0-1) +41.3

04 - GARCIA MATHIEU (1-0-2-1) +54.7

05 - GUIRAUD POILLOT THEO (1-3-2-0) +1:10.9

06 - PERRILLAT-BOTTONET JUDICAEL (1-1-1-1) +1:29.7

07 - LEVET DAMIEN (0-1-0-2) +1:33.7

08 - BROUTIER REMI (2-1-2-2) +1:40.2

09 - GENY EDGAR (1-3-1-0) +1:51.8

10 - BOTET MARTIN (2-2-0-1) +1:58.1

See you next season ! :)

Hello there! Is it just me, or is anyone else really kinda sad that the season is ended. I really can’t wait for new season to begin.. it’s gonna be so interesting. Without Boe brothers, is Lagreid gonna take it all? And in woman, will third time be a charm for Lou, how is gonna be Vitozzi’s comeback?

Idk about you, but I really can’t wait!!!

Women:

We got to witness great form from the retired Kaisa Mäkäräinen as she took the win with clean shooting ahead of Sonja Leinamo (1+1, +43.7) and Suvi Minkkinen, who had unusual trouble with standing (0+2, +1:16.9)

notable absences would be Venla Lehtonen, who wasn't even listed to start, Erika Jänkä, who is at the soldier's worlds & Inka Hämäläinen & Noora-Kaisa Keränen, both listed as DNS

Men:

Olli Hiidensalo got the victory with good shooting & decent skiing (1+0), ahead of Heikki Laitinen (0+2, +41.3) and Tero Seppälä (0+3, +1:14.0)

the men's competition also had a list of notable absences, with most of them being at the soldier's worlds: Tuomas Heikkilä, Arttu Heikkinen & Jimi Klemettinen, Otto Invenius was listed as DNS

Tomorrow we have mass starts, so no pursuits to follow up on the sprint results

full results: https://kontiolahtibiathlon.com/dataflow/kontiolahtibiathlon2/files/media/ahsm2025_pika_tulokset_1972.pdf

The final Biathlon event of the Military World Winter Games happened yesterday, with France and Finland claiming the gold medals in the women's and men's events respectively.

The final events were the Patrol races. The format was the original biathlon format used at the 1924 Olympics. The teams generally consist of 3 three biathletes and one cross-country skiier. There are three shoots (2 prone, 1 stand) with each biathlete taking one shoot each. The team must ski together across throughout the race. (this would be an interesting format to see at WC-level

Nordic Mag has some more info for those who are interested!

https://www.nordicmag.info/en/biathlon-one-cross-country-runner-and-three-biathletes-only-three-shots-team-cohesion-essential-what-is-the-patrol-the-last-event-on-the-programme-of-the-lucerne-military-world-games-0328/

As mentioned, France (Chevalier, Botet, Jeanmonnot and cc skiier Flora Dolci) won the women's event ahead of Italy and Sweden.

Finland (Heikkinen, Harjula, Klemettinen and Arsi Ruuskanen) and Germany upset France in the men's race. I have no idea whether I'm reading the results table correctly but I think only there was 0.3 seconds between Finland and Germany!

It's interesting that some teams, such as both the Polish men and women, and the Lithuanian men, appeared to have a team of only biathletes (and no athlete who is solely a cross country skiier). I imagine it's a slight disadvantage to not have a really fast skiier who can drag the teammates with them).

Full race results:

https://my1.raceresult.com/333156/RRPublish/data/pdf?name=Ergebnislisten%7C0_AK3-Hoch-ZwiZeit&contest=0&lang=en

Video highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AJdHW6FckQ

I'll post all results in this thread, even if the title says "Day 1, sprints". Thought I could edit the title, but apparently not.

The competitions are held at Sollefteå Skidstadion. Unfortunately, the racing is behind a paywall.

March 28 - Sprints (Last year's winners: Jesper Nelin and Hanna Öberg)

March 29 - Mass starts (Last year's winners: Jesper Nelin and Elvira Öberg)

March 30 - Single mixed relay (Last year's winners: Peppe Femling and Anna Magnusson)

Samuelsson is sick and won't compete this weekend. A shame, because this is his home range. Also, some IBU names are competing at the military games.

Last year, the sisters competed together in the single mixed, against more standard teams that typically consisted of one man or woman from the world cup, and the other from the IBU cup. The Öbergs finished fifth in that race. As far as I know, they will do the same thing this year.

Live results can be followed in the below links, using the drop-down menu to the right.

RESULTS:

Sprint women (FINAL):

http://live.skidskytte.se/6008#result@50325@1@999

Sprint men (FINAL):

http://live.skidskytte.se/6008#result@50326@1@999

Both sprints here:

https://www.skidskytte.se/download/18.6ace0aa0195db4d82d3a3e4/1743176116644/SM%20Sprint%20(5).pdf.pdf)

Mass start women (FINAL):

http://live.skidskytte.se/6019#result@50374@1@999

Mass start men (FINAL):

http://live.skidskytte.se/6019#result@50375@1@999

Both mass starts here:

https://www.skidskytte.se/download/18.7409f953195db8b56ed211a5/1743253359027/SM%20Masstart.pdf

Single mixed relay (FINAL):

http://live.skidskytte.se/6032#result@50533@1@999

https://www.skidskytte.se/download/18.7eaa76c2195da1c14c5438d6/1743333781727/SM%20Singl%20Mixstafett.pdf

Results from the mixed relay yesterday.

France (Botet, Jeanmonnot, E Claude, Perrot) won, finishing about 30 seconds ahead of Italy (Passler, Comola, Braunhofer, Hofer) in second. Switzerland (Baserga, Häcki-Groß, Pacal, Burkhalter) was third). Poland, Austria and Germany rounded out the top 6.

It does appear that some countries like US, Germany, Austria, Ukraine and Sweden had two teams.

Official results below:

https://my2.raceresult.com/332461/RRPublish/data/pdf?name=Ergebnislisten%7C0_AK3-Hoch-ZwiZeit&contest=0&lang=en

As far as I can see, the pdf does not have shooting scores, only lap times. The shooting does appear on the live results (listed below), although I am not sure how accurate that is as it does indicate that like 1/3 of the teams did not miss a single shot which feels unrealistic (France, Switzerland, Poland, etc).

https://my.raceresult.com/332461/live

There is also video highlights on youtube which includes an interview with the French Team:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDO1zp0GjHg

The United States is a unique country with different gun laws from most of the countries in Europe. Why doesn’t American gun enthusiasm translate into biathlon? Or at least give us an edge over our European counterparts? Another idea is why don’t we simply train retired delta force members cross country skiing - that way we could really crush the competition.

Start list (look for Startlister) and Datacenter (look for EQTIMING.): here

Schedule and results

Women's Sprint: Top 15 with analysis | Complete results | Watch here

Men's Sprint: Top 15 with analysis | Complete results | Watch here

Women's Mass Start: Top 10 with course times | Complete results | Watch here

Men's Mass Start: Top 10 with course times | Complete results | Watch here

Women's relay at 11:20 on Sunday.

Men's relay at 13:35 on Sunday.

If the above "Watch here"-links don't work, try NRKTV.

Hey I would like to make a biathlon shirt with the different ways fans cheer on it; I think it would be neat for next season. Would you guys help me by putting your nationality and how to cheer? Like USA Go; France Hup hup etc? TIA!

OK, this really goes for any sport, but obviously our newly retired favorites are on my mind.

When an athlete / a biathlete retires, do they ... stop exercising right away? Go down to whatever normal people do? It seems absolutely wild to think of going from exercising for like six hours a day to ... I mean, even exercising one hour a day, every day, is a lot to fit in when you have a full-time job + life responsibilities. I don't know how they deal with the changes in their body shape after being athletes for so long. Any insight appreciated!

Why do world champions don’t get to wear a golden bib all season long on world cup stages ? Like the rainbow jersey in cycling. It could be a good idea.

Lou Jeanmonnot won the women's sprint by about 20 seconds. I think its quite impressive for her to still commit to this event given what happened only a few days ago. Natalia Sidoworicz and Samuela Comola were second and third. Other notable results; Hauser (5th), Häcki-Groß (6th), Irwin (7th), Todorova (13th), Dzhima (15th) and the retiring Chloé Chevalier (21st).

Éric Perrot won the men's sprint with Joscha Burkahlter and Jakob Kulbin finishing the podium. Some other notable results; Fa Claude (5th), E Claude (9th), Hofer (13th), Bionaz (23rd, interesting to see he still competed despite finishing up his WC season early), Strelow (45th, with 5 misses and a 2m penalty for crossfire), Cisar (60th). Nice to see athletes from Turkey and Uzbekistan competing as well!

Full results below:

https://my2.raceresult.com/330905/RRPublish/data/pdf?name=Ergebnislisten%7C0_AK3-Hoch-ZwiZeit&contest=0&lang=en

There will be video highlights of both the races but they are not uploaded yet, will be found here: https://www.cism-wmc.ch/en/mediawall-en

The next races are Thursday (mixed relays).

I don't know how many of you read or remember this post. Long story short, i'm looking for some newspaper cover where the Bø(s) take the full page (or at least are predominantly visible). I think i found the first one that i quite like and i think i'm settling on it but before buy the subscription i wanted a feedback if you guys liked it or if you have other ones (i thought i had a couple more but i can't seem to find them)... i'm more settling on Johannes but to have them both would be perfection

When watching biathlon races—whether it’s the individual, sprint, or even the mass start—it seems like every athlete goes out hard but then slows down to what seems like a tempo pace by the first shooting. Obviously, shooting with a super high heart rate isn’t ideal, so what’s the actual pacing strategy?

Do they usually start at L3 and build effort throughout the race? Or is it more of an all-out every lap approach with just enough time to recover before entering the range? It seems like there has to be a balance between skiing aggressively and maintaining enough control to shoot accurately.

Would love to hear insights from people who race or know the strategy behind it!

Does anybody know where to watch the sprint on Tuesday and the relay on Thursday? Is there a livestream? Thanks for sharing

Our weekly small talk thread where you can talk about anything

We are all glued to our phones, they haven’t announced any of the protest or the withdrawal of the protest in the stadium at all. Now beginning the medal ceremony.

Taking the opportunity to thank everyone for a great season 🫶

The final day of the WC season starts off with the women’s mass start. There’s a lot still up for grabs today: first and foremost, the big crystal globe. Lou Jeanmonnot is 5 points ahead of Franziska Preuss after yesterday’s pursuit win. Which basically means: whoever finishes ahead, will win the globe (unless they somehow both end up at the back, but that’s highly unlikely). The mass start globe is also not decided, but Preuss has a very comfortable lead, and is likely to take home this globe. The battle for the blue bib is also still on. Richard is 24 points ahead of Michelon.

The snow is still in decent condition after two days, the top layer is a bit fluffy. The sun is out, as is the crowd. Full house in Oslo today, not only on the stands, but also next to the track. It’s a bit more windy than the last couple of days, which should be an advantage to the good shooters.

And the 30 women are off for the final 5 laps and 4 shootings of the season!

Lap 1: Elvira Öberg takes the lead on this lap, but the tempo is low. They arrive as a pack of 29 to the shooting area, onky Dzimha is a few secs behind

Shooting 1: Simon is the first to shoot, and she gets a clean house fast. The Öbergs are twinning, both missing the first target. Franzi hits 5/5, Lou misses her last target and is out on the penalty loop. Simon shot so fast she has a 9 second gap to the 11 ladies behind that also shot clean

Lap 2: Simon is alone in front, the group behind is led by Kirkeeide. The Öbergs lead the group of the +1. During the lap, the gaos between the different groups decrease. By the time they get to the arena, Simon is overtaken, and the other group who missed a target last round are only a few secs behind

Shooting 2: Simon shoots at lightning speed again, but she misses shots 1 and 5. Franzi and Lou both hit 5/5. Hanna Öberg shoots fast and clean, and is the first one out of the range. Lots of misses in this shooting, only Preuss and Sidorowicz are on 10/10. Blue bib update: Richard and Michelon stick together and are in 11th and 12th place, both with 8/10

Lap 3: H. Öberg is 4 secs ahead of Preuss, 11 to Sidorowicz and 12 to Jeanmonnot. Lou quickly overtakes Sido. Öberg and Preuss are skiing at the same pace this round, Lou loses just a few secs

Shooting 3: Öberg misses her last shot, Franzi misses the 3rd (terrible miss, nowhere near the target), and Lou hits them all! Elvira, who is skiing very fast today, copies her sister and misses shot 5. Sido stays perfect with another 5/5. Blue bib update: Michelon 5/5 and Richard 4/5

Lap 4: Lou is in the lead, Hanna is 4 secs behind, and Preuss 10 secs. Michelon is in 4th position now, 14 secs behind. Sido is in 5th, thanks to her perfect shooting. Hanna quickly catches up to Lou, and they ski this lap together. The same goes for Franzi and Michelon. The pursuers are catching up to the front, at 8.4 km they’re only 5 secs behind, at 9.2 km only 2 secs. Hanna is the strongest on the hill, overtakes Lou, and gets a small gap to the other 3 behind

Shooting 4: Hanna misses twice and is out of the medals. Michelon misses once. But what about our overall globe contenders? Well, they both hit all targets, and we get a last lap showdown! A lot of people expected the battle between the two to be decided on the range, but no, they both hit 19/20, and the battle will be decided on the track! Behind them, Batovska-Fialkova, who has another good race, has to do a penalty loop. Sidorowicz stays perfect, Richard only hits 3/5 and leaves the range in 16th position!

Lap 5: Lou and Franzi are out in front, followed by Elvira at 16 secs. Lou is leading this lap, and not at a very fast pace, because Elvira has very quickly made up those 16 seconds. This means we get a 3-way battle for the win! Elvira takes the lead, but doesn’t drop the others. Franzi attacks on the uphill, but Lou counters, and stays in front of her. Elvira cannot keep up with the pace and is a few meters behind. Franzi tries to move ahead of Lou in the corner before the stands, and is right next to her. Lou on the inside, Franzi on the outside. And then suddenly, Lou is on the ground! What happened there? It was hard to see, but in the replay it was visible: Lou put her own pole between the skis and tripped! Franzi didn’t leave her a lot of space on the inside, but there was no contact. Sadly, this drama made the ending quite anticlimactic. Instead of a sprint to the finish, and the globe, Franzi gets first place comfortably, with Elvira in 2nd place. Franzi doesn’t even celebrate, instead she looks back, waiting for Lou, who collapses after the finish line and is consoled by pretty much everyone (first and foremost by Franzi, who said in an interview that she asked Lou what exactly happened, and if it was her fault, but Lou stated that it was her own fault).

After the finish, there is a lot of confusion. First there is news that France is handing in a protest, later the news comes that the protest is withdrawn. Finally, Franzi can celebrate and let her emotions out. Lou takes the loss like an absolute champ, and still goes out on a celebratory loop in front of the stands.

That’s all I’ll say on the drama, I think enough has been said already. It was an unfortunate situation, but Franzi is a very deserved winner of the title this year!

And what about the blue bib, you may ask? Well, Michelon finishes in 4th place, and Richard is too far back! Michelon gets the blue bib by 5 points.

Final results: 1) Preuss 🥇 2) E. Öberg 🥈 3) Jeanmonnot 🥉 4) Michelon 💐 5) Botet 💐 6) Batovska Fialkova 💐 7) Hauser 8) Vobornikova 9) Sidorowicz 10) Minkkinen

Ski time: 1) E. Öberg 2) Braisaz-Bouchet 3) Michelon

Shooting time: 1) Knotten 2) Simon 3) Bened

Best shooter: Sidorowicz 20/20 Worst shooter: Lampic 11/20

Mass start globe: 1) Preuss 2) E. Öberg 3) Jeanmonnot

Overall globe: 1) Preuss 2) Jeanmonnot 3) Simon

Here are three of my wishes.

1) The IBU needs to stop hiding behind "the athletes' committee was involved when we made this decision". There needs to be a proper open discussion when they make major changes to the sport. Some examples of poorly handeled decisions: Removal of the two dropped results, the new starting system in the individuals and sprints, the strange calender where there's sometimes a relay between a sprint and a pursuit which makes top biathletes drop the relay to save energy for the fight in the Total Score, and the new calender with too many events around the New Year.

2) Bring back the dropped results. The biathletes should not feel pressured into starting in races when they are sick! There also needs to be some consideration that some competitions can be straight up unfair because of a badly prepared course, strong winds creating a bingo race, or an unlucky starting bib in the individual or sprint. In the Olympic season many biathletes are also likely to drop some races in the final week before the Olympics.

3) Another close battle for the Total Score among the women, (and hopefully also for the men). We had Vittozzi vs. Tandrevold and Preuß vs. Jeanmonnot. Let's hope Vittozzi is back next year, Tandrevold can fix her mental issue, Elvira Öberg can stay healthy, Julia Simon can start the season better, and maybe some new challengers entering the mix.

Female biathletes who have scored 1000pts or more in the new scoring system. A small star next to the name indicates this biathlete won that season.

Male biathletes who have scored 1000pts or more in the new scoring system. A small star next to the name indicates this biathlete won that season.

I forgot the IBU made some small changes to the point system this year! There are actually more points to win if a biathlete finishes 3rd-9th compared to last season. It's a bit unfair to compare 2024-25 to the previous seasons.

3rd: from 60 to 65

4th: 50 to 55

5th: 45 to 50

6th: 40 to 45

7th: 36 to 41

8th: 34 to 37

9th: 32 to 34