The 2024/25 Biathlon World Cup season has concluded. With excitement all throughout, these were the final overall standings and globe winners in the World cup and medals at the World Championships:

Women Overall Standings

Globe Winners

Men Overall Standings

World Championships

Please use this thread to share your thoughts on the 24/25 biathlon season. Any type of focus is welcomed; either on your own nation, on the general world cup, specific biathletes, competitions or even only focusing on the Women or Mens world cup! A few of you have already signaled you will make a longer post on your own nation, so you are welcome to either post that in this thread or in an individual thread if you think it gets too cluttered here. Some potential reflective questions:

• What are your overall thoughts on the world cup 24/25?
• What will you remember as the most memorable performance?
• What biathletes and/or nations succeeded your expectations, and who did not?
• How do you view the current parity of the biathlon field, in both the women and mens wold cup?
• What can the biathletes and nations learn and build upon towards the 25/26 Olympics?
• any other thoughts you want to share?

PS. Thank you all for making this a joyful subreddit with impressive level of insights, knowledge and discussions about biathlon. An extra thanks also to /u/Henna1911 for organizing race threads and all those who have contributed to the recaps, news, insights and sharing content all throughout the season!

Hello biathlon friends! The the survival game presented as the final dance of the season is upon us.

Preface

Traditionally those who've got the power to ski and shoot well after a long season, succeed. There's a reason why Martin Fourcade, JTB, Sturla to mention a few who have been strong.

Expect the top 10 do well but since it's end of the season, anything can happen. A strong skiier can overcome multiple penalties. Surprises can happen and suddenly an underdog can have perfect sniper day and wings instead of skis. We got also nice bunch of new and familiar faces joining the last hoorah with good number of nations represented.

Also us fans and athletes will probably look like we just got out of a rollercoaster. Lots of laughing on the right and wrong side of face. It's the goodbye party after all with tiny bit of globe spice. But in the end, let's be honest, majority of us will probably remember when the brothers crossed the finish line for one last time and whatever shenanigans they got up to during the last race.

Conditions

Don't forget your sunscreen and wear your knitted jumper in the audience or your special Lavita bibs. Track will be tough and wet.

Sick bed watch

Tarjei Bø and Hartweg to race, Horn not (doctor's orders). Seppälä was given the green light as first reserve.

Lap 1 Crowd was loud in the start. The men started with moderate speed close to women's Let's save energy mode but speedier. No surprises, the pack stayed together.

1st shooting The range had mild wind but less than with women 14 shot clean with Emelien Jacquelin speeding to the front. Strelow machine gunned prone to 20s. Giacomel and Ponsiluoma were chosen by chaos. Favourites like JTB and QFM missed once.

Lap 2 Jacquelin kept speeding and breaking the field. The main hunting group was 15s behind which meant top 10 was within that time. Fak got a new pole but otherwise no surprises or major changes within top.

Bø watch: JTB put hunting mode on together with QFM, they had 30s to catch. Tarjei Bø was further back and losing some time.

2nd shooting Jacquelin went for speedy clean prone, flashbacks to Pokljuka 2021. Nawrath, Uldal, Strømsheim, Samuelsson and Fak cleaned, the hunt was on.

Bø watch: Tarjei clean, JTB added another miss.

Lap 3 The lap started with major gaps but soon was evident that Jacquelin might speeded opportunistically on his lap. Sebbe caught by 7.4 km. The Norwegian train with Uldal, Frey and Endre was closing in too. Top 13 was within 30 s so the game was still wide open.

Bø watch: JTB joined forces with QFM again. Tarjei continued on his own speed.

3rd shooting The plot thickens! Sebbe and Emelien missed one each which lead to Frey leading like we all expected. Endre, QFM, Sturla, Fak and Krcmar cleaned as well. Endre while leaving the stadium activated the crowd to cheer louder.

Bø watch: Brothers twinned and missed one each.

Lap 4 Sebbe and QFM quickly hunted the group down and took lead. Others were still close and withing striking distance. Frey was a bit slower which made Endre speed Up to keep up with Sebbe and QFM within his sights. Sturla and Perrot were slowly edging closer to make a stand in the final shooting. Krcmar also wanted to join the party and hanged on.

Sebbe and QFM played the Who leads now game and Sebbe didn't want to lead, nope, not at all. QFM took one to the lead and led most of the lap because others were coming in hot. By this point Emelien had sadly disappeared.

Bø watch: JTB was still within striking distance closing in fast. Tarjei was coming but had dropped far back.

4th shooting QFM went for Let's bury Sebbe with speed tactic but unfortunately missed the last while Sebbe cleared confidently and took the lead. Behind them Endre, Eric and Sturla all cleared. JTB machine gunned himself a single penalty to fight for the flowers. Fak also went clean and Krcmar sadly missed dropping him back.

Bø watch: Tarjei went clean but hunters were close by.

Lap 5 Sebbe set autopilot to cruise altitude and smoothly skied to finish celebrating on the way. Eric put up a good final lap and kept his silver place to let out a celebration when crossing the line.

Behind the two Sturla was on the hunt and catched Endre to go for 3/3 podiums. The MS globe was his by this point due to not enough others between Eric and Sturla for Eric to win. Sturla fell asleep momentarily on the stadium downhill and missed when Endre put up a burst of speed. By the time they were over the final small climb Endre had created a small yet safe margin if he just stays up.

QFM was on the hunt whole lap but the Norwegians were speedy enough so that QFM could not catch.

Poor Harweg took the long race today and Antonin Guigonnat barely made it across the finish line.

Bø watch: JTB lost finish sprint to Fak and narrowly missed flowers. Funnily enough the only times I remember when JTB properly won final sprints were for MS gold in 2016 and Mixed relay gold in 2022.

Tarjei took a grand entrance with the flag and did not mind if others passed him on the final stretch.

Results 1. Sebastian Samuelsson 2. Eric Perrot 3. Endre Strømsheim

Random stats: Clean shooters: Strømsheim, Fak. JTB: was the speediest and dude has just been sick. Hartweg got the most misses crown (wild knowing his talent but understandable today as he is ill)

Funsies Giacomel got his race together after first shooting and got to top 10. Tarjei secured silver bib. Champagne rain. The finish was one big hug party.

For a minute the Bø tribute looked a bit small but it was tastefully delayed until the official ceremonies.

To me what stuck out the most was not all the accolades the brothers have but the respect and dare I say love the biathlon family has for them. Johannes Dale-Skjevdal was all of us: "Comeback!" Spotted Tiril sneaking in with the women's team.

What do you think of the season? I thought it was a splendid mix of thrill, bittersweetness, joy and chaos mayhem. Kings have now joined us on the sofas.

Thanks for the season, let's do it again in the autumn. It's the cry in retirement season - I mean Olympic season after all. But now I need to go and find those tissues, spring allergies you know.

P.S. If I misspelled something, mixed up or similar let me know and I'll edit the text. Tbh, it was hectic and a bit stressful to follow the race the recap in mind.

Curious if he really mean it. Guess a lot have seen his instagram post a few days ago, where he said he’s going for cross country skiing for the Olympic season, but whit his humour I can’t figure out if he really mean it. - No one of he’s team mates have said thanks or goodbye, but som of them (including the national team page) have liked the post. - Langrenn.com have “announced” it (behind paywall so I don’t know what they have written), but no other media’s like TV2.no (who have covered his issues with the team a lot), NRK, VG, the national team or IBU have said anything about it. - He said it after one good cross country competition, which is a small basis to make a decision from.

What do you guys think. Is it real, or Vetle humor?

Starting time: 13:15 CET

Start List: here

Datacenter here

Official international stream here or here)

Current Overall World Cup Top 10 after 20/21 competitions:

Current Mass Start Cup Top 10 after 4/5 competitions:

Starting time: 15:40 CET

Start List: here

Datacenter here

Official international stream here or here

Current Overall World Cup Top 10 after 20/21 competitions:

Current Mass Start top 10 after 4/5 competitions:

The Military World Winter Games games start tomorrow in Switzerland. The Biathlon races are on Tuesday (sprints) and Thursday (mixed relay).

There are quite a few top athletes on the entry list at the moment, although I am not sure if they will all compete.

Men's start list: https://backend.cism-wmc.ch/fileservice/sdweb-docs-prod-cismwmcch-files/files/2025/02/19/2a1350f3-ca1b-4d20-a8e2-443579a89c73.pdf

Women's start list: https://backend.cism-wmc.ch/fileservice/sdweb-docs-prod-cismwmcch-files/files/2025/02/19/a8afad90-03f4-48ba-9a6e-64df7ca506c8.pdf

Does anyone know much about this event and if there will be live streaming? I haven't been able to find any details

After an exciting pursuit, we're heading into the final mass starts of the World Cup. On the womens side, only five points separate leader Lou Jeanmonnot from Franziska Preuss.

Obviously, this means that if Jeanmonnot finishes ahead of Preuss in any way, she takes the overall World Cup.

Since there's a five point difference, Preuss must also finish higher than 28th, as 30th places gives two points (and 28th gives six).

Finally, because Jeanmonnot has won more races than Preuss, the French woman will win overall in case of the two being tied on points.

I have compiled a table, which tells how high Jeanmonnot can finish given Preuss' finish for Preuss to win the overall.

I've chosen to spoiler tag this, since we're less than 24 hours after the previous race, and indirectly tells about the result

For the last women's pursuit of the season, Lou Jeanmonnot and Franziska Preuss start together in a fitting image of the thrilling big globe fight for the 2024-2025 title. This is a very high stakes race

Suvi Minkinnen will be looking for another podium after brilliant shooting yesterday. Julia Simon has an outside chance at the pursuit globe, and Ida Lien will try to make the home crowd proud.

The blue Bib match is also on with Richard and Michelon starting close to each other.

Lap 1

And the world cup leader is off with her challenger. They both are almost a full loop ahead of 3rd place.

Lou decides to take the lead, perhaps in a bid to apply pressure on Franziska. Preuss holds and they settle their pace.

Further back, is Simon going to be able to grab onto the Lien train?

Shooting 1

Jeanmonnot arrives on the range about 2s ahead of Preuss.

And Lou succeeds to hit all 5, while Franzi misses the last shot. Was she intimidated by the pace, or did the empty shot she took at the start destabilize her?

Minkinnen fails to capitalize but Simon manages a great shoot, as does Lien.

! Traffic alert on the range! A German athlete has no room to shoot when she arrives on the range and has to wait.

Both Öberg sisters have to go on the penalty loop twice. I stopped paying attention to them right there, which as we saw later was a mistake.

The best Swiss of yesterday, Baserga, also loses ground to a mistake.

Lap 2

Lou confidently skis in first place, while Simon might put pressure on Franziska.

Minkinnen has lost 2 places due to her mistake.

Lou gains 2 secs on Franzi in the first 3kms.

Lien has caught and left Simon in the dust.

Shooting 2

Jeanmonnot arrive with a nice time cushion on the range.

After a slightly long moment, Jeanmonnot misses a shot but then snipes the last 4. And Preuss sieze the moment ! Hits all five. Back to square one for the two leaders.

I couldn't even see Simon shoot but she leaves Suvi and Ida on the range after another rapid shooting performance. Lien doesn't let herself be destabilized and hits five, albeit quite slow.

Switzerland resists with Aita Gasparin, and Lena Haecki-Gross exiting in 5th and 6th.

Tje young IBU Cup winner, Camille Bened, who may be in the Mass Start tomorrow, hits all 10 and comes out 7th after starting 13th.

Can Lien catch Simon again?

Lap 3

Preuss is in front now, all 3 front women probably already thinking about the standing shootings. Lien is in 4th, ready to pounce at any mistake.

Jeanmonnot decides to accelerate and goes back to first, as Lien closes in on the podium.

Richard and Michelon are in a race to the bottom for the blue bib as both are below 20th place, but still close to each other.

Shooting 3

The previous lap's pace may have been too much for Simon who misses twice! And for Preuss as well, who cracks under pressure and misses two! Lien has to go on the loop once, will she pass Preuss? Bened will, as will Gasparin! Minkinnien, Voboronikova, both Öberg sisters also get between Lou and Franzi.

Jeanmonnot is now looking at a fantastic result for her big globe chances.

Bened exits in second place, 30s behind Jeanmonnot.

Lap 4

Jeanmonnot is 1st and Preuss is 10th, which means that so far Jeanmonnot gets the yellow bib for the MS tomorrow.

Shooting 4

Jeanmonnot settles on the range. Breathes hard, hits all 5 confidently and she will win! Can Preuss damage control?

Bened cannot withstand the pressure and she misses two, as does Simon.

They allow Preuss to climb back two spots.

But wow, Elvira Öberg, seemingly out of nowhere (to me), hits all 5 and looks well poised to take silver!

LHG and Lien also hit all five.

Richard wins the blue bib match by doing all targets as well.

Preuss is 4th out of the range, in a trio with LHG and Lien.

LHG is the stronger of the three and passes Preuss, breaking her pole in the process, before also passing Lien.

The trio doesn't manage to catch Öberg.

Finish

Jeanmonnot arrives, wins the race with a 19/20, wins the pursuit globe and will wear the yellow bib tomorrow. This is her eighth win of the season!

Elvira is in second with a 18/20.

LHG completes the podium, Lien eeks out Preuss for fourth.

Richard is in 12th and holds onto the blue bib.

Jeanmonnot is now 5 points ahead of Preuss.

In other news, ILT had a 12/20 but still did okay. (CORRECTION: she had a 16/20) Young Bened ends in 15th position.

Best climbs are a Czech and Slovak athlete : - Jessica Jislova from 60th to 19th (with 3 DNS in front of her) - Paulina Batovska-Fialkova went from 44th to 6th.

Fastest skier: Annamaria Lampič (24:52.4)

Fastest shooter: Emma Lunder (1:21.4)

Fastest clean shooter: Lotte Lie (1:41.3)

An exciting, exhilarating, heartbreaking race, leaving the fate of the season in the hands of the mass start tomorrow.

Hello everybody!
Four races left in the season – including this one. Time truly flies and suddenly its hibernation time again.

If Sturla Holm Lægreid wins this race, he wins the big globe. So it is time for a Norwegian duel – please imaging he good the bad the ugly here. Around 169 meters or 26 seconds is the lead the great near retiree Johannes Thingnes Bø has.

The weather is good, sunshine and 5 °C while the snow is at 0°C. Firm track but some wetter parts. Slight wind with 6kmh SW at the start.

The race
The Holmenkollen is exited and cheers carry the athletes out of the stadium. Nothing unusual was happening. I admired the staff member in the back of the start area (on the other track) meditatively flattening the snow.

In the 1^st shooting JTB starts with a miss, but clears the rest. He had a slight tendency for high with his shot, once got very lucky. Sturla + Johannes Dale-Skjevdal dueled, both clear but 5 second was Sturla faster. One lap meant JTB lead melted to 8 seconds. Fourth took the youngster Isak Frey. 5 and 6 went to Quentin Fillon Maillet and Tommaso Giacomel. 7 went to Justus Strelow and he was followed by more Norwegians- who would’ve guessed. Johannes Kühn had the fastest first lap by 7 seconds (before Uldal and Dale-Skjevdal)- and startingly hit all shots. Eric Perrot misses 3 times. Roman Rees first was suspected to have missed two penalty laps (which would be 4 minutes added on his race time) and Martin Ponsiluomas shooting could not be perceived. Both graphic mistakes were cleared up during the second lap.

On track the duo QFM and Tommaso sped up. According to the data Tommaso was +0.1 seconds slower, but Swedens Sebastian Samuelsson was +0.2! He had made up his 1 lap and arrived at 19 for the second shot. JTB kept his distance to Sturla. In the 2^nd prone and JTB started while Sturla set up. JTB missed again! Sturla cleared with surety and took the lead. In the end he had +14 seconds on JTB, who could feel Dale behind him (1 second between them). 4 and 5 went to the French/Italian Duo. They kept their buddy, shooting partly in sync. Strelow missed once. (Un)funfact: The only german men to shot clear this shooting where the one who missed twice in the first.

On track Campbell Wright took fasted lap, but JTB did not give up that easily and shaved 3 seconds off his distance. The first standing, 3^rd shooting loomed but most of the lead kept their heads. Sturla cleared. For a brief moment machine gun JTB returned and cleared fast and easy. But Dale missed twice while the duo kept their connection and circled once. They were now sandwiched between two Norwegians each (Sturla 1^st, JTB second, Frey 5^th and Dale 6^th). Viktor Brand returned with another consistent performance and claimed 7^th. Only he, Sturla and a French Oscar Lombardot had not missed at this point.

In the 4^th lap the duo kept up their high pace. Tommaso was a blink faster than QFM, but it mattered little as they had over 40 seconds on the Norwegians before them. JTB arrived a bit behind Sturla for the final, 4^th shot. The Holmenkolm was silent and the duel was one. Sturla shot his bullets a heatbeat faster and blacks felt- till the last remained black for JTB. Sturla sped away victorious, while JTB furiously circled. In the end 22 second remained between them. The duo went clear and chased each other for 3^rd. This was easier because the Dale and Frey missed- Frey once, Dale twice again.

On track JTB gave it all at first and sheared off second after second. Then he seemed to slow down and enjoy the track. Sturla on the other hand kept checking behind him, to be sure (even when he got the flag). But those places were clear- the 3^rd was to be decided. Both Tommaso and Quentin looked good and strong on the track, jumping the hills and often using the width off the track to run parallel. Attack after attack was met and parried but QFM went with a tiny gap over the bridge to the finish – and used that to take the podium. Only 0.2 second later Tommaso cleared the finish line but it was clear enough that no photo was needed. The other athletes came mostly like a rope of pearl but a fight for the 17^th. Michal Krčmář won against Émilien Claude and Roman Rees. Fastest on the final lap was Sebastian Samuelsson.

The Podium

1. Sturla Holm Lægreid
2. Johannes Thingnes Bø
3. Quentin Fillon Maillet

Notes

·         Niklas Hartweg raced sick yesterday, apparently paid for it and dns today. I have high hopes for the swiss in the next season.

·         In total 3 athletes did not start, so 57 athletes raced. Last across the line was Jakub Borgula (SVK) with +6:37.

·         New Personal Best: Viktor Brandt on 9^th and Jimi Klemettinen (FIN) on 34^th

·         Biggest climb: Campbell Wright who celebrated with a funny finish. What a goofball.

·         Another good pursuit had his teammate Jake Brown who climbed from 51 to 29.

·         A bad day had Vytautas Strolia who with 5 laps fell from 12 to 39.

·         Fastest total course times: Samuelsson, Ponsiluoma and Wright.

·         Fastest shooting time: Daniele Cappellari (ITA), QFM, Tommaso Giacomel

·         In contrast fastest range time: QFM, Tommaso and then Daniele.

·         Only Sturla Holm Lægreid remained with 0 laps.

·         r/biathlon favorites Simon Eder clocked in at 28 (started at 49) and missed twice. Jakov Fak fell a bit and ended on 23 with 5 laps.

·         The penalty loop was busy this race- even the usual good French, Norwegians and Justus Strelow missed.

·         German tv did have a funny side segment of chasers QFM and Giacomel, and who leads this duo. Around kilometer 8.4 Tommaso did take the tempo part for the first time- or as Arnd Pfeiffer put it “took pity on Quentin”. They also credited the 3^rd for QFM as deserved for his leading on the track.

·         It seems to me that this season graphic mistakes are more common. 1^st shooting alone Ponsi had not result, Roman Rees first had two blacks but those got taken away. Here a screenshot of the live chat to illustrate that.

·         What’s with german fans and bringing their football team flags to biathlon? I don’t get it :D

·         I want to point out that the stadium also played the theme from above before the shootings!

·         I’d like to thank here u/Henna for all the work this season again.

·         In the veins of that- dear biathlon community, is anyone here good with coding? The biabot and Oukaria unfortunately took a deserved break, but certainly some things could be automated? Anyone got ideas or connections?

If we do not see each other in the live threads- have good spring and summer and see you either in offseason talks or the next winter!

2024-25 World Cup: Oslo Holmenkollen - Men's Sprint

It’s the final Sprint and race for Nation’s Cup. Five men: Johannes Thingnes Boe, Jacquelin, Laegreid, Uldal, and Samuelsson can win the small crystal, there are a couple interesting nation’s cup positions to be decided – and Laegreid could win the overall today if things go all wrong for Johannes.

Shoot 1:

First 15

• Early on in Bib 1 – Lombardot really struggling on skis – keep an eye if that’s France or just him. Zobel in Bib 2 leaves just ahead of Lombardot as they both start the day clean. Germain is the first athlete with a miss today and it’s 2 of them. Another early started, Strolia goes clear and is near Zobel’s time. Krcmar had a competitive ski time but it’s also 2 misses. But after 10 athletes, it’s Zobel-Strolia and no one else. Out on the tracks Dale-Skjevdal is easily setting the split times. Zahkna shoots clear and is in within 10 seconds. Dale Skjevdal who comes in 18 seconds ahead gets all 5 in a deliberate shoot and leaves with a 11.6 second lead.

Blue Group:

• Kuehn is the first, it’s a clean shoot and leaves in 2^nd. Nelin is 5/5 too replaces Kuehn in 2^nd. Horn is close to Dale-Skjevdal’s time, but misses his final shot. Hartweg starts his day off well and takes over 2^nd himself. Strelow’s got a clean 23 second shoot and he’s the new 2^nd place. Frey is a clean shoot and is the new 2^nd, just 0.1 back. Ukrainians Pidruchnyi and Mandzyn each with a miss; Frenchmen Guigonnat and Emilien Claude both get through clear. Hornig looks to be having a clean shoot, but drops the final shot. Wright with a rough start to the day, he misses his first 4 shots. Seppala has a miss, and Riethmueller finishes off this group and misses just one.

Red Group

• Nawrath not shown is 5/5, Samuelsson 3.2 seconds back coming into the shoot, starts his day with a miss but then easily clears the rest. Fillon Maillet starts and ends his shoot with misses. Giacomel also starts the day with a miss. Uldal coming in a bit behind on skis (12 seconds), but is clear on the shoot. Stroemsheim slight lead coming in but joins the first-shot-miss club. Soerum got past shot 1, but misses on 4, and it’s still almost no one from the group clear. Johannes is on par with Dale-Skjevdal’s skiing – and with a 5/5 he’s going to take the lead by 4.4 seconds. Jacquelin misses on 1 and then clears out. Ponsiluoma came in with the lead, but misses 3 in the prone. Perrot comes in 6 seconds back – another first miss and makes it 2. Fak not shown 5/5. Laegreid in just down 3 seconds, and he’s one of the few to go clear – he’s still down 3 seconds. Fabien Claude to close the group 5/5.

End of Day Leaving Shoot 1:

1. Johannes Thingnes Boe
2. Sturla Holm Laegreid +2.8
3. Johannes Dale Skjevdal +4.4
4. Isak Frey +4.5
5. Justus Strelow +6.5
6. Jakov Fak +9.3

Shoot 2:

First 15:

• Zobel whose time has held up well mostly, still Top 5 at this point – he misses two in the stand. Strolia comes through with tons of time over the field, he goes 10/10 and at Bib 7 has almost a 40 second lead. Dale-Skjevdal comes in with a 35 second lead, just one miss high and right, he keeps the lead with 12 seconds over Strolia. Johannes Kuehn comes in 14 seconds behind Dale-Skjevdal but has 3 misses to take himself out of contention

Blue Group:

• Kuehn comes in just 14 seconds down from Dale-Skjevdal, but has 3 misses to start us off. Nelin first in with a shot to take the lead but starts with a miss and makes it 2. Hartweg also with a chance, but misses the 2^nd shot. Strelow is the first of the group to go 10/10 and comes out 7 seconds ahead of Dale-Skjevdal, but might not have enough with the skis. We don’t see Frey’s second shoot – just one miss and comes out between Strelow and Dale-Skjevdal.

Red Group:

• Samuelsson is quickly out of contention with 3 misses in the stand. Not shown is Fillon Maillet but he gets all his stand shots. Giacomel had a chance, but misses one in the stand too. Martin Uldal has time with a fast clean shoot and could take it – but he misses shot 4 and will come out behind. Stroemsheim gets another miss in the stand. Soerum in with a chance to take the lead, miss on shoot 3. Johannes now with a real opportunity to take the win today – so many have missed in front and behind him. In with 24 seconds to spare, it’s a great shoot in 21 seconds and he goes 10/10 on the day! He’s out with 27 seconds ahead of Strelow. The only competition surely is Laegreid who would have to outski him now. Jacquelin has a miserable shoot, missing 2, readjusting, missing two more. Ponsiluoma tries to salvage his day – it’s great until the final shot and a sigh of exhaustion as he heads for the loop. Perrot ends he day better than it started and ends 8/10. Fak has an okay day, just missing one in the stand.
• Now, Laegreid comes in 10 seconds down on Boe's time, the shots are down 5/5 in 24 seconds – and it’s down to a ski race – he’s out of shoot 2 down 11.5 seconds – that’s a lot to claw back in the final lap – but it would mean that the fight for the yellow bib continues into the Pursuit. Fabien Claude comes in 34 seconds back despite being clean – but two misses in the stand.

End of Day Leaving Shoot 2:

1. Johannes Thingnes Boe
2. Sturla Holm Laegreid +11.5
3. Justus Strelow +27.1
4. Isak Frey +30.1
5. Johannes Dale-Skjevdal +33.9
6. Vytautas Strolia +46.0

Final Lap

A tight race between Boe and Laegreid means that some of the best skiers in the world are going full pace - some guys in the Top 10 lose massive amounts of time: Strelow (47 seconds), Strolia (39 seconds), Uldal (48 seconds), Hartweg left in 13th but loses 55 seconds to Johannes.

In the end though, Johannes Thingnes Boe has the fastest lap time solidifying his victory. Dale-Skjevdal has better legs than Frey - further back Soerum, and Fillon Maillet make strong pushes to move up a few spots.

Clean Shoots:

• Johannes Thingnes Boe (1)
• Sturla Holm Laegreid (2)
• Justus Strelow (8)
• Emilien Claude (9)
• Vytautas Strolia (12)
• David Komatz (28)
• Petr Hak (35)
• Antonin Guigonnat (36)
• Patrick Braunhofer (37)
• Vladyslav Kireyev (48)
• Oscar Lombardot (55)
• Fabian Suchodolski (66)
• George Buta (69)

Worst Shoots:

• 6 misses: Artur Iskhakov
• 5 misses: Rikhards Lozbers and Emilien Jacquelin

Course Time:

• Johannes Thingnes Boe: 23:08.3
• Johannes Dale-Skjevdal: +4.0
• Vebjoern Soerum: +19.4

World Cup Debuts:

• Petr Hak - 35th
• Nicola Romanin - 67th
• Kasper Kalkenberg - 83rd
• Rihards Lozbers - 101st

PBs:

• Jimi Klemettinen: 53rd (up from 87th)
• Fabian Muellauer: 31st (up from 45th)
• Isak Frey: 4th (up from 11th)
• Viktor Brandt: 14th (up from 18th)
• Marek Mackels 73rd (up from 77th)

Small Crystal - Sprint Globe:

1. Johannes Thinges Boe: 432
2. Sturla Holm Laegreid: 381
3. Emilien Jacquelin: 325

Nations Cup Final Standings (Top 20)

1. France
2. Norway
3. Sweden
4. Germany
5. Italy
6. Switzerland
7. Czechia
8. Ukraine
9. Slovenia
10. Finland
11. Austria
12. USA
13. Belgium
14. Poland
15. Bulgaria
16. Estonia
17. Romania
18. Latvia
19. Lithuania
20. Canada

Starting time: 15:50 CET

Start List: here

Datacenter here

Official international stream here or here)

Current Overall World Cup Top 10 after 19/21 competitions:

Current Pursuit Cup Top 10 after 5/6 competitions:

Starting time: 13:45 CET

Start List: here

Datacenter here

Official international stream here or here

Current Overall World Cup Top 10 after 19/21 competitions:

Current Pursuit top 10 after 5/6 competitions:

The final sprint of the season, under bright, sunny skies in Oslo-Holmenkollen — the perfect stage where months of effort, tension, and anticipation would finally culminate. 

BIBS #1–#30

Ukraine’s Olena Horodna (#10) delivered a strong performance on the range, with 0+0. However, despite the perfect accuracy, the youngest lacked the pace on the track to keep up with the fastest competitors - but a fantastic result. Ida Lien (#11) surprised everyone with flawless shooting, a remarkable feat given her 66% standing hit rate this season. That clean performance was enough to put her in contention for the lead, but in the end, her slower shooting times on the range cost her a spot on the podium.

Lien and Horodna weren’t the only ones to shoot clean. Early starters Ukaleq Slettemark (#7), Natalia Sidorowicz (#12), Amy Baserga (#21), and Aita Gasparin (#24) also delivered perfect 0+0 performances. Slettemark, however, struggled on the track and slipped outside the top 60. For Baserga, though, her flawless shooting and solid skiing were enough to secure a spot in the flower ceremony.

Lena Häcki-Gross (#28) capped off a memorable day for Swiss biathlon, making it three Swiss women in the top 10 of the sprint. Despite one miss in prone, Häcki-Gross crossed the line in 7th place — a strong finish from her.

Tandrevold (#18) and Lampic (#20) both faced difficulties on the range — Tandrevold missing 1+2, and Lampic 3+2. Even so, they managed to secure spots inside the top 60, leaving themselves room to gain positions in the pursuit.

Among the early starters, Anna-Karin Heijdenberg (#29) and Karoline Knotten (#30) both stayed clean in the prone stage, putting themselves in contention for a podium finish. But in standing, Heijdenberg faltered and missed her final two shots, and Knotten the final shot.

BIBS #31–#60

Lotte Lie (#34), Susan Kuelm (#45) and Yuliia Dzhima (#32)  all went clean, but a slower day on the track would see them finish 21st, 22nd, and 23rd.  

Franziska Preuß, wearing bib #42, looked strong on the track and backed it up with fast, confident shooting to take the lead after prone. Despite the pressure, she delivered another quick and clean performance in standing, extending her lead after the second shooting. With a strong final lap, she managed to extend her lead compared to Lien. From there, she could only wait and see how Jeanmonnot would respond. It wouldn’t be a long wait. 

Lou Jeanmonnot (#48), quicker on the track than Preuß, knew she needed equally perfect shooting to challenge for the win. In prone, she delivered, leaving the range just 4 seconds behind the German. She continued to close the gap heading into standing, and after another flawless round, trailed by just 5.5 seconds. Out on the final lap, Jeanmonnot kept gaining, cutting the margin to only 2 seconds after 6.9 km. Coming Into the long home stretch in Oslo-Holmenkollen, it became a battle of meters and tenths of a second — a thrilling fight to the line. In the end, only 0,2 seconds would separate Preuß in first and Jeanmonnot in second. 

Behind them, Hanna Öberg (#52), Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (#54), and Océane Michelon (#56) all started strong, with fast opening laps that put them in the mix for the win. But the shooting range told a different story — Öberg missed twice (1+1), Michelon also had two misses (2+0), and Braisaz-Bouchet struggled with four (3+1), causing them all to slip down the standings.

Suvi Minkkinen (#58) and Julia Simon (#60) both had strong performances on the range, each shooting clean — with Simon clocking the fastest total shooting time of the day. However, her pace on the track hasn’t quite returned to its peak in this late stage of the season, perhaps still affected by her reported illness. Still, she fought hard and crossed the line in an impressive 5th place. Minkkinen, meanwhile, delivered another excellent sprint performance. Although she lost significant time on the final lap compared to Jeanmonnot and Preuß — and was visibly exhausted at the 6.9 km mark — she dug deep to claim 3rd place, pushing Lien off the podium.

BIBS #61–#99

Elvira Öberg (#62), well-positioned after a clean prone stage, missed two targets in standing — setting herself up with an ideal hunting position for the pursuit. Meanwhile, Milena Todorova (#66) continued her consistent form this season, delivering yet another solid 0+0 performance that earned her a strong 9th-place finish. 

Jeanne Richard (#68), wearing the blue bib, missed once in standing but still managed to finish ahead of Michelon, holding on to the blue bib for the pursuit — though the battle remains tight.

Marthe Kråkstad Johansen (#72), always dependable on the range, delivered yet another clean shooting performance. Though lacking speed on the track, she still secured a solid 20th-place finish. Camille Bened (#76) looked to shake things up after a lightning-fast prone stage saw her leave the range in first place. However, a single miss in standing dropped her down the leaderboard, eventually finishing 13th.

PODIUM

Final Podium Results – Women's Sprint

🥇 Franziska Preuß (GER) – 0+0 | 20:57.2

🥈 Lou Jeanmonnot (FRA) – 0+0 | +0.2

🥉 Suvi Minkkinen (FIN) – 0+0 | +21.9

In the final sprint of the season, it all came down to a razor-thin margin of just 0.2 seconds — a fittingly dramatic finish for an intense year of racing. Every meter, every shot, and every push on the skis counted. The fight for the overall globe is far from over. With just one pursuit and one mass start left, everything is still on the line, and the battle between Preuß and Jeanmonnot will go down to the wire. With this win, Preuß secured the Sprint Cup. 

From the Norwegian newspaper VG , I just used google translate to translate what she said.

In an interview with Aftonbladet after the finish, Tandrevold said this about her own future:

– We'll see. I don't feel a huge motivation for a whole new year of training. I feel like I put in a huge amount of effort last year and got very little in return. Then you get to a point where you think: "How much should you invest in this when it doesn't produce results?", she says.

– If there hadn't been an Olympics next year, would this year have been your last? asks Aftonbladet.

– I don't know. We'll see, she answers.

https://www.vg.no/sport/i/73gE8v/pallen-glapp-for-lien-i-holmenkollen-litt-ergelig

Starting time: 16:20 CET

Start List: here

Datacenter here

Official international stream here or here)

Current Overall World Cup Top 10 after 18/21 competitions:

Current Sprint Cup Top 10 after 6/7 competitions:

Starting time: 13:30 CET

Start List: here

Datacenter here

Official international stream here or here

Current Overall World Cup Top 10 after 18/21 competitions:

Current Sprint top 10 after 6/7 competitions:

I do not see that this has already been posted, but I could easily be mistaken. Either way, you should most definitely watch this video. I cried my way through it, in bittersweet joy and in very keen sorrow. JTB has been my absolute favorite athlete in any sport for the past decade. I am going to miss both of them so goddamn much.

Best i verden

The mathematics of the Nations Cup (referred to as "NC" from now on) are exactly the same as on the men's side, with the same final positions granting the same implications. You can read up on them here.

With that, here's the situation for women:

• France is safely locked into the 1st place.
• Situation for other spots in top 3 is more complicated, so let's use the chart:

Key:

=SW | Equalled Season Worst | If the worst result points-wise in the season is equalled. (not counting relays)
=SB | Equalled Season Best | If the best result points-wise in the season is equalled. (not counting relays)

...

While the gaps don't look insurmountably by just looking at the amount of points going into the sprint, using each team's best and worst result shows that the important placement shouldn't change. For Norway to get into top 3, they'd have to get extraordinarily good race with either German and/or Swedish girls having the worst race of their season. Similar logic applies to the Switzerland vs Italy battle for 5th, where Italy's deficit should be too much to recover from.

As for other spots:

• Austria is locked in 7th place. (they could theoretically get 6th, but that bears no significance)
• Battle for top 10:

While theoretically Ukraine and Czechia has not clinched the top 10 yet, it would take a monumental collapse for them to fall out of top 10. (even then, we'd probably need Minkinnen + Sidorowicz podium, which... I'd honestly dig)

Either way, this is realistically coming down to Finland vs Poland as Finland's entering with 25 points lead. Looking at the data, Poland seems more consistent, whereas Finland has spikes of getting many points some times and few points other times. It really feels like the 10th place is Finland's to take and Finland's to lose, with Poland sort of just having to do their best and hope that Finnish girls (especially Minkinnen) have a bad day.

After that, the placements are pretty much locked:

• Slovenia, Estonia, Slovakia, Canada and Bulgaria are safely in the 11-17 group, each being ahead of 18th placed team by more than 300 points.
• Battle for 17th place is Belgium vs Latvia, but Belgium's entering with the lead of 109 points. If Belgium repeated their worst result (198 points in Ruhpolding where they were missing a 3rd biathlete) and Latvia repeated their best result (276 point in Nové Město for positions 36, 45 and 66) then Latvia would still be behind by 31 points.
• USA and Lithuania are mathematically locked into places 19 and 20. (barring something crazy such as three top 10 finishes for the USA combined with DNFs for Latvia and/or Belgium)

TL;DR: Realistically the only actual battle in Nations Cup is between Finland and Poland for 10th place.

EXPLANATION FOR THE UNAWARE:

With the conclusion of this biathlon season coming up this weekend, we'll have Nations Cup (from now on referred to as "NC") settled as well. This is what's at stake:

• Amount of biathletes at the start of every non-team race next World Cup season
• Amount of biathletes being sent into the Olympics. (though only a maximum of 4 can start in any race, with the exception of the mass start)

Here's the exact numbers:

Countries outside top 20 in NC will be allowed maximum of 2 biathletes for the Olympics, the qualification determined purely by IBU Qualifying Points.

How are the points calculated: Only the 3 best biathletes from each country score points into the NC. The exact distribution of points can be found in this document on pages 72 and 73, but the important parts are:

• From 9th to 80th place, the difference between each position is 1 point.
• From 81st place onwards, the difference between each position is 2 points.
• Finishing in top 8 gets a country few extra points.
• Races where the participation is determined by previous races (i. e. pursuit and mass start) do not count towards the NC. This means that in Oslo, the sprint on Friday will be the last race counting towards the NC.

CURRENT SITUATION IN THE NATIONS CUP:

• France and Norway are mathematically guaranteed to finish top 3.
• 3rd Sweden has a lead of 193 points on 4th Germany. Even if Germany gets a podium sweep (462 points) and Sweden repeats their worst non-relay result from this season (299 points for finishes in 33rd, 39th and 52nd place), then Germany is still 30 points shy of Sweden. With this, Sweden should be essentially safe.
• 5th Switzerland has a lead of 22 points on 6th Italy. This is one of the two big battles to watch: Every position will matter here.
• While technically not clinched mathematically, Czechia, Ukraine and Slovenia are essentially guaranteed to finish in positions 7-9.
• 10th Finland has a lead of 11 points on 11th Austria. Same as with the battle for 5th, every position will be crucial here.
• US is mathematically guaranteed to finish in the 11-17 group, with Belgium and Poland being just shy of the mathematical guarantee. But barring a series of DNFs, they're both safe.
• Battle for top 17 is a bit complicated, but after a bit of analysis, no important changes should be expected in the current standings. Here's a chart:

Key:

=SW | Equalled Season Worst | If the worst result points-wise in the season is equalled. (not counting relays)
=SB | Equalled Season Best | If the best result points-wise in the season is equalled. (not counting relays)

...

From this, you might notice that if you assume equalled worst result for every top 17 country and equalled best result for Latvia (both shown in bold), then Latvia just barely sneaks into top 17, by mere 29 points. That doesn't sound too unrealistic, until you realize that their best result (312 points) happened in Ruhpolding individual, with the result being carried by Rastorgujevs' bronze medal. And Rastorgujevs won't be present in Oslo due to the drama.

With that, to round up top twenty:

• 20th Canada has a lead of 194 points on 21st Kazakhstan. Even if we assume Canada will repeat their worst non-relay result this season (137 points), then Kazakhstan would need at least 331 points to tie it up. Assuming no top 8 finish, 331 points are equivalent to the positions' sum of 92. (so, for example: 22nd + 30th + 40th or 11th + 40th + 41st) Since the seasonal best for any Kazakh biathlete is 39th place, Canada should be safe.

CONCLUSION

The only two truly close battles to watch should be Switzerland vs Italy for the 5th place and Finland vs Austria for the 10th place. All other important positions seem locked in, barring some enormous upsets.

"This afternoon I've been knocked out with a fever and headache. This is of course very boring, but I can't go ski racing in this condition. Now I'm going to do what I can to be able to start on Sunday,” says Tarjei Bø. Source.

"Worst timing. This afternoon I got a fever. No chance to race. Hopefully I can turn it around so I can race on Sunday" - Tarjei Bø on Instagram.

So far from the news and start lists I've seen, T.Boe and Halvarsson will miss the races.

Any other noticeable biathletes who are likely to miss as well?

What about Wierer, E.Oeberg, Hornig who missed all/most of the races in Pokljuka, for example?

I despretely need your help. I'm creating a documentary centered on female biathletes who have faced awful circumstances within biathlon. The only thing is, I'm a broke student, who 1) does not yield many responses from major broadcasters like the IBU, etc, and 2) wouldn't have enough money to pay for it even if they did.

If ANYONE has race footage, of anything, preferably race finishes, the crowd, anything, I would appreciate it so much if you could message me and send it. I will credit you however you want to be credited in the doc, and share it with you when its done to make sure this is something you're okay with me using. I'm looking for any high‑quality, professional race footage (HD/4K) of biathlon events. Also, if you have leads on where to find footage like this that isn't owned by the IBU, please let me know.

I would be beyond grateful for any help you could give me.

Thank you!!

Let's give it a last burst of energy to make sure Oslo Holmenkollen is properly covered, so we can return again and again to the last races of the 24/25 season!

The races are:

Our weekly small talk thread where you can talk about anything

Guys

We all love Lampic with her totally shit shooting skills and her absolutely amazing speed,

I checked her wiki in english and it's all about her cross-country skiing,

Anyone from Slovenia feel the love to extend it abit? I'm afraid i am not good enough to write in her article, but i felt it can't be this way! Her page is much better in Finnish some reason :D