FasterSkier’s Coverage of the Biathlon World Championships is made possible through the generous support of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center: New England’s finest snowmaking, world class race venues and touring trails, healthy food in abundance, comfortable accommodations at Craftsbury: Sports, Sustainability, Stewardship.
The second week of 2024 Biathlon World Championships got underway in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic on Tuesday with the women’s 15 k Individual. The Individual is the longest race in biathlon and the only format in which athletes receive a one-minute time penalty per miss. Last year, Lisa Vittozzi (ITA) gave up the win when she missed her 20th shot and had to settle for bronze. But this time, she managed to shoot the perfect 20/20 score to win her first non-team World title. Janina Hettich-Walz (GER) also shot the perfect score to finish a surprise second, and France’s Julia Simon skied off one miss to take her fourth medal of the Championships. From the US, Deedra Irwin continued her three-year streak of top performances in the event, finishing 11th with just one miss. Chloe Levins also hit 19/20 to finish 42nd, improving her previous personal-best by one place.
Four of the top six finishers shot the perfect score, including three Germans—a fantastic showing for a team which has otherwise underwhelmed at this year’s championships. Hettich-Walz’s silver medal was her first-ever podium finish, though she has been knocking at the door recently, with two top-six flower ceremony finishes already in 2024. Everything came together for her at the right moment on Tuesday when she not only nailed 20/20 hits but also posted a personal-best tenth-ranked ski time. Fourth place finisher Selina Grotian (GER) had the biggest breakout of the day, chopping 17 places off her previous personal best of 21st! The third of the clean-shooting Germans, Vanessa Voigt, was hardly a surprise having finished fourth in the same event at the Beijing Olympics. Although she’s not in her peak skiing form, Voigt is best shooter in biathlon right now—male or female—and one of the best of all time, with a hit rate of 95%. Rounding out the Flower Ceremony, Lou Jeanmonnot overcame one miss to finish sixth.
After the race, Irwin described how she managed to hit 19/20 targets for the third year in a row, having finished a historic seventh in the same event at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and 20th in the 2023 World Championships in Oberhof, Germany. “I got the miss out of the way on that first stage and then I thought, ‘Now I can clean!'” An early miss can take the edge off the psychological pressure of defending perfection that otherwise builds over the course of a race until it becomes an unbearable on the final shots. Her 28th-ranked course time (in a field of 91) also played an important role in the 11th place: “I got good splits and good advice on course,” she said. “Which reminded me to focus on my technique and not get frantic.” Since setting a World Cup personal best of eighth just before Christmas, Irwin said she’s been trying to do something special to replicate that performance, but finally in this race she felt like she was able to just do her normal thing, and that worked.
Chloe Levins matched Irwin’s 19/20 shooting score, missing on the final stage. “I was a little bit frustrated about that miss on the last stage but it’s still a PB,” said Levins of her 42nd place finish. She set her previous best of 43rd in a Pursuit in December of 2022 and has been working into this season after health issues interrupted her summer and fall training. But both skiing and shooting are coming together at a good moment. While last week’s races were held in slow, slushy conditions, Levins reported that in the Individual, “the snow was much firmer so I felt like I had much more energy; it was sheer ice in some places.” As for the conditions on the range, Levins said, “We were lucky to have no wind. It was not like that earlier.” Sometimes when shooting conditions seem easy, athletes can overthink their shots and make mistakes. Levins said she did that in the Sprint when it was suddenly calm after several days of windy training, but learned from it, and was prepared today. “Shooting was so fun.”
It helped that the team had exceptionally skis today too, as reported by all four US finishers. “My skis were nuking”, said Jackie Garso, who is racing in her first World Championships and finished 84th with five misses. Coming off a personal-best Sprint in 58th last week, Tara Geraghty-Moats rode the biathlon roller-coaster to 91st with 11 misses.
Women’s 15 k Individual Full Results
Next Up:
Wednesday 14 Feb 11:20 (Eastern Time) Men’s 20 k Individual
