At the first handoff of the men’s World Cup biathlon relay in Hochfilzen, Austria on Sunday, it looked like Norway might not be able to turn in the performance that everyone expected of them. Then Ole Einar Bjorndalen took over, and things went back to normal. Alexander Os, Norway’s first-leg skier, can be forgiven for turning in a less-than-perfect performance. Conditions were stacked against him, with huge wind gusts that held the range’s indicator flags...
Last weekend, if you had asked which country had the best female biathletes, the answer probably would have been Sweden. Anna Carin Zidek and Helena Ekholm both graced the podium multiple times at the World Cup openers in Ostersund, Sweden. But last weekend, Magdalena Neuner wasn’t racing. In Hochfilzen, Austria, things are different. In Saturday’s 4 x 6 k relay, Neuner was Germany’s second skier. She took the tag in third place, twenty seconds behind...
As Alexis Boeuf of France told IBU News on Friday, “You know, in biathlon one day you can be on the podium and the next day be last.” That wasn’t quite true on Saturday, although Sergui Sednev of the Ukraine, who finished second in Friday’s sprint, dropped to 29th in the next day’s pursuit. No, what is more noticeable is that the stars of last weekend’s World Cup openers in Ostersund, Sweden, haven’t shone as...
Sara Studebaker was the only woman the United States Biathlon Association had enough confidence in to pre-select for the first period of World Cups this year. And after last weekend’s racing in Ostersund, Sweden, some people were wondering why: she finished 72nd in the individual race and 88th in the sprint. But in Ostersund, Studebaker had water-borne parasites to contend with. When the World Cup moved to Hochfilzen, Austria this week, she was ready, and...
For the fourth straight race, a Norwegian biathlete stood atop the World Cup podium. Was it 36-year-old veteran Ole Einar Bjorndalen? Or perhaps the overall World Cup leader, Emil Hegle Svendsen? Those would be smart guesses, but they’d also be wrong. Instead, it was their teammate, 22-year-old Tarjei Boe, who was the second-fastest skier on Friday and shot clean. Boe has never graced a World Cup podium before, much less won a race. But in...
Before this weekend, Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen had never won a World Cup biathlon race. How things change. After winning Friday’s sprint race by eighteen seconds, then extending that lead to almost a minute and a half in Sunday’s pursuit race, Makarainen will have a target on her back when the World Cup heads to Hochfilzen, Austria, next weekend. Makarainen was the first woman out of the starting gate and never looked back, shooting clean through...
Much to Ole Einar Bjorndalen’s chagrin, his Norwegian teammate Emil Hegle Svendsen beat him for a second straight race. As Bjorndalen crossed the finish line in second place, 3.9 seconds behind Svendsen at the end of Saturday’s 10 k World Cup sprint, he threw his poles onto the ground in frustration and rolled his eyes at the cameraman. Bjorndalen held the lead at the 8.4 k checkpoint, but fell on the final downhill coming into...
The story of the day at the men’s World Cup biathlon opener in Ostersund, Sweden, was how Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, already a legend despite the fact that he hasn’t retired, blew an early lead in the 20 k individual race by missing two targets in the last shooting stage. Coming into that stage, Bjoerndalen had an edge of just over a minute on his teammate Emil Hegle Svendsen. But with a pair of missed...
The biathlon World Cup opened in parasite-infested Ostersund, Sweden on Wednesday, with the country’s own Anna Carin Zidek riding clean shooting through four stages to a nine-second win over France’s Marie Laure Brunet in the 15 k individual competition. Hometown favorite Helena Ekholm finished third. Further down the results sheet, but not too much further, Laura Spector led the U.S. with a 25th-place finish. It was the best race of her career, and the best...
This year’s biathlon World Cup opener in Ostersund has an unexpected challenge: not only do racers have to vanquish their competitors, they also have to beat the parasites that are making happy homes inside their gastrointestinal tracts. According to The Local, a Swedish news site, 5,000 people in Ostersund are confirmed to have been infected with the parasite cryptosporidium, and it is feared that up to 9,000 could be affected. Officials are still searching for...
The first race of the men’s World Cup biathlon season isn’t until Thursday, but one U.S. man has already seen action: Russell Currier competed in a 10 k IBU Cup sprint last Saturday in Beitostolen, Norway. The International Biathlon Union (IBU) requires that all athletes competing in the World Cup to first finish an IBU Cup race – the next level down – within 15 percent of the leader. Currier, after proving himself to the...
Chandra Crawford and Dasha Gaiazova are currently the only women on the Canadian World Cup squad. But their lack of teammates hasn’t held them back so far: Crawford, a 2006 Olympic gold medalist, won the FIS sprint in Rovaniemi that weekend, and Gaiazova skied to 24th place in the World Cup sprint in Kuusamo, en route to 48th place overall in the mini-tour. Crawford didn’t have an excellent start to the World Cup season, but...
Kris Freeman wasn’t quite able to match his teammate Andy Newell’s result from yesterday – but he came pretty close. Freeman, of the U.S. Ski Team (USST), finished seventh in the 10 k classic in Kuusamo, Finland on Saturday, just 0.3 seconds out of sixth. Newell, who had finished sixth in the sprint yesterday, finished 89th, slipping to 42nd place overall in the mini-tour standings. Meanwhile, Canada’s Alex Harvey finished 17th, moving up to fourth...
The Kuusamo mini-tour opened with a bang for the North American contingent, as both Andy Newell and Alex Harvey skied into the top ten for the first time this season. Newell, who had a lackluster 15k in Gallivare last weekend but a strong opening relay leg for the United States, qualified in eighth position and ultimately finished sixth after making the A-Final. Harvey had a mediocre weekend in Gallivare, finishing 34th in the skate race...
Last year, Noah Hoffman was just another young athlete on the U.S. Ski Team’s Continental Cup squad. He was in the pipeline, developing towards a bright future, and wrapped up the season with a couple of SuperTour podiums, a fifth-place finish at U.S. Nationals, and a great race in Switzerland that nobody heard about. At SuperTour Finals, he finished second in the hill climb, his most high-profile domestic result of the year. In other words,...
Canada’s Dasha Gaiazova continued her strong skiing in Rovaniemi, Finland today, winning the women’s 5 k classic by 8 seconds over Victoria Melina of Russia. Gaiazova finished second in the classic sprint yesterday, and appears to be in good form heading into the World Cup mini-tour in Kuusamo next weekend. In the men’s 10 k, Frederic Touchette led Canada and the rest of North America with a twelfth-place finish. He was 45 seconds behind Vasili...
Independent U.S. biathlete Tracy Barnes and Jean-Phillipe Leguiellec, a member of the Canadian national team, won mass start races in Canmore, Alberta on Friday. It was the end of a three-race series put on by the U.S. Biathlon Association (USBA) to select American athletes to send to World Cup and IBU Cup trips. In the women’s race, Barnes had the cleanest shooting on the day, missing only two targets in four stages, which translated to...
The Canadian National Team led the way in Rovaniemi, Finland today, with Chandra Crawford, Dasha Gaiazova, and Lenny Valjas all cracking the podium in an FIS classic sprint. Meanwhile, the United States was led by Torin Koos in fourth. Temperatures were quite reasonable – between negative five and negative seven degrees Celsius – and the tracks were firm on the out-and-back course, which featured two bridges, a large hill, and several tight corners including a...
After winning the second sprint race of the U.S. Biathlon Association (USBA) selection trials in Canmore, Alberta, on Thursday, Laura Spector seems like almost a lock to join teammate Sara Studebaker, who was pre-qualified, for the first period of World Cups this winter. Meanwhile, Canada made it two-for-two as Marc-Andre Bedard won the men’s race. The Canadian athletes are not competing for spots on the World Cup, as their selection trials were held earlier this...
With only a 1.2 k race loop and no penalty loop, the United States Biathlon Association (USBA) faced some major challenges in Canmore, Alberta, on the first day of senior trials racing on Tuesday. The stakes were high: top finishers from the race series will be able to join Sara Studebaker, Tim Burke, Jeremy Teela, and Leif Nordgren at early-season World Cups in Europe. But the race organizers got creative and and ultimately pulled off a...