On the final day of the 2023 Biathlon World Championships in Oberhof, Germany, the top thirty women in the world took to the course for the 12.5 k Mass Start. For some, it was the seventh race in twelve days. Under steady rain, the top fifteen athletes from the World Cup Overall standings plus the medalists and other athletes with the most cumulative points from the World Championships Sprint, Pursuit, and Individual races battled...
In spite of steady rain, over twenty thousand spectators packed the stadium and lined the course in Oberhof, Germany on Sunday for the grand finale of the Biathlon World Championships: the Mass Start. The 15 k race format is a head-to-head battle of ski speed and shooting composure featuring the top thirty athletes in the world. At World Championships, start berths are awarded to the top fifteen athletes in the World Cup Overall standings,...
If there’s one competition to watch from the 2023 Biathlon World Championships, it’s the Women’s 4 x 6 k Relay. (Replay available here.) In a dazzling display of biathlon mastery, the Italian quartet knocked down 40 targets with 42 bullets, excelling one after another under pressure in difficult conditions to capture Italy’s first-ever Women’s Relay title. The “Blues” have been investing heavily in biathlon development with their sites set on the 2026 home Olympic...
Coming into this race, the Norwegian team of Vetle Christiansen, Sturla Holm Laegreid, Tarjei Boe, and younger brother Johannes Boe, had never lost a relay. But the windy range and the pressure on the Norwegians to carry Johannes Boe to his sixth straight gold medal of the 2023 Championships proved too much for the team to handle. Already one minute behind in 12th place after Christiansen’s lead leg, the team played catch-up for for the...
Twenty seven nations took part in the Single-Mixed Relay today at Biathlon World Championships in Oberhof, Germany, but none could match the star power of Norwegian duo, Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Johannes Thignes Boe. They teamed up to win Boe’s fifth straight gold medal at the 2023 Championships, and Olsbu’s record-breaking 13th World Championship gold. But it did not come easily. Though Norway were heavy favorites coming into the race, nothing is certain in biathlon,...
Canmore, Alberta—February 9-13, 2024 The Alberta World Cup Society (AWCS) will host the COOP FIS Cross-Country World Cup for three race days at the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park and one City Sprint in Calgary from February 9-13, 2024. This marks the seventh time that AWCS has invited the world’s best skiers to experience Alberta’s world renowned Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park. And a new challenge has been undertaken by the organizing committee, hosting a...
Ever since Hanna Oeberg burst onto the podium for the first time, winning Olympic gold in the 15km Individual at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, she has been a consistent force in the event. She defended her title at the 2019 World Championships, just missed the podium in fourth in 2020, and took silver in 2021. After faltering slightly in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing with a 16th place finish, Oeberg came back today to...
The fog finally lifted on Tuesday in Oberhof, revealing the full stadium of fans who for the past two races had been cheering into the void. Perfect visibility on the range was a welcome improvement for the men’s World Championship 20 k Individual—biathlon’s longest competition—especially since each miss in the format results in a ruinous one-minute time penalty. The ski tracks softened under the full sun, creating slow and arduous conditions, but that did not...
This winter, two Norwegian men have set a new standard of excellence in biathlon. In Sunday’s Pursuit at the IBU World Championships in Oberhof, Germany, twenty-nine-year-old Johannes Thignes Boe and 25-year-old Sturla Holm Laegreid put on a masterclass. They both shot 20/20—something many biathletes never manage to do in a whole career—to claim their now familiar places on the gold and silver steps of the podium. Having won the Sprint, Boe started first in the...
After missing her last two shots in Friday’s Sprint competition and finishing a disappointing tenth, World Cup Overall leader Julia Simon of France was determined to fight her way onto the podium in today’s World Championship Pursuit. In the end, Simon, who thrives in head-to-head competitions, made clear why she leads the World Cup standings, recovering a 1:02.8 deficit from Sprint winner Denise Herrmann (GER) to take gold—her first-ever individual World Championship medal of...
One man has won all five 10 k Sprint competitions so far this season, so even with 112 starters in today’s BMW IBU World Championship Sprint, there was no doubt about the favorite. Johannes Thignes Boe of Norway has been untouchable on skis since November, regularly out-skiing his nearest competitor by over 30 seconds. The 150m penalty loop in biathlon usually takes athletes about 23 seconds, so Boe can afford to miss once and still...
Biathlon fans anticipated that the women’s 7.5km Sprint would be one of the most tightly-contested races of the BMW IBU World Championships, and it did not disappoint. In the end, only 2.2 seconds separated the new World Champion, Denise Herrmann-Wick of Germany, from the silver medalist, Hanna Oeberg of Sweden. Oeberg’s teammate, Linn Persson, finished third. These athletes will start at the front of Sunday’s 60-person Pursuit and try to stave off the chasers for...
The opening event of the 2023 World Championships delivered in spectacular fashion. Twenty-six nations lined up for the Mixed Relay on Wednesday afternoon under bright sunshine and calm, clear skies, with temperatures around zero degrees Celsius. The perfect conditions were a dream come true for organizers, spectators, and teams alike, especially since Oberhof has a reputation for dense fog, heavy wind and snow, and that displeasing other form of precipitation which we won’t even name....
The 2023 BMW IBU Biathlon World Championships kick off on Wednesday, February 8th in Oberhof, Germany. Let’s start with reasons why to watch: Why Watch? Watch because it’s free and easy. This winter, all biathlon World Championship, World Cup, Junior World Championship, and even IBU Cup (World Cup feeder circuit) races and are free to stream live with English commentary on Eurovision’s website. Watch because on the men’s side, Johannes Thignes Boe’s domination so far...
Another day at Whistler and another day of great skiing. The day started just below freezing with a little new snow overnight, intermittent sunshine, no wind, and no snowfall until after the last skier finished. The course was two laps of the Olympic Red 5km, the same course used in 2010 for the classic races. About 3km of the loop was the same as used in the classic 20km Monday and Tuesday. There is a...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. As the World Cup entered its third day of racing in Toblach for a 4 x 7.5 km Team Relay, the tone was one of anticipation: what would happen in the race?...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. The FIS World Cup calendar refers to this village as “Toblach,” but there’s more than one name for this wonderful, mountainous place. Located in the Sud Tirol of Northern Italy—a region suspended...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. A lot can happen out on a World Cup race course: sometimes, the on-screen coverage makes results seem straightforward, but 10 kilometers is a long way to race, and fortunes are known...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Racing in Toblach, Italy continued today with the Men’s 10-kilometer freestyle. Coming into the race Johannes Hosflot Klaebo (NOR) had won 13 men’s events and was only one victory away from tying...
Day five of racing at Whistler Olympic Park delivered with an interval start 10km free technique race in great conditions and intermittent sunshine. The tracks were fast and almost silky, the corners held up all day, the glide was exceptional, and (if anyone cared to classic on a great skating day) VR45 was magic. Early on, North American skiers spent quality time in the leader’s chair before the top ranked skiers took over. Norway put...