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Biathlon Canada

More Olympic and World Championship Medalists Join Tyumen Biathlon Boycott

In three weeks time, biathlon’s World Cup circuit will move to Russia. But a number of the sport’s stars won’t be there – and others plan to attend, but aren’t very happy about it. In an Executive Board session in PyeongChang, South Korea, a few weeks ago, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) decided to go on as planned with World Cup races in Tyumen, Russia, even though the Russian Anti-Doping Agency is still not compliant...

Opening Doors: Biathlon Canada’s All-Female Coaching Staff at Youth/Junior Worlds

Think about all of the exceptional female biathletes out there. Too many to count, right? Now, if you watch biathlon at the World Cup level, think about how many women you’ve seen coaching there. None? One? There are at least a couple, according to Biathlon Canada’s High Performance Director Roddy Ward, who’s been coaching biathlon internationally since 2011. The Slovakian women’s coach is one and the Austrian team also has a female coach, he wrote...

Levins 6th, Bankes 8th in Pursuit to Cap Off Youth/Junior World Champs

(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Leo Grandbois.) The 2018 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championships went out with a bang on Sunday, with four pursuit races in Otepää, Estonia. Several North Americans had banner days, with American Chloe Levins racing up one spot to sixth place in the junior women’s 10-kilometer pursuit and Canada’s Megan Bankes and Nadia Moser placing eighth and 11th, respectively, in that same race. In...

20-for-20 with Jenna Sherrington

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 16-year-old Jenna Sherrington, of Calgary, who is representing Canada at her first Youth World Championships. In her last race of Youth Worlds, the youth women’s 7.5 k pursuit, Sherrington...

Levins 7th, Bankes 9th, Kiers 16th in IBU Junior Worlds Sprint

“There’s almost nothing I love more than being in the hunt during a pursuit,” American sixth in the junior women’s 12.5-kilometer individual on Thursday, Levins, 19, raced to seventh place in Saturday’s 7.5 k sprint, which will put her in seventh (and within 10 seconds of fourth place) for the start of Sunday’s 10 k pursuit at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia. Last year, Levins raced to Megan Bankes...

20-for-20 with Trevor Kiers

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 20-year-old Trevor Kiers, who is representing Canada at his second Junior World Championships. On Saturday, Kiers broke through in

Friday Rundown: Paradis Leads Canada in 15th in IBU Youth Worlds Sprint

IBU Youth World Championships (Otepää, Estonia): Youth women’s and men’s sprints Sweden’s Karin Elvira Öberg raced to her third-straight win of the week at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth World Championships in Otepää, and Pascale Paradis led Canada in 15th in the youth women’s 6-kilometer sprint on Friday. Paradis started 36th out of 92 women and shot 18-for-20, missing one on each stage (1+1), on a day when the top-two finishers had misses as...

Thursday Rundown: Levins 6th, Moser 8th, Bankes 9th in Junior Worlds Individual

IBU Junior World Championships (Otepää, Estonia): Junior women’s and men’s individual Three North Americans in the top 10, top nine even. That’s what happened in a single race at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Junior World Championships on Thursday in Otepää, with American Nadia Moser and high of -10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) on Thursday morning, she almost preferred it. “There were also 20 second start intervals which are shorter than the usual 30, so...

20-for-20 with Nadia Moser

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 20-year-old Nadia Moser, who is representing Canada at her second Junior World Championships. Moser started her season with four weekends worth of IBU Cup racing, and also got her first...

Tuesday-Wednesday Rundown: Youth/Junior Worlds Relays

IBU Youth World Championships (Otepää, Estonia): Relays Tuesday and Wednesday were relay days at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championships in Otepää, highlighted by two ninth-place results by the Canadian and American biathlon teams. On Tuesday, the Canadian junior women (Emily Dickson, Nadia Moser and Megan Bankes) placed ninth in the 3 x 6-kilometer relay, 3:31.6 minutes out of first, with two penalties and 14 spares. The U.S. youth men (Vasek Cervenka, Camren...

20-for-20 with Megan Bankes

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 20-year-old Megan Bankes, who is representing Canada at her second World Junior Championships after also competing at 2015 World Youth Championships. Bankes won

Monday Rundown: Canada’s Paradis 6th, Peiffer 11th in Biathlon Youth Worlds Debut

(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Canada’s Pascale Paradis and Canadian head coach Jacqueline Akerman.) IBU Youth World Championships (Otepää, Estonia): Youth women’s and men’s individual  On Day 1 of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championships in Otepää, Canada had two women finish in the top 11 of the youth women’s 10-kilometer individual race on Monday. Both are brand new to the Youth World Championships scene, with 15-year-old Pascale...

Boycott Grows, But IBU Hasn’t Budged on Russian World Cup

In December, Biathlon Canada announced that after the men’s relay at the Olympics on Friday. “Our President, Anders Besseberg… at every turn when he has the chance to defend clean sport, he has turned the other way. And it’s not fair to clean athletes. The latest decision by the IBU was to send the World Cup tour to Tyumen, Russia, for our World Cup final. Team USA is boycotting. The Czech team is boycotting. Canada...

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Four years ago in the men’s relay in Sochi, Russia, Svendsen as Norway’s anchor had been in the medal hunt until the final shooting. There, he used all of his spares and still left a target standing, which sent him to the penalty lap. After leading by as much as 20 seconds in the middle of that race, Norway finished fourth. But as they say, that’s biathlon. And on...

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Full report Germany were the favorites coming into this men’s relay and Erik Lesser started them off with a near-perfect relay leg to sit in first place, but shooting collapses by Benedikt Doll and Simon Schempp left the team with bronze medals at the finish. On a windy, gusty day, the relay instead came down to a race between Norway and Sweden. Coming into the last shooting stage Fredrik Lindström of Sweden and Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway were...

Thursday Olympic Rundown: Belarus Gold in Thrilling Women’s Biathlon Relay; US 10th Team in NoCo

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Full report Ranked just 10th coming into today’s women’s relay, the team from Belarus stole the show with Darya Domracheva skating across the line to claim the fourth Olympic gold of her career after strong efforts from Nadezhda Skardino and Iryna Kryuko, both of whom have stood on the World Cup podium before, and newcomer Dzinara Alimbekava, a 22-year-old newcomer with just 11 World Cup starts to her name. It was the first relay...

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Full report A few shooting errors by pursuit bronze medalist Anais Bescond were not enough to derail France, as the team of Marie Dorin Habert, Bescond, Simon Desthieux, and Martin Fourcade took gold in the mixed relay. Skiing the first leg, Dorin Habert shot clean and tagged off just seven seconds behind the leading team from Italy. Bescond then used four spare rounds over the course of her relay leg, dropping the team to fourth...

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Olympic cross-country and biathlon cheat sheet, and not long after, we received a comment from a reader asking for a uniform cheat sheet. We, too, found ourselves sometimes befuddled. During Saturday’s skiathlon, this reporter found himself looking for the emblematic stars on the U.S. Ski Team’s new unis. There were stars, think Diggins and Kalla, just no obvious stellar-like branding on the USST suits. So for you and for us,...

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, men’s 10-kilometer sprint, Fourcade finished eighth, missing three out of five in his first shooting stage, and Bø had the same problem with prone — missing three then shooting another penalty in standing — to end up 31st. It was the kind of result no one saw coming after those two had taken first or second in every non-relay World Cup race this season (except for one, the sprint...

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Full report It was a disappointing opening to the Olympics for Johannes Thingnes Bø of Norway, who despite winning eight World Cup races this season started the Games with finishes of 31st and 21st in the sprint and pursuit. But on Thursday he showed why he was a medal favorite and won the 20 k individual race – only by 5.5 seconds, but that margin becomes impressive when you...