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Coverage of elite Biathlon racing and news – from the junior level to the World Cup.
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 Pascale Paradis

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 15-year-old Pascale Paradis, who is representing Canada at her first World Youth Championships. In her first race, Monday’s 10 k individual, Benita Peiffer to place 10th. *** “My full...

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

20-for-20 with Tim Cunningham

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 19-year-old Tim Cunningham, a freshman on the Saint Lawrence University ski team who is representing the United States at his first World Junior Championships. On Tuesday, Cunningham was part...

20-for-20 with Adam Runnalls

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 19-year-old Adam Runnalls of Calgary, who is representing Canada at his first World Junior Championships after twice being part of the team for the Youth division. On Tuesday, Runnalls...

20-for-20 with Garrett Beckrich

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 17-year-old Garrett Beckrich, of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, who is representing the United States at his first World Youth Championships. Today in Otepää, Beckrich finished 48th in the youth men’s...

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...

20-for-20 with Emma Stertz

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 17-year-old Emma Stertz, of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, who is representing the United States at her first World Youth Championships. *** “My full name is Emma Stertz but you can call...

20-for-20 with Benita Peiffer

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 17-year-old Benita Peiffer, of Whistler, British Columbia, who is representing Canada at her first World Youth Championships. Today in Otepää, Peiffer finished 11th in the youth women’s 10 k...

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...

Belarus Nabs First Olympic Gold in Women’s Relay; Canada 10th, U.S. 13th

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, mixed relay team placed fifth two days ago).  Öberg passed Bescond to claim silver for Sweden, 10.7 seconds back, while Bescond anchored France to bronze (+17.6), ahead of Norway in fourth (+29.7), Slovakia in fifth (+38.4), Switzerland in sixth (+43.5), Poland in seventh (+43.6), Germany in eighth (+53.9), Italy in ninth (+1:04.1), and Canada in 10th (+1:33.4). The U.S. finished 13th (+2:01.9) of 18th teams. With...

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, two individual gold medals at these Winter Games. The final leg of Tuesday’s race presented the opportunity for another. Coming through the last exchange, it was Germany’s Erik Lesser tagging off to Arnd Peiffer. Without Fourcade chasing them, Germany’s chances of a medal would have seemed certain. Peiffer, who learned around 1 p.m. that afternoon that he would start the relay in place of Simon Schempp, who reportedly was...

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, four years ago at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, as he narrowly lost a sprint finish for the gold medal in the mass start to Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen. “I was sure that Simon did it,” Fourcade said of Schempp at Sunday’s post-race press conference. “It was just because four years ago in Sochi, Emil did me a lot of pain, and tonight I was...

This One’s For Slovakia: Kuzmina Gets 3rd Medal of Week, and 3rd Olympic Gold, in Mass Start

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, said when asked of her younger brother, Anton Shipulin, who was one of the Russian athletes women’s 10-kilometer pursuit on Monday. Two days before that, she had finished outside the medals, 13th, in the Olympics’ opening biathlon sprint. But Kuzmina, who was born in Tyumen, Russia, and started racing for Slovakia in 2008, has been an all-around threat in the sport for some time. At her first Olympics in 2010...

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...