The U.S. Biathlon Association will reduce its World Cup team to just three men and three women in the beginning of January, ruling out relays in Oberhof, but it's only temporary - seven men and women will race on the IBU Cup and potentially earn promotions to the top circuit.
With their eyes on the prize of a holiday break (for biathletes and non-Tour de Ski participants, two weekends off of the World Cup), a number of North American skiers notched competitive results, and for some -- even career bests -- in the last week.
Nathan Smith had never finished a mass start before Sunday, but he knew if all went according to plan, he could be in a competitive position. The Canadian found himself in sixth at one point, and with two penalties, secured his second-best World Cup result in ninth.
Kaisa Mäkäräinen came back from a 29-second deficit and two standing penalties to win Sunday’s 12.5-kilometer mass start by 7.6 seconds over a very happy Anais Bescond. Rosanna Crawford capped off a string of career-bests in 12th, and Susan Dunklee was 22nd.
Darya Domracheva was the big winner on Saturday in the IBU World Cup 10 k pursuit, but there were some personal victories Canadians Rosanna Crawford and Megan Heinicke achieved throughout the race as well. For one, Crawford clawed her way back into seventh after two early misses, and Heinicke went from 41st to 14th as one of two women to clean.
Emil Hegle Svendsen won his second race of the season on Saturday, again with perfect shooting, in the 12.5 k pursuit in Pokljuka, Slovenia. Cleaning was easier said than done, especially for the North American men, all of which had at least three misses.
Not only was Russia's Anton Shipulin 100-percent on-target in the men's IBU World Cup sprint on Friday, he was also the fastest, leading him to a nearly 12 second win over Austria's Dominik Landertinger. All but one man (Martin Fourcade) in the top nine cleaned, and Lowell Bailey shot flawlessly as well for 16th.
Scott Gow found himself on the podium just 1.6 seconds behind the winner of Friday's 10 k sprint on the third day of racing at the IBU Cup in Obertilliach, Austria. Audrey Vaillancourt also shot clean to lead the Canadian women in seventh in the 7.5 k sprint.
Confidence builds on itself. Despite having a cold earlier this week, Rosanna Crawford took Sunday's fifth-place finish on the biathlon World Cup and turned it into a fourth-place follow up, finishing the 7.5 k sprint 36 seconds behind winner Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic.
Biathlon is a roller coaster, but the beauty is that lows can turn into highs: Hannah Dreissigacker wenf from placing 78th in her last World Cup competition to cleaning all ten targets and finishing 17th in today's sprint, good for her first top-20. Susan Dunklee placed 19th with two penalties.
Julia Ransom topped her previous IBU Cup career best of 11th, which she set on Tuesday, with clean shooting for seventh on Wednesday in the 7.5 k sprint in Obertilliach. Also for Canada, Christian Gow placed eighth, Scott Gow was 11th and Macx Davies 15th in the 10 k sprint.
After a career-best finish on Sunday, Canada's Rosanna Crawford takes us through a typical week on the IBU World Cup and explains how and when she fits in intensity sessions, a.k.a. race prep.
After the first race weekend of their European tour was canceled due to low snow, Canadian biathletes finally got started in Obertilliach, Austria, and started out hot: Emma Lunder and Julia Ransom placed 10th and 11th in the women's 15 k individual, and Christian Gow 18th in the men's race.
Rosanna Crawford had been thinking about this kind of performance for a long time, and even on Friday, after placing 34th in the Hochfilzen sprint, she predicted it was coming. She just didn't think it would come on Sunday in the 10 k pursuit.
Martin Fourcade was pretty pumped about his 12.5-kilometer pursuit win on Sunday on the last day of the Hochfilzen IBU World Cup in Austria. Like, eight exclamation points excited. “Yes!!!!!!!!” the two-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time world champion from France started seventh, 28 seconds behind seventh in the sprint with clean shooting. “I am happy that I gave 100 percent of myself today and shoot 20. I am very happy with that … My...
With a goal of a top eight on Saturday, the Canadians did two places better to tie a team-best sixth in the IBU World Cup men's relay in Hochfilzen, Austria. Russia won it by 20 seconds over France, and Norway was another 7.7 seconds back in third.
For three out of the four legs in the IBU World Cup women’s 4 x 6-kilometer relay on Saturday in Hochfilzen, Austria, it could’ve been anyone’s game, especially Russia’s, Germany’s, Poland’s and the Czech Republic’s. All four were within 40 seconds of one another behind Russia in first at the final exchange — and while it might have seemed like Russia with a 19-second lead was untouchable — any biathlete will tell you nothing in...
Down a quart heading into the IBU World Cup #2 in Hochfilzen, Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen rallied to win Friday's sprint by more than 10 seconds. Susan Dunklee led the U.S. in 29th and Canada's Rosanna Crawford was another 5 seconds back in 34th.
Tim Burke put it all on the line and missed a single target -- his last one -- for 13th in Friday's 10 k sprint on the first day of the Hochfilzen IBU World Cup. Also for the U.S., Lowell Bailey shot clean for 17th.
A transcript (find a link inside) of the German documentary which exposed systematic doping in Russia reveals an even worse situation than imagined: how easy it is to purchase cheap EPO without a prescription; how Russian officials threaten that any athlete who goes to the press might "have an accident". Plus, we talk to Lowell Bailey, Nathan Smith, and Max Cobb about the situation.