A real crowd finally showed up on Saturday in Fort Kent, for the first time in three days of World Cup racing. They got exactly what they came for in the men’s 12.5 k pursuit: an exhilarating, back-and-forth battle culminating in a finishing sprint that was decided by inches—leaving fans and athletes alike unsure of who was the victor. Five minutes after he lunged with Frenchman Martin Fourcade, Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen finally learned that...
For Emil Hegle Svendsen, it was admittedly a bit of a gamble to fly to the U.S. from his home country of Norway, for a single weekend of racing. “It’s always a risk,” he said. But after his first of three World Cup races in Fort Kent, the trip has already paid off, thanks to the $15,000 Svendsen will collect for his win in Thursday’s 10 k sprint. A candidate to represent Norway in the...
On Friday morning at 9:30 a.m., the United States will hold its first World Cup race since 2004. The IBU World Cup circuit will be making stops in Presque Isle, Maine, this weekend, and then in nearby Fort Kent next weekend. While it might take almost as long to get to “The County” from the U.S. as from anywhere else, the races should be spectacular. If you can’t make it to Maine, the event will...
First, retired star Thomas Alsgaard showed up at Norwegian national championships and placed third in the 15 k classic, leading commentators and fans alike to bemoan the state of the national team. Sure, Alsgaard is an amazing talent and is training fairly seriously for marathons, but should a man who has been retired for almost ten years be able to beat everyone except Martin Sundby Johnsrud and Eldar Roenning? Then the Norwegian team for World...
When the small town of Ruhpolding, Germany, bid to host biathlon’s 2012 World Championships, they knew they had their work cut out for them. “Preparations for the World Champs 2012 start now,” said Mayor Claus Pichler in August 2008 when Ruhpolding won the bid. “I got plenty of feedback from the delegates at the IBU Congress.” And they have been busy ever since, completely renovating and reconfiguring the area’s stadium as well as giving the...
Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway hasn’t always been the most gracious competitor. After Sunday’s mass start race in Oberhof, Germany, he told the media that he was “shocked” about how fast his teammate Tarjei Boe had become. And after the season-opening World Cups in Ostersund, Sweden, he bragged that he was “in an attacking position all of the time. I feel unstoppable, really.” Since that claim, Svendsen has indeed been stoppable, but things changed today...
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...
The first big chinks in Ole Einar Bjoerndalen’s armor showed up at the 2010 Olympics, where his two-medal performance was eclipsed by the three podiums collected by his Norwegian teammate, Emil Hegle Svendsen. Bjoerndalen, 36, was charitable at the time, as befitted a living legend with nearly three-dozen World Championships medals to his name. And there was no sense that he felt threatened by Svendsen—after all, the three medals that Svendsen won in Vancouver represented...
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...
There’s one way to guarantee yourself a good result in a biathlon race: hit all the targets. In the men’s 15 k mass start World Cup in Oslo, Russia’s Ivan Tcherezov was the only one of 30 starters to do so, and he won, by 26 seconds, over Austria’s Christoph Sumann and Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen. From the first loop and first shooting stage, Tcherezov was in the hunt, ensconced in a big group and...
Anyone watching knew that it was going to be close. When Sergey Novikov (BLR) left the range after his final round of shooting in the 20k individual start, he led Norwegians Emil Hegle Svendsen and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen by seven and 26 seconds, respectively. But Novikov’s lead was due to good shooting, not fast skiing, and the question was whether he could hold on. For the two Norwegians, who had already finished racing, the nine...
American hopes for a medal in the men’s 10k biathlon sprint fell about as hard as the snow did in the middle of today’s race. 25 minutes into the event, the steady drizzle that came down throughout the morning morphed into a wild snow squall, slowing the skiing drastically and effectively squashing the chances of anyone still on course. The medalists in the race—France’s Vincent Jay, Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen, and Croatia’s Jakov Fak—all were...