A national-team member for the better part of the last nine years, Nathan Smith knows the life of a full-time biathlete isn't always glamorous, but it beats the alternative. “There’s tough training days ... or you’re having bad races and you’re like, ugh, why do I do this?” he said. “But if you have a normal 9-5 job, you’d have a lot more of those days I think.”
The biathlon World Cup season was over before the final races on Sunday began. Strong winds and an overturned light post led organizers to cancel the season-ending mass starts in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Awards and Crystal Globes will be handed out Sunday night.
Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen rolled to another victory in the final IBU World Cup in Russia, beating France's Marie Dorin Habert -- the big winner at World Championships -- by 1.5 seconds in the women's pursuit on Saturday. Susan Dunklee placed 22nd despite four penalties and Canada's Julia Ransom shot clean to rise 20 places to 34th.
Germany's Simon Schempp felt the power in his legs to get the job done on the final loop of the men's 12.5 k pursuit on Saturday, while Tim Burke of the U.S. reached the flower ceremony for the second-straight day in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. "These are my two best results of the season so I can't be too disappointed," Burke explained.
In the final sprint of the season, Julian Eberhard won his first race, earned his first podium and became the first Austrian to win an IBU World Cup sprint in 15 years. Meanwhile, Tim Burke placed sixth for his best result of the 2015/2016 season, and the U.S. men notched a team-best sixth overall in the Nation Cup.
Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen capitalized on her past success in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, and won the final sprint of the season on Thursday after winning the sprint there last year. Susan Dunklee placed 25th to lead the North Americans and ranks an unprecedented 13th overall in the IBU World Cup.
While most skiers are heading out on vacation, Holly Brooks is en route to Siberia for the last race of the FIS Marathon Cup. She leads the series by four points over Tatjana Mannima of Estonia, meaning that whether it's in first or in sixth, whoever crosses the finish line first takes the crown.
We caught up with Canadian biathlon staff and athletes to chat about the significance of Nathan Smith's World Cup in on Saturday, just the second in history for a Canadian man. It's good for Smith and good for the program - but Own the Podium is unlikely to reward it with money, because the funding body only considers World Championships and Olympic medal performances.
Nathan Smith took the lead after the third shooting stage, and never gave it back - despite the best efforts of superstars like Martin Fourcade and Anton Shipulin. "It was kind of surreal," Smith said of entering the final loop with a 37-second lead and savoring the moments leading up to his first World Cup win. Meanwhile, Martin Fourcade clinched his fourth consecutive World Cup title, a feat that has never before been accomplished in biathlon.
Darya Domracheva tried to shoot standing in a prone stage, then nearly dropped her rifle. But she was 100% focused when it counted, and now looks likely to capture the overall World Cup title. Rosanna Crawford of Canada shot 19-for-20 and moved from 28th up to 19th.
Hannah Dreissigacker rebounded from 75-percent shooting at IBU World Championships to hit 90 percent of her targets on Friday and place 14th for a career best in the final IBU World Cup sprint of the season in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Also for the U.S., Susan Dunklee finished 26th, and Canada's Rosanna Crawford was close behind in 28th.
Nathan Smith shot 9-for-10 and ended up fifth, 34 seconds behind winner Martin Fourcade, in Thursday's 10 k sprint in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, the final stop on the IBU World Cup tour. Leif Nordgren led the U.S. in 21st with 90-percent shooting as well, finishing 1:14 back despite feeling under the weather.
After blunders in Saturday's pursuit, Martin Fourcade of France was back to his winning ways in the mass start, and has become the first man since Raphael Poiree to sweep all of the crystal globes. American Tim Burke was in the pack fighting for second, but despite pushing Emil Hegle Svendsen to his absolute limit had to settle for fourth by just 0.3 seconds.
Even Gabriela Soukalova's mother, an Olympic silver medalist, was impressed with the dominant performances the 23-year-old from the Czech Republic has put on in Khanty Mansiysk this weekend. Marie Dorin Habert of France and Kaisa Makarainen of Finland rounded out the podium in the 12.5 k mass start.
Christoph Sumann was having a bad run of things. Just two weeks ago, you could find the 37-year-old former Olympic medalist dabbling in ski races - classic ski races - at home in Austria. But in today's pursuit in Russia, the biathlete was back at the top of his game, shooting a perfect 20-for-20 while Martin Fourcade seemed a shell of his former self, accumulating five penalties.
As Gabriela Soukalova took her lead from the sprint and turned it into another victory in the 10 k pursuit, U.S. biathletes Annelies Cook and Susan Dunklee ended their World Cup seasons on a bitter note: after too many penalties, neither was able to qualify for the mass start. Dunklee added insult to injury by cross-firing on the wrong targets and receiving a time penalty. Still, though, she said it was a fun week.
Coming off the high of a top-five in Sochi, Russia, last weekend, U.S. Biathlon’s Tim Burke continued the momentum on Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk with a ninth-place finish in the 10 k sprint, the third-to-last race of the World Cup season. Lowell Bailey also had a strong finish in 11th place, two seconds behind Burke with perfect shooting.
France's Martin Fourcade was once again nearly 40 seconds ahead of everyone in the World Cup field on Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. With his 17th podium of the season now in the bag he stands poised to take the overall title with the conclusion of the season on Sunday.
Gabriela Soukalova didn't want to race Thursday morning. Who could blame her? It was freezing in Siberia and she was set to start a 7.5 k sprint that evening. The Czech overcame her dread and won the IBU World Cup race over Germany's Andrea Henkel and Miriam Gössner. Susan Dunklee led the Americans in 29th.
Coming into today’s 15 k mass start in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, Martin Fourcade of France seemed to be unstoppable. At World Championships in Ruhpolding Germany a week ago, Fourcade had won the final race, a mass start, by overpowering a better-shooting Bjorn Ferry of Sweden. Then in the sprint here in Khanty-Mansiysk he eked out a 5-second victory, which he parlayed into a more sizable win in the pursuit. Those wins clinched the overall World Cup...