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Leif Nordgren

American Men 9th in Biathlon Relay, Best Result in a Year – With Photos

It’s not as if the U.S. men’s biathlon team hasn’t shown its potential this year: Lowell Bailey led the beginning of the last relay before missing too many shots to maintain his position, and Bailey has had a number of top-20 finishes in individual races, while Tim Burke has two top-20’s and Leif Nordgren shot clean to finish 35th in the very first World Cup race of the season. But still, the biathlon world was...

The second period of the biathlon World Cup opened in Oberhof, Germany on Wednesday with a…. ping. Lots of pings, actually. Huge wind gusts obliterated the men’s relay field, and the International Biathlon Union reported that the world’s best biathletes used 352 spare rounds, about three times the normal amount in a World Cup relay, and still had to ski 100 penalty loops. Ouch. One team, however, wasn’t fazed by the challenging shooting conditions. Although...

In Saturday’s World Cup sprint race, Bjorn Ferry gave habitual powerhouse Sweden its third victory of the new season, and its first in a men’s race. On Sunday, Sweden took win number four. After Helena Ekholm and Anna Carin Zidek, the team’s first two World Cup victors this season, left the Swedes within striking distance of the podium, Carl Johann Bergman used some last-minute heroics to take a 0.3 second win over Ukraine France and...

Weather Wreaks Havoc on World Cup Biathlon Relay; U.S. Has “Worst Race Possible”

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 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...

US Biathlon Preview: 2010-11 (corrected!)

(Note: FasterSkier initially made an error and reported that Lanny Barnes was not re-named to the National Team. Since then, we have corrected the article – it was in fact her sister, Tracy, who was not re-named. FasterSkier apologizes for the error.) Last year was a historic season for U.S. biathlon. In late December, Tim Burke captured the yellow World Cup leader bib, and continued to wear it through part of January; it was the...

Pros of Tomorrow: Leif Nordgren

At just twenty-one years of age, Leif Nordgren is the youngest member of the U.S. Biathlon Team. In the past few seasons, he has racked up some of the best American results ever at the World Junior Championships, snagging a bronze in the pursuit in 2008 in Rupholding – the first U.S. medal at the event since 2002. This year, he’s no longer in the junior ranks, so he’ll be fully exposed to the senior...

The final races of the World Junior/Youth Biathlon Championships in Torsby, Sweden concluded yesterday with the team relays. Summary of relays: –Russia won Youth Men and Junior Women, while Germany won Junior Men and Norway won Youth Women. –Canada entered teams for all events. The U.S. did not field teams for the Junior Men’s and Junior Women’s relays. –Best American finish: Canada’s Youth Women relay team of Rose-Marie Cote, Audrey Vaillancourt, and Julia Ransom were...

The top 60 racers from yesterday’s sprint qualified to start in pursuit format for today’s World Junior/Youth Biathlon Championships in Torsby, Sweden. The last race of the Championships will be a team relay on Tuesday. Junior Men Leif Nordgren moved closer to the top of the results in today’s 12.5km pursuit, but was weighted with 5 penalties which kept him from closing in on the podium.  After placing 6th in yesterday’s sprint, Nordgren started 47...

Nordgren places 6th in WJ Biathlon Sprint

Leif Nordgren continues to climb the results list in the World Junior Biathlon races held in Tornsby, Sweden with today’s 6th place result.  After placing just outside the top ten in Thursday’s individual race, Nordgren improved his shooting in today’s Junior 10km sprint race by taking just one penalty. Nordgren finished 47.4 seconds behind winner Evgeny Petrov (RUS) who shot cleanly,  just 8 seconds off the pace of third place finisher  Tom Barth (0,1)  of...

This year’s World Junior/Youth Championships are off to a start this week in Torsby, Sweden. The first races were in the individual start format: 12.5/15 kilometer Junior and Youth Men’s races were held yesterday and 10/12.5 km Junior and Youth Women’s races were held today.  There will be three more races in both divisions in the next five days including sprint, pursuit, and relay races. After last year’s World Junior Championships in Canmore,  Leif Nordgren took...

The second phase of U.S. Biathlon Team Selection Races took place today in Altenberg at the IBU Cup Sprint events. The U.S. biathletes competing in Altenburg are vying for two open spots on the U.S. Olympic Team for men’s biathlon and three spots on the women’s team. Like their teammates in Oberhof, the U.S. athletes had to deal with similar weather challenges. Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) put his game together at the shooting range...

First Round of U.S. Biathlon Olympic Trails Compete in Altenberg

ALTENBERG, Germany — The first phase of the U.S. Olympic Biathlon Team selection began today in Altenberg. U.S. biathletes competing in Altenburg are vying for two open spots on the Men’s Olympic Team and three spots on the Women’s Olympic Team. Trials began today with a time-trial Sprint race which was contested between the U.S. athletes, and was scored using percent-back – a formula in which the three top times are averaged together to get...

The IBU Continental Cup , which is the final phase of the U.S. Olympic Biathlon Team selection begins on Thursday, January 7th in Altenberg. U.S. biathletes competing in Altenberg are vying for two available spots on the Men’s Team and three spots on the Women’s Team. The roster of athletes competing in Altenberg includes: 2006 Olympian Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), 2006 Olympian Lanny Barnes (Durango, Co), 2006 Olympian Tracy (Barnes) Colliander (Durango, Co), BethAnn...