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.
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.
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.
The United States biathlon team went into today’s World Cup pursuits looking for improvement, and two athletes nailed it: Lowell Bailey finished 17th and Susan Dunklee 19th. Both used deliberate shooting strategy on Ostersund's gusty range to make their moves.
Nothing went perfectly for the U.S. in Ostersund today, but one thing is clear: Tim Burke and Susan Dunklee are fast! Burke finished 17th and was excited about improving his ski performance in the sprint, a format which is shorter than he would prefer. Lowell Bailey was 23rd while Dunklee and Leif Nordgren missed the points but made the pursuit.
Lowell Bailey went 2 for 2 on the weekend in Jericho, and two different U.S. women edged Canada's Rosanna Crawford for victories at the North American Rollerski Championships at the Ethan Allen Firing Range.
American Lowell Bailey broke through with the race of his career, tallying his first IBU World Cup podium in third in Saturday's final sprint of the season. "I’ve been working towards this for ten years, twenty years," Bailey says. Canadian Nathan Smith notched a career-best sprint, and all of the North American men made Sunday's pursuit.
It was warm, wet and calm in Finland on Thursdsay requiring perfect shooting and strong legs. Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Bø delivered, shooting clean and beating France's Martin Fourcade, who also cleaned, by 7.1 seconds. Canada's Nathan Smith led the North Americans in 21st.
It would be easy to relax now that the Olympics are over - but the U.S. men's biathlon team is doing anything but. Lowell Bailey placed 10th and Tim Burke 13th in today's pursuit, while Leif Nordgren scored his first World Cup points of the season. "They still give the same amount of World Cup points for a win, and the prize money is still the same," Burke laughed.
Brendan Green led the Canadians in 21st with his best Olympic result on Thursday, and if he hadn't had two penalties in the 20 k individual, he would've been even closer. His teammates, Nathan Smith and JP Le Guellec placed 25th and 35th, respectively, and Tim Burke placed 44th with four penalties.
For most, the Olympic experience goes much deeper than results, and that couldn't have been more true for several North Americans competing at the highest stage of their sport for the first time on Saturday. U.S. cross-country skier Jessie Diggins emerged in eighth and Canadian biathlete Nathan Smith tallied 13th to highlight the day.
Tim Burke knew exactly what he did wrong to earn five penalties in Saturday's individual race: he took his time. "Actually for me usually the slower I shoot the worse I shoot," he said. Fixing that on Sunday, he shot 19-for-20 and was rewarded with a much-improved result.
After being sick for a week, it's been a slow comeback for Lowell Bailey, who hasn't raced since mid-December and hasn't done any speed training in two weeks. But he came back admirably in the Ruhpolding 20 k, placing 25th with two penalties. "The happiest thing is that I’m, knock on wood, healthy again," said the Sochi-bound biathlete.
Tim Burke would rather just forget about placing 61st in Friday's sprint; Annelies Cook was embarrassed to get lapped in the pursuit (to be fair, she had her work cut out for her starting last). Leif Nordgren called his results in the 40's "nothing special" and Lowell Bailey didn't even race because he had a cold. For the U.S., Susan Dunklee's finishes of 32nd and 25th were the bright spots.
Even if you have a wealth of international racing experience, the Olympics are a different thing entirely. Leif Nordgren and Annelies Cook, both of whom narrowly missed making the Vancouver teams, locked up their nominations for the U.S. biathlon squad based on results from the first period of World Cup racing this season.
The U.S. men went for it today, and the team was in podium position for much of the first half of Saturday's 4 x 7.5 k relay competition. They ended up 11th with Lowell Bailey, Tim Burke, Jeremy Teela, and Leif Nordgren, just 25 seconds out of sixth.
USBA picked 11 athletes to send to Europe this fall, based on trials races this summer in Jericho and last week at Soldier Hollow. Some of them will be picked for Sochi - but who? We clarify the qualification process, as well as getting some comments from High Performance Director Bernd Eisenbichler about the performances he saw in Utah last week.
FasterSkier caught the US Biathlon team during one of their hardest workouts of the training season in Lake Placid, with the added bonus of watching German gold medalist Andrea Henkel rollerski around with them.
A staple on the World Cup and the U.S. relay team, biathlete Leif Nordgren feels "more set" for the Olympics than last time around, when he was still a junior but trying the qualification process anyway. He told us about a good summer of training, changes in shooting, and navigating ski testing, boredom, and mashed-potato snow in the Oberhof ski tunnel.