FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Women’s 30 k freestyle mass start Marit Bjørgen made it a four-peat on Saturday with her fourth gold and third individual win over the last week at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (She previously won the 15-kilometer skiathlon, 10 k classic, and 4 x 5 k relay.) The 36-year-old Norwegian closed out the championships with a 1.9-second victory in the women’s 30-kilometer freestyle mass start, finishing in 1:08:36.8...
For a while in Thursday’s 7.5-kilometer sprint, the first International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup race since IBU World Championships two weeks earlier, it looked like Susan Dunklee was on track for another podium. Dunklee, 31, of US Biathlon, had last raced to Results | World Cup standings
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Women’s 4 x 5 k relay The Norwegian women’s team got a much-needed lift from Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, the third leg of its 4 x 5-kilometer relay, on Thursday, who tagged her teammate Marit Bjørgen nearly a minute ahead of anyone else. From there, Bjørgen anchored the Norwegians to a 1:01.6-minute victory for her third gold of 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Meanwhile, Sweden and Finland battled for...
HOCHFILZEN, Austria — Coming into the women’s 4 x 6-kilometer relay at World Championships, there was certainly one overwhelming favorite: Germany. Not only had the German women won every relay in the World Cup season so far, but the German mixed relay team won gold to kick off the Championships. Plus, anchor leg Laura Dahlmeier had two individual gold medals to her name and one silver so far. “As a team we tried to put...
HOCHFILZEN, Austria—Every women’s race of the World Championships so far, the question has been: where’s Laura Dahlmeier? And in every race, the German has has turned in fantastic performances. Close to perfect on the range, fast on her skis, winning a medal each time. The 15 k individual was no exception. A late starter, Dahlmeier had just one miss, in her first prone stage, and then all was clear as she raced to another gold...
It was a day of redemption. Both for a biathlon superstar and for the best North American in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint at the 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria. A year ago, Czech Republic’s Gabriela Koukalová (back then starting under her maiden name Soukalová) was disappointed when she failed to win any medal at the Oslo World Championships, twice placing fourth, once fifth, and twice sixth with her team. She...
IBU World Championships (Hochfilzen, Austria): Women’s 7.5 k sprint Gabriela Koukalová, formerly Soukalova, had been so close to a World Championships individual gold medal, yet through five World Championships and two Olympic Games, a world title still eluded her — until Friday. In the second race of 2017 IBU World Championships (and first individual competition), the 27-year-old Koukalova, of the Czech Republic, raced to first in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint, edging Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier, the...
As they had done in the first two relays this season, Germany and France occupied the top two positions on the podium in the women’s 4 x 6-kilometer relay on Sunday at the IBU World Cup in Antholz, Italy. And to the joy of over 20,000 raucous fans in the sunny arena, home team Italy claimed the third place. So far, so not very unusual. But at the halfway point of the race, Susan Dunklee had moved...
The next time your order a cup of joe, remember to be nice to the person on the other side of the counter; they could just be a World Cup skier. In a press release, Biathlon Canada was US Biathlon press release, of her first, third and fourth stages. “Unfortunately, a stupid mistake in the first standing stage foiled any chance I had at a good result. I tried to shoot through gusting wind instead...
IBU World Cup (Antholz, Italy): Women’s 15 k individual Eurovisionsports.tv.
Kaisa Mäkäräinen skied in a league of her own on Saturday. The five biathletes currently leading the International Biathlon Union (IBU) women’s overall standings also occupied the top five of Saturday’s 7.5-kilometer sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany. But when Mäkäräinen shoots clean in a race, even those fast skiers cannot keep up with “the Finnish flash,” as an announcer for German TV broadcaster ARD dubbed her, as she finished in 20:51.8 minutes for her first World Cup win of the season and...
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Toblach, Italy): Freestyle sprints Men | Race report Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen posts a 22-second win for her first victory of the season and first time shooting without a miss in an individual race since the Ruhpolding sprint almost exactly a year ago. Dunklee leads North Americans in 33rd and qualifies for the pursuit, along with Canada’s Rosanna Crawford (55th), Megan Tandy (56th) and Julia Ransom (60th). Ski Classics press release. “It...
U.S. Cross Country Championships (Soldier Hollow): Freestyle-sprint prologue [UPDATED] One and done. That was the case Thursday for the U.S. Cross Country Championship’s freestyle sprint at Soldier Hollow (SoHo) where only a qualifier was held to determine the final standings — no heats were contested. With just-under-freezing temps and a light snow falling, the men set off at 15-second intervals. The men’s podium was an all-Canadian affair as they swept the top-three positions. Jess Cockney of the Canadian...
A biathlon relay with athletes skiing around and through a huge soccer arena in a city with no snow seems like a crazy idea. But in the 1990s, the German cross-country skier and biathlete Herbert Fritzenwenger, who had retired from active sports after competing in the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games, believed there had to be some way to make biathlon even more attractive for viewers. He wanted to mix sports and entertainment bringing the sport...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Canada’s Julia Ransom.) Beaming with excitement, France’s Anaïs Chevalier could barely believe her good fortune of this race weekend in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, immediately following the first International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup podium of her career in according to an IBU press release. “I was scared,” she recounted of trying to hold off Wierer on her last loop. “I was only enjoying the last...
Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers. *** IBU World Cup in Nove Mesto: 10/12.5 k pursuits [UPDATE] Third one day, fourth the next. That’s the streak Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon)...
On Friday morning, Susan Dunklee woke up with a cold. A mild one, but enough to dull the nervous system and wreak havoc on her shooting, she feared. But she had a race ahead of her, the first of hopefully three this weekend, and the US Biathlon veteran forged ahead with her race-day routine in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. “Once I started warming up, I felt mentally awake and ready,” Dunklee recalled in an email to...
(Note: This is not a race report but rather a digest of the day’s events. Check back for complete race reports.) *** IBU World Cup in Nove Mesto: Women’s 7.5 k sprint Susan Dunklee Results *** NorAm mini tour in Rossland: 10/15 k freestyle [UPDATE] The NorAm series kicked off its second stop on Friday with a three-race mini tour in Rossland, B.C. The men’s 15 k freestyle had a more traditional result, with Canadians retaking...
Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers. *** Note: This recap has been updated to reflect the correct positions each of the four Canadian women exchanged in during Sunday’s 4 x...
Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers. *** Canadian NorAm/U.S. SuperTour at Sovereign Lake: Classic sprint [UPDATE] U.S. skiers filled the open category podiums on the first fully North American...