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Simon Schempp

Bailey Caps World Champs Mass Start in Sixth; Schempp Finally Gets Gold

Before this year’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships, American Lowell Bailey had never cleaned a 20-kilometer individual or 15-kilometer mass start race. In layman’s terms, he had never hit all 20 targets in those types of races — the longest formats on the circuit. Not in a World Championships, not in a World Cup. That’s not to say shooting isn’t his strength; that’s just extremely difficult to do. Fast forward to Sunday, the last...

Sunday Rundown: World Champs Silver for Dunklee, Bailey 6th in Hochfilzen (Updated x2)

IBU World Championships (Hochfilzen, Austria): Women’s & men’s mass starts Silver medal for Susan Dunklee. That’s the big news coming out of Hochfilzen, Austria, on the final day of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships after the American finished second, just 4.6 seconds out of first, in the women’s 12.5-kilometer mass start. Dunklee started in bib 17 in the mass start and cleaned all 20 targets to put herself in the hunt for gold....

Russia Rebounds to Win Men’s Relay; USA Seventh, Just Missing Goal

HOCHFILZEN, Austria—Redemption, validation, national pride: just a few of the things that were on the line in today’s 4 x 7.5 k relay at IBU World Championships. For Austria, it was clear: a good performance on home soil was critical. The team hadn’t won a medal yet despite eight chances to do so. For Germany, the question was whether their accomplished men’s team could live up to the expectations set by its younger women’s team,...

Germany Wins First Gold of IBU World Champs; France and Russia Steal Mixed-Relay Show

Germany was front and center for the first race of 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships on Thursday in Hochfilzen, Austria, but there was a sideshow that stole a good chunk of the limelight between France (namely Martin Fourcade) and Russia (namely Alexander Loginov). The action began with the 2 x 6 + 2 x 7.5-kilometer mixed relay, a co-ed event where teams start women for the first and second legs, followed by men for the third and...

IBU World Championships (Hochfilzen, Austria): Mixed relay The unshakable Germans. That was the takeaway from the first race of the 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships on Thursday in Hochfilzen, Austria, the 2 x 6 + 2 x 7.5-kilometer mixed relay, after second-leg Laura Dahlmeier put the team in a position to win, and teammate Arnd Peiffer and Simon Schempp held onto first through the finish. After first-leg Vanessa Hinz put the Germans in...

Germany Ekes Out Win in Antholz Relay Photo Finish; U.S. Men Sixth

For Germany and Norway, it was a two-way battle for first following the final exchange of the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay on Saturday at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Antholz, Italy. There, thanks to third-leg Johannes Thingnes Bø, Norway had taken the lead by 17.7 seconds over Germany and built a 38-second gap to Russia in third. Ukraine was another nine seconds back in fourth, skiing just ahead of France and...

Saturday Rundown: Ulricehamn, Antholz, Chaux-Neuve, Zuoz, Whistler, & Truckee (Updated x6)

U.S. SuperTour (Truckee, Calif.): Classic sprints [UPDATED] Less than a week after being men’s 30 k classic mass start champion at this year’s U.S. nationals — won Saturday’s SuperTour classic sprint as well. Lustgarten, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, raced to a 1.58-second victory in the men’s A-final at the Auburn Ski Club in Soda Springs, Calif., finishing in 3:03.4. Ben Saxton, of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team, placed second, and Reese...

Friday Rundown: Antholz & Whistler (Updated)

NorAm Western Canadian Championships (Whistler, B.C.): Freestyle sprints [UPDATED] On Friday, the first day of the NorAm Western Canadian Championships at Whistler Olympic Park in Callaghan Valley, British Columbia, Dahria Beatty and Jess Cockney topped the women’s and men’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint A-finals, respectively. Beatty, of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) and Canada’s National U25 Team, started the day by qualifying in second, 0.31 seconds behind her fellow AWCA and U25 Team member, Olivia...

Fourcade Continues Record Season in Ruhpolding Pursuit

Even Martin Fourcade himself seems surprised with his season so far in the record books. “I know what I did this season is incredible,” the French biathlon star said in Sunday’s press conference in Ruhpolding, Germany. “Even in my best dreams I could never imagine that.” Fourcade continued his series of stellar performances in the men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. But he cut it close this time on his way to his 10th victory...

Burke Gives It One More Shot for Season-Best 12th; Bailey 18th in Ruhpolding Sprint

This week, Tim Burke reached a serious tipping point. A US Biathlon veteran with six International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup podiums to his name (including a silver medal at 2013 World Championships), Burke third in a sprint in Östersund, Sweden. So far this season, Burke, less than a month out from his 35th birthday, had failed to crack the top 20. His season-best result was men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in Ruhpolding, Germany, using...

Sunday Rundown: Alpe Cermis, Oberhof, Lahti, Soldier Hollow (Updated x5)

U.S. Cross Country Championships (Soldier Hollow): Classic sprints Jennie Bender of Bridger Ski Foundation and Kevin Bolger of the University of Utah won national titles in the classic sprints at 2017 U.S. Cross Country Championships at Soldier Hollow earlier Sunday afternoon. They each took narrow – but, for sprinting, relatively uncontested – victories, as each was in the lead coming into the stadium and led through the final 180-degree turn into the finishing straight. In the women’s race, Bender took the...

Germany Wins at Home in Soccer Arena; Canada Debuts at Schalke

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...

Sunday Rundown: La Clusaz, Nove Mesto, Ramsau, Klingenthal, Obertilliach, & Rossland (Updated x4)

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. *** FIS Nordic Combined Continental Cup in Klingenthal [UPDATE] Ben Loomis tallied two top 10’s and his U.S. Nordic Combined teammate Ben Berend...

Fourcade Makes It Three in a Row in Nove Mesto; Bailey 21st in Mass Start

“The soft the supple step and sturdy pace, that in the smallest of all circles turns, moves like a dance of strength around a core in which a mighty will is standing stunned.” – The Panther, second verse, by Rainer Maria Rilke. English translation by Stanley Appelbaum At the turn of the 19th century, the Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist Rilke frequently visited the town of Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, on holidays with his family. Later...

Bailey Ninth in Nove Mesto Pursuit for Best Result in Three Seasons

As Lowell Bailey rounded the course on Saturday in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, a total of five times in the men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit, he couldn’t hear a thing his coaches were shouting at him. The 35,000 spectators in the stadium and lining the track were overpowering them, but their movements gave the US Biathlon veteran all the information he needed to know. “It was, by far, the loudest spectator crowd I’ve ever experienced,” Bailey recalled on...

Saturday Rundown: La Clusaz, Nove Mesto & Rossland (Updated x3)

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)...

Sunday Rundown: Davos, Pokljuka & Sovereign Lake (Updated x3)

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...

Saturday Rundown: Davos, Pokljuka & Sovereign Lake (Updated x3)

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...

Emotional Day for Belgium’s Rösch; Fourcade Tops Another Pursuit; Bailey Repeats in 18th

At the top of the starting field in the International Biathlon Union (IBU) men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit in Pokljuka, Slovenia, a large part of the race on Saturday was determined by two pairs skiing and shooting in almost perfect synchrony together: France’s Martin Fourcade with Russia’s Anton Shipulin, and the two Norwegians Emil Hegle Svendsen and Johannes Thingnes Bø. For the first three shooting stages, all four athletes shot clean and fast, with Shipulin able to close the...