Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Libertine Seguros]

Has she given an exact date? Be nice to go into a distance event with some degree of uncertainty. How many races of 10km + has anyone other than Johaug, Bjoergen or Kowalczyk won, where they were competing, in the last 15 years? Probably less than 10%.

Here's the total of races won of 10km or more on the Women's World Cup not won by the three athletes above since 2011-12.

Feb 2, 2013, Sochi - 15km skiathlon - Kristin Størmer Steira (believe reduced field so likely none of the above in action)
Dec 1, 2013, Kuusamo - 10km freestyle pursuit - Charlotte Kalla
Jan 1, 2014, Lenzerheide (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic mass start - Kerttu Niskanen (no Bjørgen or Kowalczyk, but definitely Johaug)
Jan 23, 2015, Rybinsk - 10km freestyle - Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen (none of the three competing)
Jan 25, 2015, Rybinsk - 15km skiathlon - Martine Ek Hagen (none of the three competing)
Feb 15, 2015, Östersund - 10km freestyle - Charlotte Kalla
Jan 9, 2016, Val di Fiemme (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic mass start - Heidi Weng
Mar 5, 2016, Quebec (Ski Tour Canada stage) - 10km freestyle pursuit - Heidi Weng
Mar 11, 2016, Lake Louise (Ski Tour Canada stage) - 10km freestyle - Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
Mar 12, 2016, Canmore (Ski Tour Canada stage) - 10km classic pursuit - Krista Pärmäkoski (Johaug was at this, and won overall, plus obviously 2 of the 3 stages are pursuits which are contingent on other races)
Dec 4, 2016, Lillehammer - 10km classic pursuit - Krista Pärmäkoski (Bjørgen and Kowalczyk there, no Johaug)
Dec 10, 2016, Davos - 15km freestyle - Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (none of the three)
Dec 17, 2016, La Clusaz - 10km freestyle mass start - Heidi Weng (Bjørgen, no Johaug or Kowalczyk)
Jan 3, 2017, Oberstdorf (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km skiathlon - Stina Nilsson (none of the three)
Jan 4, 2017, Oberstdorf (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle pursuit - Stina Nilsson
Jan 7, 2017, Val di Fiemme (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic mass start - Stina Nilsson
---at this point Johaug's suspension takes place, and Bjørgen and Kowalczyk are doing reduced calendars so their performances are not as representative---
Nov 26, 2017, Ruka - 10km freestyle pursuit - Ragnhild Haga (Bjørgen only)
Dec 3, 2017, Lillehammer - 15km skiathlon - Charlotte Kalla (Bjørgen only)
Dec 10, 2017, Davos - 10km freestyle - Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (Bjørgen only)
Dec 16, 2017, Toblach - 10km freestyle - Charlotte Kalla (Bjørgen only)
Dec 31, 2017, Lenzerheide (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic - Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (none of the three)
Jan 1, 2018, Lenzerheide (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle pursuit - Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
Jan 4, 2018, Oberstdorf (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle mass start - Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
Jan 6, 2018, Val di Fiemme (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic mass start - Heidi Weng
Jan 21, 2018, Planica - 10km classic - Krista Pärmäkoski (Kowalczyk only)
Jan 28, 2018, Seefeld - 10km freestyle mass start - Jess Diggins (Bjørgen only)
Mar 4, 2018, Lahti - 10km classic - Krista Pärmäkoski (Bjørgen only)
Mar 17, 2018, Falun - 10km classic - Krista Pärmäkoski (Bjørgen only)
Mar 18, 2018, Falun - 10km freestyle pursuit - Jess Diggins (Bjørgen only)
---Johaug returns, Bjørgen and Kowalczyk retire---
Dec 30, 2018, Toblach (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle - Natalia Nepryaeva (no Johaug)
Jan 2, 2019, Oberstdorf (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic mass start - Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
Jan 3, 2019, Oberstdorf (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle pursuit - Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
Jan 5, 2019, Val di Fiemme (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle mass start - Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
Feb 17, 2019, Cogne - 10km classic - Kerttu Niskanen (no Johaug)
Mar 23, 2019, Quebec - 10km classic mass start - Stina Nilsson
Jan 1, 2020, Toblach (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic pursuit - Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
Jan 3, 2020, Val di Fiemme (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic mass start - Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen
Mar 7, 2020, Holmenkollen - 30km classic mass start - Frida Karlsson
---Norway skips half the season due to coronavirus pandemic---
Dec 13, 2020, Davos - 10km freestyle - Rosie Brennan (no Johaug)
Jan 2, 2021, Val Müstair (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic mass start - Linn Svahn (no Johaug)
Jan 3, 2021, Val Müstair (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle pursuit - Jess Diggins
Jan 5, 2021, Toblach (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle - Jess Diggins
Jan 6, 2021, Toblach (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic pursuit - Yulia Stupak
Jan 8, 2021, Val di Fiemme (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic mass start - Natalia Nepryaeva
Jan 10, 2021, Val di Fiemme (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle mass start (Alpe Cermis - lengthened from 9km to 10km) - Ebba Andersson
---Norway returns---
Jan 29, 2021, Falun - 10km freestyle - Jess Diggins
Jan 30, 2021, Falun - 10km classic mass start - Linn Svahn
Mar 13, 2021, Engadin - 10km classic mass start - Yulia Stupak (no Johaug)
Mar 14, 2021, Engadin - 30km freestyle pursuit - Heidi Weng (no Johaug)
Nov 27, 2021, Ruka - 10km classic - Frida Karlsson
Dec 4, 2021, Lillehammer - 10km freestyle - Frida Karlsson
Dec 29, 2021, Lenzerheide (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic - Kerttu Niskanen (no Johaug)
Dec 31, 2021, Oberstdorf (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle mass start - Jess Diggins
Jan 3, 2022, Val di Fiemme (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km classic mass start - Natalia Nepryaeva
Jan 4, 2022, Val di Fiemme (Tour de Ski stage) - 10km freestyle mass start (Alpe Cermis) - Heidi Weng

I've underlined the ones that you could consider legitimately beating the big guns when they were present, although I'm not so sure about counting a number of the stages of stage races where they may just have defended the yellow bib or not needed to contest the stage win, and those count for a considerable number.

You'll actually notice that the number really plummets actually when Johaug returns from her suspension, there was much more opportunity for outsiders, unbelievably, while Bjørgen and Kowalczyk were still active. This is also possibly a legacy of the homogenisation of the calendar and the significant reduction in longer races with very few skiathlons, 15k races and of course only a couple of 30ks a season (where Karlsson seemed to have the measure of Therese a bit recently, almost catching her as she tired in the Meråker pursuit and successfully doing so in the Holmenkollen 30k in 2020), meaning much less opportunity to compete with her - Johaug has shown lately to tire in 30ks, I know today she dominated and all, but Karlsson seems to be Nils van der Poeling her efforts in the format whereas Therese goes out hard, builds a gap, and keeps going and holds on - she knows full well that 10k which is what 90% of distance races for women on the World Cup are is well within her threshold of how far she can go all out, so she just goes all out start to finish and wins and never tires. FIS seems to thereby think that increasing the number of sprints and short races to give others a chance is the way to go, but it's just killing distance, when in fact a greater disparity between the shortest and longest races would be better as it would increase variety rather than the huge homogenisation of the calendar into a limited number of formats adn distances.

However, the fact Johaug has been in fact MORE dominant (even taking into account sharing the snow with Bjørgen before it) in the four years since returning from her suspension at 30 is eye-catching and much like Bjørgen, Sundby, Tora Berger and Røiseland, she seems to have her best period of dominance in her early 30s.

 

[roundabout]

although thing is that usually there have been max 2 races of 30k and over in the ladies WC in a single season. probably having 5k races again would have a bigger effect vs Johaug than additional 15 or 30s.

edit: and the last standalone 5k was ages ago in 2003 IIRC.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

although thing is that usually there have been max 2 races of 30k and over in the ladies WC in a single season. probably having 5k races again would have a bigger effect vs Johaug than additional 15 or 30s.

edit: and the last standalone 5k was ages ago in 2003 IIRC.

Idunno though, more real distance adds more fatigue and causes more selective calendars. The problem at the moment is too many mass start 10ks and the likes mean that sprinters can hold on - Nilsson and Svahn as examples who have won in this fashion. If some sprinters are able to win over 10km and a distance specialist's job is basically to see how long they can stay with Johaug before they're dropped, then why would you try to be a distance specialist (and indeed good distance specialists like Nathalie von Siebenthal have retired young)? And then the cycle of shortenings and sprint-biasing of the calendar continues.

 

[Bavarianrider]

That was one tough Race. That is how it should be. Johaug untouchable, obviously. I wonder If she will go ob after this season.

 

[BigCoward]

Having a rather heated discussion on british biathlon group on facebook about why british curling team gets £6,000,000 of funding and biathlon gets £6,000 (answer because we suck didn't seem to please them).
It got me thinking is there any amount of money the UK could throw at NC XC or biathlon that would give us a regular chance at medals?
It worked for cycling but that is nowhere near as technical a sport, and the facilities are mainly already in place.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Having a rather heated discussion on british biathlon group on facebook about why british curling team gets £6,000,000 of funding and biathlon gets £6,000 (answer because we suck didn't seem to please them).
It got me thinking is there any amount of money the UK could throw at NC XC or biathlon that would give us a regular chance at medals?
It worked for cycling but that is nowhere near as technical a sport, and the facilities are mainly already in place.

Well first and foremost You would need a big number of Kids who do this sport from an early age on. As there are not many regions in GB with snow, You would have to built this on roller skiing.
If you manage to do so then surely You could poduce some elite athletes.
But building that foundation is obviously ectremly tough and would take ten + years before you see any results.

 

[Silhouette]

It got me thinking is there any amount of money the UK could throw at NC XC or biathlon that would give us a regular chance at medals?

Money solves nearly anything, at least you could steal some talents.

However, the lack of snow will be a real problem. Also the lack local ski sports traditions.

I live in the Norwegian countryside, near a tiny village. Everybody here goes skiing shortly after they are able to walk. If I look outside my door there is 60 cm of snow today, and although this has been a dry winter I could have put on skis and gone skiing every day since early November if I had the time. A NC world champion lived 10km away. Even closer was one Olympic gold medalist (recently deceased), my father was on the same relay team as him when he was young. Currently the local ski club has several active XC/biathlon athletes on a national level, and the nearby school arranges their version of the Olympics every winter.

For every Norwegian skier who has some success internationally there are so many who tried but didn't make it. Nearly everybody who has some talent for endurance sports ends up on skis since that is considered the most prestigious sport . You can spend money on coaches, ski prep, etc etc, but you can't buy climate and history.

 

[roundabout]

Having a rather heated discussion on british biathlon group on facebook about why british curling team gets £6,000,000 of funding and biathlon gets £6,000 (answer because we suck didn't seem to please them).
It got me thinking is there any amount of money the UK could throw at NC XC or biathlon that would give us a regular chance at medals?
It worked for cycling but that is nowhere near as technical a sport, and the facilities are mainly already in place.

Musgrave and Young have become very good.

And I think only Musgrave is training in Norway with Norwegians so there is more than 1 route to success.

 

[KZD]

Usual result from Johaug and keeps Diggins from winning so that's good.

I can't imagine Johaug being there in 4 years, she'd be 37 then so be surprised.

If there was any change in the cross country program though, I could easily see these two races being dropped. If they ever start looking at mixed relays, it'll be gone.

I hope that FIS doesn't drop the 30/50km mass starts, as that would be a total heresy, like taking the marathon out of the summer Olympics program. If they want to replace some race it should be the 15/30km skiathlon but I hope that they don't create yet another relay race as it would be too much in my opinion, it would be better to make the team sprint a mixed event (I think that I already read this idea on FIS website a couple of years ago).

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Having a rather heated discussion on british biathlon group on facebook about why british curling team gets £6,000,000 of funding and biathlon gets £6,000 (answer because we suck didn't seem to please them).
It got me thinking is there any amount of money the UK could throw at NC XC or biathlon that would give us a regular chance at medals?
It worked for cycling but that is nowhere near as technical a sport, and the facilities are mainly already in place.

The problem with Britain doing this is that if you look at where Britain has succeeded with its funding model for the Summer Olympics, they largely looked to target sports with a large medal count but a relatively shallow field of competition, and then used the attention built by the high medal count to develop the wider sport. Track cycling was a major success because, although it pays a lot of medals, as most of the money in cycling is on the road, so a lot of the time endurance track riders from other countries will either move to the road or split time with the road, while the Olympic program has recently tipped the balance more towards the track sprinter type disciplines where tactical variables are less decisive than in, say, the points race or madison, and the benefit of the technological advantages are greater, so this timed perfectly for the British to take maximum advantage, which then enabled them to benefit from the increased attention paid to the sport by British sponsors and move onto the more financially optimised road cycling.

As a result, you'd say that the logical sport for the Britons to target in the wintersports in this manner would be long-track speed skating (this even has plenty of cycling crossover with the way its disciplines work, like the team pursuit and the mass start being basically a scratch race). It's a much easier sport to reduce to the marginal gains philosophy than the Nordic sports for the same reason track is better suited to it than road, because there are fewer variables. It also would be much easier to manage and attract new entrants from Britain, seeing as XC needs the environment (and most of the most crucial tech is in the ski preparation, which would be harder to learn without going overseas) and speed skating just needs a suitable rink (a few years ago there was even a plan to build one in the east of England where there was an old tradition of speed skating, but that's clearly gone nowhere), although building one of that kind of size and maintaining it isn't cheap of course.

The Nordic disciplines don't lend themselves also because of the number and level of competitors. Biathlon is the most immediately attractive in terms of audience figures and number of medals available for relatively similar competition... but it's also the most competitively fought such discipline, with the widest field of potential competitors on any given day. It would perhaps be the best suited to picking up a lucky medal by getting it right on the day or gambling on conditions, but would be the hardest to establish a regular chance of medals because of the need to excel in two disciplines. The British cross-country team is not deep enough to justify transferring athletes like Herrmann or Nilsson have done, either. Cross-country could give a chance if you have somebody who specialises in a particular discipline, and the fact only 4 from each country can enter a Championship race means you can get your best results at championships, but bridging the gap to the Norwegians and Russians with their extremely competitive amateur and junior scenes would seem unlikely, as an athlete with elite endurance capabilities in the UK is likely to end up having specialised in a different sport before they learn enough about cross-country skiing to do it, unless they, like Musgrave, move to somewhere where the sport is more prominent (see how many Danish endurance athletes end up in cycling as an example, because their climate does not lend itself to learning and specialising in XC at an early age and the Danish sponsorship, media and federation interest in cycling is far greater so there is little reason to go to XC). XC does not have the equalising factor that is the shooting, so they would need to unearth a special talent - and even then it's no guarantee as you can see from how Polish XC has returned to insignificance after the retirement of Justyna Kowalczyk.

In terms of the sport being pure tech that they could use a budget injection to chase championships in, the logical Nordic discipline would be ski jumping, since tech is so key there, but that also runs into the same problem of needing people to learn it from youth. You can't learn ski jumping as a grown adult and expect to become good at it, it's such a niche skill that also requires childhood to a great extent for the fearlessness. It would require a whole complex - from child size up to Large Hill - of jumps being constructed in at least one location in the UK because they would need to attract potential elite talent, not just a handful of enthusiastic fans that can pay for a trip to Willingen or Holmenkollen to learn it regardless of talent level. And it has a lot of countries which specifically and aggressively target it as a sport that I can't see it becoming a viable option for the UK. If anything Nordic Combined would be the best in terms of having a shallower field of competition especially when it comes to the relays, and especially on the women's side as the sport is still in its infancy, but then, less depth of competition or not, you still have the same issue of learning either ski jumping or cross-country.

Long-track speed skating makes the most sense to me because there are a lot of skating rinks around - the UK has a pretty strong history in figure skating and a reasonably sizeable, if not particularly high standard, ice hockey league, but the problem is that short-track speed skating is too unpredictable to have a chance at a regular large number of medals, with so many crashes, disqualifications and multi-competitor races, to be a reliable medal shot; long-track speed skating does have obviously the huge obstacle being the Dutch, but then the amount of old fashioned outdoor skating there is in heavy decline in today's climate, and the sport is sustained through the rinks by its tradition there; while other countries do have decent skating tradition and budget, I see this as the logical sport to target for a country that is looking to capture a large number of Winter Olympic medals in a short order, and especially for a country like Britain which has been able to successfully build a tradition of success in a fundamentally similar sport like track cycling so should find it relatively easy to train its public to understand its concepts, and while construction and maintenance of a long-track rink is not going to be cheap and its use would be niche (probably an issue to even try to hire it for an EIHL team I would think due to size), it would still have more flexibility for use and value to hobbyists and casual skaters than constructing an entire ski jump complex, or maintaining enough snow to operate a full XC venue in the British climate anywhere even remotely near a population centre.

 

[search]

although thing is that usually there have been max 2 races of 30k and over in the ladies WC in a single season. probably having 5k races again would have a bigger effect vs Johaug than additional 15 or 30s.

edit: and the last standalone 5k was ages ago in 2003 IIRC.

there was one in Falun in 2016. Also won by Johaug, though.

 

[Norbea]

China threw a lot of money into xc and biathlon. They even tried ski jumping, but gave that up rather fast. They even signed a trade deal with Norway that included providing China with coaches and knowledge. Ole Einar Bjørndalen was hired in as head coach for their biathletes. Young talents trained in Norway in the beginning, but corona complicated that part, so they have hired in a lot of Norwegian coaches to stay in China. Most coaches gave up the project. The pay was good, but the differences in philosophy and Chinas state involvement wasn't compatible with Norwegian models. Chinas results in xc and biathlon hasn't been anything impressive. Some of the talents are now at the level where they can fight for wc-points for 30th place. Not at all bad, but very far away from competing for medals.

 

[roundabout]

China threw a lot of money into xc and biathlon. They even tried ski jumping, but gave that up rather fast. They even signed a trade deal with Norway that included providing China with coaches and knowledge. Ole Einar Bjørndalen was hired in as head coach for their biathletes. Young talents trained in Norway in the beginning, but corona complicated that part, so they have hired in a lot of Norwegian coaches to stay in China. Most coaches gave up the project. The pay was good, but the differences in philosophy and Chinas state involvement wasn't compatible with Norwegian models. Chinas results in xc and biathlon hasn't been anything impressive. Some of the talents are now at the level where they can fight for wc-points for 30th place. Not at all bad, but very far away from competing for medals.

I wonder who coached them 20 or so years ago when Chinese were much more competitive in biathlon.

 

[Discgear]

According to Diggins own statement she was food poisoned and stayed the entire Saturday in bed throwing up. She was persuaded by her mother to compete.
Sorry to say this, but its a bit chilling. Haven't we heard similar excuses before when athletes have had anamolies in their blood values?

 

[Mayomaniac]

Well first and foremost You would need a big number of Kids who do this sport from an early age on. As there are not many regions in GB with snow, You would have to built this on roller skiing.
If you manage to do so then surely You could poduce some elite athletes.
But building that foundation is obviously ectremly tough and would take ten + years before you see any results.

The talent pool thing in Biathlon is a bit overrated, if you look at the small amout of people who practice it in the youth ranks in Italy and even France. In Italy (and in many other countries) it's just kids who grow up in the villages near a Biathlon center, not exactly a huge talent pool...

 

[Discgear]

The talent pool thing in Biathlon is a bit overrated, if you look at the small amout of people who practice it in the youth ranks in Italy and even France. In Italy (and in many other countries) it's just kids who grow up in the villages near a Biathlon center, not exactly a huge talent pool...

The same in Sweden.

 

[Mayomaniac]

China threw a lot of money into xc and biathlon. They even tried ski jumping, but gave that up rather fast. They even signed a trade deal with Norway that included providing China with coaches and knowledge. Ole Einar Bjørndalen was hired in as head coach for their biathletes. Young talents trained in Norway in the beginning, but corona complicated that part, so they have hired in a lot of Norwegian coaches to stay in China. Most coaches gave up the project. The pay was good, but the differences in philosophy and Chinas state involvement wasn't compatible with Norwegian models. Chinas results in xc and biathlon hasn't been anything impressive. Some of the talents are now at the level where they can fight for wc-points for 30th place. Not at all bad, but very far away from competing for medals.

They should give Nordic Combined a go, if a former Olympic Weightlifter like Lamparter (3 2nd places in the absolute category as an u17 athlete at the Austrian NC) manages to get so good then they should get something out of their army of weightlifters.
Jokes aside, I don't think that you can built something up from the ground in such a short time, you need years and years and a decent sized talent pool (compared to the average nation competing near the top).

 

[Silhouette]

According to Diggins own statement she was food poisoned and stayed the entire Saturday in bed throwing up. She was persuaded by her mother to compete.
Sorry to say this, but its a bit chilling. Haven't we heard similar excuses before when athletes have had anamolies in their blood values?

Several skiers have complained about a stomach bug the last couple of days, Klæbo and a couple of others.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The talent pool thing in Biathlon is a bit overrated, if you look at the small amout of people who practice it in the youth ranks in Italy and even France. In Italy (and in many other countries) it's just kids who grow up in the villages near a Biathlon center, not exactly a huge talent pool...

Yea, but there's lots of countries who are at least moderately competitive in biathlon, far more than in XC or NoCo. And you mention that the youth ranks are clustered around the villages near a biathlon centre which is true, but you neglect to mention both of those countries have a large number of biathlon facilities relative to most. For Britain, they would have to construct, develop and maintain one centre to begin with, whereas France has Le-Grand-Bornand, Plateau de Beille, Font-Romeu, Arçon, Valromey-Retord, Bessans, Méribel, Les Rousses, Vassieux-en-Vercors, Les Saisies, Col de Porte, Les Contamines-Montjoie and La Féclaz; Italy has Brusson, Bionaz, Antholz-Anterselva, Val di Fiemme, Val Martello, Ridnaun, Forni Avoltri, Palafavera, Bormio/Valdidentro, Livigno, Tolbach and Frassinoro, and for those close to the borders, Obertilliach, Pokljuka and others. Not all of them have a full-sized range, but enough to have some kind of competition and training.

Even if you are only pulling people from population centres and towns and villages around those venues, you've got a much better chance of hitting paydirt from having a dozen places to learn and train (and for these to then compete with one another to root out the best) than you do from having only the one venue, especially when, another thing that would have to be borne in mind in the case of Britain, the only logical places to locate such a site would be in relatively remote countryside many miles from reasonably sized population centres. Places like France, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Germany, they have established skiing industries and population centres in the mountains that serve the resort towns and cities. Aviemore, which serves as the main base for most wintersports in the UK, has a population of a little over 3.000 and is the biggest town in its area; apart from Inverness (pop. 47.000) I don't see any other population centres nearby that would be close enough for somebody to go regularly enough to train without relocation. It would be similar to if the only available venue in the entirety of Italy was Brusson and anybody who wanted to do any wintersport at all in the country would have to relocate to Aosta. I mean, sure, if you're lucky you hit on another Federico Pellegrino, but the best you're likely to do outside of a huge dose of luck is hit upon a Nicole Gontier or a René Laurent Vuillermoz.

 

[Norbea]

Bjørndalen just interviewed by Norwegian TV2. When asked if it was an impossible mission. He said that Norwegian training culture didn't mix in China at all. Only one of his biathletes had the independence to train on his own. All the others had to be monitored physically all the time. He had been working constantly from 6 in the morning till 10 in the evening for years now. Most people would quit.

 

[Bavarianrider]

The talent pool thing in Biathlon is a bit overrated, if you look at the small amout of people who practice it in the youth ranks in Italy and even France. In Italy (and in many other countries) it's just kids who grow up in the villages near a Biathlon center, not exactly a huge talent pool...

Well that is true but still that small talent pool is huge compared to the amount of kids who seriously train XC skiing/biathlon in GB currently.

 

[roundabout]

Click on TOP(IND) in the links below

DATACENTER

biathlonresults.com

DATACENTER

biathlonresults.com

DATACENTER

biathlonresults.com

DATACENTER

biathlonresults.com

That's 4 athletes from China with individual podiums on World Cup level (3 World Championships medals there as well).

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Click on TOP(IND) in the links below

DATACENTER

biathlonresults.com

DATACENTER

biathlonresults.com

DATACENTER

biathlonresults.com

DATACENTER

biathlonresults.com

That's 4 athletes from China with individual podiums on World Cup level (3 World Championships medals there as well).

And there's also Wang Chunli, who won a crazy sprint in Östersund in the 2008/09 season in which the Chinese women also podiumed two relays.

 

[Sciatic]

I see I wasn't the only one that couldn't be arsed to get up at that time to see a procession.

It was during my evening—I watched but there wasn’t much to comment on—other than last 1/4 chase for bronze.

 

[BigCoward]

Winter Olympics: Finnish cross-country skier suffers frozen penis in 50km race

Cross country Finnish skier finished in 28th place in the 50km race … with a frozen penis

www.theguardian.com

I probably would have kept this to myself.