Realistically, more likely they did have better skis on the day, but it was probably more the regular kind of ski superiority that comes from knowing the conditions at that venue or just judging it better; the remainder of the superiority came from the fact the Norwegians had pretty open competition for places on their international lineups and a glut of talent competing for World Cup and IBU Cup spots whereas the Germans and Italians brought people who were already guaranteed international slots and building their form ready for the World/IBU Cup seasons, and it was just internal competition to see who got allocated to which competition.I dont follow biathlon that close, but after the Norwegian opening on Sjusjøen there was a lot of talk in the media how the Norwegians had so much better skis than the germans and Vittozi. Apparently it was clear to see in the masstart race, and some of the experts were talking about how the Norwegians were miles ahead of Germany/Italy in this new Fluor free world of waxing.
But then it seems like the Norwegian men are not as impressive in the skiing times as previous seasons, so it’s probably hard to argue that the Norwegian biathletes have superior skis.
Of course, the Norwegian media will have seized the opportunity to wax (no pun intended) lyrical about their superiority because it could also imply that those dastardly other teams had abused the fluor regulations to compete with Norwegian excellence and had had to be stopped. Despite last season being an almost unprecedented level of dominance by one nation in the sport.