It certainly helps that Botn and Lien have such a colossal ski speed advantage over most at this level (Nilsson was the exception for Ida, but she needed all her standing reloads while Lien went 10 for 10). For any other country Botn is established on the World Cup team; Lien is only here because she got injured in the offseason and is working her way back to form and fitness. Some of those who fought into the team in the selection races pre-Christmas have been rather anonymous in January so far (Skogan in particular has had a noticeable drop off in the New Year so far).When was the last time a team won a mixed relay with 3 penalty loops?
it helps that most of the better teams also shot terribly.
I think some of the juniors who've been racing since season start seem to be tailing off, Germany also putting Puff and Zobel in the SMR instead means they had the more volatile Simon Kaiser who is a much less reliable shot on leg 3. For the French, Levet is less established than the others on the team and Bondoux is a very fast skier but she's both erratic and slow in the range which is obviously the main thing she needs to work on going forward.