Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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Ragged though it looked, he still only lost 14" to Johannes on that last lap. A first medal is pretty much assured now for him you'd say. US waxmen might have played a blinder as well, Germain is still in the top 15 ski times, Wright is performing above expectation but not that far as he's had a lot of strong results, but Germain is a long way above his norm here and Wright is in the top 5 ski times which is a step above his usual kind of niche. I know that the Worlds mean a few fewer entrants from the big nations which helps, and the Americans have always built their season around the World Championships since they don't have anybody that can compete for the globe season-long, but this is still above expectation accounting for that.

Edit: OK, so Strømsheim and Giacomel have dropped in ahead of Wright on ski times as the chart hadn't updated when I typed that yet, so it's a top 10 but not quite as outlying as it seemed initially.
 
Wright's shape is suspicious but his standing shooting was just amazing.

Lægreid in really poor shape, shoots clean and still unable to get on the podium. Perrot was incredible today, he is my pick for the mass-start.
 
Wright's shape is suspicious but his standing shooting was just amazing.

Lægreid in really poor shape, shoots clean and still unable to get on the podium. Perrot was incredible today, he is my pick for the mass-start.
Wright is legit highly promising and qualified for the Olympics a couple of years ago as a junior-aged New Zealander, but the American team's overall ability to perform at a level way above their season norms at the World Championships has always been noteworthy. Dunklee, Bailey, Burke, Irwin, Egan all likewise used to pull out their best performances in the championship races.

Noting what we've said about the horrendous efficiency of some of them (Susan Dunklee and Rosie Brennan especially obvious examples), you can only wonder how good some of them could be if they had decent technique coaching.

Edit: Mike Dixon just called Campbell Wright (who he just calls 'Campbell' because he obviously knows him personally beyond professional duty; he was commenting on Wright's dad sending him text messages during the race yesterday) "the rock star of biathlon, a free spirit who comes through when it matters most"... can't help but think that is a little premature and hyperbolic, when he's never even had the chance to show what he can do when it matters most in a situation like this before...
 
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Only lacks the glitter on his face to make you really happy...
TBF it was really funny seeing the interview, he's truly 'gone native' with the stars-and-stripes headband and the Billy Ray Cyrus haircut, but then he speaks in the thickest Kiwi accent you'll ever hear.

I also didn't know Paul Wright, new NZ Road Race champion, is actually Campbell's brother. And given it's a cycling-biathlon connection, I feel that's extremely remiss of me.
 
Strelow gets a day off tomorrow, apparently to be fresh for the SMR. But no idea if Preuß will line up or not. Has been a while (Otepää 2022) that she last did.
That's largely because Voigt has been the perfect foil for the format. But she's now out long-term and realistically Preuß is by far the most logical fit.

Tannheimer is very inexperienced and has only ever done one SMR in her career, at the Junior Cup in 2022, and she shot a penalty. Grotian might be a fit for it, but she hasn't been shooting great and the format doesn't give her enough time to make that up on the trails, with only 4 laps of 1500m since the men have the anchor leg this time; Puff is a great shot but too slow on the skis, and Schneider is too inconsistent. Hard to see them go with anybody else unless they're deliberately sacrificing the shots at the medals there for the conventional relays and the Mass Start at the weekend.