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Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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I think the new biathlon graphics are challenging to look at and display less useful information. Why are they like that?

Yeah, I enjoy them as much as the new French suit, which looks more Team GB like to me.

But a great season opener in Kontiolahti with all the excitement and suprises that you want to see from an individual race. I was rooting for Hartweg, but Ponsiluoma kept his cool. JTB shot poorly, but his ski speed wasn't an issue, unlike QFM who was very slow in the tracks.
 
Halvarsson'r reaction to the DQ was a bit comical. Yes it was a bit borderline, but to insinute that it only happened because they didn't want an all Scandianvian podium sounds like sour grapes. Pellegrino's response to the Swedish media was good: "He really said that? We havent seen many Swedish men get a podium in recent years, so I doubt that's a problem for anyone."
 
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Lampič sets the fastest ski time on the IBU Cup by a minute, but will either scrape the flower ceremony or just miss out and be lower top 10 (depending on Sara Andersson's final lap) because of 6/10 shooting. And the debate with BullsFan can begin again that any XC skier worth their salt would win any biathlon race easily with 7/10, despite that in the last 15 years only two women (Miriam Gössner and Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold) have even managed to get a win with 75%, and the latter was massively wind affected. Personally, I think Anamarija Lampič is worth her salt as a cross-country skier, but on 7/10 she would have been 2nd, beaten by Marthe Kråkstad Johansen.

Edit: Andersson's final lap dropped her a long way, she's only a teenager mind, so Anamarija should get some flowers on debut. I know Herrmann won her first IBU Cup race on 4/10 but that wasn't representative, everybody was missing huge amounts in this race, this is more even and you would absolutely expect Lampič to smoke this field for ski time by a considerable margin, the best other skiers here are the likes of Janina Hettich and she is here because she was demoted due to uncompetitive skiing at the World Cup level. However, the fact she has been doing this straight away rather than struggling for form on the skis like Stina Nilsson did suggests she should be able to adapt quickly like Herrmann did rather than take a couple of seasons to find her feet like Stina.

It tells you how weak that field is. She’ll be at the World Cup in no time and she’ll likely get on the podium there relatively quickly. Herrmann has consistently had top 3 times, even though she’s never been close to a podium in a distance race, and her only sprint podiums were during the 2013/2014 season.
 
It tells you how weak that field is. She’ll be at the World Cup in no time and she’ll likely get on the podium there relatively quickly. Herrmann has consistently had top 3 times, even though she’s never been close to a podium in a distance race, and her only sprint podiums were during the 2013/2014 season.
At the IBU Cup? Yea, we know. It'd have been more noteworthy if Anamarija wasn't a minute ahead of the likes of Janina Hettich for ski time. Just like happened with Stina. The main opposition here are Germans and Norwegians that couldn't make the World Cup team (and with Tiril and Marte skipping the weekend, that's a bit further down the Norwegian totem pole than it would ordinarily be), some veteran Swedes coming off injury (Brorsson is clearly way below her best), and French U22s.

The Continental Cup XC ain't very strong either and if somebody who is clearly upper World Cup level talent turned up to it you'd expect them to dominate there too.

And as mentioned, only two women have scored a win on 75% in the past 15 years, one of which was in a weather-affected race where everybody was missing several and the other was an outlying race for somebody who has Olympic medals as an XC skier and narrowly missed out on a Worlds XC medal to a confirmed doper, which gives the lie to any decent cross-country skier doing so on 70%.
 
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At the IBU Cup? Yea, we know. It'd have been more noteworthy if Anamarija wasn't a minute ahead of the likes of Janina Hettich for ski time. Just like happened with Stina. The main opposition here are Germans and Norwegians that couldn't make the World Cup team (and with Tiril and Marte skipping the weekend, that's a bit further down the Norwegian totem pole than it would ordinarily be), some veteran Swedes coming off injury (Brorsson is clearly way below her best), and French U22s.

The Continental Cup XC ain't very strong either and if somebody who is clearly upper World Cup level talent turned up to it you'd expect them to dominate there too.

And as mentioned, only two women have scored a win on 75% in the past 15 years, one of which was in a weather-affected race where everybody was missing several and the other was an outlying race for somebody who has Olympic medals as an XC skier and narrowly missed out on a Worlds XC medal to a confirmed doper, which gives the lie to any decent cross-country skier doing so on 70%.

Who is that?
 
I am taking about speed, no shooting involved. You won’t see many missing 3 or 4 and still winning, even getting on the podium. Stina hasn’t skied as well on the biathlon circuit as she did in cross country, you can visually see that. Remember that she had a groin injury when she lunged for the line in the Otepaa sprint in January 2019. She recovered well enough to make an impact in Seefeld and finished the season strong, winning the mini tour in Quebec, but the following season was not great and actually she raced sparingly, ending her xc career at the end of the season. A rift with the Swedish federation and likely wanting to try something different AND the better prize money in biathlon played big roles in her switch.

In Herrmann’s case, I bet the decision was mostly due to being frustrated with a lack of results due to simply not being good enough. The money as well.
 
Who is that?
Who is who, was something meant to be bolded there? Which part of the post are you referring to?
I am taking about speed, no shooting involved. You won’t see many missing 3 or 4 and still winning, even getting on the podium. Stina hasn’t skied as well on the biathlon circuit as she did in cross country, you can visually see that. Remember that she had a groin injury when she lunged for the line in the Otepaa sprint in January 2019. She recovered well enough to make an impact in Seefeld and finished the season strong, winning the mini tour in Quebec, but the following season was not great and actually she raced sparingly, ending her xc career at the end of the season. A rift with the Swedish federation and likely wanting to try something different AND the better prize money in biathlon played big roles in her switch.

In Herrmann’s case, I bet the decision was mostly due to being frustrated with a lack of results due to simply not being good enough. The money as well.
I think for Stina it was also that she just wasn't needed in XC anymore. A couple of season earlier and the team is still very dependent on her for results, but with Dahlqvist, Sundling, Karlsson, Andersson, Ribom et al all coming through, if she didn't come back from her injury at full strength she mightn't even commandeer a place in the team at all anymore and would be trading being a fringe person in a sport where she is expected to star for being a fringe person in a sport where people expect her to take time to adapt so the pressure is less. She was still a good cross-country skier but nothing like what she had been. Also as that was the side of the sport they expected her to excel in, she spent far more time on the shooting in the off-season and did not do so much work on the skiing, and it showed.

In Herrmann's case yes, I think she'd got as far as she could in XC, and with far more interest and funding in biathlon in Germany, it was worth it for her to risk the shooting because even if it didn't work she'd still have been Germany's best XC skier if she went back, until more or less now with Hennig only surpassing the kind of level Denise was at relatively recently. I think similar is behind the choice of Lampič, exacerbated by being at odds with the Slovenian ski federation. But worth noting that the race today was a 7,5km - of course Lampič was best in sprints, but the shorter biathlon races perhaps have most in common with a team sprint in freestyle, something that Anamarija was pretty good at. We shall see when it comes to the head to head races, where shooting is under far more pressure (that tends to be a major factor for converts, when everybody is shooting faster all around you) and if she does some Individuals where the distance is double whether she can sustain that kind of advantage because it's typically outside of her remit in XC, which it hadn't been for Herrmann or Nilsson.
 
I am taking about speed, no shooting involved. You won’t see many missing 3 or 4 and still winning, even getting on the podium. Stina hasn’t skied as well on the biathlon circuit as she did in cross country, you can visually see that. Remember that she had a groin injury when she lunged for the line in the Otepaa sprint in January 2019. She recovered well enough to make an impact in Seefeld and finished the season strong, winning the mini tour in Quebec, but the following season was not great and actually she raced sparingly, ending her xc career at the end of the season. A rift with the Swedish federation and likely wanting to try something different AND the better prize money in biathlon played big roles in her switch.

In Herrmann’s case, I bet the decision was mostly due to being frustrated with a lack of results due to simply not being good enough. The money as well.
It was actually a stress fracture in the rib that destroyed the 19/20 season for Stina. I think it’s likely that she understood she couldn’t undertake the hard training again and decided to switch sport and focus on shooting. I guess she is slowly building back and probably will be a bit faster this season than last.
 
It was actually a stress fracture in the rib that destroyed the 19/20 season for Stina. I think it’s likely that she understood she couldn’t undertake the hard training again and decided to switch sport and focus on shooting. I guess she is slowly building back and probably will be a bit faster this season than last.
Yeah, in hinsight I also believe that she probably knew that getting back on the same level in XC skiing would have been almost impossible.
 
Yeah, I enjoy them as much as the new French suit, which looks more Team GB like to me.

But a great season opener in Kontiolahti with all the excitement and suprises that you want to see from an individual race. I was rooting for Hartweg, but Ponsiluoma kept his cool. JTB shot poorly, but his ski speed wasn't an issue, unlike QFM who was very slow in the tracks.
Meanwhile the Italian suits look like someone vomited a tricolore on their crotch...
Vittozzi fighting for a podium, great stuff!
 
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Yeah, that's an uplifting performance from her. I was worried when she missed, but she held it together nicely.

The Swedes are looking strong, but we've seen that before in the first races.
New shooting coach/set-up and she had a nose operation to help with her breathing during spring. She did really well during the Summer rollerski races, so I had some hope.
 
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The Swedes are looking strong, but we've seen that before in the first races.
This year more than ever it’s part of the strategy. They have announced World Cup Overall has higher priority than Oberhof Worlds so they want get off with a good start. I guess biggest difference though will be less training during Christmas and better performance in January where they historically lost pace.

Shooting was much better compared to the awful performance in Idre national opening but I fear Ponsilouma and Hanna will go back to old habits. Higher hopes for Samuelson and Elvira with regards to the overall.

Always happy for Vittozzi, looks like things are pointing in the right direction. Davidova looks good too. Especially her shooting efficiency.
 
Hennig almost winning a skating individual start, that was something! Now I want to see what she'll do in the 20km classic race.
Diggins already being this good in skating races in Scandinavia early on probably means that she'll actually crush people at altitude in Central Europe (Toblach for example is her backyard).
 
Only Norway can have an unknown guy like Iver Andersen winning a race at the World Cup. The only good news of the day is that Klæbo didn't race due to sickness which should force him to race more if he wants to win the World Cup due to FIS new ridiculous points system.
 
Only Norway can have an unknown guy like Iver Andersen winning a race at the World Cup. The only good news of the day is that Klæbo didn't race due to sickness which should force him to race more if he wants to win the World Cup due to FIS new ridiculous points system.
Tbf, the guy is only 22 years old, has won the 30km mass start at the junior WC a few years ago, is one of the top skating specialists in the Scandinavia Cup and in the u23 races and finished 3rd at the 50km skating individual start at the Norwegian NC, so it's not like a result out of nowhere in your mid to late 20ies. Speaking of young Norwegians, why didn't Andreas Ree not race this one, is he sick? He won that 50km individual at the NC ahead of Holund and finished ahead of Andersen in the recent Beitostoelen skating race (he was also ahead of Holund and Toenseth.

How many more chances are they going to give Iversen? Time to replace him with Norwegians who have actually finished world cup distance races inside the top 10 over the last year or so, at least until he shows something in the domestic races. The guy already cost them a Gold medal in the relay at the Olympics. He's the defending champion* in the 50km mass start, so he has a spot for a big race at the WC and can prepare for it accordingly. No need to have him take away spots from younger athletes with better recent results right now.
 
Tbf, the guy is only 22 years old, has won the 30km mass start at the junior WC a few years ago, is one of the top skating specialists in the Scandinavia Cup and in the u23 races and finished 3rd at the 50km skating individual start at the Norwegian NC, so it's not like a result out of nowhere in your mid to late 20ies. Speaking of young Norwegians, why didn't Andreas Ree not race this one, is he sick? He won that 50km individual at the NC ahead of Holund and finished ahead of Andersen in the recent Beitostoelen skating race (he was also ahead of Holund and Toenseth.

How many more chances are they going to give Iversen? Time to replace him with Norwegians who have actually finished world cup distance races inside the top 10 over the last year or so, at least until he shows something in the domestic races. The guy already cost them a Gold medal in the relay at the Olympics. He's the defending champion* in the 50km mass start, so he has a spot for a big race at the WC and can prepare for it accordingly. No need to have him take away spots from younger athletes with better recent results right now.
Ree did not compete in Gålå last week so I assume he was ill or injured. He was sixth at the national opening at Beitostölen but even Dönnestad who was second then and missed Gålå got to run today only cuz Klaebo was forced out. The Norwegian depth is crazy. I bet they could have sent 12 other skier and would still have occupied most of top 10. Sandvik who finished 19th and was worst only got to run cuz he is U23 and had an outlayerish preformance last week.

Of course they had very good skis today like probably the germans. Pooroma said he felt very strong but had some sh*t skis. Karlsson complained about some injury and is uncertain for the weekend races. Andersson was happy with her performance but wished for better results. Did not seemed to bother too much with way Weng celebrating in her face.
 
Tbf, the guy is only 22 years old, has won the 30km mass start at the junior WC a few years ago, is one of the top skating specialists in the Scandinavia Cup and in the u23 races and finished 3rd at the 50km skating individual start at the Norwegian NC, so it's not like a result out of nowhere in your mid to late 20ies. Speaking of young Norwegians, why didn't Andreas Ree not race this one, is he sick? He won that 50km individual at the NC ahead of Holund and finished ahead of Andersen in the recent Beitostoelen skating race (he was also ahead of Holund and Toenseth.

How many more chances are they going to give Iversen? Time to replace him with Norwegians who have actually finished world cup distance races inside the top 10 over the last year or so, at least until he shows something in the domestic races. The guy already cost them a Gold medal in the relay at the Olympics. He's the defending champion* in the 50km mass start, so he has a spot for a big race at the WC and can prepare for it accordingly. No need to have him take away spots from younger athletes with better recent results right now.

Iversen choked the relay last season in Beijing, but do you think Valnes would have fared much better? Maybe had Krüger been available they could have put him on the third leg and Holund on the second and moved Golberg to first? In any case, I think the Russians were simply better. Not sure it would have made enough of a difference.
 
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Iversen choked the relay last season in Beijing, but do you think Valnes would have fared much better? Maybe had Krüger been available they could have put him on the third leg and Holund on the second and moved Golberg to first? In any case, I think the Russians were simply better. Not sure it would have made enough of a difference.
I think Valnes would have lost less time and it would have been a lot closer. Perhaps I should have phrased it better, he took them out of the fight for Gold, they would have had a chance to fight for it. Would it have been enough? Probably not, but at least they'd have put up a better fight.
 
Ree did not compete in Gålå last week so I assume he was ill or injured. He was sixth at the national opening at Beitostölen but even Dönnestad who was second then and missed Gålå got to run today only cuz Klaebo was forced out. The Norwegian depth is crazy. I bet they could have sent 12 other skier and would still have occupied most of top 10. Sandvik who finished 19th and was worst only got to run cuz he is U23 and had an outlayerish preformance last week.

Of course they had very good skis today like probably the germans. Pooroma said he felt very strong but had some sh*t skis. Karlsson complained about some injury and is uncertain for the weekend races. Andersson was happy with her performance but wished for better results. Did not seemed to bother too much with way Weng celebrating in her face.
To me it looked like Karlsson did one of those races where she just starts to fast. The German men looked less impressive, I expected more from Moch, but he probably prefers a harder course than this one.

Recently Jan Thomas Jenssen went on a bit of a rant against the Federation because they insist on selecting guys like Iversen who underperform instead of skiers like him and others who finish clearly ahead of him in the domestic races.
 

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