Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[QueenStagiaire]

the federation said he isn't sure to get a spot yet, but yeah, I guess he has done enough. Klaebo, Amundsen, Valnes, Nyenget should be safe, some reports say Stenshagen as well. So even if they take another sprinter (which they probably will), there's still one free spot he could get.

Any idea what needs to happen for the Norwegians to still get full quota of eight? It obviously doesn't seem to come down to their own performance.

Cross-country skiing at the 2026 Winter Olympics – Qualification - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If the wikipedia article is accurate, it gives a pretty good overview of the system. Looks like they didn‘t hand out three quotas for qualifying via the World Cup Single athletes trail, and if they reallocate them according to the Nation ranking system, Canada, Norway and Sweden should receive another quota.

 

[DonAragona]

I agree with your assessment of US relay podium chances; we had a close but no cigar a couple of times but the window has closed; US women are going back into the wilderness for the foreseeable future.

Brennan's case is not so cut and dried imho; she had a major life event occur with the separation from her longtime partner Tyler Kornfeld, she is a very sensitive sort and that hurt her very badly...don't underestimate the emotional impact of something like that on the rest of her life. Also she seems to be fighting some sort of autoimmune type disorder, or possibly the effects of long Covid, something they just haven't been able to pin down. No question she's getting older but she went from having one of her best seasons ever to just dropping off a cliff, it was definitely not just a gradual decline. It really is not looking good for her at the moment, she was a DNF today and things are just not working for her; if it doesn't turn around she's virtually certain to call it a day after this season. She was actually really on the fence about it already but I think the lure of one more shot at an Olympic medal was too much to resist; barring a miracle at the moment there is zero chance the US is going to medal in the relay this year.

The biggest factor is her age, she turns 37 in a few weeks. Time catches up with all skiers and dare i say it....it's starting to catch up with Diggins? This was her worst weekend in Davos in more than a decade and i thought she looked very tired in the 10k last week.

 

[BullsFan22]

The biggest factor is her age, she turns 37 in a few weeks. Time catches up with all skiers and dare i say it....it's starting to catch up with Diggins? This was her worst weekend in Davos in more than a decade and i thought she looked very tired in the 10k last week.

She turned 37 on December 1st

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

The biggest factor is her age, she turns 37 in a few weeks. Time catches up with all skiers and dare i say it....it's starting to catch up with Diggins? This was her worst weekend in Davos in more than a decade and i thought she looked very tired in the 10k last week.

I didnt see the race yesterday, but I’ve read a lot of speculation among Norwegian watchers that her skis were not good. She’s had a good start of the season, inte first two weekends, so I think its too early to say that age is catching up with her.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I was starting to dream of that elusive Paulína Fialková victory, but it wasn't to happen today either. Hanna Öberg hitting 10/10 was quite a surprise, but great for her. It was also good for the overall standings since Magnusson almost did as badly as Minkkinen last week.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Christiansen victorious! One of the better sprints I‘ve seen with chaotic shooting and it sets up for a very close pursuit.

 

[BigCoward]

Christiansen victorious! One of the better sprints I‘ve seen with chaotic shooting and it sets up for a very close pursuit.

That's the closest top 6 spread I can remember.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Ok, so I looked at the Tour de Ski route and oh dear, it's shite. This time the FIS goons outdid themselfs.
About the team selection, one has to feel for Didrik Toenseth. 3rd in the Beitostoelen classic race, wins a Scandinavia Cup 20km mass start and finishes 3rd in the sprint, but still can't get a spot on the Tour de Ski team to potentially get selected for the Olympics. I know, there is usually a sprinter bias in the Norwegian TdS selection, but 2 youngsters like Vike and Heggen who probably won't make the Olympics team (a harsh truth) being there instead of him must hurt.

 

[jsem94]

I'm so sick of the sprinter bias. We don't need nearly half of the races in the world cup to be sprints. I've honestly been increasingly less interested in XC skiing over the past decade because it's gotten way out of hand. Viaplay being the only Swedish broadcaster for the past few years has not helped either, they are absolute dogwater.

Changing the 15km individual to 10km for the men was yet another affront to the sport. Game's gone.

 

[search]

it's a "real" pursuit this time, by the way, based on GC times.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Ok, so I looked at the Tour de Ski route and oh dear, it's shite. This time the FIS goons outdid themselfs.
About the team selection, one has to feel for Didrik Toenseth. 3rd in the Beitostoelen classic race, wins a Scandinavia Cup 20km mass start and finishes 3rd in the sprint, but still can't get a spot on the Tour de Ski team to potentially get selected for the Olympics. I know, there is usually a sprinter bias in the Norwegian TdS selection, but 2 youngsters like Vike and Heggen who probably won't make the Olympics team (a harsh truth) being there instead of him must hurt.

Hans Christer Holund, martyr to the cause.

 

[KZD]

Botn's standing shooting has been bonkers this season, 98%!

Another win today and while its still early he already has a 138 points gap over Perrot, his closest rival for the overall.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Colby up in 5th after the first jump, this is incredible stuff from the youngster. Can he back it up in the second or is he gonna do a Zografski?

 

[jsem94]

Another take: Tour de Ski might as well be cancelled in Olympic years given that the top skiers don't give a damn. It's been losing prestige every year, and ever since the long distance pursuit it just hasn't been the same.

On the topic of Botn btw.. This can't continue, can it? Never even surpassed 90% in prone in the IBU cup for a whole season before. Has he somehow cracked the code now? Surely he's due for some regression to the mean... or maybe not. I'm so sick of the Norwegians.

 

[BigCoward]

Another take: Tour de Ski might as well be cancelled in Olympic years given that the top skiers don't give a damn. It's been losing prestige every year, and ever since the long distance pursuit it just hasn't been the same.

On the topic of Botn btw.. This can't continue, can it? Never even surpassed 90% in prone in the IBU cup for a whole season before. Has he somehow cracked the code now? Surely he's due for some regression to the mean... or maybe not. I'm so sick of the Norwegians.

Being sick of Boe was fair enough. Being sick of a new person emerging and shooting the lights out, a new name to shake things up at the top just because of where they were born, is weird.

 

[KZD]

Good win for Kirkeeide over the French, she already deserved it.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Being sick of Boe was fair enough. Being sick of a new person emerging and shooting the lights out, a new name to shake things up at the top just because of where they were born, is weird.

Thing was, it happened last year with Uldal too (not to the same extent). And it's similarly happening (again, not to the same extent) with Bened in the women's competition. The Norwegians have got such crazy strength in depth that they have people who have been already far too good for the IBU Cup marooned at that level, so it's statistically more likely that their athletes being promoted will be instant successes at the World Cup. Botn was pretty good when he got a few World Cup races a couple of years ago, but last year he dropped behind Uldal and Frey in the pecking order. Bened likewise was good enough for the World Cup last year (and on the IBU Cup atm Botet at least also is, Voldiya Galmace-Paulin should have earned a chance, and Gilonne Guigonnat is at least worthy of rotation duty) but with Richard and Michelon both jumping her in the queue there was just no room at the inn.

It's a bit hard because of the whole place-where-you're-born thing, but it's understandable if people might get frustrated when one set of domination is just replaced by another. The problem is men's biathlon has always seen fewer nations dicing at the front than the women because the top teams have better depth, but in recent years it has fast become a two-team race; the Russians are barred, the Swedes don't have any real depth beyond Samuelsson and Ponsiluoma, and the Germans have got a lot of people who are good make-weights for the relay but have seen all their established names of many years - Lesser, Doll, Schempp, Peiffer - retire within short order, and without quality replacements and prospects (Danilo Riethmüller was, as a junior, one such prospect, but he had a few years during and after the pandemic where he really struggled and is only now, at 26, reaching the kind of area where people thought he'd have been four years ago) nobody who can convincingly outperform the top Norwegians or French, so I can understand that there might be a bit of annoyance at the whole "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" feel.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Kirkeeide once again proves that if you have to miss then do it as early as possible. Skiing much faster than Bened also helped a little.

Braisaz-Bouchet kind of blocked Jeanmonnot towards the end, but she was able to get past without making a risky move like Jacquelin did to Perrot yesterday. She also can't be unhappy about how this race went with Vittozzi unable to start and the other challengers bar Kirkeeide failing to score major points.

Preuß is looking decent (whether she can stay healthy for the rest of the season remains doubtful), but Simon still has some work to do ahead of the Olympics.

 

[YavorD]

Great win for Kirkeeide. She was leading all the way in the last lap.

But when I saw the results, there are 13 women in 23 seconds. It must be one of the closest mass starts ever?
Passler without the penalty in the last shooting could've won, but she only finished 11th

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Giacomel wins. Perrot wasn't strong enough to take full advantage of Botn's misses.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

1+0+0+0 for anybody at a good level will pretty much always be a podium shot in the Mass Start. So often the slow pace early on leads to those that miss early coming back and not paying the price for their misses due to those up front wanting to not risk later misses, especially if they can ride somebody working harder to take back that time.

Strelow was a sitting duck on the last lap just like Bened, he would have been safe on the women's lap from earlier, he had a little bit more time than she did but on the slightly longer laps done by the men it was just enough for Christiansen to catch him. A shame for Strelow who only has the one podium in his career - and for Germany of course, as they kind of need the audience to be able to believe in medal hopes - but Christiansen masterfully got himself into position and rode Botn (surprisingly Dale-Skjevdal ran out of juice, he's been flying the last couple of weeks but obviously that seems to have finally caught up with him here) before making his own move in the last kilometre and a half to grab the podium at the line. I would rather have had Strelow on the podium than yet more predictable Norway/France battling, but you can't help but acknowledge that Christiansen used all of his experience against his younger compatriots and just pulled off the tactics perfectly there.

 

[jsem94]

Being sick of Boe was fair enough. Being sick of a new person emerging and shooting the lights out, a new name to shake things up at the top just because of where they were born, is weird.

I never said I was sick of either Bø or Botn, so I don't appreciate the insinuation. The only thing I am sick of is seeing nothing but Norwegian flags at the top of race after race. Part of it is spite, being Swedish, and part of it is seeing how harmful it is to the sport. The same could nearly be said of the Swedish ladies in the FIS World Cup, though a lot of that is carried by an insane sprint team - something that I don't think should be as large a part of the schedule anyway.

We were witnessing GOAT levels with JTB, and I frequently wanted to see how he would fare in individual skate races in the FIS World Cup. I think he would have done well. Furthermore I don't harbour any ill will towards Botn. In fact, I think it's rather regrettable that high performing nations have to restrict their teams to the extent that they hold racers back in the IBU Cup or Scandi Cup for years and years. Had Botn represented any other nation he would have been a world cup racer for years. Sports governing bodies including FIS and IBU, much like the IOC, would rather see representation from lesser nations than see the elite compete at the top. I understand it, and I am not sure I would actually want that to change, but I am definitely lamenting the fate of the elite racers being stuck in the IBU Cup for years for too long robbing them of potential big league success and it does reduce their career numbers when all is said and done - not too differently from MLB teams keeping players in the minors for longer, manipulating service time.. but I digress.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Kirkeeide once again proves that if you have to miss then do it as early as possible. Skiing much faster than Bened also helped a little.

Braisaz-Bouchet kind of blocked Jeanmonnot towards the end, but she was able to get past without making a risky move like Jacquelin did to Perrot yesterday. She also can't be unhappy about how this race went with Vittozzi unable to start and the other challengers bar Kirkeeide failing to score major points.

Preuß is looking decent (whether she can stay healthy for the rest of the season remains doubtful), but Simon still has some work to do ahead of the Olympics.

Passler died a slow death on the final lap, her tank was empty.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

About the team selection, one has to feel for Didrik Toenseth. 3rd in the Beitostoelen classic race, wins a Scandinavia Cup 20km mass start and finishes 3rd in the sprint, but still can't get a spot on the Tour de Ski team to potentially get selected for the Olympics. I know, there is usually a sprinter bias in the Norwegian TdS selection, but 2 youngsters like Vike and Heggen who probably won't make the Olympics team (a harsh truth) being there instead of him must hurt.

Vike is much closer to the Olympic team than Tønseth. Tønseth went into basically no chance territority after being "only" sixth Norwegian in the 10k in Ruka and missing Trondheim qualification. There are athlest 8 skiers more qualified for the 10k skate and the skiathlon, then one could argue that he would be an option for the 50k, but historically he doesnt have much to show for in the 50k and it's still a load of athletes more qualified (Klæbo, Nyenget, Amundsen, Ree and Iversen based are clearly ahead, probably also Valnes and Krueger as well...

And there are no stages in the Tour that would be useful for Didrik to qualify anyway given there aint no long classic masstart, skiathlon or skate individual. Tour program is a massive FIS fail, not selection related.
In theory the 20 km classic masstart in Goms could've been Didriks chance to qualify for the 50k, but it is way too late and the team will already be selected.

 

[search]

will Klaebo do all races at the Olympics? If so, it probably makes more sense to bring another sprinter anyway.