I fully expect FIS to ban all US athletes from the rest of the WC tour and remove the Lake Placid WC finals from the calendar. Oh wait...
- Apr 10, 2019
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- Jun 30, 2022
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Nans Madelenat has achieved something historic in the Youth Biathlon World Championships (which won‘t be held anymore after this year, just the juniors)… After missing Bronze by two tenths in the Individual, he‘s missed out today by one tenth in the Sprint. Lozbers missed out on Gold, because three misses was one too many against Markus Sklenarik who shot clean. He‘s still insanely dominant in the skiing here.
- Jun 30, 2022
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The Biathlon Junior World Champs would make you think Poland and Latvia were the greatest Biathlon nations.Yesterday, Grzegorz Galica, who is legitimately a huge talent (could still be doing the Youth races) won with two misses, although that was partly because most of his top competition was inexplicably placed in the last start group. Today, Estere Volfa won with an insane gap, especially in the last lap. Good performance by Sydney Wüstling to win a medal at 17 years of age as well.
I don't follow closely enough to know if it's an upset, but Mackie winning the U23 women's 20k skate is the kind of result we haven't seen in Canadian skiing in a while.
- Jun 30, 2022
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- Sep 26, 2020
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I can find some solace in the fact that it wouldn't have made a difference today if Elvira had missed as well, but I still really want to see Bátovská Fialková finish her career with a victory to her name.
A day to forget for Jeanmonnot, but at least the small fall at the shooting range didn't cost her a globe this time around, as she just managed to held on to the lead in the ranking for the individual thanks to, among other performances, perfect (and more importantly, safe) rifle handling from Marlene Fichtner.
A day to forget for Jeanmonnot, but at least the small fall at the shooting range didn't cost her a globe this time around, as she just managed to held on to the lead in the ranking for the individual thanks to, among other performances, perfect (and more importantly, safe) rifle handling from Marlene Fichtner.
- Feb 20, 2010
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If Fichtner can prove Nové Město was no fluke and this kind of performance level is sustainable (I don't expect her to keep hitting top 5s, but some European Championships results before hitting an unexpected flower ceremony in an Individual at 24 - a year older than Marlene is now - was the making of Franziska Hildebrand, who is probably a best-case scenario development comparable for Fichtner imo), then with Grotian, Tannheimer, and the youths like Wüstling continue to develop, I don't really fear for the German women in the wake of their disappointing time in Antholz.
For the men I really do have concerns, though. Pfund looked good earlier this season - better than expected with the step up - but he was facing a depleted field; and guys like Riethmüller and Kaiser aren't even all that young now. Seidl followed up his IBU Cup race win at the first Lake Placid weekend with a 4/10 sprint at the second. Surely guys like Fratzscher, Kühn, Rees can't be part of the future plans at this stage. Nawrath and Horn are at least good enough now that they could feasibly still be decent in four years' time, but would need to reinvent themselves as some kind of poor man's Arnd Peiffer, this time around was almost certainly their best chances for individual medals.
For the men I really do have concerns, though. Pfund looked good earlier this season - better than expected with the step up - but he was facing a depleted field; and guys like Riethmüller and Kaiser aren't even all that young now. Seidl followed up his IBU Cup race win at the first Lake Placid weekend with a 4/10 sprint at the second. Surely guys like Fratzscher, Kühn, Rees can't be part of the future plans at this stage. Nawrath and Horn are at least good enough now that they could feasibly still be decent in four years' time, but would need to reinvent themselves as some kind of poor man's Arnd Peiffer, this time around was almost certainly their best chances for individual medals.
- Jul 8, 2017
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I know that Tannheimer amd Grotian, I would even include Kink, are very young, but honestly 2 years ago I expected they would be a real contenders for the top places by Millano-Cortina and they somewhat stalled. There is still some time, but I find it rather concerning.
Did they have any issues in the last summer or 2 which could explain their stallin?
- Feb 20, 2010
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Well, Grotian won a race last season, and this season the bigger problem was that she got Covid in November which really screwed up her early season. I'm not worried about Selina from a physical standpoint, she still skis top 10 when she's on form, but she's become more troubled in the range, especially in relays which she used to be money in.
Tannheimer is the type of athlete that still needs to work on consistency. She relied exclusively on her outlying speed as a youth, and while her shooting is far better than the likes of Gössner ever got, she's not yet reliable in the range and may never be.
Kink I'm not sold on. She has the tools, but she hasn't convinced me that she can put it together yet; she does not have the strong potential upside that Tannheimer or Grotian have demonstrated, but she's too unreliable to fulfil the kind of role that Fichtner - and possibly Puff if she gets healthy again - are likely to take on in the team.
She may yet do so - probably the best comparable I have for Kink from previous German generations would be Maren Hammerschmidt, who overdelivered in relays, got a couple of podiums here and there, but was always a role player in the team rather than a star, and it took her until her mid-20s including a tail-between-her-legs stint on the Alpencup for her to finally put it together and become a key part of the team. Another possible comparison point would be Sophia Schneider, who was very fast as a youth and had a bit of a struggle with injuries that meant she had to rediscover herself to gain a World Cup spot. Schneider is kinda on the outside looking in at the moment and may not make it to the next Olympics, but she has had a decent World Cup run in her time.
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