Ciao bella! I don’t know why but every time I start talking about the Italian team I always want to start out that way. To my knowledge I haven’t ever done it yet so now I have. And honestly it really fits. Hey, no not because Giacomel has the hair of a Fabio or that Doro is the most marketable active biathlete, but because their home stop on the World Cup is so darn pretty! Ask a biathlete of a fan for their favorite stop and I would bet over half will say Antholz. It’s just pristine. The living embodiment of the star eyes emoji.
The Italian team also could go by that description as well. They made a concerted effort to build for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan being hosted on their home snow. They have even taken to naming one of their developmental squads the 2026 team. It shows as both the men and especially the women are absolutely stuffed with young talent. Outside of just a few basically everybody else is under 25. So let’s dive in and see how this team, with one eye on the future, looks to do in this 2023-2024 season.
Women
The women are lead by a top notch 1-2 duo who can go toe to toe with anybody. Behind them though there is a whole slew of developing talent. They are each starting to show it at the higher levels now too. It just really gets you excited thinking about their potential.
Quota: 6 Athletes to Start
Double Trouble
We’ll start right out with that exceptionally talented 1-2 of Dorothea Wierer and Vittozzi. It’s fair to say that nobody else had a duo like that because last year the only woman that finished ahead of these two was Julia Simon. From beginning to end they were in nearly every race and form one of the strongest cores on the World Cup.
Dorothea Wierer (33)
I honestly cannot believe that Wierer is already 33. She’s at the age where every season we start to wonder…is this her last? Every part of me wants her to keep on racing through 2026 but she’s been very cagey about making any commitments longer than one season at a time.
Even as she toys with our hearts by discussing potential retirements, and is making quite a living away from biathlon with her endorsements, she is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down. As Julia Simon powered her way to the Overall Crystal Globe, Wierer was the only woman who put any doubt in our minds or fear in Simon about what final outcome might be. Though she ultimately ended up in 2nd Overall, the fourth top 3 Overall finish in her career.
It was a heck of a season. She won three races, including two in Östersund that put her in striking distance of a miracle Overall Globe win. She had six total podiums and nine top 10’s and was in the mix from start to finish of the 22-23 season. Really the only blemish for her was that she didn’t have a particularly good Worlds.
After a couple of seasons outside the top three in the Overall Wierer rebounded with the help of her skiing and her shooting. She had slipped outside the top 20 in overall skiing for the previous two seasons but bounced back to 14th last year. Compared to the rest of the field it was her third fastest season of her career behind just the two Overall Globe wins.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2017-2018 | 90.2 | 85.6 | 87.9 | 26.6 |
| 2018-2019 | 88.3 | 81.5 | 84.9 | 25.6 |
| 2019-2020 | 88.2 | 79.4 | 83.8 | 26.6 |
| 2020-2021 | 90.5 | 83.3 | 86.9 | 26.9 |
| 2021-2022 | 87 | 82.5 | 84.8 | 26.6 |
| 2022-2023 | 94 | 82.5 | 88.3 | 25.8 |
Her shooting reached new highs as she hit 88.3% last season, a new career best. This was due to a huge improvement in prone shooting up to 94% which was a 7% improvement year over year. And though she may not have had her best shooting time rank, her average shooting time of 25.8 seconds was easily the best of her career. Not bad for traditionally one of the faster shooters on the women’s circuit.
For 2023-2024 can we expect her to run it back again? I guess that is the question. She’s 33 and though she’s on the higher end of the age spectrum, we’ve seen some outstanding racing from women in that age range the last few years including Roeiseland and Herrmann-Wick to name a couple. When it comes to former Overall Globe winners, and Wierer in particular, I will never predict the end. I will say that the competition amongst the women may be better than ever, so another similar year may lead to a lower overall finish. I just want to see her keep on racing at this high level though!!
Lisa Vittozzi (28)
Last year was an exceptional season for stories in biathlon and one of the top ones was the return of Lisa Vittozzi. After peaking with a superb 2018-2019 season where she finished 2nd only to her teammate Dorothe Wierer, Vittozzi had a steady decline. While her performance slipped in several categories it was driven almost chiefly by the collapse of her prone shooting. It went from good, to okay, to disastrous. Everybody was cheering for her to pull out of it. And boy did she ever.
Starting in the summer events in 2022 there were signs that Vittozzi was looking like her old self. Then the first race of the 2022-2023 season came and she scored a podium. And then another. And then a 4th. I can only speak for myself but I almost didn’t want to talk about it. What if I jinxed it? Have no fear there was no jinxing Vittozzi. She finished 3rd Overall in a remarkable season that included her third career win, the Individual in Ruhpolding. She also accumulated eight podiums which included the Bronze medal in the Oberhof Worlds Individual. She also totaled a wild 15 top 10’s.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2017-2018 | 86 | 88.8 | 87.4 | 27.9 |
| 2018-2019 | 83.6 | 92.3 | 88 | 27.9 |
| 2019-2020 | 78.8 | 81.8 | 80.3 | 29 |
| 2020-2021 | 70.5 | 85.5 | 78 | 29.1 |
| 2021-2022 | 55.5 | 86.5 | 71 | 27.2 |
| 2022-2023 | 86.1 | 90.6 | 88.3 | 27 |
Where did the improvement come from? It’s easy to say that it was her shooting, and prone shooting in particular. After trickling all the way down to 55.1% she came all the way back to 86% last season. That wasn’t her career best prone shooting but it was miles and better than it had been the last few years. Combined with just over 90% standing shooting and she hit a total of 88.3% of her shots last season. That was good for the second best shooting of her career.
It really wasn’t just her shooting though. She ended the season ranked 7th overall in skiing. She’s always been a good skier. Last year she became a top tier skier. She was on the same general level as women like Hanna Öberg and Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold. Really really good stuff.
As we head into 2023-2024 there is no reason to expect that she’s going to have a setback. I mean there was no reason to see her earlier decline coming either. But seriously, Lisa Vittozzi is an excellent overall biathlete. I cannot stress enough how much I did not see that coming. If she can come back from where she had gone then she has as much mental strength as anybody in the field. The skiing is good. The shooting is back to as good as ever. She’s entering the prime years of her career. Lisa Vittozzi has to be in the conversation for the Women’s Overall Globe.
World Cup Youngsters
When the FISI first set one of their developmental teams as the 2026 Milan team this was what they had in mind. Three young women all with high potential who are starting to realize some of that in the years leading up to the home Olympic Games. There are still more women in the pipeline but these three in one way or another have already taken a step ahead of the others.
Samuela Comola (25)
Of the three women in this category Samuel Comola is the “old lady” of the group…at the grand old age of 25. She’s been competing in IBU races since the 2015-2016 season. She actually had a really good Juniors career peaking in 2019-2020 when she finished 6th in the Overall Juniors ranking. That was more about how many races she ran though as she had just three top 10’s in 12 races. Looking at the bright side though she had two of those at Junior Worlds. She never really ran consistently on the IBU Cup and she didn’t have many high finishes. Then she started on the World Cup in 20-21.
Since starting on the World Cup she’s been on a steady upward climb. Seriously just go look at her realbiathlon.com page. It is a slow and steady rise with her average finish slowly but surely improving almost every week on the World Cup. Year over year she went from 1 top 30 to 10. She also gained 4 top 20’s, 2 top 10’s and her career best of 4th in the Individual at the Oberhof World Champs. In the end her Overall finish went from 87th all the way to 37th. She went from a mildly intriguing prospect to a very intriguing prospect.
When somebody makes an improvement like that, not surprisingly you see improvements absolutely everywhere. Coming into the World Cup she’s never shown spectacular speed. At every level she’s been faster than average but never ranking very high in the overall skiing. Last season though she managed to get just a little faster than average and finished 38th overall in skiing. Without a doubt it was the best skiing of her career.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2021-2022 | 88.6 | 77 | 82.9 | 34 |
| 2022-2023 | 95.6 | 82.5 | 89.1 | 31 |
Her shooting at every level has been anywhere from the mid 80’s up to the low 90’s. Her first season on the World Cup she shot just 82.9% total shooting which was one of the worst season totals in her career at any level. Last year though she had a nice positive regression back up to 89.1% driven by very strong prone shooting of 95.6%. Meanwhile her shooting time dropped from 34 seconds to 31 seconds. Certainly not fast but it was better.
Looking ahead to 2023-2024 there are still plenty of areas where Comola could see continued growth. First and foremost her standing shooting last season was just 82.5%. If that can come up to the mid to upper 80’s then this would be substantial. She could also see some improved skiing as well. However considering she has never been a speedster like an Elvira Öberg we shouldn’t expect that kind of improvement. It wouldn’t be shocking though to see if she could get just a touch faster. Speaking of faster would it be surprising to see her shooting speed get a little faster than 30 seconds? If we see all of those things come together a top 25 Overall is easily within reach. Let’s see it!
Rebecca Passler (22)
22 year old Rebecca Passler has had a fairly rapid rise from her first race with the IBU in 2019 at the Youth Champs up to being a World Cup regular last season. In just her second Juniors season she ended up 7th overall after stacking up six podiums and two podiums. She also grabbed four Youth and Juniors Worlds medals in her Juniors career. As she transitioned out of her Juniors Career she dipped her toes into the IBU Cup…and didn’t do much. Seriously not much there to report.
Regardless in 2022-2023 she came to the World Cup and looked really solid. Nothing spectacular here with just two top 20’s but she also rarely finished outside the top 40. She ended up 39th Overall just continuing to accumulate points almost every race.
Rebecca Passler doesn’t have a significant strength. She’s been solid on the skis and solid with the rifle at pretty much every stop along the way. Last season she finished ranked 58th in skiing, averaging just a bit slower than average, and 50th in shooting hitting 83.8%. Now she did average just 24.1 seconds per shooting.
Can Rebecca Passler continue to improve? Sure, why not?!? That’s all she’s done so far in her career! She just keeps on getting a little big stronger on the skis and a touch more accurate every season. It’s time for another improvement. A little bit faster and a little bit more accurate. The key for Passler throughout her career is solid. She’s going to continue to be solid. She’s just 22 so there is plenty of opportunity for improvement. I believe another improvement will happen. Elisa Gasparin finished 26th overall with shooting similar to Passler and was 45th in skiing to Passler’s 58th. Is that possible for Passler this season? I sure think so. She should and could be fighting for right around top 25 in the Overall.
Hannah Auchentaller (22)
Going into last season I was pretty sure Comola and Passler were going to be part of the 2026 crew. Hanna Auchentaller though was one I didn’t see coming. I think that subconsciously I just didn’t know what to think about her likely because her father is the head coach of Team USA. That shouldn’t be held against her at all and that’s on me.
Her Juniors career though showed what you want to see. Not that she’s a future super star but definitely that she has potential. As she got to the upper end of the Juniors age she secured her best finishes going 8th, 7th, and silver medal 2nd at her last Junior Worlds. At the same time she started getting some IBU Cup experience racing all of 2021-2022 and the first half of 2022-2023. In 21-22 she finished 36th in the IBU Cup Overall. In 22-23 she was racing much stronger and after a 2nd place and her first career victory in the Short Individual in Pokljuka she got the call up to the World Cup.
Once on the World Cup she was certainly not overwhelmed. In fact she was remarkably steady. She ran 13 World Cup races and finished between 22nd and 33rd eight times. That’s just really steady and not necessarily what you might expect from a 21 year old who was seeing her first real racing at the highest level.
Auchentaller profiles as an all around biathlete. So far in her career she’s been slightly better at skiing than shooting but not so much so that we would call it her strength. For example as a Junior she was 32nd in overall skiing in her last Juniors year which was actually just 4th fastest amongst Italian women. Her shooting meanwhile has been steady around the low 80’s.
Once she got to the World Cup we are seeing some of the same things. She finished 49th in overall skiing just a little faster than average. Her shooting was also decent hitting 82.9% overall, near her career average, good enough for 55th in overall shooting. So far she looks similar to Passler but her shooting was a bit slower at just 29.4 seconds per shooting. That isn’t bad but it wasn’t super star level.
Can we expect more out of Hanna Auchentaller upcoming? Yes! She’s 22 years old which is so young in the sport of biathlon. We only have a few seasons of history with her but one good thing that we are seeing is continued improvement every single season. So we can expect to see her skiing continue on the upward trend. Maybe we can see her get to around Comola’s skiing from last season. Compare their Juniors racing and you’ll see that Auchentaller was racing faster than Comola in the same age seasons. So Auchentaller moving up to a ski ranking in the mid 30’s might be a stretch this season but it isn’t out of the question. Her shooting has been trending up and may move towards the low mid 80’s. A full season at that level should see her racing towards the 30-35 region in the Overall. If she races every week she might even sneak into the top 30. Let’s go Hannah!
Rounding Out The Six
These three women aren’t quite established in that solid 2026 group, but they are just behind. There is a real chance that any and all of these women could fight their way into that group as soon…well right off the start of the season! Seriously all of these three women are strong and could find their way into the conversation quickly. The Italians have six spots to fill but it’s going to get tight very fast with all of these women being so strong.
Beatrice Trabucchi (23)
Beatrice Trabucchi appears to be the first woman up as she has made the World Cup squad for Östersund. Somehow, being 23 she’s still older than two of her teammates. She so far has 0 World Cup races. She did run 29 Junior Cup races over parts of five years with nine top 10’s which included two podium finishes. That’s decent but doesn’t shout out that she’s a future star. Overlapping with her Juniors racing she has also run parts of four seasons on the IBU. Her best Overall finish was 19th in 2021-2022 followed by a small drop back to 20th in 22-23. Over those 57 IBU Cup races she only has six top 10’s. For the most part she was just very consistently finishing between the teens to the 30’s. Once again it doesn’t shout that she’s a future star. But having shown well in training she gets the call up to the World Cup for the first time.
What does her past performance tell us about her future? Well in general Beatrice Trabucchi has raced as an exceptional shooter with skiing that lags behind a little bit. Last season her skiing made some mild improvements while her shooting really fell off. Her average course time rank came up by about 10 spots and her overall ski ranking was up 16 spots to 36th. But her position behind the top 10 skiers didn’t change at all and she was also running even slightly slower vs the average IBU Cup biathlete. So basically a mixed picture on the skiing.
Meanwhile her shooting dropped precipitously from 91.1% to 83.1%. She had been shooting high 80’s and into then 90’s in every season of her career. So this was a big drop. Looking at the race by race shooting it was both that she had fewer great shooting days and that she had more really bad days. It was general decline in shooting.
Now Beatrice Trabucchi is showing well this summer and has gotten the call up. That kind of super shooting strength, if it is back, will easily help buoy her position in the field. If you can shooting 88% or better you’re going to keep yourself in a lot of races. Look at somebody like Suvi Minkkinen. Nobody thinks that she is a speedster. However, she shot 90.8% last season, within the realm of Trabucchi’s shooting potential. Minkkinen ranked just 65th in skiing and yet she finished the season 27th in the Overall with her first career top 10 and six top 20’s. That is the blueprint for Beatrice Trabucchi and even if she doesn’t do that this season, I think ultimately that is the path we see her take. And ultimately I’m generally more bullish on a biathlete with a super strength.
Michela Carrara (26)
At the end of last season I would have been prepared to guess that Michela Carrara would be the 6th starter for the World Cup. However, a broken wrist this summer may have pushed her back in the pecking order. As it is, her age and experience does outweighs basically everybody outside of the top two Wierer and Vittozzi. She does indeed have two prior predominantly World Cup seasons, but though she has been making World Cup starts lately she has more or less been relegated to the IBU Cup the last two seasons.
Way back in 2017 Carrara would have likely been a hot pick as a future star for the Italian team. That year she won a gold and silver at the Junior. After that though she failed to finish higher than 11th in a Juniors event. After a single season on the IBU Cup she went primarily to the World Cup for the 19-20 and 20-21 seasons with no real breakthrough success.
Back on the IBU Cup the last two seasons she was having intermittent high finishes until Canmore. It should be noted that Canmore had limited fields, but there was still some top tier talent in those races. So it’s still impressive that she finished with five straight top 7’s including a win and a second place. That was the hottest stretch of her career at any level. It was really really good stuff which is why I had her mentally pegged, at least at that point, that she was going to be back to the World Cup.
Regardless if she is starting on the IBU Cup we should understand who she is as an athlete. Carrara is a skier first and foremost. She has finished outside the top 10 in course time rank just 3 times over the last two seasons. Over that hot finish to the season she was the fastest every single time. So why doesn’t she have more consistent success? Shooting. It’s always the shooting. In her career she almost every year struggles to get out of the low 70’s. Even when she finished with a run of top 7 finishes she never broke 80%.
Can Carrara take her place amongst the 2026 squad? Well it all depends if on that shooting. I said before I am bullish on athletes who have a strength. Carrara has that in spades. If she can find a way to shoot in the low 80’s then we are in business. To be an Overall contender, even with that speed, she needs to shoot mid to high 80’s. If she can get to the low 80’s though she’ll be solid and a random great shooting day could see her contending for a top 5-10. I don’t know that we’ll see that kind of improvement yet, but that is what we need to see.
Linda Zingerle (21)
The final woman on this section, Linda Zingerle, has easily the least experience with just a single World Cup start. However with her consistent IBU Cup experience over the last two seasons she belongs more here than with the Juniors. She does keep running Juniors races including four Youth Worlds medals at the 2020 and 2021 Championships. Over the last two seasons on the Junior Cup she had just one top 10 in eight races.
On the IBU Cup she has had three top 10’s over the last two seasons, all occurring in the middle of last season. To bed fair she only raced weeks 5 and 6 along with the European Championships. Other than that the vast majority of her finishes are between the teens and 30’s. Her Overall finishes in the last two seasons were 53rd in 21-22 and 51st in 22-23.
As an athlete she has profiled as a decent skier. For example last year she ended up 22nd overall in skiing on the IBU Cup. Really not bad at all! Her shooting also took a little step up last season. After shooting in the low to mid 70’s for her entire career she got up to 81. 8% last year. Really a solid step. Interestingly her shooting times have been regressing and last year she was up to 30.7 seconds average time per shooting.
So why the optimism? Well she was 20 last season and had three top tens in eight races. Pretty darn good! She was 22nd fastest already! Can I stress again how young she was? So let’s see how her age 21 season goes. The speed at this age is intriguing. The shooting took step forward last season. Let’s see if she can get that even a little better. Being top 15 skiing on the IBU Cup with shooting in the mid 80’s would be a really good season. Do that for a full season and let the results fall where they may (and I would bet those would be darn good results!).
All Still Juniors
Sara Scattolo (20)
One of the most successful Junior women over the last two seasons, Sara Scattolo enters her age 20 season on the heels of back to back top 10 Overall finishes on the Junior Cup, including securing 4th place last year. Along the way she has four wins and seven podiums over the last three seasons. She has 13 top 10’s in 24 total Juniors races. The only blemish on her record, so far anyway, is a relative lack of success at Worlds. She has a high finish of 4th from the Soldier Hollow Youth Worlds and just two top 10’s at Worlds.
Scattolo is pretty good on the skis. She is almost always top 10-15 in course time ranks. Her numbers took a little set back last season as she moved from Youth to Juniors competition but only very small. Hopefully we’ll see that not only correct itself but move forward again this season. Meanwhile her shooting is boom or bust. She seems to shoot either very well or not very well. Her averages come out to low 80s including almost exactly 80% each of the last two seasons. But don’t mistake that for consistently hitting 8/10 or 16/20. Total shooting times, after making a nice jump two years ago from around 38 seconds to 33 seconds, improved mildly to 32.4 second average shooting last season.
Scattolo has potential to be really solid. I’m not going to say she has Selina Grotian potential but she’s definitely one of the top 15-20 Juniors women to watch right now. The skiing keeps her in the races. She’s a bit like Julia Simon was prior to last season. Again I don’t want anyone to think I’m pegging Scattolo as a future Globe winner, but just the way she races with speed and the boom or bust shooting gives her opportunities to win or podium, or finish lower. My hope for her this season is threefold: 1) We see the skiing moving forward again. With such high hopes for her, in her Juniors racing (I’m assuming she’ll get a good number of IBU Cup starts) I want to see her solidly top 10 if not top 5. I want to see more consistency in her shooting. Fewer sub 80 days. More 85-90% days. And 3) Worlds success. Doesn’t have to be medals, just better. competition against the best in her age group.
Martina Trabucchi (21)
The younger Trabucchi, Martina Trabucchi, hasn’t quite made the solid jump that her older sister has. To be fair Beatrice is two years older! Martina Trabucchi has been racing both Juniors and IBU Cup races over the last three years with 24 IBU Cup races to 21 Junior Cup races. Even though she has more IBU Cup than Junior Cup I still want to focus more on her Juniors races with just an eye on the IBU Cup.
In those 21 Junior Cup races she has seven top 10’s with three of them coming at the 2021 Youth Worlds in Obertilliach including her Pursuit Silver medal! To get a better idea of her performance though, 9 of her 21 Junior Cup finishes have been between 9th and 18th. That seem to be where she lives. Just a few higher and lower. If we check in on her IBU Cup racing we see that she has mostly been finishing middle of the pack. In those 24 races she has a couple of top 10s (one being Super Sprint qualifiying), but most finishes are in the 20’s to 50’s.
In general she’s a decent skier but not dominant by any means. In her, thus far, career year of 2020-2021 she ended up 8th overall in skiing on the Juniors level. She’s never come close to that level again, though finishing 31st and 28th each of the last two years. Looking for good news she was top 10 in course time rank each of the non Worlds races she ran last year. On the IBU Cup she is just a little faster than average with a course time rank averaging in the mid 30’s. Shooting, regardless of level, appears stuck in upper 70’s and low 80’s. She did shoot 88% in that great 20-21 year, but otherwise seems anchored to 80%.
For Trabucchi to follow her sister’s path she’ll just need a broad based improvement. Improved skiing back towards where she was two seasons ago vs. the field. If that’s on the Juniors level getting towards an average course time rank in the top 10 or IBU Cup moving towards top 15-20. Shooting doesn’t have to be 88% but getting from around 80% to the mid 80’s would be magnificent. Doesn’t matter if she spends more time Juniors or IBU Cup, that’s what we want to see.
Ilaria Scattolo (19)
Another sibling on this list, Illaria Scattolo is following along behind her sister. Like Martina Trabucchi, she hasn’t quite had as much success as her older sister yet. However, with just two years of IBU racing, maybe it’s still coming. She has just two top 10’s in 16 races. Again though, very early on.
She’s definitely not as fast as her sister. Her average course time rank was just 30th last season, down from 25th the year before. Definitely not the flashes of speed that we’ve seen from Sara Scattolo. Her shooting, however, is pretty solid. Most of her races she’s hitting between 80-90% of her shots. She does mix in just enough really bad days, below 70%, that it drags down her overall average. I still think she’s a good shot though and consistency will come.
So from Illario Scattolo let’s see what this season brings. Hopefully more racing, improved speed, and cutting out the very bad shooting days.
Fabiana Carpella (19)
Another 19 year old young woman with two seasons of IBU racing under her belt, Fabiana Carpella is a bit of an intriguing figure. She has 7 top 10’s and 14 top 15’s in 21 career races. Kind of a nice breakdown there with 33% of her finishes top 10, 33% top 15 and 33% lower. Overall shows a nice cluster towards the top. Last season she performed pretty well at Youth Worlds as well going 8th in the Sprint and 5th in the Pursuit.
Carpella is a solid skier. Not top notch like Sara Scattalo but not too terribly far behind. She ended up 23rd on the Juniors ranks last season and finished 4th, 9th, and 5th in course time rank at Youth Worlds last winter. Her shooting, like several of these Junior Italian women, averages out to low 80s. Last season it was 79% total. For her though, she’s more consistent than some of her teammates. This means fewer sub 70% shooting days, but also unfortunately few better than 90% shooting days.
My dream for Carpella is another solid season. Continued improvement on the skis, moving up to top 15 overall in the rankings. She might look worse at Junior Worlds just based off of older competitors but I’m really hoping her improvements negate that. And I would like to see her move that window of shooting up from 70-90% up to 75-95% with the average moving towards like 82-83%. I think these are doable!
Carlotta Gautero (17)
Young Carlotta Gautero has just three solo Juniors races to her credit. One of these though, was a 4th place finish at Youth Worlds last winter in the Individual. She followed that going 19th and 33rd in Sprint and Pursuit. We don’t want to go crazy over three races but her course time ranks were 3rd, 5th and 9th. That’s a pretty solid debut! No surprise that she shot well (85%) in her 4th place finish and not well (60% and 55%) in her “less successful” races. Hopefully we see more from her this winter as that was definitely a solid debut last season!
Gaia Brunetto (22)
Gaia Brunetto is 22 years old but really doesn’t have that much more racing experience than Gautero. This includes absolutely 0 racing last season. She has run 11 Junior Cup races and 6 on the IBU Cup. She has a single top 10 on the Juniors level mostly finishing in the teens and 20’s. She was a member of the Italian Junior Worlds silver medal relay team in 2021 at Obertilliach alongside Rebecca Passer, Hanna Auchentaller, and Beatrice Trabucchi which is some high company. Hopefully we’ll see her back this year!
Astrid Plosch (19)
We finish up with 19 year old Astrid Plosch. Prior to last year’s Youth Worlds she had 0 top 10’s in eight races across two seasons. Then she got to Youth Worlds in Kazakhstan and went 12th, 3rd, and 6th. She had her best skiing of her career with her three best course time ranks of 3rd, 4th, and 18th. She hit 80%, 100%, and 80%. It was a really good week of racing. I hope she uses that as a springboard into this season!
Men
There aren’t many teams, men or women, with a better 1-2 than the Italian women. Norwegian men and that’s about it. I would hear an argument for the French men but that still mainly rests on the potential of a top full season for Jacquelin. So to say that the Italian men don’t match the women is not an insult. Actually Giacomel and a fully healthy Hofer is pretty strong with interesting potential development from the men behind them. And there is some really good youth coming in as well!
Quota: 5 Athletes to star
Future Star
Tomasso Giacomel (23)
Is future star too much of a burden to put on Tommaso Giacomel? I mean yeah it’s too much for anybody. But Giacomel has the ability to potentially be the best Italian male biathlete of all time and I don’t say that lightly. Just listen to out Niklas Hartweg podcast when he talks about racing against Giacomel for the first time in an Alpine Cup event as teenagers. He basically says “Damn, that guy is fast.” Hartweg knew them, and after just barely losing out on the u25 globe (to the aforementioned Hartweg) we all know now, Giacomel is a future force to be reckoned with.
Giacomel had a relatively brief Juniors career, running just 20 total Juniors races, but he had nine top 10’s and five podiums in that time. He made no transition through IBU Cup and went straight to the World Cup starting in 2020-2021. It’s been a bit of learning curve over that time which isn’t surprising based on his age. His Overall finishes were 72nd and 36th with just two top 20s. Then last season in Hochfilzen he got 6th in the Pursuit and it sparked him to a whole new level. He ended up with seven top 10’s including setting a career best of 2nd at the Oestersund Individual behind only Benedikt Doll and his perfect race.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2019-2020 | 85 | 85 | 85 | 27..8 |
| 2020-2021 | 72.9 | 77.7 | 75.3 | 25.4 |
| 2021-2022 | 73.6 | 77.1 | 75.4 | 27.4 |
| 2022-2023 | 80.5 | 80.9 | 80.7 | 25.5 |
Last season Giacomel came in with a reputation of being a good skier and a mediocre shooter. Last season he was once again fast, ranking 14th overall in skiing putting him alongside Jacquelin and Endre Stromsheim. The improvement though was his shooting. It wasn’t massive but his average moved from 75.4% over the prior two seasons up to 80.7% last year. Meanwhile his average shooting time dropped back down to 25.5 seconds (he’s always a fast shooter). The end result? 12th Overall and 2nd in the u25 Globe race.
Giacomel is entering his 5th season on the World Cup and it feels like he should be about 28. But he’s still racing in the Blue Bib category and is a real threat to take it from Hartweg this season. Hartweg stole it out from him with a tremendous weekend in Oslo so Giacomel had it in his grasp. Hopefully another season of refining that shooting will continue to move it into the low 80’s. It doesn’t need to be as good as Hartweg’s shooting, just good enough to allow his legs to compete. I’m predicting another really good year for Giacomel as he pushes towards top 10 in the Overall.
One Last Go Around?
Lukas Hofer (34)
We discussed Giacomel potentially being the best Italian male biathlete ever with the key word being potentially. What about another of the best Italian male biathletes ever, Lukas Hofer, who hasn’t yet retired. It’s been a rough stretch the last two seasons. After finishing a very solid 8th Overall in 2020-2021, he followed that with a subpar 20th in 21-22 and then missed the vast majority of last season due to a lower leg injury. It sounds like he is still trying to overcome some pain now in his shoulder and we’ll still have to see how much racing he does this year. Hofer is a tough man and he’ll fight through a lot as we’ve seen, but one wonders at what point does it become too much to continue to battle through. The good new is though in the Italian trials just held he won so clearly he’s able to compete at a very high level for right now!
Hofer in his career has two wins and 11 total podiums as well as 75 top 10’s, or just over 25% of his races. That pairs alongside three top 10 Overall finishes including most recently 8th just in 2020-2021. The last time we saw him was Worlds last season where he attempted a come back but finished a disappointing 28th in the Sprint , 35th in the Pursuit and 72nd in the Individual before officially shutting it down.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2017-2018 | 88.2 | 85.1 | 86.7 | 30.6 |
| 2018-2019 | 89.5 | 79 | 84.3 | 29.1 |
| 2019-2020 | 81.3 | 73.1 | 77.2 | 31.1 |
| 2020-2021 | 86.3 | 77.1 | 81.7 | 33 |
| 2021-2022 | 85.6 | 85.1 | 85.4 | 32.6 |
In his career Hofer is a skier who has shot well enough to be competitive. Look back in 2018-2019 he finished the year as the 2nd fastest overall man on the World Cup! Not bad at all! It’s just been about the shooting. When he shoots he’s able to grab those top 10’s. When he doesn’t, well he doesn’t. However, even before last season’s set back, there had been serious decay in his skiing. In 2021-2022 he had by far his slowest season in years. Fortunately it paired with his best shooting in years to slow the decline in overall finishes.
For Hofer to have a return to form, and by form I mean aiming for a top 15ish Overall finish this season, we’ll need to see that he is able to ski back to somewhere approximating his earlier form. I don’t mean 2nd fastest overall, but he needs to be better than 38th. Both the leg and the shoulder can affect that. Based on his racing recently it appears he’s doing well. If he can somehow do that AND keep his shooting in the mid 80’s like it was the last two seasons we could be in for a treat. My best guess is: overall skiing around 15th, shooting around 83-85% and 15th. For example, last season Jesper Nelin finished 17th in shooting and shot 85% and was 15th Overall exactly. That’s what I’m anticipating/hoping for Hofer this season.
World Cup
The following two men are probably safe on the World Cup roster. With five athletes and only two locks I think Bionaz and Braunhofer have shown enough the last two seasons to feel comfortable in their positions. There are a couple guys pushing up from below though so don’t get too comfortable.
Dider Bionaz (23)
Bionaz, just like Tommaso Giacomel, feels like he should be in his mid to last 20’s already. Instead, the the young man entering his fourth World Cup season is just 23 years old. The young man had a solid Juniors career, peaking with a 7th place Overall Juniors finish in 19-20 and almost all top 20 finishes over the course of his 20 races. Just like Giacomel, Bionaz had a career year in 2022-2023…it just wasn’t as dramatic. He finished 46th in the Overall, a three place improvement over 20-21.
Bionaz performed best as a Junior, and in his brief IBU Cup racing, on the skis. He consistently finished top 15 in course time rank at both levels and peaked at 12th in overall skiing as a Junior in the 19-20 season. Shooting hasn’t been terrible by any means. He’s consistently in the low 80’s for shooting. Last season hitting 83.7% of his total shots with a pretty even prone/standing split was his best shooting of his young career. Interestingly if you look at the race by race data there was more variance in his shooting with more bad days mixed in. It’s just that he had so many better days that it booster his overall shooting.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2020-2021 | 78.7 | 80 | 79.3 | 32.2 |
| 2021-2022 | 75 | 86 | 80.5 | 33.8 |
| 2022-2023 | 85.8 | 81.7 | 83.7 | 32.4 |
Bionaz doesn’t need to have a Giacomel-like rise this season. He just needs to start capitalizing on his potential a little. While consistent hitting top 15 course time ranks on the Junior and IBU Cup level he’s done that just once on the World Cup. Let’s see that happen a little bit more and he can move that overall ski ranking up towards the top 25. Last season was already the best shooting of his career. Anything better would be wonderful to see! One area of low hanging fruit for him to get would also be improved shooting speed as he averages about 32-33 seconds per shooting the last three years.
Overall, definitely plenty of reasons for optimism for Bionaz. The potential and the history is there to expect continued growth. There is no reason to expect that he’s hitting anywhere close to the ceiling on his potential. I have to believe that the skiing will come along and the shooting will continue to improve. I’m not saying he’s going to be in the Giacomel/Hofer category by the end of the year but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him get to the top 20 in the Overall in his career.
Patrick Braunhofer (25)
Being a couple of years older than Bionaz and Giacomel, Braunhofer has taken the more traditional pathway to the World Cup, with a full couple of seasons on the IBU Cup before moving to the World Cup last season. During those seasons he’s had a fair amount of success too with a gradual progression upward. Over his last three years on the Junior Cup his Overall finishes went 15th, 20th, and 8th and he stacked up 13 top 10 finishes (with two at Worlds) over 32 races. On the IBU Cup he had Overall finishes of 16th and then 13th before moving up to the World Cup last season. He had a total of nine top 10’s (including Super Sprint qualifying) and had an average finish of around 25th in both seasons. Solid all around racing.
Last year in his first World Cup season he ended up 55th in the Overall. His average finish was 51st but he still had a couple of really good races including finishing 19th in the Individual in Oestersund.
Amongst his Italian teammates he is a bit of a strange bird…he’s a shooter more than a skier. At every level he has competed at his rifle has been the key to his success. His last two seasons on the Juniors level and his first on the IBU Cup level he his over 90% each year. By that measure last season was a little bit of down year as he hit “only” 88.3% of his total shots including 90% standing. That ended up being good enough for 15th best hit rate rank. And he did it all while averaging just 26.9 seconds per shooting.
For Braunhofer he has shooting that is more than good enough. This is not five straight seasons hitting better than 87% with three of those better than 90% with shooting times under 27 seconds. That’s really good stuff. Braunhofer’s future is all about how far he can bring along the skis. He was just over 2% slower than average last season. Can he bring that along to just be average or even a little bit better? He’s certainly training with fast athletes. If the can bring him along maybe we’ll see him rise right up the rankings this season.
World Cup and IBU Cup
These three men are likely all going to spend some time on the World Cup. I don’t know that I would bet on them all staying there all season but I really do think they will all be there for at least a chunk of the season.
Daniele Cappellari (26)
Over the last five years Daniele Cappellari has found himself on the IBU Cup. His finishes in the Overall in order are: 17th 75th, 9th, 12th, and 11th. That’s a pretty solid and consistent run over the last three years. While it wasn’t his best Overall finish, last season was his best ever season on the IBU Cup. He ran 12 races and had eight top 10s including two separate stretches of five straight. The only reason he wasn’t higher in the Overall rankings is because he spent a couple of weekends on the World Cup to start the season. Put him back on the IBU Cup and he probably ends up 9th in Overall again.
So what makes Cappellari so consistent? Well it’s hard to say. At times in his career he’s been not just a good, but a great shooter. Last year he hit 91% of his shots on the IBU Cup and two seasons before that over 94% with a dip to 83% in between. His skiing meanwhile has been okay. Not good, but not bad. On the IBU Cup his course time ranks seem to be regularly in the teens to 30’s and he finished last season with an average course time rank of 25th. He ended up last season 75th overall in skiing on the IBU Cup.
That’s pretty much all we need to know about Cappellari and his path to improvement. He shoots, most of the time, well enough to compete with anybody on the World Cup. He just doesn’t have the skiing. His average course time rank on the World Cup last year was 75th. For him to have the career he, and the Italian team, dream of, that will need to come along. Just like Braunhofer, he trains alongside guys like Bionaz and Giacomel. Hopefully they can bring him along. If that happens he is going to make a pretty significant grab at one of the remaining World Cup slots.
Elia Zeni (22)
Last season was a really big season for Elia Zenni on his journey towards the World Cup. He picked up the season on the Junior Cup level, which is where he had predominantly been competing. Through last season he hadn’t really had much Juniors success with a single top 10 and most finishes in the teens, 20’s and 30’s. Right off the start last year he looked like a different athlete. At the first Junior Cup racing he finished 3rd in the Sprint, 1st in Super Sprint, and 3rd in Mass 60.
After having so much Juniors success he was boosted right up to the IBU Cup where he competed weeks 3-5. He ran eight races and had just one finish outside the top 25, had 5 top 20’s and ended his run with a 5th in a Super Sprint. He finished the year racing Antholz through Oestersund on the World Cup. In those eight races he was remarkably consistent. He finished every single race between 40th and 55th.
Zenni is a bit of a hard athlete for me to get a handle on. I don’t totally know if last season is what we should expect to see going forward? It was just such a rapid ascent. However what we saw last season was pretty exciting. He was really fast on the Junior Cup level with top 3 course time ranks in each of his races. Then on the IBU Cup again he was showing top 20 ski potential including four top 16 course time ranks of his eight races. He got to the World Cup and suddenly he didn’t look so fast, but to be fair he was a 22 year old on the back end of a huge season. Shooting in his career has been up and down but always seems to come back towards the low 80s in the end.
Everything changed so fast for Zenni last year it probably left his head spinning. It never seemed to phase him though. Every step he seemed to handle well. The only reason I didn’t put him completely solid in the World Cup is because he had so little history of success prior to this season. If he has, what might be an understandable regression, he might spend some time getting prepared on the IBU Cup before bumping back up.
Regardless this should be a fun year to watch. I really want to see if the ski speed keeps coming along. I’m expecting (maybe seriously hoping is better) a nice step up in skiing his season on the World Cup level. I’m not as worried about the shooting. If he shoots better than 80% I’ll be thrilled. But if he’s right in that low 80’s zone again I won’t be stunned. Long term I won’t make any predictions just yet, just too little data to even consider going on.
David Zingerle (23)
Hey look, another Italian man in his early 20’s. It’s a remarkable glut of talent, just as they have on the women’s side. Zingerle just pokes his nose into this group as opposed to the IBU Cup regulars as he is already getting some World Cup run last season. Overall he’s following more of a Patrick Braunhofer or traditional approach to development. A couple of Juniors seasons that he finished in style with an 8th and 4th at Junior Worlds in Soldier Hollow, his best Worlds finishes. He went to the IBU Cup for the 2020-2021 season where he finished 47th Overall with three top 20’s. Then last season he started out on the World Cup for a few weeks before going back to the IBU Cup. World Cup success wasn’t tremendous but he did qualify for a Pursuit in Pokljuka.
Zingerle is unique amongst his Italian teammates, and actually in biathlon in general, in that he doesn’t have an obvious strength. It’s not that he’s a weak biathlete, it is just that he’s more well rounded. You can’t just look at him and call him a skier or a shooter. His shooting on Juniors and IBU Cup over the last few seasons runs between 82-85%. Meanwhile his skiing is a little faster than average on the IBU Cup level which translates to a fair bit slower than average on the World Cup. Interestingly he had his best course time ranks of the season (by a wide margin), of 56th and 57th, in his last two races on the World Cup.
We’ll see what we get from Zingerle this season. Hopefully we’ll see that his skiing has made some gains and he’s shooting better than ever. Really it is going to need to be across the board improvement not just one particularly area. But I think he can do it! It is that optimism why I put him in this group than the one below. However, there is enough pressure coming from below, particularly the Juniors, that he’s going to need to have that improvement to make his argument for the World Cup.
IBU Cup Regulars
Cedric Christille (24)
Cedric Christille just misses out on the above group primarily because he hasn’t been on the World Cup yet and his IBU Cup racing hasn’t shown me, yet, that he will get there this season. However, we always remain optimistic and hopeful. so…hopefully…when we write this next season he’s moved up a group! Having said that, Cedric Christille is established over the last two seasons as a middle of the road IBU Cup athlete finishing 99th and 49th in the Overall over the last two years. Nothing tremendous to be seen as he had just a single top 20 in the last two seasons.
He looks like a moderately better shooter than a skier. His shooting percentages over the last couple of years have moved up from the mid to high 70s to the low 80s including 82.4% last season. When you look at the race to race data the shooting is probably a little better than that. He has cut out some of the really erratic shooting that dragged down his averages. The skiing though is still a work in progress. His average course time rank was 44th last year which was actually down a touch.
Christille just needs to get putting in the hard work. That’s easy for me to say sitting at my kitchen table typing this with a mug of coffee next to me. It’s harder to actually do. That’s the only solution here. Looking at his history there is no outstanding skill in shooting or skiing that we should expect him to rely on. It’s not like he’s just had a down year or two on the skis and it will come right now. It’s all about continuing to build up. We’ll see where this season takes him.
Iacapo Leonisio (23)
Last season was Iacopo Leonisio’s first out of the Junior Cup ranks after a successful Juniors career and there just wasn’t much there to talk about. It’s not that it was a disaster, he just only raced eight times last season. To be fair he had five top 40’s in eight races. Those weren’t amazing, but again, not disastrous.
In his Juniors career he finished on a very high note, finishing fourth Overall on the Junior Cup in 2021-2022, a season that included four top 10’s. Unfortunately on the biggest stage, Junior Worlds, he also had his worst racing finishing 18th, 49th, and 45th. During his Juniors racing he’s only had two top 10’s in nine Worlds races.
Leonesio has thus far in his career been a very very good shooter who loses ground on the skis. He’s always shot well, never worse than 86% on the Juniors level, and multiple times shooting over 90% including 91.8% in his eight races last season on the IBU Cup. Even when hitting that many targets though he just lost too much time on the skis to be consistently in contention. During his most successful Juniors campaign he was still finishing with course time ranks regularly in the teens through 40’s. He finished 84th in overall skiing that season. Last year on the IBU Cup his course time ranks were in the 40s and 50s.
Leonesio can shoot impressively well. He has to find a way to ski faster or he will just lose way too much time on the course to compete. That’s my goal for him this season, find some more speed without sacrificing the shooting. Do that and the results will start to improve. We’re not predicting anything like a top 10 Overall IBU Cup finish this season, just a solid season with improving skiing would be great.
Michele Molinari (23)
Guess what? Yet another 23 year old Italian man. It’s amazing how many of them there are. Was there something in the water that year? Molinari has had relatively little success compared to some of is compatriots of the same age range. I say relatively because it’s still pretty solid. He was 17th overall on the Juniors level in 2021-2022 and only ran five races. In those five races he had three top 10’s including a podium in Pokljuka and a top 10 Sprint at Junior Worlds.
He only raced five Juniors races in 21-22 because he was on the IBU Cup already. That season and last season were modest successes. He finished 52nd and 61st Overall and was regularly finishing in the 20’s to 30s. Last season he only raced 13 times split between the first two weekends and the Canmore races. Not surprising with the smaller fields he ran better in Canmore than he had previously.
Molinari is a fairly good shooter and a below average skier. And I don’t mean that he’s just not as fast, he is literally below average on the IBU Cup which we don’t see very often. However, his shooting is decent. He was very consistent hitting 80-90% last year, ending the season at 83.5%, down just a touch from 85% the year prior.
For Molinari, the real impediment to his success though is his skiing. He’s going to need to get out of the below average range and move to above average. I think that’s an achievable goal this season. Last year he was 80th overall in skiing. Let’s aim for 50-60 range. Not a massive improvement but a clear step forward. Keep this shooting mid 80’s. Then we’ll see where that takes him.
Junior Star
‘Nicolo Betemps (20)
I’m not going to go so far as to call him a “future star” like I did with Tomasso Giacomel. At just age 20, and with so little history behind him, that might be a step to far. However, it is clear that ‘Nicolo Betemps is a very very good Junior Cup racer, and when you win the Overall Junior Cup, then yeah, you’re a Junior Star.
That’s precisely what Betemps did last season, winning three races, along with four podiums and eight top 10’s in 12 Juniors races. He won two golds at Junior European Champs and just missed a medal at Junior Worlds finishing 4th in the Individual. That was just before one of the most head scratching finishes of the season but any athlete on any level, a 62nd in the Sprint. I didn’t see the race so I can’t speak of what happened there but he hit just 6 of 10 targets and his normally reliable speed didn’t appear to show up as he finished 53rd in course time rank. So it’s difficult to assess was he sick? Did he just not have it? Or did he “eject” after he was shooting poorly. Who knows, and honestly it doesn’t affect what thoughts about him right now.
As mentioned above Betemps isn’t a speedster but he has reliable speed. He finished 30th overall on the Juniors which is actually lower than I expected. He had six top 10 course time ranks in 11 races last season. The rest of the races he was usually in the teens or 20’s on the course except for the one really unfortunate day. So his ski speeds was serviceable. Meanwhile he shot 84.2% for the year which ranked 18th overall. It proved that the prior season’s improvement to the low 80’s for his shooting was no fluke.
What this all tells me is that ‘Nicolo Betemps is not spectacular at any one particular thing. That might lower his ceiling overall a bit. However he’s got a really solid floor with average to above average skiing and above average to good shooting. This is not bad at all. Like I said I see a future for Betemps where he doesn’t have the ceiling that maybe Giacomel has, but he has a floor that is high enough that he can be a very good biathlete for a long time. I’m really excited to see what the next few seasons bring!
Juniors
Christoph Pircher (20)
20 year old Christoph Pircher, in just his second season of competition on the Junior Cup level, would have been the highest finishing young man on pretty much any other team. But for the Italians, finishing 5th overall for the Juniors isn’t enough when Betemps is finishing 1st! Either way, a really nice 1-2 Juniors punch for the Italian men. It was a nice season with five top 10’s in 11 races which included a bronze in the Junior European Championships Pursuit. Unfortunately it didn’t go as well at Junior Worlds as he finished 33, 33, and 30.
The really interesting thing is that he profiles similar to Betemps in that he’s solid with a high floor but maybe a limited ceiling. He his 82.7% of his shots which was good enough for 26th overall amongst Juniors and he finished 52nd overall in skiing. So again, like Betemps, not major strength that stands out. However, also like Betemps, no major weakness that would cause him to consistently struggle either.
If you look at 2021-2022 vs. 22-23 Pircher definitely made improvements to both skiing and shooting. Neither more dramatic than the other. So, for Pircher it is the same as for Betemps, hopefully another full season brings another full season of improvement across the board. It appears that he’s headed in the same direction. I’m not going to predict Pircher winning the Juniors globe next season, but he should have another solid year as he starts to mix in some IBU Cup racing.
Cesare Lozza (19)
Is there a better name for an Italian man than Cesare? I mean it’s really fantastic. The problem is if you have that name you better live up to it. Well last year, his first of IBU racing, Cesare Lozza did a really nice job of living up to it. He raced just three races, all at Youth Worlds, and finished 6th in the Individual, 11th in the Sprint and 9th in the Pursuit. That’s about as good of a debut as you could have hoped for. He ran fast with course time all between 5th and 13th, and he shot well hitting 95%, 90% and 75% in each race. It was a terrific start and hopefully we see more of that this season!
Davide Compagnone (19)
Similar to Lozza, but without the spectacular name (don’t get me wrong David Camagnone is a great name!), David Campagnone made his debut at Youth Worlds last season. He went 14th, 10th, and 21st for a solid debut. Not quite as splashy as Lozza but very good. His skiing was okay ranking 15th, 16th, and 32nd on the course in each race. He shot decently hitting 80%, 90%, and 75% respectively as well. Just like Lozza lets hope we see more of that, and better!
Fabio Piller Cotterer (21)
Okay maybe I lied, Fabio is an awesome Italian name. Fabio Piller Cotterer has competed in three seasons now on the World Cup, including Youth Worlds in 2020-2021 and two stops on the regular season in 21-22 as well as a full season last year. In those 16 races he has just three top 10’s but two were just last year at Junior European Championships so hopefully an upward indicator. So far in his career Fabior is okay on the skis and okay on the range with plenty of opportunity to improve at both. I think this season should primarily be spent on the Junior Cup but he may see some IBU Cup action as well if his performance earns it.
Marco Barale (20)
20 year old Marco Barale has been primarily a Junior Cup biathlete thus far in his career, though he did get a little IBU Cup run in the latter half of the IBU Cup season. At this still early juncture of his career, the best races happened way back in his first year of racing when he finished 6th and 7th in the Sprint and Pursuit at Youth Worlds. Since then most of his finishes on the Juniors level were in the 20’s and 30’s. For example this last season his best finish was 15th in the first race of the Junior season. I mentioned he had some IBU Cup racing this season and it actually wasn’t terrible. He ran two Super Sprints and finished 20th and 14th in those to go along with a 17th place Sprint at the European Championships. Other than that he had mostly finishes in the 40’s.
Barale at this point has been a little stronger on the skis than on the range. Last season he ranked 76th in skiing amongst Juniors and 109th in total shooting. Interestingly enough he faired better in skiing against IBU Cup competition ranking 45th amongst all men who raced at least 3 races. It will be interesting to see if he continues to fare better on the IBU Cup than against Junior racers. Maybe going against stronger competition gets him going? Or maybe, simply racing Super Sprints fit his style of racing better which made him look stronger on skis? Or maybe it’s just too little data to really understand.
For this season lets look for just continued improvement. I think we’re going to see him again split time between the IBU Cup and the Juniors. The expectations aren’t through the roof so hopefully he can just have a solid year of growth ahead of him. If we notice him while watching an IBU Cup race or two that would be a really good thing.
Alex Perissutti (19)
Alex Perissutti made his IBU racing debut at Youth Worlds last season where he managed finishes of 49th, 16th, and 32nd. During that 16th place Sprint race he skied to the 5th best course time which isn’t too shabby at all. It’s a bit intriguing to think about what he might develop into this season if he can harness that on a regular basis. However, he’ll want to improve on his 60%, 70%, and 60% shooting from those three races as well. Just imagine if that Sprint race had been 90% instead of 70%? Might have been taking home some hardware!
Felix Ratschiller (20)
A lot of athletes make their debut in biathlon by just entering at Youth Worlds. Ratschiller, though, raced a fairly full first season of racing last year running eight races across three events, and interestingly enough, avoiding Youth Worlds altogether. In those eight races he had three top 25’s, including the Junior European Championship sprint, and set a career best of 19th. He was okay on the skis ranking 56th overall in skiing amongst Junior men, and shot just 68.2% overall. Even that is probably better than it looked. On the other hand, the results speak for themselves and he still had some decent finishes. So hopefully he’s had a good summer and he can hit the snow hard!
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