Austria is a nation steeped in winter sports tradition. When you think of winter sports and the Winter Olympics its hard not to see Austrians. Almost every winter Austrian fans are assured of having one of the winningest winter sports rosters. The overwhelming majority of this success, though, comes in alpine skiing. Of course this make sense considering Austria is home to some of the most famous ski slopes in the Alps. Fittingly the Österreichischer skiverband is by far and away the all time leader in alpine skiing medals.
When it comes to Nordic skiing, though, the success is a little more spotty. Recently there have been some bright spots. Simon Eder’s 108 top 10 finishes rank 15th all time. That includes 6 more top 10’s just last season! And Lisa Theresa Hauser, the winningest Austrian woman in biathlon history, continues on in the middle of her career. Are we also starting to see some new names on the horizon? It’s time to jump on in!
Women
Last season was an exciting one for Austrian biathlon. Sure a 7th in the Nation’s Cup doesn’t jump off the page as a great finish. However, you can’t help but see the bright spots. Lisa Theresa Hauser had yet another top 10 overall finish including two more victories. Anna Gandler has solidly established herself as one of the brightest young women in biathlon along with Tamara Steiner and Anna Juppe getting more experience. And the relay squad grabbed their best finish of all time.
Quota: 5 Athletes to Start
World Cup
With five athletes set to line up every race, there are four women who seem to be solidly locked in. Truthfully I probably could have cut this list down to three, but Steiner seems like she deserved inclusion as we’ll discuss below.
Lisa Theresa Hauser (29)
Lisa Theresa Hauser is undoubtedly the greatest woman in Austrian biathlon history and as we enter the 2023-2024 season she remains solidly in the middle of the peak years of her career. Last season was another solid year. She finished in the top 10 in the Overall (10th place exactly last season) for the third straight season. She also added two more victories to her career tally bringing her total number to five. However, other than that, her high level successes were limited. She did have 10 total top 10s, but outside of those two victories, she didn’t have any other top 5’s. That’s a hell of a conversion rate, two victories in the two races were she really had a chance, but considering she had 15 total top 5’s the previous two seasons, I’m sure she would have liked more.
Two seasons ago, 2020-2021, was the true breakthrough for Hauser when she leapt all the way to 3rd in the Overall finish. That year she had a massive improvement in skiing. She went from being consistently a little better than average to significantly better than average with her ski ranking jumping from 53rd to 10th. The last two years she hasn’t been able to quite hold on to that same level, but she’s still a good amount better than she was previously.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2017-2018 | 88.5 | 89.2 | 88.8 | 25.9 |
| 2018-2019 | 90.3 | 84.3 | 87.3 | 26.6 |
| 2019-2020 | 84.8 | 88.3 | 86.6 | 27.7 |
| 2020-2021 | 88.1 | 81.9 | 85 | 28.8 |
| 2021-2022 | 90 | 86.2 | 88.1 | 26.6 |
| 2022-2023 | 88.9 | 82.6 | 85.8 | 25.8 |
Hauser’s shooting has been solid for most of her career, usually finishing in the mid to upper 80’s. However, you can see a slow but steady decrease over the last five years. It’s not huge, but just a few points. Looking at the prone/standing splits she’s been able to maintain her prone shooting, while it has been the standing shooting that has gotten a little looser.
We have mentioned that 2020-2021 was the best of her career. So why, when 21-22 and 22-23 had basically the same skiing ranking, did she do worse in 22-23 than 21-22? Well her shooting had a brief surge. When you look at the shooting numbers that 88.1%, while closer to her career averages, stands out like a little peak between two 85% seasons. So basically, in 2021-2022, even while her skiing slipped a touch, her resurgent shooting helped he stay 6th in the Overall. Last season, when her shooting slipped back to 85%, that was why she stopped having top 5’s and instead just top 10’s.
The key for Hauser is twofold then: 1) maintain the skiing without any further slips and 2) get the shooting back towards 88% overall. If she can do those two things, then it stands to reason that we’ll see her move a little further back up the standings. While she probably won’t be a threat for the overall with such amazing talent at the top, a fight for the top 5 in the Overall isn’t out of the question. Anybody who has followed me for any length of time knows that Lisa Hauser is my favorite active biathlete so you know I’m biased. However, I’m hopeful. I think this will be a great season!
Anna Gandler (22)
What a great debut season for Anna Gandler! The 22 year old didn’t start the season on the World Cup, but after three top 10’s in the opening weekend of IBU Cup racing she jumped right up and never looked back. It was a season of ever improving performances and finishes. We were fortunate enough to speak with Gandler on the podcast in the middle of last season, right around the World Cup. She was obviously excited about her performance so far but she was really hoping to do enough to finish top 40 in the Overall standings. She was right around that level until Oslo and then she finished 7th in the final race of the season, the Oslo Mass Start, and she finished 32nd in the Overall. Couldn’t have written a better finish!
Gandler, even at just 22 years old, has been a name to watch for awhile now. In her Junior Cup career she five podiums in 36 races including three Youth Worlds medals. As a Junior she was an all around athlete with solid shooting, usually in the low 80s, and being fairly good on the skis.
Over a couple of seasons of IBU Cup racing she continued to show her promise. In 2021-2022 she peaked on the IBU Cup with six top 20s including a podium finish. While she continued shooting in the low 80s her skiing got better and better. In that 21-22 season she moved up significantly in skiing she moved up to 12 in overall skiing on the IBU Cup, which was really the best of her career on any level.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2022-2023 | 91.2 | 82.4 | 86.8 | 30.1 |
Last season she once again continued her climb. She was above average on the World Cup, which was again a solid step forward at just 22 years old. She ended up ranked 33rd overall in skiing on the World Cup. That puts her right around Anna Magnusson and Tuuli Tomingas. Meanwhile her shooting took a rather impressive step forward. She shot 86.8% for the season including an impressive 91.2% prone. Once again, definitely the best of her career. That put her 26th in shooting. She also improved her shooting times every single year. Last year she was down to 30.1 seconds. She spoke with us in the interview how she was shooting freely in practice but not yet in the races. Hopefully that gets unlocked this season.
It appears that Gandler has boundless potential. She continues her improvements every year. She’s still quite young and has already gotten herself into position for top 10’s on the World Cup. We’ll likely see her continue to improve throughout the next few years. It’s not impossible or even improbable that we’ll see Gandler in the top 10 of the Overall in the next 5-6 seasons. For comparison, she’s right around where she was six seasons ago. As for this year, another step forward may see Gandler move to the top 25 in the Overall and hopefully another 1-3 Top 10s!
Dunja Zdouc (29)
Dunja Zdouc quietly put together another solid season. It didn’t include wins like Lisa Hauser’s season, and she isn’t a potential future star on the rise like Anna Gandler, but finishing 38th Overall isn’t anything to be upset about. She didn’t have any new career highs, or any top 10s, but she did have her best ever World Championships finish, coming in 14th in the Individual.
Zdouc’s season was defined by her shooting. She’s been solid for most of her career, but last year was a brand new high for her. She hit 92.3% of her shots good enough for the 2nd best shooting season on the World Cup. She hit 92.7% prone and 92% standing which was an absolutely spectacular shooting. With that kind of shooting she could have collected many high finishes, except that her skiing hasn’t come close to matching the shooting. To be fair to match her shooting she would have to rival Julia Simon or Elvira Oeberg on the skis. However she’s been quite a bit slower than average, finishing 66th overall in skiing last season.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2019-2020 | 86 | 78 | 82 | 27.9 |
| 2020-2021 | 92 | 85.5 | 88.7 | 30.4 |
| 2021-2022 | 90 | 88.9 | 82 | 28 |
| 2022-2023 | 92.7 | 92 | 92.3 | 26.4 |
It might be too much to ask for Zdouc to recapture last season’s shooting magic. However, she’s always been good, always in the upper 80’s. It would be a shock for her to be any worse than that. The trouble remains the same. She needs to find whatever ski speed is in her legs and maybe, just maybe, she can break her career best of 10th? She’s just 29 so there should be something in those legs. We’ll remain hopeful!
Tamara Steiner (26)
While not as young as Anna Gandler, Tamara Steiner too had her first real consistent run on the World Cup season in 2022-2023. She got her call up for the 3rd weekend of the season in Annecy -le Grand Bornand, and once she got to the World Cup she never went back to the IBU Cup. It was a solid season, she finished 47th in the Overall including four top 30s with a season and career best of 21st coming in the Oestersund Individual race. All in all, that was a really solid season of racing.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2022-2023 | 98.9 | 88.4 | 93.7 | 29.5 |
Remember how there was just one person who shot better than Dunja Zdouc last season? That was Tamara Steiner. Last year she hit an absolutely wild 93.7% of her shots. That’s just an impossibly high number. She missed 12 shots over the course of 12 races. That’s just one miss per race. I can’t get over that. She’s also already sub 30 with her shooting times, so hopefully we see that improving as well.
The skiing wasn’t there to keep her competitive with the top level biathletes, or with that shooting she may have had a podium in every race. However, it’s important to note that her skiing has improved every season. She only raced two weekends on the IBU Cup but she was at her fastest level of her career.
So can we expect to see Steiner improve even further this season? Why not!?! She’s still only 26 years old and she has been getting faster every season. So why not a little faster this season as well? And even if she doesn’t manage to shoot 93%, it would be a shock if she really struggled with shooting. So now, just like Zdouc, it’s all on the skis. Let’s see what she can do?
Filling out the Roster
Well the Austrian women have five World Cup spots per race. Four of the spots feel pretty much locked in. The rest of these women are either going to be on the IBU Cup or running in that last World Cup spot. I have these women roughly ranked in order of who I expect to be in which position. But honestly any of these women could end up with the last spot.
Anna Juppe (24)
Another young Austrian women with a solid level of potential, Anna Juppe split time between the World Cup and the IBU Cup last season. However, as the season went on, she spent more time on the World Cup and had more and more success. Her Overall finish of 56th doesn’t tell the whole story. She raced roughly the same number of races in 2022-2023 as she did in 2021-2022 and her level just got much better all around. In 21-22, in 11 races, she finished 106th Overall, had a season’s best of 41st, and finished top 50 four times. In 22-23, she had 12 races, six top 40s, and set a career best finish of 23rd in the Antholz Sprint on the way to that 56th Overall finish.
Juppe took a solid if not massive step forward last season. Not surprising based on those results. Her skiing ranking moved from 56th to 40th as she moved from average ski speed to a little ahead of average. Going back to 2021-2022, she was actually the fastest woman on the IBU Cup. Full stop. The fastest. So we can defintely expect this aspect to continue to improve.
Meanwhile her shooting took another solid gain from 74.4% to 80% on the dot. She’s a better prone than standing shooter going 84.4% prone vs. 75.6% standing. But she improved in both, just a bit more in the prone than standing. Going back to her Junior Cup and IBU Cup, she’s been on a steady upward trend for the last five seasons. Her shooting speed though, was a pedestrian (slow) 35.6 seconds per shooting. That’s losing 10 seconds per shooting to the top shooters, meaning over the course of a Pursuit she’s losing a really significant 40 seconds.
Juppe is just 24 and appears to have lots of room to grow. She doesn’t have a major strength so she definitely hasn’t maxed out in any one aspect of the sport. She can continue to improve with her shooting. She can continue to improve with her skiing. As mentioned above she was the fastest skier in 2021-2022 on the IBU Cup. She should be able to get up into the upper 20 of skiing on the World Cup right? And she can pick up big time on the range as well. If she has made the right changes, Juppe could grab that 5th World Cup spot for good very early on this season.
Julia Schwaiger (27)
Even though Julia Schwaiger is just 27 years old, she seems like an established veteran compared to so many of these woman. She already has 119 combined solo and relay races on the World Cup. Last season though, with the increasing competition from the young women Schwaiger returned to the IBU Cup for the first time since 2017-2018, making 12 starts there along with 8 on the World Cup.
She started the season on the World Cup, starting every race she was eligible for until missing the Pursuit race in Pokljuka following a 62nd in the Sprint. During those races she had an average finish of 49.8, her lowest since 2017-2018. It wasn’t a huge step backward, but with the upward pressure from Gandler, Juppe, and Steiner, there just wasn’t room. However, back on the IBU Cup Schwaiger looked good. She had seven top 20’s in 12 IBU Cup races. That included a 6th place for her season’s best and just missed the top 10 on two occasions in Canmore.
Looking at Schwaiger’s statistics it wasn’t like she had a major collapse. Her skiing both on the IBU Cup and World Cup has been about steady for the last five seasons without any significant change. She saw no major degradation of her skiing during her World Cup races, and her IBU Cup performance on the skis was nearly identical to how it was in 2017-2018. Her shooting though, after peaking in the mid 80’s 2-3 seasons ago, trended downward again. She shot 80.8% on the World Cup and 78.9% on the IBU Cup.
For Schwaiger to regain her position on the World Cup team she’ll need to get that shooting back up. It’s not going to be easy as Juppe, Steiner, and Gandler continue to push forward and improve the pressure is on Schwaiger to find that shooting again. Hopefully having all of that talent around her provides a positive propulsion getting her going. She also still only 27 so there may be some improvement still to be found on the skis, especially if she has these women around her.
Katharina Komatz (32)
Congratulations to David and Katharina Komatz on the the recent birth of their baby boy!
I have no idea if Komatz will be racing this season. So I’ll keep this part brief. Last season she was back on the IBU Cup full time for the first time in nearly a decade. She performend well though, finishing 28th in the IBU Cup Overall. She had easy speed, regularly in the top 10 if not top 5 of course time rank. She ended up 15th in skiing last season. Her shooting though was just 64.4% overall. She’s never been spectacular like Steiner or Zdouc, but this was still down significantly from her usual shooting in the low to mid 70s. So, if we see Komatz, which is no sure thing, I would expect to see her on the IBU Cup. However, if she somehow regains her solid skiing, and then her shooting rebounds, she may even find her way to the World Cup before the end of the season.
Kristina Oberthaler (25)
Kristina Oberthaler completed another solid season on the IBU Cup last year, finishing 22nd on the IBU Cup Overall standings. This included 11 top 30s, 6 top 20s, 4 top 10s including her second career top 5. It was a good step forward year over year for her and puts her in good position for the possibility of World Cup starts next season.
Oberthaller, for the most part, was faster than she has ever been in her life. For the most part because she had a deep drop in the middle of the season for two weekends during the European Championships and the Obertilliach stop. However, outside of those two weekends, her average ski rank for 2022-2023 was 27.6, a solid step up from 38.8 in 2021-2022. Her shooting, unfortunately, took a little bit of a drop. During her first two IBU Cup seasons she was shooting in the upper 80s, even hitting 90.6% of her shots in 21-22. Last season, though, she was down to 84.1%. That was without any significant change in her shooting time, sticking in the low 30s at 31.1 seconds last season.
Oberthaler has a real chance to crack the World Cup roster this season. Her shooting is more in line with Steiner or Zdouc. We should anticipate that her shooting rebounds back towards that high level. We can also hope that her skiing continues to march forward. She was 63rd in overall skiing last year, just a little better than average. Again though, if you take out those two bad weekends then she was a bit better. I am hopeful that we’ll see Oberthaller get even faster this next season. It’s clear though that there is going to be high competition for the World Cup slots. Regardless of whether she is IBU Cup full time or some World Cup time, there is a great opportunity this coming season!
Lisa Osl (23)
Finally we come to Lisa Osl. Truth be told I do not anticipate her pushing for the World Cup this season. She raced full time on the IBU Cup last year and finished 93rd Overall on the IBU Cup rankings. She had just three top 30s, just one of which came before Canmore. However, she’s 23 so she can’t quite fit into the Juniors category either can she?
Osl was quite a bit slower than average last season on the IBU Cup, finishing 1.4% slower than the average biathlete. Amongst full time IBU women that put her near the bottom of the ski rankings. Her shooting took a little dip as well as she hit just 73.5% of her attempts last season.
My guess is that Osl needs at least a couple more years of IBU Cup seasoning before she is ready for the World Cup exposure. And right now that’s okay. I’m really hopeful that 2023-2024 is a season of experience and growth. I would like to see that skiing get up towards average. Also her shooting had moved to the low 80’s the last few seasons so hopefully we can see that return. Maybe she can grab a few more top 30’s this season, and even get into the top 10-20 once or twice. That lone would be a solid season!
Juniors Moving On Up
The Austrian women are absolutely filled with talented young women. We already discussed several above but here we have a whole team of women who are still technically Juniors. While we won’t go as deep on them, definitely give them a look during the Juniors races this season!
Lea Rothschopf (21)
While just 21 years old Rothschopf split her time this past season between the Junior Cup and the IBU Cup. In her Junior Cup racing she ran eight races including all three Junior European and World championship races along with the a couple of races in Haanja for the 3rd Junior Cup stop. In those eight races she saved her best racing for the Championships with all three of her top 10’s at European and World Champs including winning the Junior European Individual gold. At Junior Worlds against the other top Juniors she went 19th in Individual and then 9th and 5th in Sprint and Pursuit.
Her IBU Cup racing didn’t quite take her to the same heights. That’s not completely surprising as she is just 21! She finished 45th in the IBU Cup Overall rankings. She had an average finish of 32nd last season but had a season and career best finish of 6th in the Short Individual in Pokljuka. That was definitely out of the ordinary though as she had just three other top 20s on the IBU Cup season
Rothschopf profiles with more strength in her skiing than in her shooting. The last few seasons on the Junior Cup she’s been consistently in the top 10’s in course time rank, and on the IBU Cup the last few years she’s been between 3.2-4.4% faster than the average biathlete. Last year was actually her slowest so far on the IBU Cup but she still ranked 21st overall in her skiing.
Meanwhile her shooting, while not her strength, isn’t bad either. Last year she hit 82.5% of her shots in the Juniors races and 81.4% on the IBU Cup. That’s been about her norm over the last 2-3 seasons on the Juniors but represents a solid leap up from the 60% range which is where she was in her previous IBU Cup racing. Shooting times meanwhile are still improving. She’s gone from 40.4 seconds three years ago to 36 seconds per shooting last season.
Rothschopf has some nice potential. The skiing is coming along well and if the shooting keeps making gains I think we’ll see her raise her ceiling quite a bit. She feels right on the verge of going from a middle of the road IBU Cup biathlete to being top 30 or even top 25. It won’t take a lot of improvement to make that happen.
Anna Andexer (20)
Anna Andexer, the third Anna on this list, is somehow just as exciting as the prior two entries on this list. To this point in her career, exclusively a Junior she is looking very strong. It’s been just three seasons and 23 races. In that time she has 1 win, 4 podiums, and and 12 top 10’s. Yes she has a top 10 in just over half of her Junior Cup ratios. Quite a ratio! Just last season she started the year off absolutely on fire. She had a top in each of her first seven races. She actually never finished worse than 4th. Unfortunately that didn’t carry over to the Junior European or Junior World Champs. She never finished better than 20th at Junior Europeans, but she did rebound with a 6th in the Junior Worlds Pursuit with the 5th best isolated pursuit time.
Andexer is an absolutely exceptional skier. Last season she was far faster than average and ended up fourth on the overall skiing rankings for Juniors. That’s high praise. The shooting wasn’t bad but she hit only 78.6% of her targets. While this wasn’t bad, with her skiing if she had been just a touch better she would have really had a season to remember. Her shooting really let her down in Championship season where she 75%. That number is significantly buoyed by hitting 90% each in the Sprint and Pursuit at Junior Worlds. Prior to Championship season, when she was running up top 5’s all over the place, she hit 82%. It’s not a huge difference but enough of one that her skiing can take her over the top.
For the 2023-2024 season it’s clear what we want to see. Continued impressive skiing with improved accuracy. If she can continue to reduce her average shooting time down from nearly 37 seconds that would be a bonus as well. I strongly expect that she’ll be on the IBU Cup at some point next season, if not the entire year save Junior Worlds. Again, her skiing is quite good so even on the IBU Cup she’ll be competitive. I’m really excited to see her racing this year!
Lara Wagner (21)
Okay I know I promised to be brief and those last two were not brief. We’ll be shorter starting now with Lara Wagner. Wagner has been competing on the Junior Cup for the last four seasons. Over that time she has 30 total races with just one top 10. That one top 10 was a big one though. She won gold in the 2023 Junior European Championship Sprint race. Overall though she ended up 10th in the Junior Cup rankings. Throughout her career she’s been pretty consistent finishing in the teens through 30’s.
Wagner, throughout her career, is a pretty solid skier. She’s definitely faster than the average Junior Cup biathlete finishing top 20 in overall skiing each of the last two seasons. Her shooting though has lagged behind. Until last year she was shooting regularly in the mid 60’s. Last year though she moved up to 74.3% with even prone/standing splits.
Hopefully Wagner sees a year of growth with continued strong skiing and improved shooting regardless of what level she is competing at. The skiing is good enough that should the shooting come around, she’ll be able to aim for top 10-20 finishes, even on the IBU Cup. Let’s just see more of that!
Lena Pinter (18)
The young Lena Pinter has much less experience on the IBU levels than the previous entrants on this list. She has run just six races over the last two seasons, all of which are at the Youth Worlds. She’s been decent in those races, with a career best of 19th, which she’s done twice, but she’s also never finished worse than 36th. She’s averaged shooting 79% over those six races which is okay but not great, and her course time ranks are usually in the 20-30s. All of which means that she has a good base to start from. She’s very young. Let’s see what happens this year!
Selina Heigl (19)
As with Pinter, Selina Heigl has just six races combined over the last two seasons, and again, all of them at Youth Worlds. The two of them actually have extremely similar results. While Pinter had all of her finishes between 19th and 36th, Heigl has hers grouped between 21st and 43rd. They profile fairly similarly with Heigl in general a little bit faster and a little looser on the range. Her average course time rank is around 25th for her career while her shooting percentage is 74% over those six races. Just like with Pinter, she’s very young. Let’s see what happens this year!
Wilma Anhaus (20)
20 year old Wilma Anhaus made her IBU debut in 2022-2023 racing eight races on the Junior Cup including Junior European Championships but just the Individual at Junior Worlds. In her eight races she had five finishes between 30-40 which is wildly consistent. Sorta of remarkable actually. In those other three races she finished 46th and 54th (her first two career races)…and 4th. Yeah, that 4th place really stands out. She had a near perfect race in the Junior European Championship Individual hitting 19/20 shots and nearly giving the Austrians two medalists in the same race.
Overall Anhaus was decent at everything. She was 5.6% faster than average on the skis, good enough for 41st on the Junior Cup level. She also shot 75% for the season. For Anhaus we saw that when she puts it together she’s good enough to compete. Let’s see her put it together some more!
Victoria Mellitzer (21)
Unlike the previous couple of names on this list, Victoria Mellitzer really does have some experience over the last several years. She’s raced a total of 27 times over the last four Junior Cup seasons. So far though she’s still waiting for her first really big breakthrough. So far she is still looking for her first top 10 finish. She does have a handful of top 20s including her career best 16th at the Junior Worlds Individual last year.
In her career she’s definitely been a better shooter than a skier as she usually is in the mid 80’s for shooting. However she loses a lot of ground on the skis. Last year was actually her fastest season yet though. Hopefully that’s a sign of things to come!
Anna Millinger (18)
Young Anna Millinger has all of three races to her credit. She raced the Youth Worlds last season and finished 24th, 39th, and 34th in the Individual, the Sprint, and the Pursuit. Not much to be taken away from that little racing. Her course time ranks were 22, 34, and 20th and her shooting was 80%, 60%, and 75%. So that’s all we know. The goal now is to see more racing!
Men
Well we’ve covered the women and we saw that they have some experience, including the best woman in Austrian biathlon history, and plenty of youth (and way too many Anna’s!). Now what about the men? They too have the best man in Austrian biathlon history. Or at the very least the distinguished face of Austrian biathlon. Do they also have plenty of youth?
Quota: 5 Athletes to Start
The Old Man
Simon Eder (40)
As I age, the number of biathletes older than me continues to shrink dramatically. Thank goodness for Simon Eder! I’ll always have him guiding the way for me. The wild thing is, as I get older and wake up with new aches and pains, Simon Eder just keeps on trucking along. It’s one of the greatest thing in biathlon these days. Last year he had the sport buzzing as he hit 109 straight prone shots. Of course Justus Strelow surpassed him not long after, but what a remarkable feat. Eder continued his remarkable career with yet another top 20 season in the Overall as he finished ranked 18th. Along the way he collected six more top 10s and 12 top 20s in 20 races. He’s ageless!
One of the most remarkable aspects of late career Simon Eder is that he has seen very little deterioration of his skiing over the last several years. His skiing peaked in 2016-2017 when he finished 18th overall in skiing. Now six seasons later he still finished 42nd overall in skiing. He’s certainly not skiing away from anybody anymore, but that’s more than respectable!
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2017-2018 | 90.8 | 86.5 | 88.6 | 24.4 |
| 2018-2019 | 94.9 | 89.2 | 92 | 26.6 |
| 2019-2020 | 92.5 | 82.5 | 87.5 | 26.7 |
| 2020-2021 | 96.7 | 90 | 93.3 | 25.9 |
| 2021-2022 | 93.5 | 85.5 | 89.5 | 25.8 |
| 2022-2023 | 97.6 | 87.9 | 92.7 | 25 |
Now, what we all expect when we think Simon Eder is precision shooting. That’s exactly what we continue to get. We already noted his 109 straight prone shots. Last season he finished with 92.7% total shooting which was the 2nd best of his career. Of course you knew the prone shooting was good, and it was a very solid 97.6%. In total he missed four prone shots all season. His standing shooting was positively terrible by comparison, hitting just 87.9% standing. And all this he did with his classic speed with just 25 seconds per shooting. While in the past this would put him at the very top of the shooting time rankings, he was still 8th fastest man on tour.
What can we expect from Simon Eder this upcoming season, his 18th World Cup season? Well I’m long past making predictions for Simon Eder. He seems to just keep on keeping on. I have no doubt that he’s going to be the same old Simon Eder that we’ve always known. Another top 20 Overall season? Sure why not!?!
World Cup Regulars
David Komatz (31)
Once again, a huge congratulations to David and Katharina Komatz on the birth of their baby boy! It’s quite exciting! I don’t know how much of David Komatz we will see this year, but I assume we’ll see him for at least most of the year.
If and when we see Komatz, it will be on the heels a nice rebound season for him. After a small dip in 2021-2022, he had a nice rebound last season back up to 33rd in the Overall standings. His six top 20’s were easily the most he’s had in a single season in his career. In fact it was more than he had in his entire career combined prior to last season. And he even managed to set a new personal best of 11th in the Nove Mesto Sprint race.
Komatz is, like Simon Eder, a precise shooter, who does just enough on the skis to do okay. When he shoots perfect he’s just fast enough to get into the edges of top 10 contention. But he’s just not fast enough to get there on a regular basis, and everything needs to unfold pretty perfectly for it to happen. When you shoot 89.4% overall, which was actually down from his career best a couple of years ago, you’re going to at least give yourself some chances.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2019-2020 | 91.4 | 91.4 | 91.4 | 32.1 |
| 2020-2021 | 92.4 | 88.8 | 90.6 | 32.7 |
| 2021-2022 | 86.2 | 84.6 | 85.4 | 33.2 |
| 2022-2023 | 89.4 | 89.4 | 89.4 | 30.1 |
The key for Komatz is going to be seeing if he can’t find just a little more life in those legs. He’s always just a little slower than average. If he can find a way to get to the just a little faster than average then he’ll be able to not only set a new career best number of top 20s, but also crack the top 10 for the first time ever. Now, the big problem is he has a baby at home. When you aren’t sleeping as much (speaking from experience!) you aren’t necessarily going to be as fast. Now that hasn’t slowed JT Boe at all so who knows? Maybe it will give Komatz wings! Here’s to hoping!
Felix Leitner (26)
Somehow Felix Leitner is only 26 years old. It doesn’t seem possible but that’s what happens when you are consistently racing on the World Cup since you are 20 years old. Seriously, in my mind he feels like he should be about 31, not 26. Well, regardless of age, he appears to be slipping backwards. After a career best season in 2019-2020 with an Overall rank of 22nd, he has been going down each year since. Last season he ended up 37th in the Overall. It isn’t a plummet, but surely a trend, and one he would like to change. Last year was his first without a top 10 in five years and he had just three top 20’s.
For Leitner it has been all about the skis. As you can see in the plot his skiing and shooting have been moving in opposite directions. While he is becoming a better and better shooter he is sliding backwards with his running. Last year he was down to a ski rank of 50th after peaking at 22nd. All of this happening even as his shooting was up to 89.4% overall, good enough for 11th overall in shooting.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2017-2018 | 78.6 | 65.7 | 72.1 | 32.1 |
| 2018-2019 | 94.5 | 80 | 82.3 | 32.6 |
| 2019-2020 | 84.7 | 80 | 82.3 | 31.6 |
| 2020-2021 | 88.9 | 81.1 | 85 | 31.9 |
| 2021-2022 | 88.6 | 82.1 | 85.4 | 28.7 |
| 2022-2023 | 91.3 | 87.5 | 89.4 | 27.2 |
Felix Leitner is still a very young athlete. He has the potential, and he’s shown how high he can go. He’s had years of good skiing. He’s had years of great shooting. Now its time to start working towards putting them together. Maybe it won’t happen this season, but my dream for Leitner is that some day he pairs up that good skiing (1.9% faster than average in 19-20!) with last year’s excellent shooting. Of course that’s the dream for every biathlete and it’s much easier to say than to actually do. I still believe that he can do it though! My take away for Leitner is that the potential is there. There is a top 20 biathlete just waiting to break free.
World Cup Hopefuls and IBU Cup Regulars
Patrick Jakob (26)
The young Patrick Jakob had been a regular on the World Cup for the last few seasons. Last year though, he started the year on the World Cup, but only ended up making one World Cup start over the last two trimesters of the season. Instead he was on the IBU Cup where he ended up finishing 34th Overall. It was a pretty good year on the IBU Cup. He didn’t have a huge number of great finishes, but he did have a 3rd in Super Sprint qualifying in Canmore along with five top 20’s.
Jakob was able to maintain on the World Cup the last several years due to his shooting. In general he’s one of the slower World Cup skiers. However, at the beginning of this season, his normal solid shooting abandoned him. The result was poor finishes and he went down to the IBU Cup. On the IBU Cup he shot a respectable 83.3% and managed to be slightly faster than average, good enough for 57th overall in skiing.
Jakob struggles enough with the skis that he skates on thin ice. Even just the slightest decrease in his shooting puts him too far behind to catch up. Right now he appears to be competitive enough on the IBU Cup but in a bit of a struggle on the World Cup. In order for him to find more consistent run on the World Cup or even more success on the IBU Cup then he has to find a way to get that ski speed up there. He’s just 26 so this is certainly not out of the question. Let’s hope he gets there!
Harald Lemmerer (31)
On a team full of young men, Lemerer, along with Komatz, is in the middle of what should be the peak of his career. For now that peak appears to be good enough to have him consistently on the World Cup. However, he hasn’t been able to break through what has become a bit of a low ceiling for him. He struggles to break through and score points. Last season he ended up without any World Cup points in 13 races and had a season’s best finish of 45th. At this point it has been three full seasons since his last top 40 finish and it starts to look less likely that a new version of Lemmerer can break through. Not that I don’t want it to happen, I absolutely do, he just feels like he has hit a plateau.
Last season Lemmerer ended up 74th in skiing, actually his best skiing year in several seasons. However he was still well back of average on the World Cup. He his 80% of his targets with a strong preference for prone shooting, hitting 88%. Meanwhile he had middle of the road shooting times averaging 29.6 seconds per shooting.
What do we expect for Lemmerer going forward? Honestly, I think if Austria had only four World Cup positions he would be on the IBU Cup full time. Even with five slots there are enough young Austrians pushing upward that space may be limited for him. If he’s going to find a way back to the World Cup it’s going to be because he finds his skiing. I really do hope that it happens!
The Young Austrians
This next group is a collection of young Austrian men, all of whom have the potential to make a leap. I’m not predicting that they all will, but they have the ability to do it. They also are definitely young enough that we haven’t seen near their best yet. Hopefully in the next year or so it is this group, along with Felix Leitner, and maybe 1-2 Juniors, making up the Austrian World Cup team.
Magnus Oberhauser (25)
We lead off with one of my favorite names in biathlon, Magnus Oberhauser. Oberhauser has been a consistent presence on the IBU Cup for the last handful of seasons but hasn’t yet made a huge impact. Last year was his best year yet there and he finished 53rd Overall in IBU Cup ranking. However if you want a reason for optimism just take a look at the end of his season. Yes, it was the reduced field Canmore events, but he still had to race the athletes on the course with him and he finished 9th and 8th in his last two races of the season for his two best finishes of his career to date. Combine that with five top 30’s and that was a good year for growth.
For Oberhauser the improvement was difficult to see in the statistics. His ski ranking on the IBU Cup went up a touch from 68th to 60th while his performance against the field was 2.8% faster than average, his best ever. His average course time rank was up to 30th easily his best ever as well. Meanwhile his shooting was mired in the mid to low 70’s yet again, this season ending at 73.6% overall with even splits. Looking back to his Junior Cup performances and he projected to be a little bit better of a skier than he is now and his shooting has not improved considerably.
So for Oberhauser to become one of the pillars of the Austrian team going forward, that is what it is going to take. He’s going to need to finally see that skiing at the very least match his Junior Cup potential. Meanwhile he needs to work on getting that shooting out of the low 70’s and at least hover around 80%. Do those things and we’ll see where that carries him too. At the very least it would be a best career IBU Cup year.
Dominik Unterweger (24)
Coming off of his 2nd IBU Cup season, Dominik Unterweger is looking to continue build off of his successes. Last year his IBU Cup overall finish was roughly unchanged going from 39th in 2021-2022 to 40th in 2022-2023. So why are we saying successes? Well because he did that in five fewer races as he spent the last half of the season racing on the World Cup where he managed to score the first points of his career and ended up 76th in the Overall rankings. The high point of his World Cup season was his 27th place finish in the Pursuit in Antholz, but he showed well at the World Championships and the last trimester of the season as well. Meanwhile on the IBU Cup he managed two top 10s including his career best 7th place finish.
So what does Unterweger do well that brought him up to the World Cup? Well he’s a fairly well balanced biathlete, but at this point in his career, he’s been a solid shooter. Last season he hit just 82.5% on the IBU Cup which was actually the worst of his career. He rebounded on the World Cup though hitting 84.6% which is more in line with his career averages. His skiing though, was improving as well. On the Junior Cup level he actually wasn’t a very good skier. Since getting to the IBU Cup level though that’s been starting to turn around. Last season he bumped his overall ski rank from 96th to 40th on the IBU Cup. On the World Cup he was just 80th though.
What does the future portend for Mr. Unterweger? Well honestly, I expect him to continue to improve. That’s all he’s done in his career. Seriously, where he was in skiing on the Juniors was really mediocre. Clearly he put in the work though and got himself in much better form at the start of last season. He’s just 24 so we should hopefully see that continue. We can also hope that he hasn’t capped out his shooting in the mid 80’s. Even if he has though, that’s not terrible. If he can find his way to the top 50 in the ski rankings in the next season or two he may be able to replicate Felix Leitner’s current form. That’s been good enough for finishes in the 30’s in the Overall. I think that would be a pretty darn good goal. And I reserve the right to increase my expectations at any time!
Andreas Hechenberger (23)
Andreas Hechenberger has had a couple of stops and starts in his career, so he’s really just starting to get going. He’s basically missed two of the last five seasons which gives him a history more similar to an American or Canadian athlete than somebody from central Europe. However, he’s now had two straight seasons so we’re starting to get some momentum. Last year, in his first IBU Cup season he finished 78th in the Overall with 10 total races run and a career best 14th in the Canmore Mass 60, which was also his first career top 20.
Hechenberger, as noted above, had an irregular Junior career with inconsistent competition. When he raced his finishes were usually somewhere between the 20’s to the 50’s. That’s a pretty big range but also was an indication that he wasn’t getting up into the higher finishes as he had just four career top 20s, all in 21-22, his last year in Juniors.
As a biathlete on the IBU Cup he has tended more towards the shooting than the skiing for his strength. Last season he hit a solid 83.3% overall with a very strong 89.3% prone. His shooting on the Junior Cup was a bit up and down but regardless, this was the best season of shooting in his entire career.
Unfortunately though, after ending his Juniors career with the best skiing of his life, he’s been fading. Last year he went from slightly faster than average on the IBU Cup to significantly slower than average. This is disappointing because in those last races on the Junior Cup, when he had his best finishes, he was finally finishing in the 15 in course time rank on the Junior Cup. Yes that was Juniors but it should have translated to a little faster than average on the IBU Cup. And initially it did until last year.
That’s a long story for Andreas Hechenberger. So what is the take away? The young man needs some consistent racing. Hopefully more than anything else that is what he gets this year. If he can just get in some racing and hit somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 races next season that would be a huge step. Hopefully he can regain that ski strength he was finally showing, pair that with his shooting, and take another step forward.
Thomas Postl (24)
Thomas Postl didn’t race at all last season. I scoured the internet but couldn’t see anything about him retiring or being injured. If somebody has the information please let me know. I’m going to go ahead and leave what I wrote last year:
Another 24 year old Austrian on the IBU Cup, Thomas Postl, has had decent if unremarkable career thus far. Of some of the young Austrian men he appears to be faster. In his last season of racing he finished ahead of Oberhauser, Unterweger, in skiing for example. His shooting percentages though have been steady in the mid 70s. Both years he finished around 75% total shooting percentage. Meanwhile his shooting times have also been right around 31 seconds.
So what do we expect from Postl? Well we could hope for something similar to the above men. Once again his ranks right now are maybe just a little bit lower than they were in Juniors but fairly similar overall. So we can hope that he can get that skiing to continue to improve and that his shooting could get a little better as well. If I was going to bet on one having a better season than the other I would aim for Pitzer over Postl.
The Juniors
Finally we have a large group of Austrian men who are still on the Juniors level. They come with varying levels of success and experience. Some have raced a significant amount while some have just a couple of races under the belts. Regardless we’ll take a brief look at all. Well as brief as I can be.
Lukas Haslinger (20)
Looking at the year end standing of the Junior Cup you see Lukas Haslinger sitting at 8th place. When I first saw that I was absolutely pumped about Haslinger. However, I don’t want to take anything away from him, but that’s unfortunately what I’m about do to. That 8th place rests almost entirely on his 2nd place finish in the season opening Sprint race(which was great!) and the fact that he raced every single race and just continued to pile up points. His average finish of 20th ranked 21st of all Juniors that raced at least six times last season. So now that we’ve insulted Haslinger, let’s talk about why we still really like him!
Haslinger actually has pretty good ski form, especially for an Austrian man. Nothing against the Austrians but in general they just haven’t been as fast (holding for Fabian Muellauer). Last year though Haslinger ranked 18th in Junior Cup skiing. His shooting is also appearing to come along slowly but surely. Over the last three seasons we’ve seen him go up steadily from 74% to 80.5% overall shooting.
There are pieces there of a solid biathlete. Nothing that makes me think he’s going to challenge for the World Cup top 10. But also nothing that says he’s going to struggle to make the World Cup. I think that in about a decade we’ll have seen about 3 years of Haslinger as a solid middle of the road, sometimes top 30 finishing, biathlete on the World Cup. That’s a solid career.
Fabian Muellauer (20)
The 20 year old Fabian Muellauer, referenced above, is another one of the more unusual specimens of Austrian male biathlete, the good skier who needs to work on his shooting. Last season Muellauer, racing solely on the Junior Cup had his most success to date, finishing 26th which included one top 10 and six top 20’s. In general he’s fairly quick on the skis, finishing top six in course time rank four times last season including the Junior Worlds Pursuit race, and he was never worse than 24th on the course. He ended the year ranked 8th in overall skiing amongst Junior Cup men. It’s just the shooting that lets him down. He only shot better than 80% one time last year. Even a mild improvement, from a total shooting of 73.3% up to closer to 80% overall for the year would do wonders.
Maximilian Prosser (21)
With two full seasons of Junior Cup racing under his belt, we are starting to get a clearer picture of where Maximilian Prosser stands amongst his cohort. Last season he finished 29th Overall on the Junior Cup, up nicely from 49th the year before. This most recent campaign included his second career top 10, and first podium, a 3rd place Sprint in Haanja. However, for the most part he was finishing in the 20-30s range.
Prosser is another one of these skiers who struggles with the shooting. He was the second fastest Austrian Junior last year finishing 15th in overall skiing on the Junior circuit. Unfortunately his shooting was even worse than Muellauer as he hit only 70.5% of his shots last season. That is about in line with his 2021-2022 performance as well. So for Prosser as with Muellauer, hopefully much time was spent on the range this summer!
Andreas Domes (20)
Andreas Domes didn’t actually race at all last season. The only IBU races that we have seen from him came at Junior Worlds in 2021-2022. In those races he finishes 17th in the Individual, 46th in the Sprint, and 39th in the Pursuit. Not much to be learned here. He shot decently in his 17th place finish, no surprise there, and then poorly in the other two races. His course time ranks for the three races were 25, 42, and 29. Lets hope we see him again this year!
Christian Langegger (22)
Over the last three seasons we’ve seen Langegger race 13 times, all of them on the Junior Cup. Last season he actually raced less than 2021-2022, lining up just five times and skipping Junior Worlds. He did have his best racing of his career with two 7th place finishes in Haanja in the Super Sprint and the regular Sprint. However his Junior European finishes of 37, 59, and 50 were more in line with his routine races. Langegger is really not a very good shooter, hitting 70% or higher just three of those 13 career races. That means that even though he’s shown flashes of exceptional speed including the top course time twice and top five course time five of 13 career races, he just has a really hard time finishing anywhere near the top. He’s got the speed, in fact if you lower the threshold to just four races, he was the 4th fastest Junior man last year, but we really need to see the shooting improve, and quickly because the IBU Cup is calling his name soon!
Leon Kienesberger (20)
For 20 year old Leon Kienesberger, he set a high standard at the 2020-2021 Youth Worlds that he just hasn’t been able to match since. At those races he won bronze in the Individual and finished 16th and 14th in the Sprint and Pursuit. Since then he has just one top 10. In fact he has just four top 30’s in 13 races. And he’s yet to race Junior Worlds against the best of the Junior Cup level. Even at his best Kienesberger wasn’t a tremendous skier, but at those magical Youth Worlds he shot the lights out hitting 88% across those three races. Since then he hasn’t broken 82% for a season. For Kienesberger to find that high level of success again he’s going to have to both shoot at that amazing level again, and find a way to get his skiing back towards the top 40 (he finished 75th last season).
Daniel Glasser (19)
The young Daniel Glasser, just 19 years old, has a mere six races to his credit over the last two years, with all of those races coming at Youth Worlds. He has been incredibly consistent with every finish coming between 37th and 48th. Remarkably he did it in completely opposite ways. In 2021-2022 Glasser was slow, 6.9% slower than average, and hit at a nice 88% clip. However last year, with his shooting down to 78% he ran 1.1% faster than average on skis. The end result was basically the same finishes. So what will we see this year from Glasser? Well hopefully another similar (read huge) jump in skiing along with a return to mid 80’s shooting!
Thomas Marchl (18)
Thomas Marchl’s only racing to date were the Youth Worlds last season when he finished 31st in Individual, 26th in the Sprint and 13th in the Pursuit including the 7th best isolated pursuit time. He showed some solid ski form finishing 20th fastest in the Individual followed by 28th in the Sprint and a brisk 13th best in the Pursuit. Meanwhile his shooting got better by the race going 75%, 80%, and 85% in consecutive races. If he follows that pattern he’ll be dominating in no time! In all seriousness it will just be nice to see Marchl race a little more this season.
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