Dates: December 4th, 2023 – December 10th, 2023
Schedule:
– Friday December 8: Men’s Sprint + Women’s Sprint
– Saturday December 9: Men’s Pursuit + Women’s Pursuit
– Sunday December 10: Men’s Relay + Women’s Relay
Course Overview:
– Stadium altitude: 1,010m
– Maximum altitude on course: 1,035m
– Lowest altitude on course: 997m
– Stadium capacity: 10,500 spectators
Also just throwing this out there but each loop on the Hochfilzen course contains one really tight nearly 180 degree turn coming off a downhill. Even in relatively benign conditions we’ve seen athletes go off the course here nearly every year. It will be interesting to see if the change in waxing affects this corner at all.
Weather:
– Avg Temp for late November and early December: High 0C and Low -5C
Weather looks to be warming throughout the weekend. Should be significantly warmer than average by Sunday with potential rain during the race. This could make the flour ban and the wax prep much more prominent than we saw in Oestersund with the frozen snow and ice crystals. Mild breezes throughout the week but can always be blustery as weather moves through. Friday during the Sprints looks to be the windiest of the days.
News and Notes
- Respiratory Virus – So far a sizeable number of biathletes appear to have been hit by a respiratory virus making the rounds. It’s going to make a big impact both in terms of athletes who won’t start at all, but a number of those who do will be sick and performing at less than 100%. So far I’ve only seen a couple of instances of confirmed COVID but here’s a list of men/women that have been affected:
– Men: Hartweg, Wright (More but I can’t seem to find them)
– Women: Vittozzi, Wierer, Chevalier, Baserga, Kebinger, Meier, Kuelm, Lunder. - Only a couple of big change outs in terms of going up/down from IBU Cup
– Norway: Emilie Kalkenberg up to World Cup & Frida Dokken down to IBU Cup
– Sweden: Sara Andersson up to World Cup & Stina Nilsson down to IBU Cup
– Germany: Anna Weidel up to IBU Cup and Hanna Kebinger out sick
– Croatia: Matija Legovic up to World Cup! - JT Boe thoughts on wax: (That’s not totally accurate but I’m not sure what else to call this). He basically said that the wax changes made it a little more difficult for certain types of athletes to compete. In particular he mentioned that the new wax regulations required more upper body strength to maintain speed. Not saying he’s right or wrong but I can only imagine he’s saying that based on how his body is responding to the racing. Just something to watch.
Recent History
Men’s Multiple Podium Finishers Last 5 Competitions (Includes 2 weeks in 2020-2021)
– Does not include retired or ineligible athletes
| Athlete | Finishes |
| JT Boe | 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥉🥉 |
| Emilien Jacquelin | 🥈🥈🥈🥈🥉🥉 |
| Sturla Holm Laegreid | 🥇🥇🥈🥉 |
| Quintin Fillon Maillet | 🥇🥇🥉 |
| Johannes Dale | 🥇🥈🥉 |
| Martin Ponsiluoma | 🥈🥈 |
| Johannes Kuehn | 🥇 |
| Sebastian Samuelsson | 🥉 |
| Tarjei Boe | 🥉 |
| Fabien Claude | 🥉 |
Women’s Repeat Podium Finishers Last 5 Years (Includes 2 weeks in 2020-2021)
– Does not include retired or ineligible athletes
| Athlete | Finishes |
| Elvira Oeberg | 🥇🥇🥉🥉 |
| Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold | 🥈🥈🥈🥉 |
| Julia Simon | 🥇🥉🥉 |
| Dorothea Wierer | 🥇🥉 |
| Hanna Oeberg | 🥈🥈 |
| Marketa Davidova | 🥈🥉 |
| Justine Braisaz-Bouchet | 🥈 |
| Franziska Preuss | 🥉 |
Recent Memorable Moments/Performances
In general Hochfilzen has never stood out to me as a place where crazy things happen. So these are just a few of the things that have stood out:
19-20 Men’s Relay: Even for Team Norway this is one of the wildest comebacks of all time. After a strong first leg by Dale-Skjvedal gave them a lead, Erlend Bjoentegaard had quite the adventure on the range that led to a penalty loop. It put Norway 53 seconds behind Germany. While Arnd Peiffer raced well, Tarjei Boe was able to trim off 10 seconds. Still going into the last leg Benedikt Doll had a 43 seconds advantage on JT Boe. Even with JT Boe that was a solid lead. It wasn’t enough though. JT Boe and Doll both cleaned the prone shooting and Doll was still up by 36 seconds. That was down to 25 going into the last shooting which was enough if Doll could clean…but he couldn’t. But neither could JT Boe. They both had two misses but JT Boe was a solid 8 seconds faster. Quick fingers on the reload! With just a 13 second advantage Doll couldn’t hold off the freight train forever. He caught him with just around 1km remaining and swept past him down the stretch for the victory.
20-21 Women’s Pursuit: The first of two consecutive races between Belarusian women and Marte Olsbu Roeiseland that each had the same result: Roeiseland victory. In this race Dzinara Smolskaya (Alimbekava) came in off of a narrow victory in the Sprint over Eckhoff and Preuss while Roeiseland started from 4th just 17 seconds back. Roeiseland pursued the leaders like a shark. She took the lead after shooting 2. Even with a miss in shooting 4 which opened the door for Alimbekava, Roeiseland still left the range with a slight lead and pulled away for the victory.
20-21 Men’s Relay: In this moment I distinctly remember thinking that Sebastian Samuelsson was going to be a star. They started the last lap tied and stayed neck and neck until the final shooting. Samuelsson had two misses but held it together while JT Boe headed to the penalty loop. Samuelsson showed a lot of grit to hang with the man who was on the way to an Overall Globe!
21-22 Women’s Pursuit: This was primarily a race between two women that we won’t see one second of this season. Hanna Sola entered the Pursuit with a commanding 46 second advantage. Yellow bib Marte Olsbu Røiseland though was always a threat in a Pursuit race. Sola did a tremendous job holding her off, but Røiseland was not to be denied. The last lap was actually something to behold. Sola entered the final shooting with a 35 second advantage. However, she had 1 miss opening the door just a touch. Røiseland cleaned and moved within 12 seconds of Sola. The last lap was either painful or exhillirating depending on who you were pulling for. It felt like Sola was moving in slow motion compared to Røiseland . Finally with just 400 meters to go Røiseland moved past Sola. It was an incredible comeback and truthfully showed her strength in what proved to be her crowning Overall winning season.
21-22 Men’s Pursuit: The race started with a nice bunch at the top. Johannes Kuehn was coming off his first career win but there were seven men within 25 seconds to start. QFM did what would become his calling card during his Overall Globe winning season as he came back and stole the victory. He was still a few seconds behind after shooting 3 but he closed the gap on Kuehn before the final shooting. He went clean and raced away for the victory. It was really a tone setter for the rest of the season as he claimed the Overall title.
22-23 Men’s Pursuit: Proving that Pursuits can be multiple different races in one. The top 3 from the Sprint stayed the top 3 with JT Boe not losing a second of his 43 second advantage and Laegreid and Jacquelin swapped places. Behind them though it was pretty fun!
– QFM from 7th to 4th
– Hartweg 22nd to 5th
– Fak 25th to 7th
– Dale-Skjevdal 10th to 8th
– Samuelsson 19th to 9th
Random Notes:
– Sturla Holm Laegreid has two victories here but both came in the 2020-2021 season. Since then he hasn’t had nearly as much success. Coming in off a down week in Oestersund I doubt that Hochfilzen is the place where he really wants to try to get back on track.
– Emilien Jacquelin has far more success here than I ever expected to see. He didn’t look phenomenal in Oestersund but maybe seeing somewhere he has consistently been in the mix will get him back in form quickly.
– Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold is another who I think has had more success here than I’ve expected to see. Not always on the podium but seemingly always fighting for the top 10. She looked really good in Oestersund. Hopefully that’s what we see again this week!
Predictions:
– Sloppy conditions lead to a more irregular ski patterns. In general I think Norway benefits here
– Sebastian Samuelsson coming in on the best form of his life, but no big history here. I think this may be the year that he changes that.
– JT Boe gets his first win of the season this week. He shakes off the shooting woes and flashes his speed again. He wins the Sprint and podiums in the Pursuit
– Ingrid Tandrevold wins the Sprint and Franziska Preuss the Pursuit.
– Elvira Oeberg was really fast last week. If she can find her form on the range again, just like she did last year hitting nearly 88%, she’ll suddenly look like herself again.