Women’s Athlete of the Week: Lena Haecki-Gross
Sure, Lena Haecki-Gross didn’t win like Tandrevold and Elvira did, but how can you argue that she wasn’t the story of the week for the women? Okay, fine, you definitely can and I will in part 2 coming tomorrow! But still, Haecki-Gross had one hell of a weekend and absolutely deserves to be celebrated.
At age 28, Haecki-Gross is certainly no upstart. She has run 180 solo World Cup races and 249 if you include relays. That’s already a full career. Prior to this weekend she had 18 top 10’s, 5 top 5’s and a single podium which accounted for her career best finish of 3rd. This weekend she finished an agonizing 4th place in the Sprint and a remarkably redemptive and joyous 2nd place in the Pursuit. It was hands down the greatest weekend of her career to date.
The weekend got off to what could have been a gut punch of a start. She was looking great the entire race, racing fast, and shooting 9/10. It was enough to be right in the mix alongside Elvira Öberg and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet battling for the podium behind Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold’s terrific victory. The splits on the last lap showed an incredibly tight race with Haecki-Gross within 1-2 seconds of Braisaz-Bouchet for the 3rd spot. She made a huge push towards the finish line and crossed with a time just 0.3 seconds behind. It would have been so easy for her to be absolutely gutted by that finish.
Haecki-Gross, though, was anything but. It only seemed to redouble her resolve. In the Pursuit race she started out absolutely on fire. She led after the first two shootings, not only because she was skiing like a banshee but because she was shooting like one too. She went 10/10 on her prone shooting with shooting times of 26.4 seconds and 22.4 seconds. Those are prone shooting times mind you. She missed one on her 3rd shooting but bounced back clean on her last trip to the range. She tagged on behind Tandrevold on the last lap and surged by her down the stretch. The joy on her face was the moment of the weekend for me.
Lena Haecki-Gross has always been a solid biathlete. Every season she 2-3 top 10’s and is in the mix even more often than that. This season she seems to have found a whole new level. Always a good skier, she’s not excellent. After two weeks of racing she currently ranks 8th overall in skiing and is running 4.4% faster than median. Prior to this her best skiing season was just last year when she ranked 18th in skiing and ran 2.4% faster than median. However, even more important than her ski improvement is her impressive accuracy on the range. She’s only hit better than 80% on the range for a season one time in her career, 2021-2022 when she hit 81.1%. Right now she’s shooting at an amazing 90% clip.
Will Lena Haecki-Gross keep this up for a full season? Who knows. It might be a lot to ask. But I’ll tell you what, I’m loving every single bit of it. She’s a great story and nothing would make me happier than to see her keep rolling, especially as she hits home snow in Lenzerheide this week!
Men’s Athlete of the Week: Tarjei Bø
Tarjei Bø has found the fountain of youth. Or maybe he just never lost it. At 35 years old, when it might be reasonable to see him slowing down and maybe even considering life off the skis (maybe coaching?). Instead as we go to the third week of competition in this the 15th year of his career, Tarjei Bø is wearing the Yellow bib and sitting atop the Overall Rankings. The last time he wore the Yellow bib was January 2012 in Oberhof. That was so long ago that Ole Einar Bjoerndalen has worn Yellow more recently, wearing it for two races in the opening weekend of the 2015-2016 season in Östersund.
Tarjei Bø grabbed the Yellow bib by getting redemption in the Sprint race. Last week in Östersund he seemingly had it won but Philip Nawrath came flying through and shocked everybody by winning the Sprint. This time around Bø followed a similar path to success, coming from bib 49. He shot clean and was just fast enough, with the 5th fastest course time, to hold off a late charge from Sturla Holm Laegreid.
He followed that up with another solid race in the Pursuit. He was 18/20 but was clearly a little fatigued from the Sprint, running just 16th in ski time. It probably wasn’t going to matter as his younger brother was absolutely flying and ran away with the victory. Tarjei Bø cruised home with a more than respectable 3rd place and secured Yellow as we head to Switzerland.
It’s one of the most remarkable things that Tarjei Bø is still racing, and still racing at this high high level, but he also gets so much joy out of the competition and his competitors. The best part, at least to me, of watching Tarjei is how after the race he seems to happy just to talk with, and congratulate, everybody. He always seems to be as happy for others as he is for himself and his brother. I don’t want to think about biathlon without Tarjei Bø in the field and right now I don’t think we’re going to have to for a little while.\
Women’s Young Athlete of the Week: Elvira Öberg
Last week I wrote about “The Return of the Voigt.” This week it’s the Return of Elvira. In Östersund Elvira was quietly very very good. Her finishes didn’t show it but all the signs were there. She went 39th, 11th, and 10th but she was faster than just about everybody running 1st, 1st, and 2nd in terms of ski speed in those races. It was just her shooting that was holding her back as she never hit more than 80%. I mentioned at the time I was a bit concerned that the “old” Elvira was rearing her head. The Elvira that was constantly making up time on the course only to blow it again on the range.
This weekend was the peak Elvira that we saw a flash of last season when she, at times, looked like the best biathlete on the planet. Last year, even as she was losing her ski speed after getting sick midseason, she was showing us a new shooting that she had never shown us before, hitting over 88% of her targets. In Hochfilzen she kept that phenomenal speed as she was 2nd fastest in the Sprint and 3rd fastest in the Pursuit. However, this time she hit 9/10 in the Sprint and 19/20 in the Pursuit.
The results? She was 2nd in the Sprint, just 4.9 seconds from the win and then she flew away for the Pursuit win. The only “blemish” (if you can even call if that) was that she wasn’t able to track down Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold on the last leg of the relay. Hard to blame her for that one though when she was given a 20 second deficit to the woman currently in Yellow.
Right now Elvira is back in the Blue Bib. It almost looked weird seeing her in anything but Blue the last few races. However, she’s got a new target in her sights: Yellow. If she keeps racing, and more importantly shooting, like this she’s going to be in the fight for the big globe come Canmore.
Men’s Young Athlete of the Week: Eric Perrot
It’s sometimes hard to believe that Eric Perrot is still only 22 years old. I feel like I’ve had my eyes on him for a long time now. Does anybody else remember hearing about the Junior who was matching Martin Foucade in terms of speed? Well that young man is more and more starting to look like somebody who is developing into a contender on the World Cup. Not yet for the Overall, but at least contending for top 10s, top 5’s and the occasional podium.
While his weekend in Hochfilzen wasn’t nearly was successful for Perrot as last year in Östersund when he finished 6th in the Individual and 3rd in the Mass Start, it was definitely a good weekend for the young man. He started out with a solid 10th place in the Sprint race, which was at the time his 4th career top 10. He finished 15th in ski rank for the race which was his 2nd best of his career and the best of a “full field” race (Sprint/Individual).
Perrot followed that up with a nice move up, starting in the 10th position and getting himself up to 7th. He accomplished that with 19/20 shooting and once again the 15th best course time. His 7th place finish was the 3rd best of his career.
However, the race I was most impressed with was actually the Relay. Perrot was the lead leg for the French men. He was perfect. He went 10/10 and required no extra shots. He was 2nd fastest skiing, running just 1.3 seconds slower than David Zobel on the course. When he passed off to Emilien Jacquelin the French men had a nice little 9.1 second lead. To be fair the first leg wasn’t loaded with big names, but Perrot still beat Sturla Holm Laegreid, and even when Laegreid still doesn’t look right, it’s an accomplishment.
As the IBU World Cup moves to Switzerland Eric Perrot is the highest ranked Frenchmen. To be fair they are all stacked together holding positions 16-19, but he’s still the best of them so far!
Women’s Race of the Week: Pursuit
This was an emotional choice by me as you could make an argument for any of the three races. I went with the Pursuit though because it was the crowning achievement of Lena Haecki-Gross’ weekend. I covered above that she was running fast and in the front almost from the start. She started out 20 seconds back of Tandrevold with big time names of Elvira Öberg and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet ahead of her and Lisa Vittozzi, Karoline Knotten, and Julia Simon not far behind. After shooting 1, though, she was ahead of all of them.
Haecki-Gross maintained that advantage with another lap of hard skiing and another perfect shooting. Still, behind her a serious race was forming up. Vittozzi, Tandrevold, and Elvira were all within 15 seconds and Julia Simon had moved up to the 5th spot 36 seconds back. When they came to the range for the 3rd shooting the lead 4 were basically all in a bunch, with just 5 seconds separating them all, and Julia Simon at +41.
Lena Haecki-Gross gave one back on the first standing shooting allowing Elvira and Tandrevold to go out to the front together. The head to head between those two powerhouses stole the show for the next few minutes. Elvira paced them around the 4th lap and those two entered the range with all the pressure. Shoot clean and you’re in position to win. 1 miss and you need help. Both women knew they had the speed to run with each other. The tension was really there.
Tandrevold flinched. She didn’t miss, but she took 12.3 seconds between her first and second shots and 41.9 seconds overall. After that she needed a miss from Elvira and Elvira didn’t give, going clean in 27.1 seconds. Meanwhile, Haecki-Gross saw an opening. She came up and cleaned 5/5 in just 20.7 seconds. To her credit, out of the race for the podium, Lisa Vittozzi cleaned quickly and got off the range 9 seconds back of Tandrevold and Haecki-Gross. Vittozzi gave everything she could, going 19/20 for the race, but she just didn’t have the speed as she recovers from her bout with illness in Östersund.
As Elvira ran away with her first victory of the season, Lena Haecki-Gross attached herself to Tandrevold tails. As they came down the final hundred meters Haecki-Gross made her move and crossed the line in 2nd letting loose a tremendous celebration while Tandrevold looked supremely disappointed in 3rd. It was all around a tremendous race.
Men’s Race of the Week: Pursuit
We don’t need to sped too much time on this, but it’s worth mentioning for one really big reason. JT Bø has done a lot of really great things in his career, but this was the furthest back in a Pursuit he had ever started and still come back for a victory. He started out the day 47.1 seconds behind his brother. He knew he had to be perfect to get the win, and he set out to be perfect. He didn’t quite accomplish that, as he did have a miss, but he was more than good enough to run away with a relatively easy win.
This is the story of JT Bø’s comeback:
– Start: +47.1 (11th)
– End lap 1: +26.6 (9th)
– Shooting 1: +54.4 (10th) – at this point you almost couldn’t blame him for mentally letting up. He didn’t at all.
– End lap 2: +42.6 (7th)
– Shooting 2: +21 (5th)
– End lap 3: +19.9 (3rd)
– Shooting 3: Leading by 7.9
– End lap 4: Leading by 21
– Shooting 4: Leading by 23.2
– Finish: Win by 22.6
JT Bø had the 2nd best course time just 1.3 seconds behind Johannes Dale-Skjvedal. He had the best isolated pursuit time by 43.8 seconds over Emilien Jacquelin. He shot 23.9 seconds on each of his standing shootings, which were perfect by the way. JT Bø looked like JT Bø out there and that had to be a scary thing for the rest of the field to see.
It’s also worth mentioning two things. First, Sturla Holm Laegreid was racing at the front of the field from the first shooting through the third shooting. He still doesn’t look quite like himself yet but it was really good to see. Hopefully we see more of that. Second, Johannes Dale-Skjvedal is going to win a race this year. He looks too good not to. It’s hard to believe that two seasons ago he got demoted to the IBU Cup. It’s been a nice story to see him bounce back the last two years.
Yellow Bib Update
Once again, we won’t do a full update until after the racing ends in Lenzerheide. However, we have a lot of contenders right now and doesn’t that make things fun?
On the men’s side JT Bø certainly looked good in the Pursuit race, but it’s only one race out of five so far this season. While that might have been a harbinger of things to come, what if that race is the “odd duck” of the field and he continues to have ups and downs? In that case Sebbe Samuelsson continues to look strong. Tarjei Bø is wearing Yellow, and while I don’t expect that to continue, wouldn’t that be a story? Sturla Holm Laegreid even with looking off is still in 6th and Christiansen in 7th just 1 point further back. Even Giacomel who hasn’t shown us his best is in 11th.
On the women’s side it is somehow even more wide open. Right at the top you have Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold who looks every bit the part of an Overall Contender. It’s been such a pleasant development to see and I love it. Elvira Öberg is looking like classic Elvira again and I love seeing that too. Wouldn’t it be a blessing to see the two of them go head to head all season long? Lisa Vittozzi should only continue to get stronger and she’s right in this. Jeanmonnot was likely starting to suffer from COVID this weekend even before testing positive on Monday, while she’ll miss Switzerland she has a chance to be in the mixx too. Preuss will hopefully bounce back and Voigt is looking quite strong.
Ultimately though, it may be COVID that decides this. It’s all about if/when athletes get sick. So far we’ve seen contenders Vittozzi, Wierer, Preuss and Jeanmonnot get sick and miss time or be clearly affected. If Tandrevold or Elvira don’t get sick until after the racing concludes in Switzerland (or not at all) so they don’t miss time, that’s a huge boost to their chances. It stinks, but that’s life in 2023-2024 as we continue to figure out life with COVID.
Penalty Loop 