We have the return of the recaps! It’s going to be in a new format from now on. The old one was taking too much time and I know people don’t really care about it that much anyway. I’m going to keep doing it because for me it serves as a bit of a history so I can go back and see what my immediate take away was after a weekend. But I also don’t want it to keep taking so much time. So, the new and briefer weekend recap debuts:
The Winners – Top performers/races of the week
Nations Medal Table:
| Nation | Medals |
| France 🇫🇷 | 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥉🥉🥉🥉🥉🥉 |
| Norway 🇳🇴 | 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥉🥉🥉 |
| Italy 🇮🇹 | 🥇🥈🥈🥈 |
| Sweden 🇸🇪 | 🥇🥈🥉 |
| Germany 🇩🇪 | 🥈🥉🥉 |
| Latvia 🇱🇻 | 🥈 |
The World Championships Individual Medal Table:
| Athlete | Medals |
| JT Boe 🇳🇴 | 🥇🥇🥇🥈 |
| Julia Simon 🇫🇷 | 🥇🥇🥉 |
| Lisa Vittozzi 🇮🇹 | 🥇🥈🥈 |
| Justine Braisaz-Bouchet 🇫🇷 | 🥇🥈🥉 |
| Sturla Holm Laegreid 🇳🇴 | 🥇🥈 |
| Lou Jeanmonnot 🇫🇷 | 🥉🥉 |
| Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen 🇳🇴 | 🥉🥉 |
| Tarjei Boe 🇳🇴 | 🥈 |
| Janina Hettich-Walz 🇩🇪 | 🥈 |
| Andrejs Rastorgujevs 🇱🇻 | 🥈 |
| Benedikt Doll 🇩🇪 | 🥉 |
| Quintin Fillon Maillet 🇫🇷 | 🥉 |
Men’s Athlete of the Week: JT Bø – The boss remains the boss. During the 2022-2023 season JT Bø turned in the most dominant biathlon season we have ever seen, and in all likelihood will ever see. Pure dominance from start to finish with barely a chance for any other man to grab some glory. In the middle of that amazing campaign he score 7 medals in 7 races at the Oberhof World Championships.
This season JT Bø has looked good as opposed to iridescent as he did last season. As a result we had some impression that he was maybe just a tiny bit vulnerable. Well, let’s put that to rest. For JT Bø Nové Město looked a whole lot like Oberhof…except maybe better?
In Oberhof Bø won 🥇x5, 1🥈, and 1🥉. While in Nové Město he won “only” 3 🥇, 3🥈, and 1🥉 he actually performed marginally better in solo events than in Oberhof. He won each of the Pursuit, Individual, and Mass Start by large and comfortable margins allowing him space to celebrate coming down the home stretch. No, nothing like his Individual masterpiece from Oberhof, but still very comfortable. In Nové Město he won a silver in the Sprint while he won “only” bronze in the Mass Start in Oberhof. The relays finished with 2 silver and 1 bronze, but he in the Single Mixed and the Men’s Relay he handed off very sizable leads.
He’s also making serious inroads in his chase for Greatest Of All Time status. He has tied Ole Einar Bjoerndalen for all time World Championship gold medals and is just one behind OEB and Martin Fourcade for solo World Championships medals. He’s just 7 back of OEB for both solo and total World Championships medals. Assuming he races for another 2 years at least then those records should be his as well.
Sometimes it gets boring to watch dominance. I never tire of watching JT Bø.
Women’s Athlete of the Week: Julia Simon – it wasn’t just that the won more medals than any other woman with 4🥇 and 1🥉, it was the way she looked. Those two gold medals in the Sprint and the Pursuit were absolutely beautiful biathlon. She was fast on the skis, just as usual. She was hitting her shots for most of the week. But she also unveiled a new ludicrous speed with the rifle. Her average standing shooting time this week was 18.3 seconds. For the season before Worlds she had the current fastest average standing shooting time of 22.3 seconds. Yes, she took what was already the fastest time on the World Cup and made it 18% faster.
She used that, plus her already very good skiing (course time ranks of 4, 13, 6, and 6 in the solo races) and at times looked absolutely unbeatable. As it turns out the only thing that made her (barely) mortal was her accuracy. By shooting “just” 95% in the Individual and 85% in the Mass Start she finished 3rd and 4th. But in the relay races she was once again fantastic. Julia Simon’s peak level is as good as anybody in biathlon at the moment. Truly the only woman who might be able to beat peak Julia Simon is peak Justine Braisaz-Bouchet due to her insane ski speeds. Hopefully we get to see these two battle it out for the Overall Globe!
Men’s Young Athlete of the Week: Eric Perrot and Campbell Wright – Eric Perrot because he had the best finishes of any young man including just missing a medal in the Sprint by 10 seconds and two more top 10’s. He also showed VERY well in the Mixed Relay and was a big part of that gold medal winning team. Campbell Wright, meanwhile, showed that even at age 21 and coming from a nontraditional biathlon nation in the United States, that his future in the sport if very bright. He finished top 20 in each race including 11 and 12 in the Sprint and Pursuit respectively while also racing well in the relays. With athletes like Perrot, Wright, Hartweg, and Giacomel, the future of biathlon looks fun and diverse!
Women’s Young Athlete of the Week: Sophie Chauveau – Yes she’s going hopefully have many more opportunities to race Worlds and Olympics but I couldn’t help but feel a little gutted for Sophie Chauveau twice finishing 4th in the Sprint and the Pursuit. Thank goodness she was a member of that gold medal winning relay team. (Let’s just ignore that she was almost the reason they didn’t win gold). It was a nice reminder that on French team being dominated by Julia Simon, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, and Lou Jeanmonnot, that there is actually a 4th woman who has a very bright future. Her worst course time rank of the week was 5th. If she can just get her shooting figured out (she’s currently shooting just 79.3% for the season) she’s going to be trouble for the rest of the field.
Men’s Race of the Week – Men’s Sprint – I could just as easily have said the Men’s Sprint because rarely have I been as absolutely stunned as I was at the end of that race. The Men’s Sprint was really fascinating though. There was just enough space between some of the big contenders that for about 15 minutes it felt like somebody was going to have a chance to cement their place on the podium, culminating with Sturla Holm Lægreid’s fantastic last lap to win the gold.
First it was QFM in bib 9 who finished 9/10 and there was a chance that he might put up a time that might survive for a medal. He ultimately finished in 8th. He was quickly surpassed by Dale-Skjevdal and Tarjei Bø, but neither of them ended up in the top 5 either. JT Bø, from bib 26, went 9/10 but with tremendous ski speed, and he looked like he was safe with the gold. Sebbe Samuelsson just 2 bibs behind was perfect 10/10 and truly looked like a medal winner. However then came Eric Perrot in bib 42 with a 9/10 and a time that would end up in 4th. He was followed closely by Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen’s bronze medal winning time from bib 48 and finally Lægreid’s victorious bib 50 run.
Truly it was a frenetic pace. It really felt like every one of those men had at least a chance. It was also amazing how they came in those three distinct waves. Wave 1 with QFM, Dale-Skjevdal and Tarjei all within 5 starting places. Wave 2 with JT Bø and Samuelsson almost back to back. And then the closers Perrot, Christiansen and Lægreid from 42-50. Sometimes Sprints can be boring. Not at all for this race!
Women’s Race of the Week – Women’s Relay – The Women’s relay was total chaos and joy. From the very start it felt like it was a bit more hectic than usual. After the standing shoot of leg 2 we had the following leaders: Estonia, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Ukraine, and Poland with France, the heavy favorites, all the way back in 9th a full 46 seconds behind. Tuuli Tomingas handed off to Susan Kuelm with Estonia in the lead!
France’s comeback behind the astonishing speed of Justine Braisaz-Bouchet and the brazen boldness of Julia Simon’s shooting (38 seconds for a shoot with 3 reloads is pretty darn good especially with the gold on the line!) meant that even though they won as expected, it was still thrilling. Sweden felt like it conquered some demons with that silver. Germany winning bronze with Sophia Schneider closing it out after a last second replacement was a great story. And watching Estonia bring home their best ever relay finish on a grand stage, especially with Johanna Talihaerm closing it out needing to hit her very last shot, was the kind of amazing underdog story you dream of! Ukraine and Poland joining the party in the flower ceremony was just the icing on the cake!
Super Sprints – A super quick hop through some of the top stories
Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and the Twisties? – We don’t usually get episodes like this with the top athlete in the field completely losing her abilities. It is a bit like Lisa Vittozzi completely losing her prone shooting 2-3 years ago. It’s been the most amazing thing to see her come back from this. However, it’s almost most akin to what happened to Simon Biles at the Tokyo Olympics. No, Tandrevold doesn’t dominate biathlon like Biles does gymnastics, but the leading athlete losing it on the world stage is very similar. Biles completely lost her ability to dismount. She would get up and then completely lose faith in herself. It got into her head. She couldn’t find the ground and it became quite dangerous. It looks a lot like that with Tandrevold.
All year long she’s been tremendous in prone shooting and that didn’t change at all at Worlds. Her standing shooting started out decent enough this season. She hit 81.5% standing in the first trimester which was good enough. That slipped to 74% in the 2nd trimester but she was able to hold it together and had enough good finishes that she fought herself back to the Yellow bib. The cracks were definitely forming though.
They split wide open at Worlds. She looked completely lost when she got the standing shooting. There were episodes where you started to wonder if she was even seeing the targets. Not that she was blind but that her brain just wasn’t processing what it was seeing at all. There were some bright spots like her 5/5 standing shooting in the last standing of the Individual and Mass Starts. Unfortunately though they happened when she was well out of the race. And there was the particularly horrific relay where she missed her first five shots of the standing shooting and barely salvaged 2 hits with her extra rounds.
So what happened? Well the short answer is she is just lost in her own head. She said herself that she doesn’t know what the problem is right now. It may be that there is a small technical issue that she can clean up a little bit. However, that would account for the catastrophe that was Worlds.
What does she do now? Sometimes getting a new thought her in head, even if it’s just a placebo, is all it takes. Just something new to focus on when you’re shooting. Oftentimes it’s just to take the mind off of the twisties. My recommendation is just let it fly. I’m not a biathlon coach nor am I a biathlete. I’ve seen this with some of my athletes though and they almost all say that things got better once they just went out there and had fun. It’s so easy to say and so hard to do. One thing is for sure, I’m hoping for it!
Is Elvira Okay? – Where did Elvira Öberg go? Coming into the season I thought this would be the year she rises to the top. Even at the Christmas break I was thinking she was going to show her best stuff. She hasn’t been bad! She’s 5th in the Overall and has a win and three total podiums. That’s nowhere close to what we have come to expect from Elvira Öberg though. Each of the last two seasons she’s had at least three wins and six podiums. So what is the story?
If you look at her stats it’s easy to point at the shooting as the cause. She’s hitting just 83.3% total with fairly even splits. That’s a big drop from 88.6% last season. However it’s not that far from the 85.3% she hit during the 21-22 season when she had four wins and 11 podiums. Meanwhile her skiing is just as good as ever. She ranks 3rd overall behind just Lampic and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet. She’s having her best ski ear ever when compared to the average skier and her 2nd time being faster than the median top 10 athlete. Shooting times, for better or worse, really haven’t changed much this season.
I have no answer here. Her shooting really isn’t that good but is it bad enough to lead to this type of drop off? She has just 11 top 10’s in 18 races. Having typed all of this I’m sure it’s not a sure thing that she’s going to have two wins and five podiums the rest of the rest of the way. Let’s hope that she can hit just a few more shots down the stretch!
The Great German recovery – Through the first half of the World Championships the German team was in a rut. They finished 5th in the Mixed relay and had just two total top 10’s through the Pursuits. There were serious concerns about what was going on. Bad skis/wax? Failed training regimen? Well it all came together the 2nd half of Worlds starting with Doll’s bronze and Hettich-Walz’s silver in the Individual races as well as Selina Grotian and Vanessa Voigt scoring top 5’s. In the Women’s Relay Sophia Schneider came off the bench to replace Preuss (illness) at the last minute to close out the relay and secure a bronze. The week ended with Vanessa Voigt’s 5th in the Mass Start. Was it a perfect Worlds? Absolutely not. Certainly not what the Germans had hoped for. But the German squad certainly closed out the World Championships on a much better note than they started.
Tomas Mikyska’s Glorious Return – Last season Tomas Mikyska showed signs of high level with back to back 14th place finishes in the World Champs Individual and Mass Start in Oberhof. There were high hopes for him going into the summer and those proved to be well warranted when he scored silver in the August Summer Worlds Super Sprint. Then he was racing very well in the Mass Start when he had a fall where he dislocated his knee and tore his ACL. He returned to racing in January just 5 months after the initial injury. The story reached it’s full conclusion when he not only raced at Worlds, but he set a new career best in the Individual (10th), the same race he broke through in last season. The crowd was spectacular and they were absolutely going bananas. It sounds like he is going to race Oslo and then start his off season early. It’s so great to see him already back at such a high level. I cannot wait to see where he goes from here!
Latvian Successes – It is a bit of a surprise but considering Baiba Bendika was expected to miss at least a little bit of time after her son was born in September, but this has been a very good season for Latvian biathlon. These World Championships in Nové Město were truly something special!
Baiba Bendika, just five months removed from childbirth, had some of the fastest skiing of any woman in the field. It was truly the Worlds of the Mama as she and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet were two of the four fastest women in the Individual. Baiba’s Worlds peaked with her 5th place finish in the Sprint which was truly one of the highlights of my biathlon season. I readily admit to being a huge fan of hers, so Baiba tying her best career finish at Worlds was just an amazing day. She was top 9 in ski speed every single race, had that 5th and 11th in the Pursuit, and qualified for the Mass Start.
Lots of fans have a complicated athlete with Andrejs Rastorgujevs. He was suspended for 18 months when he failed to comply with doping regulations. Importantly he never failed a test. However he had three “whereabouts” failures and was not in compliance with anti-doping regulations. All athletes know about these and the overwhelming majority are able to stay within regulations. Let’s be clear he didn’t fail a test, but he also didn’t follow the rules. Also, by all accounts he’s within regulations now.
Rastorgujevs has been having a very solid season and Nové Město was the peak of his career so far. He finished 1 penalty off of the podium in the Individual. It looked like it might be a near miss. However, he followed that up with a perfect Mass Start. The only man who could beat him is possibly the greatest of all time, Johannes Thingnes Bø. Rastorgujevs’ silver medal is the best finish in Latvian history at the World Championships behind only Ilmars Bricis’ two bronze medals.
World Championship for the Underdogs? – The 2024 Nové Město World Championships saw a mere six nations climb the podium: France, Norway, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and Latvia. However, it felt like we had a number of underdog nations that showed they are on the way up and may be competing for medals in the near future. The Polish women showed a great Worlds with Johanna Jakiela and Natalia Sidorowicz qualifying for the Mass Start while the relay team finished in 6th. The Polish men’s relay team, starting three Juniors finished in 9th. The Estonian women’s relay team had the race of the week when they finished in 4th for their best ever relay finish. USA was buoyed by the arrival of Campbell Wright who finished 11, 12, 20, and 18 while the Single Mixed Relay was in the mix for the Flower Ceremony and the Men’s Relay finished 5th. And that’s just a sampling. The long story short is that while only six nations medaled, there was a large sampling of nations that look to be competing for medals in the near future!
Flower Ceremony – We’ll recap some top finishes from the week!
🥈 🇱🇻 Andrejs Rastorgujevs – Mass Start. Ties his best ever finish from 2018 Kontiolahti Sprint + 2019 Oslo Mass Start
🥈 🇩🇪 Janina Hettich-Walz – Individual. Prior career best was 5th in the 2023-2024 Oberhof Sprint. Has 4 top 10’s from Lenzerheide through Antholz. Definitely a career peak (so far!).
4th 🇪🇪 Estonian Women’s Relay. Prior team best was 8th set most recently 2023 Ruhpolding relay.
4th 🇩🇪 Selina Grotian – Individual. Prior career best was 21st in the 2023-2024 Oestersund Sprint and Pursuit.
5th 🇺🇸 USA Men’s Relay. 3rd best all time and best since 2016 Presque Isle Relay.
5th 🇱🇻 Baiba Bendika – Sprint. Ties a career best from the 2018-2019 Pokjluka Individual and 2015-2016 Canmore Sprint.
7th 🇦🇹 Anna Gandler – Mass Start. Ties career best from 2022-2023 Oslo Mass Start.
8th 🇧🇪 Belgium Mixed Relay. Ties team best ever from 2022-2023 Pokljuka
8th 🇺🇦 Krhystina Dmytrenko – Individual and 12th in Sprint. Prior career best was 25th in the Lenzerheide Mass Start.
9th 🇵🇱 Poland Men’s Relay. Best since 2005 World Championship finish of 8th in Hochfilzen.
10th 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan Men’s Relay. Best since 2015-2016 Presque Isle relay and 2nd best ever finish.
10th 🇨🇿 Tomas Mikyska – Individual. Prior career best was 14th at the 2023 World Championships in the Individual and the Mass Start.
11th 🇺🇸 Campbell Wright – Sprint. He later finished in 12th in the Pursuit which tied his prior career best from the 2023-2024 Ruhpolding Sprint.
12th 🇪🇪 Regina Ermits – Individual and 13th in the Mass Start. Her prior career best was 20th in the 2019-2020 Nové Město Sprint.
13th 🇦🇹 Tamara Steiner – Sprint. Ties career best from 2023-2024 Oestersund Individual.
14th 🇪🇪 Kristo Siimer – Individual. Prior career best was just 42 in the 2022-2023 Oslo Sprint which makes this a HUGE career best.
24th 🇸🇪 Viktor Brandt – Sprint. Prior career best was 32 in the 2023-2024 Antholz Short Individual.
31st 🇵🇱 Konrad Badacz – Pursuit + 40th in the Sprint. Prior career best was 47th in the 2023-2024 Oberhof Sprint.