For many years Oslo-Holmenkollen alternated with Khanty-Mansk as the location for the closing week of the biathlon season. However, over the last few years the biathlon world has embraced the hills of Holmenkollen, just a trolley ride north of Oslo, as the home for the season ending celebration. That will not be the case this year, though, as the North American swing to Soldier Hollow and Canmore will take over the last two weeks of the season. So for this year, Oslo-Holmenkollen is in what has recently become an unusual place, the beginning of the third trimester.
Schedule:
– Thursday February 29: Women’s 15km Individual
– Friday March 1: Men’s 20km Individual
– Saturday March 2: Women’s 12.5km Mass Start + Men’s 15km Mass Start
– Sunday March 3: Single Mixed Relay (W+M) + Mixed Relay (W+M)
There are two interesting things worth noting about the Oslo schedule. Just little quirks that you don’t see all the time.
1) This is the 3rd straight competition with the Single Mixed + Mixed Relay included. It was in the Antholz schedule, obviously at the World Championships, and now here in Oslo. I can find 0 instances of this ever happening before.
2) Since becoming the standard home of the last race weekend of the season, the racing in Oslo has been defined by the traditional Sprint, Pursuit, and Mass Start format. However, this weekend is obviously not that. The last time there was an Individual in Oslo-Holmenkollen it was during the 2016 World Championships. That year your Individual Podiums included:
Women: 🥇Marie Dorin Habert 🥈Anais Bescond 🥉Laura Dahlmeier
Men: 🥇Martin Fourcade 🥈Dominik Landertinger 🥉Simon Eder
Just one of those athletes is still active and he’s 40 years old. Although, Laura Dahlmeier could absolutely still be competitive at a high level had that been her drive. Can you believe she is still only 30?!?
Course Overview
-Stadium altitude: 325 meters
– Highest Altitude on Course: 370 meter
– Lowest Altitude on the Course 315 meters
– Stadium capacity: 6,500 spectators
– Course capacity: 11,500 spectators
Courses are listed above by length. The maps listed above:
– 1.5km: Single Mixed Relay
– 2km: Mixed Relay
– 2.5km: Women’s 12.5km Mass Start
– 3km: Women’s 15km Individual + Men’s 15km Mass Start
– 4km: Men’s 20m Individual
Oslo Holmenkolen is one of the great spectacles in biathlon. The view of athletes skiing by with ski jump in the background always gets me. The camera crews always do a fantastic job in framing their images. It’s magnificent. The rest of the course, interestingly enough, fades from view. There are no dramatic steep climbs that separate the wheat from the chafe. It is also notable for traditionally having an easier shooting range. Of the regular World Cup stops it regularly ranks as one of the three best shooting ranges.
Weather
This is the weather for Oslo which is just a little lower altitude than Holmenkollen. It shouldn’t make too much of a difference for the temperature but it might be a little breezier in Holmenkollen. Regardless, it would appear that we are set up for another wet and sloppy weekend.
We’ve seen some interesting results with sloppy weather. The French women have thrived on it. Look at what they did in Lenzerheide, Oberhof, and Nove Mesto. And most recently the French men looked better in Nove Mesto as well. I think the biggest lesson is variance. Look at the surprise teams that did well in Nove Mesto: Latvia, Poland, and USA.
One interesting thing to watch: the Germans generally struggled on sloppy conditions but they seemed to figure it out halfway through Nove Mesto. Scandinavian snow can be different than snow in Central Europe but at some level manmade sloppy snow is manmade sloppy snow.
News and Notes
1) Retirement Season has Begun – It is that sad part of the year where we start to get the retirement announcements coming in. It’s especially apt this week as Oslo has been the final race weekend for so many great athletes over the years. Already earlier this season We’ve had a couple of announcements including Trevor Kiers. However, now we are starting to get some of the “bigger names.”
Worlds we had a mild surprise when Mona Brorsson announced her retirement. It will be truly sad not seeing her joyful exuberance. I’m hopeful that she continues to be involved in biathlon. She’s always such a great cheerleader. This week we got less surprising news with the retirement announcement of Benedikt Doll. He’s hinted at this for nearly two full years now and he made it official with an Instagram video last week.
While I’m quite sad to see both of these athletes announce their retirements we have three more weeks left to cheer them on. They are each having great years. Mona Brorsson is currently in 12th which would be the best Overall finish of her career. She also had a career best this season. Meanwhile Doll has two wins this season, the most in a season in his career, and he needs one more podium for the most in a season in his career. He also is currently in 2nd in the race for the Sprint discipline globe which would be his first in his career.
2) Junior Worlds – It’s Youth/Junior Worlds week! It’s a great opportunity to see some athletes who will be rising into the World Cup over the next few seasons. Some, like Lena Repinc, are already racing there on a regular basis. But regardless, this is the next generation we’ll be seeing soon! However, as a result there are a few names that you might normally see in Oslo that will instead be in Otepaa racing for Junior Worlds medals. These include names like the above noted Lena Repinc, Maya Cloetens, Konrad Barack, and Jan Gunka.
3) Until Next Season – We’ve had a number of athletes recently announce that they were departing for the remainder of the season to rest up and fully recover. Over the last few weeks these names including: Anna Weidel, Hanna Kebinger, and now Dorothea Wierer. Linn Persson and Felix Leitner join the list. Wierer teased an announcement about the remainder of her career. But after finishing the relay at Worlds she only said that she was taking the remainder of the season away. She also announced that she is going to be doing work for Eurovision Sport this summer for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. However, regarding the 2024-2025 season she was intentionally vague. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that we get to see her at least one more time! As for Persson it had already been announced that she would need further shoulder surgery after the season. However, she has decided to speed up that process by ending her season now. Let’s hope for a full and speedy recovery!
4) Withdrawals:
– Karoline Knotten will not be racing the Individual this week due to continued illness which first appeared during the World Championships. She is hoping to be ready to go for the Mass Start!
– Hanna Öberg also feels that she is not healthy enough to compete. She too with WD from the Swedish squad this week. With her and Linn Persson out that’s a HUGE hole. Good thing there is no 4x6km relay this weekend!
Recent History
Women’s Podium Finishers Last 4 Competitions
– Does not include retired or ineligible athletes
– There was no racing in 2020 or 2021 due to COVID-19
– Remember no Women’s Pursuit in 2023
| Athletes | Finishes |
| Hanna Öberg | 🥇🥇🥈🥉 |
| Franziska Preuss | 🥈🥈 |
| Justine Braisaz-Bouchet | 🥇 |
| Lisa Theresa Hauser | 🥈 |
| Anna Magnusson | 🥉 |
| Yulia Dzhima | 🥉 |
Sometimes I’m doing the research on the history at the venues and it stuns me. In the last four competitions in Oslo there were 33 podium positions available. Of those 33 all but 10 were claimed by athletes who are either now retired or Russian/Belarusian athletes who aren’t competing on the IBU at this time. Even in the last two seasons where there were no Russian/Belarusian athletes present just 6 of the 15 podium finishers will be racing this weekend. Long story short: Marte Olsbu Røiseland, Tiril Eckhof, Denise Herrmann-Wick, and Anais Chevalier-Bouchet had quite a few podiums between them!
Also, with the absence of Hanna Öberg this leaves very little Oslo podium experience. Time for some new blood!
Men’s Podium Finishers Last 4 Competitions
– Does not include retired or ineligible athletes
– There was no racing in 2020 or 2021 due to COVID-19
| Athlete | Finishes |
| Johannes Thingnes Bø | 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥉 |
| Sturla Holm Lægreid | 🥇🥈🥉🥉 |
| Quintin Fillon Maillet | 🥈🥈🥈🥉 |
| Lukas Hofer | 🥈🥈 |
| Benedikt Doll | 🥉🥉 |
| Martin Ponsiluoma | 🥈 |
| Niklas Hartweg | 🥈 |
| Tarjei Bø | 🥈 |
| Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen | 🥉 |
| Sebastian Samuelsson | 🥉 |
| Emilien Jacquelin | 🥉 |
Surprise, surprise, JT Bø laps the field when it comes to podium finishes at Oslo. And it’s not just podiums it’s wins too. Last year he won three straight races when he was on top of the world. He’s coming off a terrific Worlds and he could very well go 2-2 this week. Worth noting that Sturla Holm Laegreid and QFM perform well here today and they both appeared to find something in Nove Mesto.
Memorable Moments
2023 Women’s Races – Last season Oslo marked the close to the careers of many prominent women. This included the Overall Globe winning Norwegian duo of Tiril Eckhoff and Marte Olsbu Røiseland. Eckhoff missed the entire 2022-2023 season but didn’t officially retire until Oslo and Røiseland didn’t start racing until the 2nd trimester. They were certainly sent off as heroes. And Røiseland quite nearly went off on top finishing 2nd in the Mass Start.
They were joined that day by other top women including Denise Herrmann-Wick who celebrated the Sprint discipline globe with a victory in the Oslo Sprint and Anais Chevalier-Boucher who capped her career with a 3rd place in the Mass Start.
While there were many other woman who we all celebrated that weekend, including but not limited to Vanessa Hinz and Mari Eder, seeing Røiseland, Herrmann-Wick, and Chevalier-Bouchet saying goodbye with such great finishes will always be a fond memory.
2022 Men’s Pursuit – The Eric Lesser race. At least that’s how I remember it. Lesser announced his retirement a couple of weeks earlier so we knew that this was going to be his last hoorah. Even before that though, going back to the start of the 2nd trimester in Oberhof, the man was on a serious mission. You could tell he decided he was going to leave everything on the tracks. From Oberhof to the end of the season he ran in 12 races and finished top 10 in 9 of them. That included top 5’s in 6 of his last 7 races. Do you know the last time Eric Lesser had a stretch like that in his career? Yep, never. The best racing of his career literally right at the very end.
The capstone to this absolute bonanza of amazing performance was the Pursuit in Oslo. He started out the race in 5th, 40 seconds back of Laegreid after another one of his great races in the Sprint. Standing between him and the victory were of course Laegreid, soon to be Overall Champion Quintin Fillon Maillet, Sebastian Samuelsson, and teammate Benedikt Doll. That is a bunch of heavy hitters right there.
By shoot 1 he had shaved very little time off the lead. After shoot 2 though it was down to 11 seconds as he and Samuelsson were closing in. Another perfect shoot 3 saw him shed Samuelsson and he was 20 seconds back of Laegreid and 18 clear of QFM. Standing on the range for the last shoot he was 30 seconds back of Laegreid but with 14 seconds in hand on QFM he was pretty secure in his position if he hit his targets.
The Laegreid gave him the gift of 2 misses and Lesser sent clean. He flew off the line with 13 seconds on Laegreid and QFM and those boys were never going to see him again. That day proved to be just his 3rd career win on the penultimate race of his career.
2022 Men’s Mass Start – While the first two memories on this list are celebratory this is a little more somber. The 2022 Men’s Mass Start in Oslo marked what may end up being the pinnacle of a short but bright career. Sivert Guttorm Baken ran his first World Cup race when he joined the top level team for the Oberhof weekend of the 2020-2021 season. He started the 2021-2022 season on the World Cup with two top 10’s in the Oestersund Individual and Sprint and seemingly never looked back.
The season was gradually building to a crescendo for him as he seemingly adjusted to the World Cup swimmingly in the 2nd trimester. In Kontiolahti he had two top 10’s in the same weekend for the first time since Oestersund. Then in Otepää his first career podium with a 3rd in the Mass Start.
Finally Oslo was the glorious end. 16th in the Sprint. 7th in the Pursuit. His first career victory in the Mass Start. He went into the last shooting going head to head with two young men, Sturla Holm Laegreid and Sebastian Samuelsson, who somehow felt like grizzled veterans next to him. While they shot faster they also hit the penalty loop while he went clean. Laegreid caught him on the final lap but Bakken out sprinted him to the line for the victory.
That victory pushed Sivert Bakken up to 9th in the Overall and clinched the Mass Start discipline globe. The whole race made if seem like we were at the start of something. His first victory and first discipline globe. Standing on the range next to two highly respected young guns. You could have foreseen a race 5 years down the road where those three were shooting for the Overall Globe.
That was the last time we’ve seen Sivert Bakken in a biathlon race. That Spring/Summed he was affected by a rare heart condition associated with Covid and to a lesser extent be Covid vaccine that can particularly affect young men. He’s just this winter begun training again. The Norwegian national team has to their credit left him on the squad throughout his health struggles. The promise that he showed that season, and particularly that race, is so desperately enticing I can’t help but hold out even the slimmest of hopes that we might yet watch him race in Oslo again.
2022 After Party – It must have been one heck of a party because nearly everybody who attended got Covid. Even the King of Norway! Although presumably he got it elsewhere as it’s hard to believe he was on hand at the party…but I’ve never seen it denied!