Canmore 2023-2024 Recap

Canmore!!!!! Seriously what an amazing week. It looked absolutely gorgeous on tv. The athletes appeared to have a seriously great time. I saw countless photos from them on social media expressing their true appreciation for the beauty. Also, the moose made an impression as well! It really has to be one of the most gorgeous biathlon venues right alongside Antholz. And the weather was perfect. A little warm but nobody minds a little Sprint skiing right?

The season wrapped up in tremendous fashion with the Overall races decided at the very end, and the u25 men’s race and both Mass Start Globes coming down to the final shootings. I’ll have much more on the finishing of the season shortly so today I’m going to focus mostly (mostly!) on the final week of racing.

The Winners – Top Performers of the Week

Nations Medal Table for the Week

Nation	Medals
France	🥇🥈🥈🥉🥉🥉🥉
Norway	🥇🥇🥇🥈🥉
Italy	🥇🥇🥈
Sweden	🥈
Germany	🥈
Switzerland	🥉

Athlete Medal Table for the Week

Athlete	Medals
Johannes Thingnes Bø	🥇🥇🥇
Lou Jeanmonnot	🥇🥈🥈
Lisa Vittozzi	🥇🥇
Tommaso Giacomel	🥈
Sebastian Samuelsson	🥈
Janina Hettich-Walz	🥈
Johannes Dale-Skjevdal	🥈
Lena Haecki-Gros	🥉
Tarjei Bø	🥉
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet	🥉
Eric Perrot	🥉
Gilonne Guigonnat	🥉
Emilien Jacquelin	🥉

Women’s Athlete of the Week: Lisa Vittozzi – Lisa Vittozzi won the Overall this season and this weekend (well the Sprint and the Pursuit at least) was the perfect summation of how she did it. Of course she went back to back in the Sprint and Pursuit but it was how she raced. She was under control on the skis…fast, but under control She hit 29 of 30 shots in those 2 races. At no point did she ever at all appear to be under stress. She was chasing down the Yellow bib and it didn’t seem to bother her in the least. Much more coming on her this week!

Men’s Athlete of the Week: JT Bø – JT Bø slammed the door on the Overall race and the season in emphatic fashion. Sprint race: history win. Pursuit race: no pressure win. Mass Start: no pressure win. He swept through weekend in incredible fashion. Fastest skiing in the sprint by 33 seconds and shooting 10/10. Started out with a massive 1:02 lead in the Pursuit, and even though he had 3 misses, he only ever had 1 at a time and he never had less than the 11 second lead he had at the finish line. In the Mass Start, on a day when seemingly nobody could shoot straight, he hit 19/20 which tied best of the day, and was once again the fastest man on skis even though he seemingly never got out of 3rd gear. It was a supremely confident flex of dominance to close out the season and the race for the Overall. Much more coming on JT this week as well!

Women’s Young Athlete of the Week: Anna Gandler – You might be wondering why no Gilonne Guigonnat on this list even though she had a 5th and a podium? Well she is 25. Otherwise she would be here too!

Anna Gandler finished the season on an absolute tear. She looked tremendous in Soldier Hollow finishing 6th in the Sprint and 8th in the Pursuit while anchoring the relay to a 5th place finish, the best in Austrian women’s biathlon history. She stepped up her level again in Canmore. She twice tied her career best of 6th in the Sprint and the Pursuit. Then she set a new career best, and her first career top 5, by finishing 5th in the Mass Start. She expressed her joy, and also frustration, with the top 5 because she had difficulty loading her magazine on one of her shoots. Without that she may very well have found her first podium!

How did Anna Gandler make the improvement? She found a new high level consistency with the rifle. From the start of the World Championships through the end of the season she hit 90% or better in 9 of 11 non-relay races. The two races where she hit below 90% she hit 85%. All totaled she hit 171 of her last 190 shots which is exactly 90%.

Men’s Young Athlete of the Week: Tommaso Giacomel – After Eric Perrot’s tremendous week in Soldier Hollow, including his first career win, there were major echoes of 2023 for the u25 race. In 2023 Tommaso Giacomel, who took the lead of the u25 lead in Oestersund, lost the race for the u25 globe in the very last race of the season. This season Giacomel was holding the lead in the race but Perrot’s late charge made it quite possible that he could overtake the u25 Globe in Canmore.

Giacomel did a fabulous job of closing the season strong, and not just hanging on to the globe. His 2nd place finish in the Sprint more or less secured the Globe. But he then closed with 6th in the Pursuit and 4th in the Mass Start to make sure to push the competition out of reach. It was only the third time in his career in which he had three top 10’s in a row and the first time in a single competition weekend.

For Giacomel the biggest moment of the weekend was after the 2nd shooting of the Pursuit. At that point he was 7/10 in the race and after starting 2nd had slipped all the way down to 12th. Meanwhile Perrot was 9/10 and racing in 6th. At that moment if Giacomel had continued in that direction there was a very real chance that a Perrot podium (which did end up happening) would lead to a very tight race in the Mass Start.

From that moment on Giacomel was 9/10 shooting. He had the 7th fastest 3rd lap, the 4th fastest 4th lap and the fastest last lap. He pulled himself all the way back up to 6th by the finish line. That was a major crunch time moment for Giacomel and he answered it in very strong fashion. You can only imagine that in that moment some form of thought crossed his mind regarding Hartweg stealing the globe last season. Rather than falling to pieces he steeled up and ran off just about the best race possible the rest of the way. By getting himself to 6th position he kept the u25 lead at 37 points ensuring Perrot was going to have to have a special race to win globe.

Women’s Race of the Week: Pursuit – Lisa Vittozzi dramatically cut down her deficit to Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold in the Sprint race. By winning the Pursuit race she gave herself such a large advantage in the Overall that even when she struggled (for the first time all season) and finished 21st in the Mass Start, Tandrevold was going to have to finish 1st or 2nd to retake the Overall title.

It’s easy to say it now because she won, but Vittozzi raced the Pursuit perfectly. She started out with a slim advantage and she didn’t try too hard to keep it. Don’t get me wrong, she was skiing well, but she wasn’t stressed. She understood that she’s the best shooter on the World Cup and the other women had to come and get her. There was no reason to stress. She hit 15 of her 15 shots and with only having course time ranks of 36th, 25th, 29th, and 9th for the first 4 laps, she still had a 21 second advantage (nearly a full penalty loop) going into the last shoot.

Of course she had a miss in the last shoot, which potentially opened her up to be surpassed by Jeanmonnot or Simon. However, both of them had misses and neither could take advantage. Meanwhile nobody else was within 50 seconds so she was basically assured of the podium finish that, with Tandrevold struggling, was going to set her up VERY well for the Overall win.

This race was the perfect summation of Lisa Vittozzi season. She was smooth, calm, collected, and never once looked stressed. The entire race she skied comfortably and within herself, but with power and speed when needed. She hit 19/20 shots which was some of the best shooting of the day. And at the end of the day, and season, she was #1.

Men’s Race of the Week: Sprint – JT Bø came into the weekend with a 62 point lead in the Overall. That’s a fairly solid lead with 3 races to go, but we saw with Lisa Vittozzi that it is definitely possible to overcome. However, JT Bø took all of the tension out of the weekend with the most dominant Sprint performance of all time. That’s not hyperbole. JT Bø’s win in the Sprint in Canmore was the biggest margin of victory (1:02) by anybody ever in a World Cup Sprint race.

It was a perfect race. He was 33 seconds faster than the 2nd fastest man, who incidentally was his brother Tarjei Bø. That’s 11 seconds per lap over the 2nd fastest man. He was 10/10 in shooting and you can’t do any better than 100%. He also had two of his slower shooting times with 32.7 seconds prone and 27.2 seconds standing. When you’re running that fast on the course you can definitely take your time and make sure you get the targets down!

This victory set him up for a relatively easy win in the Pursuit which clinched the Overall Globe for the 5th time in 6 seasons.

A couple of other big things came out of the Sprint though:
1) Tommaso Giacomel‘s 2nd place gave him an advantage that was going to be very difficult for Eric Perrot to overcome.
1) Danilo Riethmueller came from bib 97 to finish 9th a big career best!
2) Johan-Olav Botn came from bib 100 to finish 5th!

Super Sprints

1)Lou Jeanmonnot – Want a preview of what next year’s Overall race will look like? Just take a look at how Lou Jeanmonnot closed out the season. She finished 2nd in the Overall even with missing 2 races due to illness. She was consistently good if not great all season long. However she really closed on a strong note. Her last six races were all podiums: 3, 3, 1, 2, 2, 1. That’s spectacular. The only woman who had a better stretch of racing was Justine Braisaz-Bouchet winning four straight races. She had 10 podiums in her last 13 races of the season. That’s absolutely awesome biathlon. Just wait and see what she has in store for us next season. It might be a close battle between 5-8 women all year long. Or maybe this year was just a flash of the future where Lou Jeanmonnot becomes a dominant force.

2) Lisa Vittozzi – Lisa Vittozzi has won the Overall Globe. She was cool, calm, collected, and consistent. Really remarkably consistent. It seemed like every race she was in the top 5. In fact her average finish this season was 5.6 (and that includes the 21st in the last race of the year). This week was just more of the same. She won each of the first two races, and finished the season with 9 top 5’s in the last 10 races including 6 podiums, 3 wins a gold medal, and the Overall crown. Fantastic.

3) Emilien Jacquelin – For the most part of the season Emilien Jacquelin was a disappointment. Of course not as a human being, but just relative to the high expectations that we all have for him based on his immense potential. Criticisms of him ranged from poor form, to inability to pace himself during races to absolutely collapse on the shooting range. And at times they were all valid critiques. Not the degree or the way in which the critiques were made, but the substance had a kernel of truth. It all peaked with the Individual race at the Worlds where he had difficulty with his pacing, tried to chase down JT Bø on the 2nd lap, ended up suffering because of it, and wound up just off the podium.

From that race on though we seem to have seen a return of the swashbuckling, cocky (in a good way!), gunslinger Jacquelin. He hasn’t looked this good since early 2022 when we wore the Yellow bib at the end of the first trimester. Over his last seven races he finished: 9, 5, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3. He has only ever had 2 equal or longer stretches of consecutive top 10’s in his entire career!

Included in this stretch of great finishes was arguably the best stretch of skiing in his career. The 8 straight races of top 13 course time ranks was the best of his career. He did have some good runs of skiing earlier in his career but they were always interrupted by one of those frustrating races where he would seem to give up halfway through. This just didn’t happen over the last few weeks. Meanwhile, for Jacquelin, shooting 85% over the last 3 weekends was pretty darn good!

Let’s hope he carries that over to next season!

4) Late Season Push – There were a few athletes, who have maybe had less success this season than we might have hoped, that made a final push for some success this season. Amongst these:
– Hanna Öberg – She finished the season with three straight top 10s. That was her longest streak of top 10’s of the entire season and her best stretch of non-relay events of the season.
– Tero Seppälä – finished 8th in the Pursuit for his only top 10 of the season

5) Saying Goodbye – This weekend on the World Cup level we said goodbye to at least two athletes that we’ve been watching for many years now.
– Benedikt Doll – closed out his career with one of the best seasons that he’s ever had. His 2 victories were the most he’s had in a season in his career as were the 4 podiums. As he retired it seemed to close the door on a generation of German men including Arnd Peiffer, Eric Lesser, and Simon Schempp. Fortunately in his closing season we saw Justus Strelow take encouraging signs and Danilo Riethmueller made a little splash as well. Hopefully they continue to improve into next season!
– Mona Brorsson – one of the most cheerful personalities in biathlon took her final bows this weekend as well. Brorsson hasn’t had the career highs that Doll had but she was still a beloved athlete primarily for that sunny attitude she brought to the biathlon family. Brorsson too went out with some of the best racing of her career including setting a career best of 2nd in the Ruhpolding Sprint, just the second podium in her career! That high finish along with a few other really solid races buoyed her to 14th in the Overall, the best Overall finish of her career!

Flower Ceremony

2) Tommaso Giacomel Sprint – This is the 3rd finish for Tommaso Giacomel just 1 step from the top. He previously did it for the first time last season in the Oestersund Individual and again this season in the Ruhpolding Sprint. One of these times he’s going to make it to the top of the podium!

2) Janina Hettich-Walz Mass Start – This ties her career best that she previously set in the World Championships Individual. Although that one came with a Worlds Silver medal and this one just with the prestige of a 2nd place finish it was a remarkable race. She went head to head with the most on fire biathlete in the world and quite nearly came out on top. That caps a heck of a season!

3) Gilonne Guigonnat Mass Start – The 25 year old French woman twice set her career best this weekend. First she finished 5th in the Pursuit only to then one up it with a 3rd and her first career podium in the Mass Start. Her prior career best was 8th which she did twice, once in the Oestersund Sprint and the Antholz Mass Start.

5) Anna Gandler Mass Start- We just documented above what an amazing close to the season she had but it was really really amazing.

9) Danilo Riethmueller Sprint – Riethmueller had an all around very good season. He was the top non-Norwegian on the IBU Cup (which should come with some sort of award) and he made seven starts on the World Cup this season, all of which were top 26. While 9th wasn’t a career best as he previously scored a 7th in Short Individual in Antholz it was still a remarkable performance coming from bib 97!

9) Amy Baserga Mass Start – Amy Baserga’s career best coming into this season was 12th that she secured in the Pokljuka Pursuit in the 22-23 season. It seemed that she might be stuck on that as she finished 12th twice more earlier this year in Oestersund and again in Ruhpolding. She broke into the top 10 for the first time with a 10th in the Antholz Mass Start. Then got one place higher this week. Things are trending upward for the young Swiss woman!

11) Didier Bionaz Mass Start – This really could have been a 10th place as he and Lukas Hofer came down the finishing stretch together and intentionally tried to cross the line at the same time. Ultimately Hofer got 10th and Bionaz 11th. Oh well. Bionaz had a very solid step forward this season including having five of his top six finishes ever with the capstone being this 11th place.

13) Beatrice Trabucchi Pursuit & Mass Start – The 23 year old Trabucchi spent the majority of the season on the World Cup, but she really took off in the latter stages. Her finishes improved race by race starting in Oslo going 54, 39, 35, 21, 13, & 13. Prior to that stretch her career best was 30th meaning that each of the races in Canmore were better than her career best before the weekend began. It was an impressive close to the season for the 23 year old!

15) Anna-Karin Heijdenberg Sprint – The recent IBU Cup call up had a bit of an uneven first three weeks on the World Cup. However, included in that were a couple of high finishes like her 25th in the Oslo Individual and 15th in the Canmore Sprint!

24) Elia Zeni Sprint – On the surface Elia Zeni didn’t have the success that maybe many might have hoped for this year. However, he was quietly a solid step better than last season. He finished top 40 in nearly half of his races after only doing that one time last season. He ended the season with a new career high of 24th breaking his previous best effort of 26th from the Ruhpolding Pursuit.