Tarjei Boe: My Living Memory

Let me tell you a story that I’m not sure I’ve shared in this venue before. It’s not a secret, but it’s just not a story I tell all that often.

The winter of 2010 was a really tumultuous time in my life. It was the last few months of my time at the University of North Carolina. Overall it had been an amazing four years. These last few months though were not enjoyable. The things I thought I had been moving towards were dissolving before my eyes. In particular I had failed to get into med school which accounted for the first real “failure” of my life. At the same time my relationship with the woman I was engaged to marry was crumbling to pieces. It was this moment where I felt lost. Everything I had been working towards felt like it just wasn’t happening. Where was everything going?

The one bright spot of that winter was going to be the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Falling in February it would coincide, as always, with my birthday. It was, hopefully, going to be a moment of joy in what was otherwise turning into a relentless slog towards the schooling finish line.

Then the first weekend I got the flu. Not like I got a little sick but I was flat out on my back with the flu. I cannot tell how disappointing this was. My entire life I loved the Winter Olympics. Some of my earliest memories were the 1992 Winter Olympics. I can distinctly remember every Olympic games from Lillehammer in 1994 through today. I grew up in one of those families where from Opening Ceremonies through Closing Ceremonies the only channels we put on were those showing the Games. I skated around the house pretending to be Bonnie Blair. I slid down the stairs in my socks like Picabo Street. When it snowed my buddies and I set up a “luge track” down our driveways.The idea that I was sick for the Olympics felt like a cruel joke.

It turned out to be the best thing I could have asked for. I had an excuse to just sit at home and watch the Olympics whenever I wanted. This was the moment I fell in love with biathlon. I can remember it so clearly. Every afternoon I was tuned in. Laid out in my bed with a fever and body aches, this was the thing I wouldn’t miss for anything. The absolutely magical John Williams score would play, the highlights would run, and after a brief minute in the studio we would be sent out to Whistler Olympic Park to see either Cross Country skiing or Biathlon. I enjoyed the Cross Country, but I was craving that biathlon. That was also the Winter Olympics that Chad Salmela and his ebullient joyous spirit just grabbed me. Sure, I had watched Ole Einar Bjoerndalen dominate in Salt Lake City. I had seen the German biathlon machine crush the competition in Torino. But it was Chad Salmela, and Emil Hegle Svendsen, and Magdalena Neuner who changed my life. That may sound like hyperbole but it’s very real.

The Winter Olympics came and went. It was a brief moment of light in what was otherwise a dark few months. As happens, though, that season of my life past. I graduated from college and my friends all went their separate ways while I had to figure out what I was going to do now that I wasn’t getting married and I wasn’t going to school. I ended up working two jobs and taking classes. I doubled down on doing all of the things that were going to get me to being a doctor. I have never been busier and I wouldn’t say it was the most fun of my life but it was certainly productive and intensely rewarding. I was doing it.

Even in those moments though we all still need an outlet. Ever since those dark days in February I had been carrying with me this idea that this season I was going to try to follow an entire biathlon season. It wasn’t on TV in the United States, at least not in a way that was available to me, but in 2010 the internet was really coming along. It’s not what we have now but I should be able to follow this sport right?

Well, no, it was a little more complicated than that. I had to make use of a few sites of questionable legality, but I made it work! I discovered for the first time in my life what the IBU was really all about. I got to see what Ruhpolding was all about. I was introduce to the beauty of Antholz. I saw the festival in Oslo. I was further introduced to a cast of characters who would be a part of my life for the next many years including Martin Fourcade, Arnd Peiffer, Kaisa Makarainen, and Tora Berger. They were all great but do you know who my favorite was? It was this young punk named Tarjei Boe. Why did I love him? It’s simple. He was me.

Well no, not literally. Now that would be a revelation right? No, he is my age and he was upsetting the order of things. Just 1 week into the season and he was beating Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Emil Hegle Svendsen. You remember how it is to be that age right? You’re all full of piss and vinegar and you’re ready to take on the world. You have to push out the existing order and establish yourself. That’s the mental state I was in then. I was the underdog. I had just been rejected and told I wasn’t good enough by the two major things I was counting on to be the next chapter in my life. I was going to prove the world wrong.

Here was this kid, just 22 years old and in his first season on the World Cup, and he was taking down the Greatest of All Time and Svendsen who was to be the chosen successor. You’re in my position and of course that’s what you’re drawn to. Tarjei won those two races in Hochfilzen and I was absolutely pumped. He put on the Yellow bib in Pokljuka and you couldn’t tell me anything. Five medals at the World Championships including three non-relay medals and the Individual Gold.

It got VERY close at the end of that season, but one of those races that is a little lost to time is if the 2011 Oslo Pursuit. Go check it out. It’s outrageous. Tarjei Boe basically gave away the Overall in the Sprint shooting 5/10 and finishing in 44th +2:15 while Svendsen was 6th +1:04. It was like Tandrevold and Vittozzi this year. Except in the Pursuit Tarjei Boe was like a freight train charging through the pack. Svendsen won the race and that should have been enough. Nope. Tarjei came from 44th to 2nd. Read that again. He finished 0.6 seconds back of Svendsen. This was the kind of swashbuckling style I was into at that time. (It is no surprise that this is the same time in my life when over the last few years I had fallen absolutely in love with Rafa Nadal’s style).

Tarjei Boe rescued the Overall that day. Svendsen won the Mass Start the following day but Tarjei Boe did just enough to win the Overall Globe by finishing 8th. All said and done Tarjei won the Overall by 5 points. You know what else happened that week? I put down the first payment for medical school. It had been a journey for me but one year later I had my choice of medical schools. Tarjei and I were on top of the world and that was it. Barring Tarjei doing something absolutely insane I was going to be with him forever. That’s my thing, once you’ve won me over I’m in your corner forever.

The last 13 years have been a blur. On a professional level I went to medical school, and while that was not always the most fun time in my life, I graduated in the top half of my class and got my top residency choice. That’s when things absolutely blossomed for me where I was elected Chief Resident and won awards. More importantly, on a personal level, in the fall of 2011 I met the woman who is now my life. She’s my wife, the mother of our two absolutely wonderful children, and the friend I couldn’t have ever imagined I would have in a partner.

What about Tarjei Boe? Oh yeah, I guess he turned out okay too. He’s turned into the most consistent biathlete in the men’s field. Sure, he’s never been able to repeat that Overall Globe winning season, but is there any argument that he’s been on of the top men of the last decade? Absolutely not.

Immediately following that Globe winning season he had his learning period. It coincided perfectly with my four year’s of medical school. While I was deep in the library and in the books, rarely seeing the light of day, Tarjei was toiling away. Over that four year stretch his Overall finishes were: 7, 15, 28, 19. There were fair questions. Was it a fluke? A flash in the pan? Was he ever going to be healthy again? By then his brother had debuted and it was clear that JT Boe was wildly talented. We were rapidly headed for the Martin Fourcade vs. JT Boe battles that would define the 2nd half of the 2010’s.

Over the next three seasons Tarjei, when healthy, showed his potential again. His Overall finishes during that stretch were 6th, 36th, and 7th. That 36th Overall finish in 16-17 was better than it looked though. He only ran 8 races in another injury plagued year, but his average finish when healthy was still 14th, exactly on par with the 14-15 and 17-18 when he finished 6th and 7th. It seemed that Tarjei Boe had found himself.

From that 6th place finish in 2015-2016 through today Tarjei has become one of the most consistent racers in biathlon. Over that span you knew exactly what you were getting when with Tarjei Boe. He was top 10 skier, excellent prone shooter with a difficulty with the standing shot, and middle of the pack in shooting speed.

The results were amazingly consistent too. Over that nine year stretch he finished between 4th and 7th in the Overall every year but 2. One was 2016-2017 when he had the injury and only raced 8 times and finished 36th Overall. Fundamentally though he was on the level as always that season. The only other time in that stretch he was outside of 4th-7th in the Overall was this season when he finished 2nd and put a real scare in JT Boe for the Overall going into the final week of the season. But we’ll get to that in just a minute.

From the 15-16 season through 23-24 was a span of 9 season. In that period he had 8 top 10 finishes in the Overall which is tied with his brother JT Boe for the most top 10 Overall finishes during that span. Below lists the men with more than 3 Top 10 Overall Finishes in that span:

Athlete	Top 10 Finishes
Johannes Thingnes Boe (8)	🥈🥉🥈🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
Tarjei Boe (8)	6, 7, 6, 4, 4, 6, 6, 🥈
Quintin Fillon Maillet (6)	10, 🥉,🥉,🥉,🥇, 8
Benedikt Doll (5)	8, 9, 8, 8, 4
Simon Desthieux (5)	8, 4, 6, 9, 7
Martin Fourcade (4)	🥇🥇🥇🥈
Sturla Holm Laegreid (4)	🥈🥈🥈, 4
Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen (4)	10, 4, 🥉, 5
Johannes Dale-Skjevdal (4)	9, 5, 7, 🥉
Emilien Jacquelin (4)	5, 7, 5, 6

Even those numbers don’t tell the whole story. There were multiple stretches over the last couple of years when there was chatter that it was coming to a close for Tarjei Boe. The Norwegian team is stacked with talent so whenever somebody doesn’t perform at an exceptional level for a 1-2 weeks there is always talk that they might be sent down to bring up the next great talent. Tarjei Boe certainly wasn’t immune to that. Add to that his age, he turned 35 last summer, and there was talk that this could be the end. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to hold off the young guns anymore and they would be forced to send him to the IBU Cup. Maybe Father Time would finally come for Tarjei and he would simply be forced to admit that he can’t quite cut it anymore and retire.

Or maybe Tarjei Boe was going to have his best season since he was a 23 year old out there winning an Overall Globe from Bjoerndalen and Svendsen. And that’s precisely what he did. Tarjei Boe certainly had some of the best skiing for that he has experienced. His average course time rank of 6.5 was the 3rd best of his career and it was 4th best this season. Ranking 4th overall in skiing was the 2nd best final ranking in regards to skiing in his career. Pair that with 88.6% total shooting was the 2nd best shooting of his career behind only his Overall Globe winning season.

Tarjei ended the 2023-2024 season with a single victory in Hochfilzen, his first win in two seasons. He was right on the edge of so many more victories with several opportunities squandered on the final shooting. Ending up with ten podiums, just two off of his total in 2010-2011, backs up just how many times Tarjei was knocking on the door of wins. His 16 top 5’s doubled up his total of every other season of his career except for 2010 (20) and 2020-2021 (9). Tarjei’s 23 top 10’s were the most of his career. You might think that’s because he ran more races this year but no, in 2010-2011 (his 2nd most top 10’s) he actually ran 26 races vs. this season’s 25. So he grabbed 1 extra top 10 in 1 less race.

All season long it felt like a fairytale that might end at any moment, but it just didn’t. Tarjei Boe was unquestionably the 2nd best biathlete on the men’s tour this year. He was the best man not named JT Boe and frankly it wasn’t ever a question. Right from the outset Tarjei seemed to be on a mission to show us that even though he’s not longer a kid…in fact he now has a kid…he can still dial it up and challenge to be the best in biathlon.

As I get older there are so few direct connections that I have to that 22 year old boy who felt like his life was falling apart. And that 23 year old who was working to build his future. The other sporting icons I grew to love have become mortals with Tiger Woods’ faltering and Rafa Nadal’s failing body… Tarjei Boe has been a steady and consistent presence all the way throughout. When I was battling through med school he was facing his own challenges. When I emerged into residency there he was finding himself again as a top 10 force. When I think about losing him from the sport for me it is about more than losing a singularly brilliant and fun loving athlete. It’s also losing a tangible connection to the boy I was and the man I’ve grown to become. Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely LOVE my life. I worked plenty hard and I got so much good luck along the way. I’ve got the best partner in the world and the most amazing kids. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But there is something about keeping that memory alive.

I know one day soon I will have to face a day without Tarjei Bø lining up at the start of another World Cup season. I won’t see his joyous face or watch him celebrating somebody else’s successes more than his own. Its inevitable. Time moves on. But just not now.