Switzerland 2024-2025 Team Preview

We are in the midst of the best run in the history of Switzerland biathlon. Over the last two seasons the Women’s team has had back to back 6th place finishes in the Nations Cup while the Men finished 5th and 6th the last two seasons. We’ve seen Niklas Hartweg win the u23 Globe in the 22-23 season and then Lena Haecki-Gross had the best season in Swiss biathlon history as she climbed all the way to 6th in the Overall. The established stars are performing. There are some young athletes coming up strong. All things are coming up roses right now for a nation that whose winter sports history has been defined by success in the alpine skiing and not the nordic.

Who can we credit for this? Was it the Benny Weger and Selina Gasparin generation? Is it Sandra Fluger’s new style? Is it just a total attitude shift amongst athletes and coaches? Probably all of the above. After the last two seasons I’m eager and ready to be delighted by this team once again!

Women

The Switzerland women finished 6th in the Nations Cup which is once again the best ever finish for the Swiss women. They were spearheaded by Lena Haecki-Gross but saw Amy Baserga make good strides and Lea Meier came along as well. The Gasparin sisters didn’t quite have the same magic as 2022-2023 but they were solid once again as well. The team should be in good shape again ths season!

Quota: 5 Athletes to Start

World Cup: The Swiss women have no surprises in their initial five World Cup selections. This will likely be their five for most of the season if there are no illnesses or injuries.
– Lena Haeckel-Gross
– Amy Baserga
– Aita Gasparin
– Elisa Gasparin
– Lea Meier

Lena Haecki-Gross (29)

Last season was a rich text for fan favorite performances. We had Lisa Vittozzi’s comeback globe, Lou Jeanmonnot breaking through to the top, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet’s amazing return from maternity leave, and Lena Haecki-Gross bursting through in a huge way. Always right around the edges it felt like she was just a tiny bit away from a big season. 2023-2024 wasn’t just a big season it was a HUGE one.

	Total Races	Wins	Podiums	Top 5’s	Top 10’s
Prior Career	175	0	1	5	18
2023-2024	24	2	5	8	12

Just look at that. I can’t even put it into words. It was a crazy career season. More wins, podiums, and top 5’s last year than she had in her entire career prior to last season. And it wasn’t like she had only been around for a year or two!

Lena Haecki-Gross was better in every conceivable way. Her big speed improvement came in the 22-23 season, but she got even a little bit faster. Her average course time rank bumped from 16 to 11.4. Her shooting, already fast, was near career best fast as she averaged 25.5 seconds per shooting.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2018-2019	75.4	79	77.2	25.3
2019-2020	68.6	72.9	70.7	26.4
2020-2021	81.2	78.1	79.7	25.4
2021-2022	82.3	80	81.1	27.2
2022-2023	80	78.5	79.3	27
2023-2024	87	81.5	84.3	25.5

The biggest improvement was her shooting improvement. It was a 5% year over year improvement and 3.2% better than her prior career best. The big improvement came with a 7% improvement in prone shooting. Importantly it was a steady shooting year. It wasn’t like she had a blazing 2-3 weeks. She was steady all season long at a very high level.

Can Haecki-Gross get a little bit better? I have no idea. That was a HUGE year. She might actually run right around the same level and slip a few places in the Overall and that’s okay. The 2023-2024 season shot Lena Haecki-Gross from edges to the top legion of women’s biathlon. I sure hope she can do it again!

Amy Baserga (24)

While Lena Haecki-Gross is entering the peak years of her career, Amy Baserga is still just at the very beginning of what looks like a promising career. In each of the last three seasons Baserga has climbed to a higher Overall ranking including reaching 25th Overall last season. She also had the first two top 10’s of her career! Something really interesting is that Lena Haecki-Gross finished 25th Overall at the exact same age as Amy Baserga was last season. A sign of things to come?

Baserga has alredy proved to us that she has a high shooting ceiling. She has hit from the mid to high 80’s in each of the last three seasons. Last season she hit a new career best 92% in prone, but that was paired with a slip in standing shooting down to 81.3%. Still, she hit 86.7% which was good enough for 29th in shooting. And we know that she has even higher shooting potential as she has always been on the leading edge of shooters for her age cohort. Hopefully this upcoming season sees her standing shooting rebound just a little bit. She also continues to have very good shooting time as she averages. Last season she averaged just 26.3 seconds per shoot!

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2021-2022	87.6	83.8	85.7	31.2
2022-2023	90.5	88.6	88.6	26.9
2023-2024	92	81.3	86.7	26.3

Her skiing, meanwhile, continues to come long very well. Each year her overall ski rank has improved including reaching a career best of 43rd. It was just a tiny improvement but she has basically been right around the median biathlete in terms of speed the last two seasons. Her average course time rank did come down to 37.1 though, a career best.

Okay that’s a lot of words, but the basic profile of Amy Baserga is a good to potentially great shooter, with ski speed that continues to improve every year. That’s actually sort of the opposite profile Lena Haecki-Gross showed as she was coming along and finishing 25th Overall in her own age 23 season. I’m incredibly optimistic about Baserga. I think that she can be a regular in the top 20 of the Overall and when she reaches her career peak be competing for the top 10. She’s likely still 2-3 years away form that. This season I’m hoping to see the shooting return to 22-23 form, with hopefully another step forward in skiing. The result is that she hopefully climbs into the top 20 of the Overall!

Aita Gasparin (30)

I think sometimes we get impatient with athletes. Many of the biathletes that go to the top 10 do so very early in their careers. As a result sometimes we forget to have patience, and understand that most will develop more gradually with their peak years coming somewhere between ages 27 and 34. That’s a wide window and sometimes its earlier and sometimes later. But for the men and women that make up the majority of the field, those are the years when we’ll see their top form. For Aita Gasparin, the last two seasons have been the most consistent and best of her career. Not surprisingly that occurred in her age 28 and age 29 season, right on schedule.

Over the last two seasons Aita Gasparin has become more more consistent in her performances. While not having the high highs that she reached in the 2019-2020 season with three top 10’s she has become a regular figure in the top 30 and top 40. She has also notched 10 top 20’s the last two seasons after only having seven in her seven prior full seasons of World Cup racing. Sometimes finding your peak form is about raising your ceiling, but more often its about raising your floor.

AIta Gasparin’s improvement has been broad. She’s running faster than she ever has in her career, and shooting more accurately particularly with the standing shooting. Sometimes biathlon analysis is easy. When you’re better at everything you’re results are better! You can’t even just point to one area that has helped the most. The skiing has come around from being about 2% slower than the median biathlete to just about right at the median. Her standing shooting has come up from always being in the low 80’s to last season’s 86%. It’s just good all around improvement.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2018-2019	76.3	80	78.1	27.7
2019-2020	87.9	82.1	85	28.2
2020-2021	85	82.1	83.6	28.2
2021-2022	91.8	80	85.9	29
2022-2023	88.9	83.7	86.3	27.9
2023-2024	88.7	86	87.3	27.8

Is this the Sandra Fluger effect or just Aita Gasparin just maturing into the middle of her career? I guess it’s impossible to untangle the two possibilities and is most likely a combination of both. However, it’s been really great to see the youngest Gasparin sister get her time to shine.

Elisa Gasparin (32)

And then we have the middle Gasparin, Elisa. After three straight seasons finishing between 51st and 55th in the Women’s Overall standings, Elisa Gasparin surged all the way to 26th in the 2022-2023 season. Unfortunately, while Aita Gasparin maintained her improvement, last season Elisa Gasparin was seemingly magnetically drawn back to the mid 50’s as she finished 55th once again.

The great news for Elisa Gasparin is that her reversion to the mid 50’s in the Overall doesn’t seem like it was performance related. It was all related to simply how often she was able to race. Last year she ran only 10 races last season. She came into the season coming off of shoulder issues that limited the range of motion of her shoulders considerably. She could only raise her arms over her shoulders right as the season started. A few weeks later the got COVID. Then she ruled out the United States and Canada weeks of the schedule as her form just wasn’t recovering.

A brief look at her statistics shows a significant regression in her skiing year over year. Her average course time rank dropped from 33.7 to 53.1. That was balanced out by the best shooting of her career of 87.6% including a huge improvement in standing shooting. The result was her average finish only dropped from 32 to 42.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2018-2019	84.8	79.3	82.1	31.7
2019-2020	87	75	81	30.7
2020-2021	91.9	70	80.9	30.8
2021-2022	93.3	71.1	82.2	30.6
2022-2023	86.8	75.3	81.1	28.5
2023-2024	90.5	84.8	87.6	29.3

I’m actually quite hopeful that not only will we see Elisa Gasparin race like she did in the 2022-2023 season, but actually better. The pieces are there. If she can shoot like she did last season, and ski like she did in the 22-23 season, she could have a career year this season and I would absolutely love to see it!

Lea Meier (23)

Lea Meier ran a solid nine races on the World Cup in the 2022-2023 season before spending the entire season there last year. It was not the most spectacular year in terms of finishes, but it was consistent. She was the classic low ceiling but high floor biathlete last year. She had an average finish of 47.5 with nearly all of her finishes between 31st and 55th. It was actually pretty remarkable how regularly she was in the same range of finishes.

Her statistical breakdown showed some good and some not so great. On the positive end, her improved shooting provided that high floor for her. She hit 86.1% with a very solid 90% prone shooting. That was the best full season of her career. However, the skiing slipped a little which put the low ceiling on her racing last year. Her average course time slipped from 45.9 down to 58.3. Compared to the median woman on the World Cup she slipped from 0.4% slower than median to 2.6% slower.

In the early part of her career Meier has not proven herself to be a spectacular shooter or skier. The best she ever did at any one aspect of her biathlon was an average course time rank of 7.5 in Juniors during the 2021-2022 season. Does that indicate that there is some ski speed in there ready to bloom? Quite possibly. The real question is we’re not entirely sure where she’s going to be racing. The competition for the 5th spot on the roster is heating up so while she does have the experience, the other women are going to be pushing her. She’s still pretty young though. Hopefully, regardless of what level she’s racing at, we get to see her skiing take another step forward and if it’s good enough that will put her on the World Cup.

IBU Cup and Hopefuls

Lydia Hiernickel (27)

The 2023-2024 season was just the 2nd year of international biathlon racing for Lydia Hiernickel as she makes the transition over from XC racing. After her 2022-2023 season it seemed like she was on the path to the World Cup. That year she ran 21 races and had seven top 20’s including a podium. Last year he progress stalled a bit. She once again ran 21 IBU Cup races but she only found the top 20 twice. So what happened?

Well unfortunately she lost some of her ski speed. Not surprisingly, after coming over from cross country racing she was on the of the faster women on the IBU Cup in her first year of biathlon. However, she fell off a bit last season. Her average course time rank fell from 9 to 19. She went from 4.4% faster than the median biathlete down to just 3.5% faster. She went from basically being the median top 10 fastest biathlete down to 2.9% slower.

Hiernickel’s shooting also didn’t take a step forward as we might have hoped. She hit 65.2% of her shots and it was evenly split between the prone and standing. And her average shooting time was 42.8 seconds.

The key for Lydia Hiernickel is that it is that she needs to transition from being a skier to a biathlete. Hopefully that’s what the Swiss coaches have been seeing as they have put her on the “B” team alongside Lea Meier this season. And we certainly know that Coach Fluger is one of the best. Here’s to a breakthrough season!

Alessia Laager (19)

While Alessia Laager may only be 19 years old as this season gets under way, and has never raced outside the Juniors circuit, she has to be mentioned in this group. Last year she finished 9th Overall on the Juniors circuit and compiled five top 10’s in 12 races. Her best finish of the season was her 5th place performance in the Sprint at the Juniors European Championships in which she went up against some of the toughest competition she faced all season.

Laager has a very intriguing profile going forward because she’s already such a good shooter. Last season she his 87.6% of her shots including 91.8% prone and 83.5% standing. Her skiing isn’t quite on the same level. She wasn’t bad as she regularly finished in the top 20 of course time rank, but she wasn’t spectacular. In that 5th place finish she was the 10th fastest woman on the course.

What does this all mean? While Alessia Laager is still very young I am feeling pretty good about the direction she is pointing. Sooner rather than later she’s going to make her World Cup debut and I’m going to be excited. However, I need to remember what I wrote about Aita Gasparin, that we need to have patience. Laager’s skiing needs time to come along. We’re likely looking 5-6 years down the road, but as we prepare for the 2030 Olympics it very well be the duo of Amy Baserga and Alessia Laager headlining Swiss women’s team in the French Alps.

Irene Cadurisch (33)

It was so good to see Irene Cadurisch make her return to racing after her health scare at the Beijing Olympics. She returned last year to race ten times on the IBU Cup. She didn’t have any spectacular races, but the key for her was she was out there racing again. Her average finish was 48.9 with a season’s best finish of 29th in the Arber Sprint.

For Cadurisch just being out there again was the victory. Prior to the event at the Beijing Olympics she had been running consistently on the World Cup. Tje 2020-2021 season, the year before the Olympics, was actually her career year. So while it’s been a long hard road, and she hasn’t been able to find her way to the same level of success, just being out there is the same level of success.

The major impediment to her racing thus far has been that her skiing just isn’t at the same level as it was before her incident. Her average course time rank is down just about 30 places since then. Her shooting remains right where it was before as she continues to hit in the mid/high 70’s. While not great, when she skiing better it was enough to regular top 40 finishes.

Can Irene Cadurisch find the same level of skiing again at this stage? That remains to be seen. I will certainly be hoping it happens though!

Susanna Meinen (32)

Susanna Meinen has become a consistent face on the IBU Cup for the Swiss women. She’s performed there primarily for the last five seasons now with varying degrees of success. She has finished anywhere between 27th and 83rd in the IBU Cup in the last few years.

In general Meinen has been a very good skier and her performance rises or falls on her accuracy with the rifle. She consistently runs with a course time rank either in or right around the top 20. Last season amongst women who ran at least 5 races on the IBU Cup she ranked 20th in skiing which isn’t bad at all! However, her hit rate is regularly between the mid 60’s and the low 70’s.

Meinen is the kind of biathlete that international biathlon needs. She isn’t competing for IBU Cup glory. She isn’t going to be winning a bunch of IBU Cup races. But she’s out there competing and running every single week. It’s a little inspiring actually. I really appreciate it and I hope she keeps going as long as the passion is there.

Flavia Barmettler (25)

After running just five IBU level races over the last two seasons combined I didn’t know if we were going to see Flavia Barmettler this season or not. She’s been training all off season though so it looks like the passion is still there!

Last season she ran just a handful of races. She started with a 71st, but followed that up with four straight top 40’s all between 30th and 40th. It had been a few years since we saw her so that really wasn’t too bad at all. In terms of her IBU Cup career it was actually the best racing she has ever had. It was the best average course time, nearly the best shooting percentage, and the best average finish of her IBU Cup racing. Looking back to her Juniors career she was solid but never competed for podiums or top 10’s so you could argue that all things considered those were some of the best races of her career.

Barmettler isn’t a standout skier or shooter, but in general she is a better skier. Last season her average course time rank was up to 32.8. She hit 71.4% of her shots. Not amazing but it represented a marked improvement in her standing shooting which has gotten better every season.

Hopefully we’ll see Barmettler run a few more races this season. If things keep progressing as they have been we’ll see her move towards the mid 70’s in her overall hit rate and maybe into the top 25 in skiing. The key is we just need to see more of her!

Juniors

Lena Baumann (18)

Over the last two seasons on the Juniors level Lena Baumann has run 10 total races with seven of those coming this past season. Most of her finishes have been in the 20-40 range. This season she did have a new career best 14th place finish in the Sprint at Youth Worlds. Quite a time to make a great impression!

Baumann’s racing at the 2022-2023 Youth Worlds was encouraging. Even though she only hit 72% she was skiing very well with course time ranks of 11, 11, and 12. Last season even though her hit rate improved a tad, up to 74% on the back of improved prone shooting up to 88%, she saw a fairly large decline in her skiing.

The goal for this upcoming season is going to be twofold: 1) A return to at least her 22-23 ski form if not better and 2) Replicate the prone shooting improvement with her standing shooting! If she does that the results will take care of themselves.

Lara Berwert (21)

In the 2023-2024 season Lara Berwert ran every single possible race on the Juniors level. While the results may not be wildly impressive, the experience is invaluable. The majority of her finishes were in the 40’s and 50’s, but she did have an excellent weekend in Jakuszyce just before Junior European Championships when she finished 14th in the Sprint and 24th in the Super Sprint.

Berwert’s shooting was actually pretty good last season. She hit 82.1% total, up from 78%. That improvement was entirely due to her improved prone shooting which improved from 80% to 87.4% while her standing was unchanged at 76%. It’s almost reassuring that her standing was unchanged as maybe it indicates that she really found something with her prone shooting. Her skiing didn’t change a whole lot though.

Lara Berwert’s shooting gives a lot of reason for optimism. Hopefully the skiing comes along with it next season! She does that, and just like with Lena Baumann, the results will take care of themselves!

Marina Benderer (18)

Last season was Marina Benderer’s debut year on the Juniors level and she ran every possible race. It was a solid debut even if it wasn’t wildly impressive. Her average finish was 40th and most of her finishes were scattered between the 20’s and 50’s. She did have a her best finish of the season in the Individual at Youth Worlds where she went 18/20 and finished 17th.

Benderer actually had a pretty good season with the shooting at she hit 83.2% for the year. Not a bad start! Hopefully next season we see the skis come along to match!

Ronja Rietveld (20)

Although we haven’t seen Ronja Rietveld race since the 2022-2023 season, she did run 10 races in the 21-22 and 22-23 seasons and she remains listed on the Swiss national team “C” squad.” Her best finishes in those two seasons were 38th and 39th with the rest scattered between the 50’s and 70’s. Hopefully we see her come back this seaosn with even better form.

Alessia Camp (19) + Enya Murner (20)

The 2024-2025 season will hopefully be the debut for these two Juniors.

Men

For the Swiss men the 2023-2024 season was a bit of a mixed bag. Sebastian Stalder once again looked solid and Joscha Burkhalter had the best season of his career. Niklas Hartweg was beset by all types of adversity while Jeremy Finello was just about at his career average. There is definitely room for somebody to move up and snag a spot if they show the ability!

Quota: 5 Athletes to Start

World Cup: The Swiss men have a full gamut of athletes on the World Cup squad. There are two young men who are entering the prime years of their career and are looking to establish themselves as consistent top-20 contenders if not higher. Another young man still looking to make the big move to reach a higher level. One man near the end of his prime that remains a major boom or bust. And then a 5th spot that appears to be likely a rotation for whomever can earn it.
– Sebastian Stalder
– Niklas Hartweg
– Joscha Burkahlter
– Jeremy Finello
– Gion Stalder

Sebastian Stalder (26)

From the 21-22 season through last year Sebastian Stalder has made magnificent strides as heps progressed from the Juniors through to being one of the leaders of the Swiss men’s team. The last two seasons he has finished 17th and 19th Overall in the World Cup rankings. Each of those seasons has included a top 5 and several top 10’s. There is definitely still room to grow as well!

In the 2022-2023 season Stalder established himself as one of the top shooters in the World. Last year he proved that it wasn’t a one time thing. In those two seasons he ended the year as the 5th and 6th most accurate man on the World Cup and he hit over 90% in each season. He is also a very fast shooter as he averaged just 25.8 seconds per shoot last season. The key now for Stalder is to keep improving the skiing. He made a HUGE leap between the 21-22 and 22-23 seasons. Last year he leveled off a bit as his average course time rank stayed right around 30.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2020-2021	88%	80%	84%	28.2
2021-2022	87%	80%	83.5%	27.8
2022-2023	92.5%	90%	91.3%	26.1
2023-2024	92.9	88.1	90.5	25.8

This season would be perfect for Stalder to make another little surge in his skiing. He looked excellent as he won the star studded Martin Nordic Festival competition this summer. Hopefully that was a sign of things to come this year. If he can eek out a bit more speed he will be able to find himself in the top 15 of the Overall. The difference in skiing between Stalder and Justus Strelow was just eight places in the overall ski rankings. Although Strelow was just a tiny bit more accurate than Stalder it really wasn’t that much. Strelow finished 14th in the Overall and that’s absolutely achievable for Sebastian Stalder this season!

Niklas Hartweg (24)

Ever since Niklas Hartweg’s thrilling surge in the last two races of the 2022-2023 season to steal the u25 Globe from Tommaso Giacomel he has been hit by setback after setback. He’s been sick countless times, striking at some of the worst moments of the season. This offseason he had a bike injury and hurt his right shoulder which significantly limited his training. Can he please get a good break?

That u25 Globe winning season in 2022-2023 showed all of the potential a healthy and strong Niklas Hartweg has to offer and why we should all be so excited. He was the 2nd most accurate shooter on the World Cup hitting 93.8% along with a very solid ski season in which he ranked 28th amongst World Cup men. At the end of the day he finished 11th Overall with two podiums and eight top 10’s. It was the best single season in Swiss men’s biathlon history.

Last season he was sick multiple times which clearly hurt his form. His average course time rank dropped from 26 to 33.2. It also affecting his shooting which fell down to 86.7%. There were moments where you could almost feel the form getting there but he just couldn’t get over the hump.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2020-2021	83.6	74.5	79.1	26
2021-2022	82.5	78.8	80.6	28.3
2022-2023	95.6	91.1	93.3	25.1
2023-2024	83.7	89.7	86.7	24.5

We’ll see what the 2024-2025 season has in store. As mentioned above he had a significant shoulder injury this summer that needed surgical correction. He’s been working his way back from that but it clearly affected his summer training. Clearly the goal for him is to get ready for the Lenzerheide World Championships this February. If he can get healthy before then and have a great all around season all the better. But the focus at this point is likely just on finding the best peak for Worlds.

Joscha Burkhalter (28)

As we begin the 2023-2024 season the big question I have for Joscha Burkhalter is, was last seaon an aberation or sign of the initiation of general improvement in his biathlon. Last year saw him reach a new career best in the World Cup Overall as he finished 46th. He wasn’t able to get his 2nd career top 10 (or top 20 for that matter) but he was able to find some consistency finding the top 40 and scoring on five separate occasions, the most in his career.

He did this by improving his skiing just a touch and shooting just a little bit more accurately. He also let loose his shots much more quickly as he shaved 1.7 seconds off his average shooting time. The result was the best average finish of his career at 47.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2021-2022	79	84	81.5	25.6
2022-2023	81.3	78.7	80	27
2023-2024	81.5	80.8	81.2	25.3

These improvements weren’t huge. This wasn’t a breakthrough. It was just a minor improvement here and there that gained him a few extra points. So, was it the start of a gradual improvement? I sure hope so. If he can get that average finish a little closer to 40 it could make a significant difference his Overall score. If he can score 3.2 more points per race it would get him into the top 40 of the Overall. He can get there by improving his shooting by just about 2-3% and improving his average course time rank about 10 more places, or roughly the same improvement he’s had over the last two seasons. Let’s go Joscha!

Jeremy Finello (32)

Over the last three seasons we have seen Jeremy Finello find a level of speed that is matched only by the top men in biathlon. Seriously, go look at all of the men above and just below Finello. It’s basically a list of the top 20-25 men in the World Cup. The one who stands out is Finello who consistently ranks in the 40-50’s in the Overall.

In his career Finello has exactly four top 20’s. It’s almost impossibly low with the type of ski speed that he has. Of course that’s becuse of his shooting accuracy which is only dropping as time goes on. After peaking at 85.4% in the 2017-2018 season it has dropped just about every season. Last year was a new low. So even as he was the 13th fastest man on the World Cup last year, he hit just 66% including just 61% of his prone shots.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2018-2019	85.6%	76%	80.8%	31.4
2019-2020	94.3%	65.7%	80%	31.1
2020-2021	82.1%	58.6%	70.4%	28.7
2021-2022	100%	50%	75%	31
2022-2023	81%	56%	68.5%	30.3
2023-2024	61%	71%	66%	30.1

We know who Jeremy Finello is. He’s a speedster who struggles to shoot straight. The Swiss men don’t have enormous amounts of depth so he more than likely will run another full season on the World Cup this year. If he does, with his speed there is always he can find another top 20. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Gion Stalder (24)

The younger Stalder, Gion Stalder, finally joined Sebastian Stalder on the World Cup for a few races this last season. After two consecutive seasons of extended IBU Cup racing, last season he ran two World Cup races to start the year, and three World Cup races to close the season, and raced nine IBU Cup races in between. Two years ago I probably would have expressed a little more optimism for Gion Stalder as he had five top 20’s including a top 10 on the IBU Cup during the 2021-2022 season. However, he’s had just two in the last two seasons.

Interestingly he has shown signs of improvement over the last few years though. On the IBU Cup his average finish has mildly progressed from 44.8 to 40.8 to 38.4. That primarily appears to be because, even though he has fewer high finishes, he has eliminated the very bad finishes. His skiing is basically unchanged but his shooting has improved just a couple of percentage points. He has also started shooting much faster as well and averaged 26.3 seconds last season. On the World Cup it was a good opportunity for him to get his feet wet but not much beyond that as his best finish was 73rd.

Gion Stalder has shown that he can get to the top 30-40s of the IBU Cup on a regular basis. I am hoping that this season, more than anything, he’s able to find that level. Anything beyond that would be amazing. So let’s see the shooting percentages hold steady in the low to mid 80s and see just a touch better skiing. He doesn’t need to be Johan-Olav Botn, just get his IBU Cup course time ranks into the top 30s on a regular basis would be a good step this year. He may end up on the World Cup again to fill out the roster. In that case hitting around 83-85% of his shots would be great with course time ranks moving up from the 80’s to maybe the 50-60’s would be a great step.

IBU Cup and Hopefuls

James Pacal (21)

James Pacal is the other young Swiss man I am most excited about. He still qualifies as a Junior, and he noted that he wants to prioritize Junior Worlds this season, but he will start the season and likely spend a big portion of the season on the IBU Cup. Last season Pacal raced on all three levels with the majority of those races coming on the Juniors level. He raced there 11 time with 5 IBU Cup races and a single World Cup race that served as his debut on the top level of biathlon.

The peak of Pacal’s season came at the very end when he had his best performances at Junior Worlds. He started off the Otepaa World Championships with a 5th place finish in the Individual in which he was the 14th fastest man on the course and hit 19/20. In the following two races he finished 17th and 20th hitting 90% in both races and running 22nd and 33rd in course time.

Pacal generally skis just well enough, that when he’s able to hit 85% or better, regardless of the level, he’s able to have a top 30 finish or so. Now that’s not to say that he’s a speed demon because he’s not, even when compared to the Juniors. His average course time rank on the Juniors level last season was 27.9. But it is just fast enough that it gets him in the ballgame when he can hit. Now, can he hit regularly will be the question. He has hit 76% each of the last three years in his Juniors racing, but in his brief IBU Cup stint last year he hit 85%.

For the 2024-2025 season let’s have no major expectations for Pacal. He’s still so young! He has shown a couple of flashes and that when he has the “right day” he can get to the top 10 on the Juniors and top 20 on the IBU Cup. Hopefully we get to watch him grow up a little bit more this year and have some high Juniors success (Junior Worlds medal?!?) and collect some IBU Cup top 20’s.

Felix Ullmann (21)

Normally I would put Felix Ullman down with the Juniors, but after spending such a significant portion of last season on the IBU Cup and landing himself on the “B” team for the Switzerland team alongside James Pacal it seemed a bit more accurate to put him in this group. Last year Ullmann ran the first 12 races of the year on the IBU Cup and finished with three top 40’s and a season’s best finish of 30th. He then proceeded to run nine races on the Juniors level including one regular season weekend, the Junior European Championships, and Junior Worlds. The peak of that portion of his season was his 6th place in the Mass 60 at Junior European Championships. He also had five more top 30’s including 21st and 29th in the Junior Worlds Individual and Sprint.

Ullmann’s IBU Cup results might not turn your head, but his statistics weren’t all that bad for a 21 year old. He had an average course time rank of 44.5 which was good enough for 58th on the IBU Cup while he shot 77.8%. Year over year that represented an solid gain in ski performance with basically no change in shooting.

As the 2024-2025 season gets underway it’s a little difficult to predict where Felix Ullmann goes from here. When looking at his Juniors he doesn’t profile as a prolific skier or a dead eye shooter. So for now we don’t have any idea what to expect. Now that doesn’t mean I expect him to be terrible. If you look at Sebastian Stalder’s Juniors and IBU statistics he certainly doesn’t look like a world beater. Every big of development he does from here will be fun to watch…let’s just hope he follows a similar patter!

Dajan Danuser (28)

As with Sandro Bovisi, Dajan Danuser finds himself outside the national team looking in this year. After finishing 24th on the IBU Cup in the 2022-2023 season, Danuser started last season on the World Cup. He finished 62nd in the Oestersund Sprint and 85th in the Lenzerheide Sprint. He didn’t race an IBU level race again until the European Championships when he finished 40th in the Individual and 70th in the Sprint. He then raced in Arber and finished 30th in the Sprint and 24th in the Super Sprint. And that was his entire season.

He apparently worked very hard all off season long as he looked decent in Lenzerheide last weekend. As a result he has secured a position to start the season on the IBU Cup to open the 2024-2025 season.

I don’t know all of the details but Danuer’s skiing took a massive hit last year. He very well may have been dealing with injury or illness because I can’t find another explanation. Interestingly he had the best shooting of his IBU Cup career last year but even that wasn’t enough to overcome a truly gigantic slide in his skiing. His average course time rank last season was 44th after being 16.6 and 15.2 the last two seasons.

I half expected to see that he had retired this year, but he’s out there on the IBU Cup once again. I guess we’ll see what we get with him. Should he refind his skiing, and get back to the mid teens in course time rank and hit over 80% as he did this season (82% total) on the IBU Cup he could have a huge career year. I guess we’ll see!

Sandro Bovisi (26)

Sandro Bovisi, even after running two World Cup races last year, will actually start the season off of the Switzerland National Team rosters. I still think he’s going to have a chance to compete for starts on the IBU Cup, but that does say a little bit about where he stands in the Switzerland pecking order.

Last year was his career best seaon on the IBU Cup as he finished 49th in the Overall with seven top 30s and three top 20’s, both the most of his career. His skiing was decent enough as he ranked 38th overall in skiing on the IBU Cup with an average course time rank of 34. But he struggles with the shooting. He hit 73.5% which continued a decline over the last two seasons after hitting a personal best 79.5% in 2021-2022.

There is still a chance that Sandro Bovisi is able to earn himself another solid season of IBU Cup starts. That will be especially so if he can reverse the decline in his shooting to move back towards 80%. The career year for him would involve a continued gradual improvement of his skiing along with that shooting return. That would likely see him score a few more top 20’s and would likely get him closer to the top 30-40 in the IBU Cup. However, barring a real surprise I don’t believe we’ll see him on the World Cup this season.

Juniors

Yanis Keller (21)

Out of the Swiss Junior men Yanis Keller is one of the most experienced with 17 races across three seasons. He actually didn’t even run an IBU level race on the 2022-2023 season and returned for just four last season.

In his first two years of racing he had two top 10’s including 5th in the 2021 Youth Worlds Pursuit and 7th in an Juniors Pursuit race in Martell-Val Martello along with another 11th place finish. After missing the 22-23 season he returned last year for four races and although he had a 14th place finish he couldn’t quite break into the top 10.

In his time in the Juniors Keller has proven to be a very good shooter. In each of the last two seasons he raced in he 88% or better. The only thing that held him back from greater glory and more top 10’s was his skiing. He clearly has the potential, and as long as his skiing is even moderate, hitting 88% gives him a solid base to race off of. It would be great this season, though, to see if his skiing can take that next step!

Silvano Demarmels (20)

One man with even more experience than Keller is Silvano Demarmels who has raced 32 times on the Juniors level over the last three seasons. After finishing 2nd in his second career race, Demarmels didn’t find the top 10 again until the Junior European Championships this past season when he finished 9th in the Sprint. He very nearly achieved another top 10 when he finished 11th in the Mass 60 the next day. This came after a 13th place finish in the Super Sprint in Jakuszyce the weekend just prior. It was the best three race stretch for Demarmels in his career. Although he didn’t have the same level of success in the Junior Worlds it was still a successful season.

Demarmels showed last season that he can be pretty good at skiing and pretty good at shooting while not (yet) being excellent at either. His course time ranks were generally in the 20-30’s and his shot 77.6% which was the best of his career. Incidentlly unlike a lot of his teammates he hit better standing than prone. Hopefully the upcoming season gives Demarmels another full season of racing where he can once again show across the board improvement and maybe crack the top 10 a few more times!

Mathis Profit (21)

The 2023-2024 season saw Mathis Profit make his IBU Cup debut while he ran five races on that level as well as five additional races on the Juniors. He started the season with four Juniors races in which he actually didn’t race all that well with all of his finishes between 35th and 41. After the holiday break he went to the IBU Cup where, even though his finishes weren’t as high as they were on the Juniors, he was racing better against better competition. After five finishes between 44 and 58 he returned to the Junior European Championships where he ran the Individual and finished 13th.

What explains this pattern of finishes? Well besides youth that is. His shooting. He didn’t shoot all that well in his first four races on the Juniors level and then at Junior Europeans he hit 19/20 shots to buoy his slightly faster than average speed to 13th place. Then on the IBU Cup his finishes in the 40’s were the races he shot 80%. When he was below that he was in the 50’s. He just didn’t have the ski speed last season to make up any ground.

The goal for next season: hit more than 80%. That will at least raise his floor up high enough that he’ll have a chance for top 20’s on the Juniors and top 50’s on the IBU Cup. To improve on that he needs to see some ski improvements.

Remo Burch (20)

One of the least experienced athletes on the Swiss National team, in terms of IBU level races, is Remo Burch who has run just five total races across the lat two seasons, all at Youth Worlds. He does have a 15th at this past year’s Otepaa Youth Worlds when he hit 19/20 shots. It’s by far the best shooting out of his career with the rest being 80% or worse. Not surprisingly then the next best finish of his career is 35th. With course time ranks normally in the 40’s and 50’s he’ll need to see across the board improvement to see better results on the Juniors level next season.

Matthias Riebli (20)

Last season saw Matthias Riebli making his IBU level debut with a full season of Juniors racing. He did see some mild success with three top 30’s including a 27th in the Junior European Individual race. Riebli had an average course time rank of 37.8 and a hit rate for the season of 74.2%. Hopefully he comes back for another full season this year!

Paul Stalder (21)

Another(?!?) Stalder will look to join the Swiss team this season as he starts the year on the “C” team.