Germany 2024-2025 Team Preview

When you think of German biathlon what comes to mind first? Is it one of their great athletes like Sven Fischer or Magdalena Neuner? The forests of Oberhof? The Ruhpolding stadium with the fans right on top of the shooting range? Or is the fans, made with biathlon passion? Maybe a little of all of the above?

Germany is inextricably related to biathlon. Looking at the top 100 winners in biathlon history (men and women combined) and over one quarter of them are Germans. So even though the last decade hasn’t been nearly as successful as prior, you just cannot imaging it without the Deutscher Skiverband.

But what about this year’s version of the team? The women seem to be on the rise (although they are without last season’s breakout woman Janina Hettich-Walz who is expecting her first baby soon!), and the men are…hanging in there? Let’s take a deeper look and see what we can expect and hope for this season!

Women

Women’s biathlon is in a great spot right now. There are so many teams that have deep rosters of great talent. The German women are absolutely one of those. They have two women who are locks for the World Cup team (Janina Hettich-Walz would have been the third) and then a HUGE list of mostly very young women who have shown top level talent to be future top 10 athletes on the top levels of biathlon.

Quota: 6 Athletes to Start

World Cup Locks: There is a gigantic pool of potential German women to be on the World Cup. However, there are just two World Cup locks to be there for the entire season. As mentioned above Janina Hettich-Walz would have been the third. However, both of these women have top 10 Overall potential if not higher.

Franziska Preuss (30)

As Franziska Preuss starts her age 30 season I continue to be hit by the question, “Will we ever see Franziska Preuss run a full season again?” She has been absolutely over run with injuries and sickness over the last three seasons and as a result has run 13, 7, and 11 races in each of those years. You have to go all the way back to the 2020-2021 season to see the last time she ran a complete season. How did that one turn out? She finished 3rd Overall. It was her third straight season in the top 10 and she was making steady progress towards the top. She was seemingly entering the start of her prime and it seemed like she would be battling for the Overall Globe for the next several years. Instead it seems like we have been robbed.

Last season Preuss came out of the gate hot in Oestersund as she finished on the podium twice in the first three races. Then she promptly missed the weekend in Hochfilzen due to illness. She came back and raced Lenzerheide, Oberhof, Ruhpolding, and the first race in Antholz. Fom Oestersund through Antholz she ran 11 races and finished in the top 10 in every single one of them with three podiums, all 2nd place finishes. Unfortunately she got sick again in Antholz. She went to Worlds where she wasn’t sufficiently recovered and still finished top 10 twice. She then skipped the last trimester because she wasn’t able to get back to form.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	95.5	79.4	87.4	27.9
2018-2019	90.6	78.9	84.7	27.2
2019-2020	90.4	86.7	88.5	26.7
2020-2021	93.8	79.1	86.4	29.2
2021-2022	89.6	82.2	85.9	29
2022-2023	92.7	76.4	84.5	27.3
2023-2024	95.2	90.4	92.8	27.1

When she was able to race, Preuss was as good as anybody. For much of the season she actually had the best average finish, but she just didn’t run enough races. Even will missing 10 races she finished 10th in the Overall! She still finished with the 3rd best average finish behind just Lisa Vittozzi and Lou Jeanmonnot.

Clearly when she was able to race Preuss looked as good as ever…actually better. She was skiing at close to the best level of her career. And she was shooting easily at the best level of her career. She hit at a gorgeous 92.8% clip. Preuss still has all the talent in the world. At this stage I can’t help myself, I still feel like if she can race a full season then she can contend in the top 5 of the Overall. I just desperately want to see her do it!

Vanessa Voigt (27)

Vanessa Voigt was so good, so fast, that we almost expected too much of her too quickly. All she has done is get better the last two years, improving from 13th to 12th and then 8th in the Overall. Yet somehow it feels like she’s not reaching her potential. However, that’s an us problem, not her. Voigt is coming along at a normal rate of progression and finds herself entering the prime years of her career in great position to make a run at the top 5 of the Overall. Isn’t that what we want to see?

She’s always been an amazing shooter. Last year she wasn’t just amongst the best, she was the very very best. Hitting 93.6% is simply outrageous. The only problem with her shooting is the speed. She averaged 32.5 seconds per shooting last year, the fastest of her career, but it was 74th fastest on the World Cup. She was losing nine seconds per shoot to Julia Simon. That’s 36 seconds in a Pursuit or Mass Start.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2021-2022	91	91.5	91.25	35.5
2022-2023	93	89	91	32.7
2023-2024	95.2	91/4	93.6	32.5

The great news is Voigt is getting better every year. Everything is trending better and better. I need to do better this season and give her room to continue to improve. Give her the room to grow into a top 5 Overall athlete which is exactly what she’s been doing the last three years. She has a plan. Sverre Roeiseland has a plan. It’s working. I’ll let it work.

Battling for the World Cup: That’s two. We need four more for the World Cup. To start the season the German women are going with the youth movement. However, I’m also going to include a couple of other women that will likely see a few World Cup start this season.

Initial World Cup Roster:
– Selina Grotian
– Johanna Puff
– Julia Kink
– Julia Tannheimer

Others in Contention
– Hanna Kebinger
– Sophia Schneider
– Marion Wiesensarter

Selina Grotian (20)

When I think of Selina Grotian I can’t help but just feel bad for her. She’s under immense pressure. Grotian is just 20 years but but she’s been compared to Lara Dahlmeir (who somehow is still only 31?!?) for several seasons now. She is still a Junior and yet she’s being expected to show signs of eventually winning the World Cup Overall Globe. Instead of everything just being a pleasant surprise it’s either questioned why she didn’t do it sooner or we look at what is next for her. There is no way she can beat expectations. Either she is great and she simply matches the sky high hopes for her or she falls a little short and she’s a “disappointment.” It’s like she is set up to fail.

Under more normal circumstances we should be discussing how she has this tremendous ceiling and this year we are hoping to see high finishes at Junior Worlds and competing for top 10 in the IBU Cup. Instead she’s more than likely going to run a significant number of races on the World Cup under the watchful eye of many many eager biathlon fans.

Grotian’s Juniors races show why the hopes are so high for her. Nearly every race she’s run she’s been top 10 in ski rank and her shooting rose to where she was consistently hitting in the mid to upper 80’s. She raced 15 times on the IBU Cup in the 22-23 season and finished 6th Overall, skied in the top 10 and hit in the mid 80’s once again. Last year she raced 17 times on the World Cup before she was 20. She finished 29th in the Overall and 29th in skiing while she hit a little below her career average at 81.9%. She also shot relatively quickly as well averaging 28 seconds per shoot.

My hope is that we have some patience with Grotian. Maybe she has a phenomenal season and looks like an inevitable forced to dominate biathlon. More likely she just races like a 20 year old where she shows flashes of incredible potential. Maybe she finds the top 10 again, or even has her first World Cup podium! She’ll probably also have some not so great moments or weeks. Let’s just remember to be patient and supportive. If we want to see the best possible outcome for Grotian we need to help her get there!

Joahanna Puff (22)

The German women are just chock full of young talented women and Johanna Puff is just another one of them. Puff rapidly rose the ranks the last few seasons starting in the 2021-2022 season. Before that she was primarily finishing top 20 as a Junior, but in that 21-22 season she suddenly was finishing almost always in the top 10 and regularly top 5. In the 22-23 Junior season she had two wins and six top 10’s in 12 races.

Last season Puff split the season neatly between the IBU Cup and the World Cup. She came out hot and after two straight top 10’s she won in just her third race of the season, the Idre Fjaell Sprint. She had three more top 5’s on the IBU Cup including another victory in the Ridnaun-Val Ridanna Mass 60. After that great success she closed out the season on the World Cup where she finished top 40 in five of the last six races including a career best 18th.

While racing on the Juniors Puff showed very good ski speed. Her last season on the Juniors she was almost always in the top 10 in course time rank. On the IBU Cup, even as a 21 year old, she showed very good speed. Her average course time rank was 16.1. That put her a little ahead of Sara Andersson and a little behind Anna-Karin Heijdenberg. While it didn’t translate into immediate World Cup ski speed, that’s not surprising.

However, her shooting did remain good at all levels. After regularly shooting in the low to mid 80’s as a Junior, she hit 90.8% on the IBU Cup and 87.3% on the World Cup last season. She also appeared to shoot faster as the season progressed. Her average shooting speed the on the IBU Cup, which was the first 2/3 of the season, it was 31.4 seconds vs. the World Cup, the last 1/3 of the season, which was 28.6 seconds.

So can Puff make the World Cup roster spot permanent? Without a doubt. Her skiing on the Junior and IBU Cup levels at her age projects to maybe not great, but definitely good ski speed on the World Cup. If she hits in the mid to upper 80’s, and her skiing continues to progress as we hope, then we could see Puff for significant parts of this season.

Julia Kink (20)

Yet another German woman who is just in her very early 20’s, who also has already made her World Cup debut, is Julia Kink. She just made her IBU debut two years ago as she ran the entirety of the 2022-2023 Juniors season. It wasn’t always pretty but she made progress the entire season and ended it with the highest of high notes as she finished 9th in the Junior European Pursuit and then went gold, silver, silver at Youth Worlds.

Coming off of that high note she went straight to the IBU Cup last season as just a 19 year old. She finished 67th in her first race but bounced back immediately with a 5th place finish right after. Just a few weeks later she earned her first IBU Cup win with a victory in the Martell-Val Martello Short Individual. After a few weeks of IBU Cup finished in the 20-30’s she went to Junior Worlds and found more success going 11th in the Individual, 5th in the Sprint and gold in the Mass 60. That earned her a call up to the World Cup to end the season where she had four races and four finishes between 38th and 51st.

Kink is an very very good skier. She finished 11th in skiing on the IBU Cup last season and only finished outside the top 10 in course time rank six times in 18 races. As a 19 year old that’s outstanding. Not surprisingly with speed like that at Junior Worlds she was top 3 in course time rank every race. Julia Kink’s performance comes down to does she hit or not. She hit only 71.1% on the IBU Cup last season. It’s almost remarkable that she had six top 10’s. However, in three Juniors races and four World Cup races, which composed the last 1/3 of her season, she hit 86% and 85% respectively. Maybe that’s a sign that she found something late in the season?

When you get excited about young biathletes there are three categories: Good skiers who need to work on shooting, good shooters who need the skiing to progress, and all around amazing athletes. Kink is definitely the good skier who needs the shooting to get more accurate. However, the dramatic improvement at the end of the season has my interest. If that’s a improvement and not just a mirage of good accuracy for a few weeks, then she’s going to be a World Cup regular all season long.

Julia Tannheimer (19)

This time we focus on a woman who isn’t even 20 years old yet. Is it possible that the most talented of all of these German women is actually the youngest of them all? It’s ridiculous, but Julia Tannheimer is really really good. Over the last three seasons she has competed in nine races at Youth/Junior Worlds and she has won three gold medals and a silver. She’s finished outside the top 10 just twice. Last year, again as an 18 year old, she made her IBU Cup debut and ran 13 races where she had 12 top 20’s, six top 10’s and her first win and finished 9th in the Overall. She made her World Cup debut and ran two races in Ruhpolding. She finished 15th and 33rd. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Just above we discussed the three types of young athletes that we get excited about and Julia Tannheimer is definitely the speed demon who needs to bring along her shooting. Her average course time rank on the IBU Cup last season was 3.4. Her lowest course time rank for the season was 7th. Even on the World Cup she held her own with course time ranks of 23rd and 22nd. So yeah, she hit only 74.7% on the IBU Cup last season, but this is some serious skiing we’re talking about here.

Just like with Selina Grotian, and Julia Kink, and Johanna Puff, let’s remember to have patience. What should we expect from Julia Tannheimer this season? More than likely it won’t always look pretty. Assuming good health she should once again be very very fast. She’ll have some days where she shoots well and some days where she doesn’t shoot as well. Some days she’ll look like a future Overall winner and other days she won’t. However, with talent like hers you can’t help but be excited. Just based on ski speed alone she may demand to be on the World Cup all season. I trust Sverre Roeiseland and company to make the best decision for her future development though!

Hannah Kebinger (27)

The 2023-2024 season ended up being a lost year for Kebinger. She had one of the most intriguing stories the year prior as she fought her way from racing on the national level, to the IBU Cup, then all the way to the World Cup. Over the last half of the 23-24 World Cup season she showed immense talent and potential as she had the 10th best average finish on the back excellent shooting and very good skiing. Then…last year wasn’t great.

She didn’t have a good run up to the season, she got sick immediately, got sick again, and after mounting a brief return in the 2nd trimester, she called it an early season to recover. She discussed this with us at length in an interview last month. Kebinger talked about how she felt like she was in a dark place. She found no joy in skiing. Fortunately she had a vacation in Norway with her boyfriend in March/April and rediscovered her spark. She returned to full training with the team in May and while it’s been an uphill climb (including a bike accident and shoulder injury!) she’s been making progress.

As the lead up to the 2024-2025 season is underway she is firmly in the mix to return to the World Cup. Without Janina Hettich-Walz there are definitely openings to be had. Kebinger is an excellent shooter and has built herself into a very good skier. As we discussed on our interview with her sometimes it’s difficult to maintain the shooting while building the ski form back. It’s no secret I’m a fan of hers and I would absolutely love to see her wearing a World Cup bib this season!

Sophia Schneider (27)

Before two years ago I hadn’t seen much of Sophia Schneider at all. She had a name I would recognize but I couldn’t have told you anything about her at all. Then she came into the fall of 2022 and grabbed a spot on the German World Cup roster and she just hasn’t let go. She finished 31st in the Overall that year and followed it up with 27th last season. She’s been a solid success story for the German team!

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2022-2023	80.7	77.2	79	30.6
2023-2024	87.1	78.7	82.9	32

Schneider has established herself as a pretty good skier. She consistently ranks top 20 in course time ranks week in and week out. She key to her performances is her shooting. She’s averaged 79% and 82.9% each of the last two seasons. If she hit 85% or better she was pretty much guaranteed a top 20 finish and she had eight of them last season. That included start out the season with a 5th placed Individual finish in Oestersund, the 2nd top 5 of her career.

For Schneider to gain one of the final spots of the German national team roster the shooting just needs to be better. That’s just about it. The skiing is good enough. One of the things that may have been a bonus for her would have been if she was a consistently good member of the relay team the last two seasons. Last year she only ran on the relay a couple of times and one of them she had a fairly disastrous leg with a penalty loop. So once again, for Schneider it all comes down to hitting the targets. If she can do consistently on the IBU Cup, and somebody ahead of her falters, we’ll see her back on the World Cup later this season.

Marion Wiesensarter (29)

I wouldn’t have expected to see her name on this list myself, but after the German team included her in their final team camp and discussed her as a possibility then I really can’t justify leaving her off. I can’t believe she’s already 29. Personally I’ve had so many starts and stops with her that she is somehow still locked in my brain as “developing young talent” even if the young part doesn’t apply anymore.

Wiesensarter has fought hard. Even with the legions of young women rising up she never gave up and continued to work on her sport. Over the last several years she’s brought herself up from decent shooter, to good shooter, and last season she was exceptional. Wiesensarter raced just eight races last year but she hit 90.8%, which put her amongst the most accurate women on the IBU Cup last year. That tremendous hit rate carried her performance as she had four top 10’s in those eight races. Her average finish was 13.1 (the best of her career), and even with such a short season she still finished 29th in the IBU Cup Overall race.

So can Wiesensarter really make the World Cup team? If she hits 90.8% then why not? That gives her a solid floor to start off of and might be worth a look for at least a couple of weeks. More likely she is back on the World Cup. However, if anybody on the top level falters, Wiesensarter could be a mid season call up for a week or two.

IBU Cup: The women listed below likely won’t be seen on the World Cup this season. However, I’m willing to be surprised! And all of these women have talent!

Marlene Fichtner (21)

Guess what? It’s another very young German woman who has shown significant promise. So why is she on this list and not the one above? Well primarily because the German team left her off their list of women competing for the World Cup roster to start the season. Also, unlike the women above her, she hasn’t yet made her World Cup debut. She’s raced the last three seasons primarily on the Junior level but also with a few IBU Cup races mixed in last season.

Look, there are no two ways about it, just like the other young German women she has been very successful thus far in her career. She has 23 Juniors races with 13 top 10’s, six top five, and three podiums. While its a very high bar to use for comparisons, while the other young women above her have Youth/Junior Worlds medals Fichtner doesn’t…yet. Her best finishes, so far, in her Juniors racing have been in the regular weeks on the season. Fichtner did make her IBU Cup debut last season with seven races during which she had two top 10’s including 5th in the Pursuit at the European Championships.

We mentioned Tannheimer, Grotian, and Kink as women who make their success with their skiing. Well, Fichtner is all about her shooting. She’s never hit less than 87% in a season including 94% in her IBU Cup action last season. That’s a HUGE boost. Also, we aren’t trying to say Fichtner is slow. She just isn’t blazing like the other women. On the Juniors she’s usually top 20 in course time rank. When she came to the IBU Cup her aver age course time rank was 33.7.

Fichtner has a path to eventually making it to the World Cup and it looks a lot like Vanessa Voigt. The exceptional shooter who is just fast enough. Even if she’s not as fast as Voigt she can be a top 20 World Cup athlete. It’s just going to take her a few more seasons for the ski speed to catch up with her accuracy.

Emily Schumann (22)

The 2023-2024 season was a more than successful debut year for Emily Schumann. Coming into the year with exactly 0 previously races at any IBU level, Schumann came in and at 21 years old quickly established herself as yet another potential member of the German women’s future team. In a full 22 race season she was rarely outside of the top 20 including five top 10’s and two podiums. Looking at her race by race she was very consistent for the first five weeks of the season. She had a little dip later in the year but she closed strong finishing 8th and 3rd in her last two races.

In terms of statistics, Schumann’s season looked a little bit like the inverse of Fichtner’s. She started out the season with good skiing, finishing every race the first five weeks in the top 20 in course time ranks. Then, corresponding in her dip in finishes was a dip in ski form before she finally finished strong. The shooting still has some work. It’s not terrible. She hit 80% with 85.5% prone and 74.5% standing.

All told Emily Schumann’s first IBU Cup was a success. She finished 5th Overall on the IBU Cup and I’m not sure the could have hoped for much more than that. This season hopefully we just see a little bit more of everything. Skiing more towards the top 10 and getting the standing shooting closer to 80% would maybe get her a couple more spots up the IBU Cup rankings and maybe a few more podiums.

Lisa Marie Spark (24)

There are a large number of women who on almost any other team would be considered the young up and coming talent. However, with such a collection of very young talent, women like Spark and Fruewhert are a bit caught in between. It’s not that they aren’t talented, it’s just that the women behind them are so talented.

Spark has seen some successes her in young career. As a Junior she had three wins and five podiums including a gold, a bronze, and a 4th place in her last Juniors races at the 2022 Junior Worlds She hasn’t yet seen that much success on the IBU Cup. Two years ago she actually won gold in the Individual at the European Championships along with four total top 5’s and seven top 10’s. Last season she ran just 12 races. She didn’t look great early on with just a single top 10. She returned at the end of the season for the two weeks in Obertilliach and had three top 20’s which was a solid close at least.

The major difference between Lisa Marie Spark and many of the women ahead of him is that those women are usually very very good at either shooting or skiing. Spark, though, is just very good at both. Last season her average course time rank was 19.5, the best of her career. She also has been hitting in the mid to low 80’s for most of his career. For many nations that would be enough to getting her to the World Cup. On the German team, it’s not.

Can Spark make it to the World Cup? Absolutely. It just needs to be mean that she needs to continue to get better and better at everything.

Juliane Fruewhert (26)

2024 really hasn’t been all that great for Juliane Fruewhert. The season started well with two top 5’s in the first four races for Fruewhert. Then the calendar rolled over to 2024 and things went down hill. She had just one top 20 finish (which was exactly 20th) and she ended the season going 22nd, 58th, and 47th at the European Championships. Then she had an accident and busted her face. She had to have a long recovery on that before she could return to training this summer.

She has been trianing in full now so she’s going to go into this season without any restrictions. Maybe the best signs along the way is that she won bronze at the German Summer Biathlon National Championships. So clearly she’s been able to get back to full training and reach a fairly good level of form.

Fruewhert profiles a lot like Lisa Marie Spark but maybe a half degree less. She is a decent to good skier. She’s a decent shooter too. She’s hit as high as 88.6% on the IBU Cup but generally hits in the low 80’s or high 70’s. So the key to her finding the World Cup is the same as it was for Spark. She just needs to continue to lift her level. She’s only 26. While that seems old for this particular team as are continually reminded that athletes continue to improve throughout their 20’s.

Stefanie Scherer (28)

Last season Stefanie Scherer returned to the IBU Cup after a two season absence. She had previously achieved a career best of 4th in the IBU Cup Overall in the 2019-2020 season. However, the next year she dropped down to 28th Overall and then was absent the next two years. She raced 11 times last year, rejoining the team after the New Year. She went out in her first IBU Cup race in three years and immediately had two consecutive top 10’s. She followed that up with another top 10 in her next race in the Individual at the European Championships. Scherer was with the team the rest of the way and in the last six races she was top 20 every race, had two top 10’s, and the third victory of her IBU Cup career.

Scherer has always been very strong on the range. She worst season of her career she still hit 85% and last year she hit 87.5% of her shots with even prone/standing splits. Just like with Spark and Fruewhert the skiing just has to be good enough for that shooting to make a difference. Scherer likely is going to be looking to earn some more time on the IBU Cup this season. She does start the season on the 1b team for the Germans this year.

Mareike Braun (24)

After running no IBU races last season, Mareike Braun begins the 2024-2025 season as part of the Foderkader team which appears to basically mean the reserve or support team. Braun, as with Spark, is still young in the grand scheme of things. She is just being outshone by some of these young German stars.

Braun had a solid 2022-2023 season where he finished 16th on the IBU Cup Overall rankings. She skied fairly well, as she had throughout her Juniors career. Her shooting which has been up and down ended up at 80% that season.

Braun profiles very similar to Spark and Fruewhert. She’s very good and on most other nations she would be a regular IBU Cup athlete. However, on these deep and talented team there aren’t always enough spots. We’ll see if she gets any starts this season.

Selina Kastl (23)

Selina Kastl had extensive racing in her Juniors career, but last season as she graduated to seniors racing she did not make any IBU Cup starts. In her Juniors career she had a single podium and just two top 10’s, one of which came in the Individual at the 2023 Junior Worlds, her last weekend of Juniors racing. In her Juniors career Kastl was a better shooter than she was a skier. She regular hit in the mid 80’s. What held her back was her mid range skiing. She remains off of the German national roster this season but from her Instagram profile she has been training! Hopefully we see her run at least a couple of IBU Cup races this season!

Anna Weidel (28)

As the 2024-2025 season kicks off Anna Weidel finds herself in a precarious position. She clearly still has the drive as she is out there training all summer long. However, in a team that is clearly moving towards the younger generation, she is increasingly frozen out of opportunities to race. Last season saw her line up at the start on just three occasions, the fewest of her career.

Weidel is a good shooter who has a ceiling that is consistently capped by her more limited ski speed. Lately her average course time ranks in World Cup races are usually in the 60’s. That’s just not going to cut it with the level of competition that she is up against on this team. Even on the IBU Cup that puts her behind the 8 ball. At this stage of her career she either needs to find a new level of ski speed that we have never seen from her or be the best shooter on the World Cup. Neither of those things are impossible. I mean being the best shooter on the World Cup is a bit of a stretch! Let’s just remain optimistic and supporitive!

Juniors: Finally we come to a HUGE list of Juniors on the roster. I mean HUGE. And this doesn’t even take into consideration the women above who are still technically juniors too! Because this is so big we are going to only write about a few of them. The rest will just get the most bare bones overview.

Magdalena Rieger (21)

Rieger has raced in 16 Juniors races across the last three seasons. Usually when you see that it’s because they ran a couple of races the first year and then increased the next season. Quite the opposite with Reiger who ran 13 in 2022-2023 and then just three last season. Over those 16 races she has six top 10’s. In last year’s limited racing she finished 10th, 22nd and 8th in the three races in Jakuszyce.

In her two seasons she has progressed as a skier. Last season she was top 11 in each of her races in terms of course time rank. Unfortunately, in this limited 16 race sample size her shooting is vaguely trending down. It’s not a massive sample size though so small variations, including last season hitting 70% in her 2nd and 3rd races, pull down the trendline. More accurately she is a mid range shooter that did not show year over year improvement.

There is a chance that with such immense star power ahead of her Magdalena Rieger could find herself in a similar position to so many other women where, without showing significant signs this season, she gets bypassed. Hopefully we see her shooting coming up this season!

Alina Nussbicker (20)

2023-2024 was a successful debut Juniors season for Alina Nussbicker. She raced 10 times including the Junior Worlds and came away with three podiums including her first career victory in the Jakuszyce Individual. She didn’t have quite as much success at Junior Worlds. After just four top 8 finishes in her first six races, she finished the season with a best finish of 22nd in the last four.

Without diving too deep into it it’s hard to know if she got sick or if it was just a higher level of competition that drove her down. Looking at her skiing we see her having an average course time rank of 6.2 in the first six races and 24.5 the last four races. She shot fairly well with just two days of hitting 75% or below. While her average was just 83.6% for the full year, if you take out those two days it goes up to just a hair over 85% which is pretty good.

All in all it was a very good first Juniors season and Nussbicker has my attention going forward.

Alma Siegismund (19)

Another woman with a highly successful debut campaign was Alma Siegismund. She raced just seven times this season, but was inside he top 10 on each occasion. In fact after her first race she never finished outside of the flowers including three times on the podium and taking home the Youth Worlds Individual gold medal.

Siegismund is absolutely one to keep an eye on. Yes it was just seven races but she hit 95% last season. Let me repeat that, she hit 95% last season. That included a clean 55/55 prone shots. She’s starting to get into a large sample size there. And while she doesn’t have the kind of speed you that might really raise your eyebrows, she’s fast enough with course time ranks consistently on the edge of the top 10. Five of her seven races she finished between 8th and 11th fastest on the course with the remaining two ranks being 4th and 19th.

So yeah, let’s see what Alma Siegismund has as she makes the jump from Youth to Juniors this season but color me optimistic.

Julia Vogler (22)

Julia Vogler made her IBU debut last season and ended up racing seven Juniors races and two IBU Cup races at the end of the season. She didn’t have a spectacular start to the year. In the first give races she had a a best finish of just 13th. In Jakuszyce, though, she came on strong finishing 3rd in the Sprint and 5th in the Super Sprint. Interestingly she did not race Junior European Championships or Junior Worlds, but rather went straight to the IBU Cup for the first week in Obertilliach. That likely had as much to do with roster limitations as anything else. In Obertilliach she finished 29th and 34th.

She showed a solid debut season with decent skiing and decent shooting. However, she wasn’t phenomenal in either. She is just 22 years old so hopefully she’s going to have some more improvement this season. Will it come in the shooting or the skiing? Well I would imaging it would be her skiing as she saw her course time rank jump dramatically in the second half of the season. Hopefully we see even more of that next season!

Melina Gaupp (16)

On the other end of the Juniors spectrum is Melina Gaupp. She was just 15 years old when she raced last season. 15 years old. She’s so young I’m hesitant to even write anything about her. She’s at least 3-5 years from the World Cup but maybe even more importantly she’s still growing. Like literally, she’s 16, she’s still physically growing and who knows how that might impact her. It’ snot unusual to see 15 year old girls running faster than 18-19 year old young women. I don’t say that because I think that will happen to Gaupp but just to say we have no idea what she will look like.

If we are going to take a look at her she looked pretty good. Her course time ranks were 16th, 4th, and 6th and she hit 85%, 90%, and 70%. Not bad at all as it led to a 5th place finish in the Individual, a bronze in the Sprint, and 26th in the Mass 60. She qualified for Juniors racing so hopefully we see her more than just Worlds!

Lotta De Buhr (21)

Lotta De Buhr ran just three races in her first IBU level season. She raced all three races in Jakuszyce and finished 11th, 7th, and 10th. She was a very good skier as she was the 4th fastest woman on the course in every race while hitting 80%, 90%, and 70%. Not a bad start!

Charlotte Galbronner (21)

-Last raced 2 races 2022-2023 season and finished 18th and 10th
– Avg course time rank 26.5
– Shooting percentage: 93.3%

Sophie Patz (19)

-2023-2024 season was Debut. three top 10’s
– Youth Worlds: 10th, 27th, and 18th
– Best moment: In Jakuszyce she finished 8th, 11th and 11th
– Avg course time rank: 19.5
– Shooting percentage: 85.7%

Karla Gehrmann (19)

-2023-2024 season was debut. Two top 10’s
– Youth Worlds: 34th, 24th, and 6th
– Best weekend: In Jakuszyce she finished 6th, 15th, and 20th
– Avg course time rank: 17.2
– Shooting percentage: 82.2%

Nina Lange (19)

-2023-2024 season was debut and raced four times in Pokljuka and Ridnaun-Val Ridanna
– Finishes all between 27th and 57th.
– Avg course time rank: 30.8
– Shooting percentage: 74%

Marie Keudel (17)

-One of the medalists from the 2024 Youth Olympics in Gangwon!
– Won Silver in the Individual and finished 11th in the Sprint. Also won Silver in the Single Mixed Relay
– Hit 18/20 in the Individual and 7/10 in the Sprint

Johanna Lehnung (19)

-Raced 2023 Youth Olympics in Forni Avoltri where she finished 20th in the Sprint and 10th in the Individual
– Hit 8/10 in the Sprint and 10/20 in the Individual

Hanna Beck (17)

-Raced at the 2024 Youth Olympics in Gangwon where she finished 21st in the Individual and 14th in the Sprint
– Shooting was harder in Gangwon and she hit 15/20 in the Individual and 8/10 in the Sprint.

Leni Dietersberger (18)

-Debuted internationally at the 2024 Youth Olympics in Gangwon where she finished 15th in the Individual and 49th in the Sprint
– Hit 17/20 in the Individual and 4/10 in the Sprint

Jana Duffner (17)

-Raced at the 2024 Gangwon Youth Olympics where she was 48th in the Individual and 38th in the Sprint
– Shot 12/20 in the Individual and 4/10 in the Sprint.

The following women have not yet raced internationally:
Luna Emilia Hoiss (17)
Giovanna Nicolussi-Rossi (17)
Janna Linnea Weigelt (16)
Louisa Walter (17)

Men

While the Women’s roster is absolutely brimming with young talent, the men are a bit between generations. Justus Strelow had a very very good 2023-2024 season and at just 27 years old could be getting even better. Philip Horn also likely hasn’t maxed out his talent potential either. There are a few highly talented young men coming up as well!

Quota: 6 Athletes to Start

World Cup Locks Last season we saw Strelow make a claim to be the new leader of the squad. He’ll be joined by a number of veterans. We will also see Danilo Riethmueller return to at least start the World Cup season.

World Cup Starters:

Justus Strelow (27)

With Benedikt Doll’s retirement the men’s German National Team turns the page on a generation. Who is left carry the flag for the historically great German team? How about Justus Strelow. A few seasons ago he looked like a promising young athlete making waves on the IBU Cup with his shooting. But could his skiing translate to the World Cup? After last season the answer is undoubtedly yes.

Even though his Overall ranking “only” advanced from 21st to 14th, Justus Strelow found himself in contention much more frequently in 2023-2024 compared to prior. He had six top 10s including two top 5’s and his first career podium. He also raised his floor significantly as he was top 20 in 20 of the 22 races. So sum it up in one sentence, it went from being a rare excitement to see Strelow in contention to being almost expected.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2022-2023	97.5	82.5	90	25.3
2023-2024	95	93	93.8	24.6

Justus Strelow did this by becoming the absolute best shooter in biathlon. He hit 93.8% last season which made him the best shooter, man or woman, of the 2023-2024 season. He did this even while shooting at a very good clip, averaging just 24.6 seconds per shoot. That’s unbelievably good! Meanwhile his skiing remains good enough. His average course time rank was the best of his career at 29.1. For the first time in his career he moved to being just faster than the median biathlete. He was 4.1% slower than the median top 10. In our interview with Justus Strelow he explained how he was feeling stronger. He says now that he’s even feeling stronger than ever.

Can Strelow be even better this coming season? Absolutely. It is highly unlikely that he is going to his 93.8% again. That’s asking a lot. However, he has shot 90% or better the last three seasons on the World Cup so it would be shocking to see him drop too much. Let’s say that he’s just a touch faster. Can he move himself into the top 10 of the Overall rankings? Absolutely. Should he do that he would become the 6th German man in the last decade to finish inside the top 10 of the Overall rankings joining Simon Schempp, Arnd Peiffer, Benedikt Doll, Erik Lesser, and Roman Rees.

Johannes Kuehn (32)

As Johannes Kuehn likely nears the end of his prime years I’m stuck thinking about how I will remember him. Likely the singular moment I will remember of his was his win in the 2022 Hochfilzen Sprint. If memory serves me correctly, he currently holds the record for most races in his career before his first career victory. I bring all of this up because the other feeling I have with Kuehn when I watch him is “why doesn’t he have more podiums?” He has just five in his career and it feels about 5-10 short of where he “should” be.

Throughout his career he’s been a top 15 skier. He is one of the few men who, when they line up at the start, has the speed to contend for a podium without significant help. If he shoots 10/10 in a Sprint he can be in contention all on his own without a lot of other people missing. He’s done that three times in his career and each time been top 6. (Interestingly his one victory came when he hit 9/10). Therein lies the problem though. He just doesn’t hit enough. Last season was the full season of his career as he hit 83.6%. Just look at the table below and you can see where the hole. is. His standing shooting just isn’t good enough. He’s hit more than 70% of his standing shots just twice.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	81.8	68.2	74.4	34
2018-2019	82.9	66.3	74.8	33.2
2019-2020	93.5	62.9	78.2	30.7
2020-2021	88.2	61.8	75	33
2021-2022	89.4	68.2	78.8	31.9
2022-2023	89.4	68.9	79.2	28.9
2023-2024	94.3	72.3	82.1	30.1

Can we expect Johannes Kuehn to make a sudden surge in his shooting at this stage of his career? Maybe. Last season was his best standing shooting in a full season of racing. He likely has 2-3 more years of top level skiing. Maybe he can find a way to pull out 75-78% standing shooting? If he does that we could see Kuehn put himself on the podium multiple times and maybe, just maybe, find the top 10 of the Overall.

Philipp Nawrath (31)

Now we hit the Philipp stage of the German team with Nawrath and Horn. Nawrath has now run the last three seasons on the World Cup and has finished reasonably well. The 2023-2024 season proved to be his most successful yet by far as he reached the podium three times (the first three times in his career) and had his first victory in the very first Sprint race of last season. He also raised his floor as he had just four of 24 finishes outside the top 20.

If you think that Kuehn and Nawrath look a lot alike then you aren’t alone. They are both decent skiers. They both ski in the top 20 of the ski rankings and are actually very close to the same level. They also are both (usually) much better prone shooters than standing shooters. Nawrath is usually a very good prone shooter with struggles while standing. Once again last year there was a gap between the two, but it was smaller than usual. Unfortunately that was due to his prone shooting coming down while his prone shooting improved.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2021-2022	86.7	72.2	79.4	32.3
2022-2023	91.1	75.6	83.3	30.4
2023-2024	85	77	81	28.6

Nawrath has pretty much the same look ahead and Kuehn. Can he have the best seasons of his career in the next few seasons? Yes, why not? I could copy and paste from above. Last season was his best standing shooting and he still has 2-4 more years of his top ski form. So yes, let’s see how good that standing shooting can get. Let’s see a few more podiums! Let’s see him make a run for the top 10 in the Overall!

Philipp Horn (29)

The 2023-2024 season was a solid return to the World Cup for Philipp Horn. Aftera couple of seasons in which he spent the majority of his time on the IBU Cup, Horn once again started the year there last season. After two weeks and five finishes in the top 4 he earned himself a spot on the World Cup. Coming back to the World Cup in Lenzerheide he immediately had two top 10’s including the first top 5 of his career. While he didn’t reach the top 10 the rest of the season he had a total of 11 top 20’s, for a 64.7% top 20 rate, easily the best top 20 rate in his career.

After running a full World Cup season in 2019-2020 the last few years were spent in the wilderness, bouncing back and forth from the IBU Cup to the World Cup without a true home. The difference in the 2023-2024 season was…everything? He was faster than he ever had been before, shot as well as he ever had, and was shooting faster than he ever had before.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2019-2020	71.7	83.5	77.7	29.6
2020-2021	71.7	83.3	77.5	31.1
2021-2022	72	94.7	83.3	29.8
2023-2024	85	79.3	82.1	29.2

Horn is a bit funny on the German team in that he hits significantly better standing than prone. Last year was very strange for him because he hit 85% besting his prior career best of 72%. Unfortunately that corresponded with his standing shooting falling down to 79.3% which was the worst of his career.

All told Philipp Horn rode his career best statistical season to 20th in the Overall. If he maintains a spot on the World Cup for the full duration of the season and hopefully sees his standing shooting rebound towards his career average (while also maintaining his prone shooting) his in line for the best finish of his career. There is no reason to believe that, if he does all of that, he can’t push for a top 15 Overall finish.

Battling for the World Cup: With two more spots on the World Cup open it will fall to the men below to earn the position. Rees has the most experience, Riethmueller has high talent potential, and the other men can be the best of the bunch on their best days.

Danilo Riethmueller (25)

On the other end of the spectrum, while not young, but younger at least, is Danilo Riethmueller. He is just 25 years old and it feels like his career is just beginning. Last season he had the call up to the World Cup for the first time in his career. He made his first career start in the Short Individual in Antholz and he immediately made the top 10. He followed that up with another top 10 in the Sprint in Canmore when he finished 9th. Over the seven races he raced his worst finish was 26th.

In his brief time on the World Cup Riethmueller looked very steady. The best description I can think of for him is “solid.” He had an average course time rank of 20.7 and if he had run the full season he would have ranked 24th in skiing. He also was very smooth on the range hitting 85% prone, 88.3% standing for a 86.7% total hit rate. That would have been good enough for 26th best shooting. The only hole in his biathlon is the shooting time which was a pedestrian 33.7 seconds per shoot on average.

Prior to coming up to the World Cup he was stellar on the IBU Cup. He had 12 top 10’s in 17 starts and was one of the very few men to break up the Norwegian legion and actually win a race on the IBU Cup level. While still hitting 85.6% on the IBU Cup, very close to what he hit on the World Cup, he had an average course time rank of 5th.

Riethmueller’s racing last season showed that he can make it on the World Cup. Also it looks like he still has some more speed to uncover in his legs too. As he moves towards top 20 ski speed, and hopefully towards upper 80’s with his shooting that puts him in position to do some fun things on the World Cup. A full season at those levels looks a lot of like Endre Stroemsheim from last year (18th in skiing and 85% hit rate). We all know how Stroemsheim finished: 7th in the Overall. That’s not too much of a stretch for Riethmueller in the next few seasons.

David Zobel (28)

Two years ago it felt like David Zobel was preparing to take the next steps of his career to establish himself on the World Cup. He had just finished 14th in the Overall and it felt like signs were pointing up. He spent the 2022-2023 season on the World Cup and did finish 24th Overall. He looked decent in skiing, ranked 33rd in skiing, and hit 85.8% of his shots. He even had the first podium of his World Cup career. But last year, after he starting the year on the World Cup, he wasn’t able to hold his position and returned to the IBU Cup. He represented himself well on the IBU Cup with eight top 10’s, and he finished 11th Overall on that level even with missing a full trimester of racing.

There wasn’t a huge drop his in performance last season. In fact if you look at his World Cup statistics he was actually better in 23-24 than he was the year before. His average course time rank improved from 29.6 to 21.4 and his shooting percentage improved from 85.8% to 86.2%. Yet somehow the results just weren’t there.

So what to make of 28 year old David Zobel? The form is there to be a decent World Cup level athlete. On most nations what Zobel has done the last few years would be enough to earn himself that spot. If he were Czech, Swiss, or even Italian there is no doubt that David Zobel would be on the World Cup for the full season. This is where the high expectations of the German team, and the constant, almost desperate search for the next man to step in and fill the void, results in a near constant churn on the World Cup level. He’s so close. I so badly want this for David Zobel. Just a little bit better skiing and a little bit better shooting and a full World Cup season.

IBU Cup: These men will at least see some time on the IBU Cup. As always biathlon is a meritocracy (or it should be). For some men it may just be a starting point before moving up to the World Cup (or back up in the case of Roman Rees). For some it may be because they are overtaken by younger men. We shall see!

Roman Rees (31)

Along with Kuehn, Nawrath, and Horn, Roman Rees exists in this in between generation of German men. They haven’t been bad by any means at all. They just haven’t quite lived up to the magnificent heights that some of the men before them have achieved. Roman Rees for example has run primarily on the World Cup since the 2017-2018 season and his best Overall finish is 9th. That’s not bad at all! It’s just that besides that his finishes are in descending order: 16th, 27th, 28th, 33rd, and 42nd. That’s just not quite the standard of the German team.

Roman Rees has been a pretty good shooter in his career. At his peak he has been a very good shooter when he peaked by hitting 90% two seasons ago. Last year he feel off just a little bit and only hit 84.6%. That corresponded with a drop in his ski form. The result was a mixed bag of a season. He had the highest of highs, including like Philipp Nawrath the first win or his career. However, he also had just two top 10’s and seven top 20’s, both the least for him in three seasons.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	91.8	89.4	90.6	28.3
2018-2019	89.2	84.6	86.9	32
2020-2021	90	84.7	87.3	30.4
2021-2022	92.5	85.5	89	30.5
2022-2023	91.9	88.1	90	28.7
2023-2024	89.3	80	84.6	28.7

It wasn’t a great fall for Rees either. He comes into the season after a late illness three off his training and form. He went run well in the test races and he still has to prove it to the German brass that he belongs on the World Cup team. Hopefully that drives him to be just a bit faster and just a touch more accurate, particularly with his standing shooting. If he runs well in Idre Fjäll we could see him back on the World Cup sooner rather than later.

Lucas Fratszcher (30)

Over the last six seasons Lucas Fratzscher has become a dominant force on the IBU Cup. Over that period his finishes are in order: 2nd, 1st, 15th, 4th, 2nd, and 7th. Without doing the research he is likely the most accomplished man on the IBU Cup over that stretch. And yet, for whatever reason, it never seems to lead to World Cup racing. The most time he has spent on the World Cup in the last decade is five races which he did twice in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. Last season he ran exactly 0 World Cup races.

It’s hard to explain exactly why this is the case. Fratzcher has quietly become one of the best skiers on the IBU Cup level. His average course time ranks the last three seasons are 8.1, 9.5, and 11.2. Meanwhile his hit rates over that same stretch are 82.3%, 85.5%, and 80.6%. Those aren’t amazing statistics, but they aren’t bad either. It’s surprising that he hasn’t been able to get a little more run on the top level.

When he has gotten his opportunities he just hasn’t taken advantage of them. In his 19 World Cup races he has just six top 30 finishes. And maybe that’s the whole deal right there. When he has the opportunity he doesn’t shine, and eventually he just gets passed over. He’s a known entity at this point and the German team wants to see what else they have. Well this season he has another chance, and maybe one of his last chances, to make a run for the World Cup. Hopefully he gives it a great run!

Simon Kaiser (25)

On this entire list, of all of the German men who, at least at the start of the season, have a chance at the World Cup, Simon Kaiser, at age 25, is the youngest. That seems impossible but it is true. Kaiser doesn’t have the most prestigious history. He raced only six times on the Juniors level over two seasons and he had just a single top 5. Actually just a single top 10. Well really just a single top 20. He finished 4th in the 2021 Junior Worlds Sprint. In the other five best races his best finish was 26th.

The last three seasons he’s been running on the IBU Cup. Very quietly he’s just gotten a little bit better every single year. From 9 races and four top 20’s in the 21-22 season to 15 races and five top 10’s and his first podium in 22-23. Then last season a full 22 races, 14 top 20’s, six top 10’s, two podiums, and his first career victory. It all led to 8th in the IBU Cup Overall.

The key for Kaiser is that he’s a good skier. He ranked 12th in skiing on the IBU Cup last season and had an average course time rank of 11.7. The difference maker for him, though, is that his shooting has just gotten a little bit less bad. That’s certainly not to say it’s good. 72.1% is not good. But it’s less bad and gives his ski speed a chance to make a difference.

In all likelihood Simon Kaiser will spend another full season battling the Norwegian power team on the IBU Cup. If he can get the shooting straightened out though we will see him on the World Cup sooner rather than later.

Leonard Pfund (21)

A little older than most who make their Juniors debuts, Leonard Pfund came along last season at age 20 and immediately impressed for the Germans. He got his first career victory in just his second weekend of racing on the Juniors in a Super Sprint, and he paired that with a 5th in the Sprint that same weekend. That immediately got him an invite to the IBU Cup where he competed for three weekends. He raced 7 times and was top 30 in fie of them including two 12th place finishes. He returned to the Juniors for Junior Worlds and immediately won gold in the Individual. He also was 10th in the Mass 60.

On the Juniors Pfund was a pretty good skier. He was top 8 in course time rank in five of his eight races. He also was a pretty good shooter as he hit 85% with pretty even splits across the prone and standing shooting. On the IBU Cup he was also pretty good especially when you think that he was just 20 years old. His average course time rank was 30 and he shot even better hitting 88.2%.

I am definitely excited to see what we get out of Pfund this season. He’s the kind of guy the Germans need in the system right now. While I’m not about to declare him the future hope for the Germans he has potential to impress. If he can shoot a little closer to that 88% on the IBU Cup, and show good ski growth, then I’ll start tooting his horn.

Hans Koellner (23)

Prior to last season I would have guessed we would be analyzing a season’s worth of Hans Koellner’s IBU Cup right now. Instead he raced exactly 0 IBU events last season. In his career he has spent most of his time on the Juniors were he has 34 races over four seasons. In those 34 races he has one win (which came in 22-23 at the Junior European Championships), three podiums, 10 top 10’s and a pile of top 20’s. The vast majority of this success came in the 22-23 season when he finished 2nd Overall on the Junior Cup mostly on the strength of competing many times and regularly finishing top 15.

Koellner has plenty of Juniors data to analyze. Prior to his year off he was starting to become a pretty good shooter. Throughout his career he’s maintained his shooting average between 85% and 89% with the 22-23 season coming in at 86.8% overall. The progress he has needed to see is in the skiing. His last Juniors season when he was 21 he was plenty fast in the regular events with course time ranks exclusively top 10 up until the Junior European Championships. There he ranked 4th in skiing in the Individual to start the races. But in the Sprint he was 45th fastest and at Junior Worlds his course time ranks were 27, 19, and 30. So did his form fall apart? Or did he just run into better competition? My guess is both. But the thing is this was 18 months ago now! This could all be different!

Koellner’s progress had been steady. I guess we’ll see what improvements he’s been able to make. Clearly the coaches have seen enough to feel he warrants at least a weekend or two on the IBU Cup and soon enough we will have the chance to see what they are seeing!

No Man’s Land These three men, especially Menz, are not bad biathletes and have had some significant accomplishments in their careers. Unfortunately they start the 24-25 season without a home on the World Cup or IBU Cup. No longer eligible for the Juniors they find themselves in the dreaded no man’s land competing in the German home races. If they can keep fighting and a spot opens up maybe they can grab it!

Benjamin Menz (22)

Benjamin Menz is currently the most decorated young German biathlete, most of which came during his stellar 2022-2023 campaign. He won two events including gold in the Junior Worlds Individual and finished 6th and 4th in the other two Worlds races. He followed that up last year coming in, admittedly, a little off his top form. Still during the regular Juniors races he had four top 10’s including two podiums and another win. However, Junior Worlds were not good. It’s important not to get too high or two low based off of one weekend of Juniors racing, even if it is Junior Worlds. Several athletes who we would currently consider top 20 biathletes had rough weekends at Junior Worlds before.

Menz is a classic example of a biathlete who is pretty good at everything but not amazing at any one thing. He’s generally a top 20 skier, and at times has found the top 10 in course time ranks such as each of the 2023 Junior Worlds races. He also is a pretty good shooter, consistently hitting in the mid 80% range.

The best of Benjamin Menz profiles as a guy who could end up being a top 10-20 biathlete in the world if not better. This season, though, is going to be about seeing how he stacks up on the IBU Cup. It’s definitely going to be a step up. Menz has shown that he can compete on the IBU Cup and higher and now he’s going to have to show it. His ever present consistent shooting will give him a good base to work off of. Hopefully he comes out and shows us something new.

Darius Lodl (24)

Over the last two seasons Darius Lodl has run just 11 races. He wasn’t exactly a high touted Juniors competitor, but he did have five top 10’s and a win on the Juniors level. Last season he did join the IBU Cup team after the holiday break in Pokljuka and stayed there the rest of the season until the last two weeks. He did score a top 10 and had three top 20’s.

Lodl was okay last season. He had an average course time rank of 35.1 and he shot 80% with a much better standing shooting than prone shooting. He’s still just 24 year old and biathlon careers aren’t always predictable. At this point we’ll see what Lodl is able to do. There should still be some opportunities for him to find some run on the IBU Cup. It’s up to Lodl to earn more.

Philipp Lipowitz (25)

Like Darius Lodl, Philipp Lipowitz is in a similar situation. After competing on the Juniors from 2017-2018 through 2020-2021 he raced five times on the IBU Cup during the 21-22 season and 0 times in 22-23. He returne last season for another seven races with four of them coming across the last two weeks in Obertilliach. The first four races he finished in the 40-50s, but at least he closed strong finishing 9th and 19th in the last two races.

Lipowitz has been a better shooter than skier and last season was about the same. He hit 83% of his shots while having an average course time rank of 33.7. Just like with Lodl, he’s still relatively young. He could find a new gear in the next few years. In the meantime though he’s going to have to fight hard to prove himself, when given the opportunity, on the IBU Cup.

Juniors: Then comes another HUGE list of Juniors on the national team roster. While some have had better races already, they are all Juniors so we’ll see how they come along!

Linus Kesper

Just like Leonard Pfund, Linus Kesper also made both his Juniors and IBU Cup debut last season. Also just like Pfund he came right in and had a big time impact. In his very first race he finished 2nd in the Pokljuka Sprint. Over the course of his Juniors racing he he had five top 10’s in seven races. This includes his very strong Junior Worlds when he won bronze in the Sprint and 6th in the Individual. He also raced four times on the IBU Cup and he twice finished 18th, the best of his career.

Kesper was a little faster than Pfund, but not quite as good a shooter. His average course time rank was 7.9 and he finished outside the top 10 in skiing just twice. His shooting was actually really good except for just two races. When you only race seven times though, two races drags down the average. He hit 83% for the season, but if you cut out the bad two races he was at 90%. Not a huge sample size but he has good potential to be a shooter that hits in the high 80’s.

Kesper, like Pfund, has a good chance to show off his potential this season. It’s too early to call Kesper the man of the future, but it’s possible that between him and Pfund, maybe, just maybe, they can start to show a bright new future for the German men.

Tim Nechwatal (20)

After two seasons on the Juniors in which he did show any massive amounts of potential outside of an 8th place 2023 Youth Worlds Pursuit, Tim Nechwatal had a better season last year. He raced 10 times and had six top 15 finishes including his first podium in the Super Sprint in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna.

Nechwatal didn’t show spectacularly improved ski speed. In fact his average course rank and measurements vs the median and top 10 were roughly the same in 23-24 as they had been in 22-23. It was his shooting that jumped al the way up to 80%, after hitting 69.1% the year before, that brought about the improved finishes. In particular it was raising his standing shooting from 61.8% to 74.3% which was very helpful.

Let’s see what Nechwatal has in store for us this season. That was a very nice year over year improvement. Could he have another in store for us this seaosn? Absolutely! Hopefully this time with his skiing, but we’ll take improvement wherever we can get it. This may even lead to his first IBU Cup races as well.

Fabian Kaskel (21)

It’s been an interesting journey for Fabian Kaskel. He made his debut in the the 2019-2020 season at just 16 years old and raced at the Youth Worlds. Two seasons later, he raced three weeks including Youth Worlds and showed a good spark. At those Youth Worlds he finished 9th, 14th, and 11th. Heading into the 22-23 season it seemed like Kaskel might be heading towards a pretty good Juniors year. And in fact it was a good one! He started out slow but had a stretch of five consecutive top 10’s including all three 2023 Junior Europeans races. He followed that up finishing 23rd, 12th, and 8th at Junior Worlds. Coming into last season it was difficult to tell what we would see.

After a strong summer and fall the German team immediately sent him to the World Cup. He was actually okay considering he was just 20 years old. Across the first trimester he had three top 23 finishes including a career best 15th. After the New Year he was brought back to Juniors where he raced three times and then that was it for the season. As I said, an interesting journey.

It’s also been an interesting pathway because his statistics are trending in odd directions. He has gotten worse at shooting every single season. Seriously. Every year he’s a little bit worse than the year prior. However, his skiing is also just a little bit better every year and he ended up with an average course time rank of 13.

Truthfully I have no idea what to think about the very early young career of Fabian Kaskel. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. I guess we’ll just see what we get. He has shown the ability to shoot much better than he has been recently. If, and it might be a big if, he can get his shooting back to where it was, closer to the mid 80’s, along with his improved skiing, that’s an athlete I would be interested in seeing.

Elias Seidl (20)

-22-23 Youth Worlds: 21st, 12th, and 7th
– 23-24 raced just three times in Jakuszyce: 22nd, 12th, 22nd
– Average course time rank: 12.3
– Shooting Percentage: 70%

Erik Hafenmair (20)

-Did not race 2023-2024
– 2023-2024 raced Youth Worlds: 12th, 7th, 6th
– Course time ranks: 16, 6, 10
– Hit rates: 80%, 80%, 75%

Albert Engelmann (19)

-2023-2024: No racing
– Best moment of career: 2022 and 2023 Youth Worlds. Six races with four medals and all top 10’s.
– 22-23 Avg course time rank: 8.9
– 22-23 Shooting Percentage: 74.2%

Korbinian Kuebler (18)

-2023-2024 was debut season and raced only at Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 38th and 31st
– Course time ranks: 63rd and 53rd
– Hit rates: 90% and 95%

Lukas Tannheimer (17)

-2023-2024 was debut season and raced only at Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 28th, 33rd, and 23rd
– Course time ranks: 9, 15, 15
– Hit rates: 65%, 70%, and 80%

Finn Zurnieden (18)

-2023-2024 was debut season and raced only at Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 34th, 41st, and 22nd
– Course time ranks: 25, 21, and 25
– Hit rates: 80%, 70%, and 90%

Nils Schneiderling (19)

-2023-2024 was debut season and he raced 7 races at each of the regular season stops
– Best moment: Jakuszyce where he finished 13th, 18th, and 8th
– Avg course time rank: 15.1
– Shooting Percentage: 68.9%

Bjorn Ole Hederich (17)

-Raced 2024 Youth Olympics in Gangwon where he finished 7th in the Individual and 10th in the Sprint
– Hit 8/10 in the Sprint and 17/20 in the Individual

David Schmutz (19)

-Debuted at the 2023 Youth Olympics in Forni Avoltri where he finished 10th in the Individual and 20th in the Sprint
– Hit 6/10 in the Sprint and 17/20 in the Individual

The following men have not yet raced internationally:

Karl Julian Schuetze (19)
Luca Anding (18)
Hannes Lipfert (16)
Kilian Pfaffinger (17)
Hugo Winter (16)