Ruhpolding Recap

The Winners – Top Performers of the Week

Nations Medal Table for the Week

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

Athlete Medal Table for the Week

Athlete	Medals
Franziska Preuss	🥈🥈
Vebjoern Soerum	🥇
Lou Jeanmonnot	🥇
Tommaso Giacomel	🥇
Elvira Oeberg	🥇
Emilien Claude	🥈
Sturla Holm Laegreid	🥈
Andrejs Rastorgujevs	🥉
Amy Baserga	🥉
Johannes Thingnes Boe	🥉
Jeanne Richard	🥉

Men’s Athlete of the Week: Vebjoern Soerum and Tommaso Giacomel – In a sport that has been so dominated by a select few men over the last several seasons, it is an absolutely rare occurrence that we see two new winners in the same week. Yet here, in Ruhpolding in January, 2025 we have two first time winners.

In the Individual Soerum was just perfect 20/20, his first perfect shooting on the World Cup and the 2nd of his career. He was 11th fastest on the course. If you take out the outrageous Swedes though he was just 30 seconds back of Riethmueller. When you draw it up for an Individual that’s about all you could ask for.

Tommaso Giacomel’s win was a bit more thrilling, not only because it was a Mass Start and they usually are, but because of the nature of this particularly race. Through two shootings, and heading to the range for the first standing shoot there were still 11 men within 7 seconds and 19 within 26 seconds. It was a very tight race! He ended up holding off JT Boe and Sturla Holm Laegreid in a tension filled final shoot before putting in a superb final lap to slam the door shut on Laegreid. A 20/20 day with amazing shooting speed particularly in the final lap, and great strength late…it was a perfect first win!

Women’s Athlete of the Week: Franziska Preuss – In a week in which both of her primary rivals for the Overall Globe took a victory, it was Preuss who won the week by finishing 2nd in both races and thus extending her lead in the Overall against both of them. She looked very good in both races. In the Individual she had a miss and still only finished 35 seconds back of Lou Jeanmonnot who went clean. That was almost entirely due to her shooting speed where she picked up 22.7 seconds.

The Mass Start was actually even more impressive to me. She didn’t appear to be in top ski form and looked to be working a little harder on the course than her top rivals were. And then she had the miss in the 2nd prone shooting to put her 23 seconds back around the midway point of the race. Certainly not out of it, but it felt a little more dire when the lead pack consisted of Elvira Oeberg, Lou Jeanmonnot, and Dorothea Wierer.

Preuss did exactly what she had to do on the course over the next two laps, while nailing her standing shooting. The 2nd standing shoot was especially critical as Wierer, Jeanmonnot, and Hanna Oeberg all had misses which opened the door to a podium finish. Preuss left the range running seven seconds back of Wierer and Jeanne Richard. She closed that down almost immediately and shortly therafter made her move. Richard followed her but she wasn’t able to hold on to Preuss and she powered away for 2nd place. It was the kind of finish to a race that in the end is how Overall Globes are won.

Men’s Young Athlete of the Week: Jan Gunka – It wasn’t exactly a banner week for the u23 men this week. Jan Gunka wins the award pretty much because he had a 29th. That’s a career best for him! Gunka along with Konrad Badacz and Grzegorz Galica represent a pretty bright future for the Polish men and I’m really excited to see how they develop. Come the 2030 Olympics they could be ready to make some noise!

Women’s Young Athlete of the Week: Oceane Michelon – Oceane Michelon is on a heck of a run right now. Before this trimester she had three career top 10’s, all of which came in the first trimester. That was three in 12 races. Now she had four straight top 10’s after finishing 6th and 4th in Oberhof followed by 4th and 8th in Ruhpolding. She’s really coming into her own lately. This week she returned to top 10 ski ranks just as she was for the entire first trimester. However, she has paired that with now four straight races hitting 90% or better. This week in Ruhpolding she hit 38/40. Unreal stuff from the 22 year old French woman. She’s not up to 7th in the Overall just 1 point behind Julia Simon!

Men’s Race of the Week: Mass Start – This will, at least for me, go down as one of the races of the year. Every Mass Start has the potential to be a slow elimination to see who is still standing in the end. That’s exactly what happened this week. Through two shootings, and heading to the range for the first standing shoot there were still 11 men within 7 seconds and 19 within 26 seconds. It was a very tight race! And that’s when things turned on a dime.

After shoot 3 it was whittled down quite a bit to Giacomel alongside JT Boe and Laegreid. That’s right it was Giacomel being chased down by the top two men in the sport. There they were standing all right next to each other with the win on the line and it was Giacomel coming out clean and fast. He mowed down the targets in just 18.4 seconds, the fastest final shoot of the day. To do that with the race on the line and standing alongside JT Boe and Laegreid is simply phenomenal stuff.

Giacomel left the range with 9 seconds in hand on Laegreid and it was never in doubt. In fact JT Boe got closer to Laegreid than Laegreid did to Giacomel. Giacomel finished it off with an absolutely emphatic punch of the air.

Women’s Race of the Week: Individual – It’s not that the Mass Start was bad, it certainly wasn’t! It’s because of the brilliance of Lou Jeanmonnot and Franziska Preuss in this race as well as the resurgence of several other exciting athletes. Jeanmonnot was her absolutely brilliant self. She was 20/20 and had that completely subjective “look” where there was just no doubt that she was going to hit her shots. She got to the range and had that absolutely killer focus look on that we have come to know so well. She took her time, losing 22 seconds in shooting to Preuss, but she did it knowing that if she hits her shots it’s over for pretty much everybody else. She hit her shots, and it was over for everybody else. Then, as discussed above, we had Preuss finishing just 35 seconds back even with a miss. The top 2 in the Overall giving us a show worthy of the top 2 in the Overall.

Behind those two we had the following excitement:

• Amy Baserga finds her first podium
• Oceane Michelon matches her career best 4th
• Johanna Skotthim in the top 5 for the first time in four years
• Anna Gandler’s return to the Flower ceremony after becoming a regular there at the end of last season
• Suvi Minkkinen again in the top 10
• Hanna Oeberg back in the top 10 for the first time this season
• Susan Kuelm career best 12

All in all it was a pretty exciting day that had to follow up after the shocking JT Boe retirement press conference.

Super Sprints – A super quick hop through some top stories

Yellow Bib Updates

1) Men’s Top 5:

Athlete	Total Points (Points Back)
Johannes Thingnes Boe	727
Sturla Holm Laegreid	689 (-38)
Emilien Jacquelin	527 (-200)
Eric Perrot	507 (-220)
Sebastian Samuelsson	495 (-212)

Danger, Will Robinson! Okay that reference will bypass most of you, but that’s how I feel this week. JT Boe is clinging on to his lead, but it’s looking more fragile by the week. He came into the season and clearly was working his way into shape during the 1st trimester. That worked well as he build himself a solid lead! Then he got sick over the break which clearly affected him both physically and even more important emotionally/mentally as he had that 85th place finish that we now know was the first indication of the looming retirement announcement. As a result, a very solid Sturla Holm Laegreid has continued to chip away at this. Laegreid may have actually eliminated the deficit during JT Boe’s Individual adventures except Laegreid was only able to summon a 16th place finish. If JT Boe doesn’t get things turned around Laegried may actually be wearing Yellow into Worlds. However, we know Boe absolutely adores Antholz so that’s no easy task for Laegreid!

2) Women’s Top 5:

Athlete	Total Points (Points Back)
Franziska Preuss	749
Lou Jeanmonnot	607 (-142)
Elvira Oeberg	571 (-178)
Suvi Minkkinen	459 (-290)
Jeanne Richard	426 (-323)

In a week in which Lou Jeanmonnot and Elvira Oeberg won the two women’s races, it was Franziska Preuss who actually gained the most points in the Overall race. Sometimes 2nd place really does get you the win. It’s a classic example that wins are excellent, but it’s the consistent podium finisher who often takes home the Overall Globe. Also, check out the last two names on this list: Suvi Minkkinen and Jeanne Richard. Suvi Minkkinen would certainly NEVER have been on anybody’s list before this season. And Jeanne Richard is making quite a splash this year all the way up to 5th over her excellent and accomplished teammates including Julia Simon and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet.

3) The JT Boe Retirement Week – It’s a strange week where everything else on this recap is going to be completely overshadowed by something that took place in the media center. On Thursday, one day after a completely bizarre 85th place finish in the Individual that saw JT Boe put on a show with a rapid fire 5/5 5th shoot, raise his arms to the crowd, and then slowly saunter down the range until spurred into action by none other than Emilien Jacquelin. Following the race JT Boe joked that Jacquelin shamed him into finishing the race saying that the Yellow bib isn’t allowed to quit. The whole day it seemed like everybody just wanted to talk about what on Earth was going on with JT Boe.

The next day JT Boe and the Norwegian team called the media to the media center where he announced that he will end his career following the last race of the season in Oslo. Suddenly things seemed to make a lot more sense. Since the winter break Boe had discussed several times his experiences of his family being sick. It clicked into place during the press conference. He talked about the pressure that his training puts on his family. He talked about how he felt like he wasn’t always there to help with his kids. As a dad I completely understand what he was feeling. I can’t imagine being in a position where your kids are sick and you don’t feel like you’re able to be there 100% for them because you’re trying to protect your health for your career. When your kids are sick you just want to be there for them and do everything for them to help them feel better. If he felt at all that he wasn’t able to do that then I completely understand why he was ready to step away.

JT Boe is a man that has done everything there is to do in biathlon. He has five Overall Globes. He has 8 Olympic medals and 38 Wolds medals. In 2022-2023 he put together what will likely be the best season of World Cup biathlon any of us ever see. He’s likely made enough money to keep himself and his family comfortable for a lifetime. There is nothing left for him to accomplish here. He’s ready to be a dad before his kids are all grown up. He’s ready to be a full time equal partner to his wife. We are going to miss him, and I’m certainly not ready for it, but he’s ready to say goodbye to biathlon and I couldn’t be happier for him.

4) What a Women’s Race! – This Women’s Overall race is shaping up to be absolutely incredible down the stretch. As we hit the halfway point of the season we have three women performing at a very high level. This week alone we had Lou Jeanmonnot and Elvira Oeberg both win a race. However, they actually both lost points to Franziska Preuss who, unfortunately for them, finished 2nd in both races. That means that she gained 26 points on Jeanmonnot and 19 points on Oeberg.

These women seem to be dead set on giving and neck and neck race all the way to the end. It’s incredible to see that we have three women who are all not just capable of winning races but are actually doing it ever single week. At this point Preuss still holds a sizeable lead. However, if Jeanmonnot and Elvira keep winning races, even with Preuss returning to her podium finding ways, those leads should slowly but surely slip away. Let’s just enjoy the heck out of this while we can!

5) Dorothea Wierer Rises Again? – Here we go again! It seems like since Wierer last won the Overall people have been waiting on Wierer to finally fall off a cliff. Yet again and again she keeps on rising.

• The first time this happened was in the 21-22 season as she started off the season very slowly but worked her way into shape including four top 10’s in the last two weeks before the Olympics. That included winning the Antholz Mass Start that season. She went on to win bronze in the Olympic Sprint!
• 22-23 was a little different. She didn’t start off quite as slowly as she did in the previous season. However, in a bit of a career resurgence she returned to finish 2nd in the Overall. This also included rebounding after a rough World Championships to win twice in Oestersund to at least put a little scare in Julia Simon.
• This season she rises again. Another slow start to the year but she again has been building in form. A 4th place finish in the Mass Start in Ruhpolding could be a sign that she’s going to do something really fun for the home crowd in Antholz this week!

I will be honest when I say that I’m not totally objective about Wierer. I’m always looking for her to have a resurgence because just like Tarjei Boe and several other veterans I’m just not ready to see them fall off yet! I love them too much! So yes I might be reading A LOT into one 4th place finish, but I’m always looking for signs with Wierer and this feels like a sign. Just give me one more good Worlds and a great run towards the Olympics next season please!

6) Sivert Bakken Wins! – One of the biggest stories of the week wasn’t on the World Cup at all. Sivert Bakken is a winner again. The last time Bakken stood on top of the podium was the final race of the 2021-2022 World Cup season when he won the Mass Start in Oslo. During that offseason he developed heart muscle inflammation and he hadn’t been able to even train again for a long time. He returned to training this season and earned his way into the IBU Cup. Ever since then he’s been making steady gains.

Sivert Bakken reached his first podium of the comeback in Obertilliach, the third week of the season. Bakken set a new season’s best of 2nd the first week of the 2nd trimester in Arber. This week he won the Short Individual with one miss and the third best course time of the day. All in all it was a very good performance by Bakken and he’s back on the top step of an IBU Cup podium. While it’s just one more step towards finding the World Cup again that’s a very big step.

Flower Ceremony – We’ll recap some top finishes from the week!

1) Vebjoern Soerum – As noted above Vebjoern Soerum won his first career race in the Individual. He previously had two 3rd place finishes last season in the Oestersund Sprint and Antholz Mass Start.

1) Tommaso Giacomel – Tommaso Giacomel also a first time winner this week after previously finishing 2nd three times, most recently in the Canmore Sprint. After five previous podium finishes and 135 races he secured a very popular first win!

2) Emilien Claude – Emilien Claude is on a run!! He finished 8th and 13th last week in Oberhof which were both his best career finishes. This week he smashed both of those with his first career podium! It sounds like he had a correction made to his rifle and since then the shooting is much better!

3) Amy Baserga – Speaking of athletes on the rise how about Amy Baserga? Last three races are 20th, 11th, and now 3rd. Her previous career best was 9th in the season ending Canmore Mass Start last year. This was also her 3rd career top 10.

3) Jeanne Richard – Jeanne Richard also had a much celebrated podium finish this year. She had been danging around it this season with two 4th place finishes in the Pursuit and Mass Start in Annecy as well as a 6th in the Oberhof Pursuit. Now she has her first career podium, a 3rd in the Ruhpolding Mass Start!

4) Oceane Michelon – Oceane Michelon is on heck of a run right now. She set her career best 4th in the Oberhof Pursuit and immediately tied it with another 4th in the Ruhpolding Individual. That’s four straight top 10’s now!

5) Johanna Skottheim – Okay so not a career best for Skottheim, but worth celebrating regardless! Her 5th place in the Ruhpolding Individual was the 5th top 5 of her career and her first since she had three in two weeks to start the 2020-2021 season.

5) Vitezslav Hornig – Vitezslav Hornig continues to have a heck of a run. After having his 8 best career finishes over the first four weeks of the season Hornig took it to a new level this week finishing 5th in the Individual and 9th in the Mass Start for his first two top 10’s. His newfound speed is seriously paying off now! His previous career best was 15th in the Kontiolahti Mass Start.

7) Otto Invenius – A 2nd career top 10 for Otto Invenius, his 7th place in the Ruhpolding Individual beats out the 10th place finish in the Antholz Mass Start last season. He must like this part of the season because 4 of his 7 best ever finishes have been in weeks 5 and 6 of the season.

9) David Komatz – David Komatz has raced 130 individual races on the World Cup and now he has his first career top 10. He finished 9th in the Individual!

9) Estonia Men’s Relay – Best finish since the 2004-2005 season!

10) Joscha Burkhalter – Joscha Burkhalter returns to the top 10 for the first time since the Ruhpolding Sprint in the 2021-2022 season when he also finished 10th!

12) Susan Kuelm – Susan Kuelm sets a new career best of 12th in the Individual. It’s beats out her prior best finish of 18th in the opening Individual in Oestersund last season. That along with the 20th in the Short Individual to open this season in Kontiolahti are her three career top 20’s!

29) Jan Gunka – Jan Gunka matched his career best of 29th in the Individual. That gives him two this season after he previously finished 29th in the Sprint in Hochfilzen.