Their Victory – Our Victory

It’s a moment I will never forget for the rest of my life. It was nearing the end of a thrilling final race of the season. The Overall Globe was coming down to the last lap of the last race. Our top two contenders for the title had matched each other step for step until… “Oh my God.” “I’m sick.” “Did that really just happen?!?” It’s been just over 24 hours and I still can’t believe it…

Before we get to the exact details of this magnificent pitched battle in Holmenkollen, the moment it all turned, and the ending that will live on in our hearts forever, it’s imperative that we remember the long, winding, and thrilling journey that got us here.

The Competitors

At the beginning of the season, as the first races were getting under way, it seemed like we were being robbed of an opportunity to watch an immense number of talented women fight for the Overall. Vittozzi never started the season. Davidova started strong and then hurt her back. Tandrevold was almost immediately out with a heart condition. Julia Simon came into the season off form and injured herself in the very first race and while able to hit a high peak was never able to do it consistently. Justine Braisaz-Boucher lost the shooting touch she had last season. Late in the season, as she was in the thick of the Overall, Elvira Öberg missed several races that doomed her chances.

Even without so many of these great talents involved the race for the Women’s Overall for the 2024-2025 season was one we will not soon forget and not only for what occurred in the Mass Start in Holmenkollen. The battle pitched two immensely strong women.

There was Franziska Preuß, the German who never lacked for talent, but appeared cursed to be cut down by illness and injury every year of late. Preuß has had some very good seasons in her career so it was not a surprise to anybody to see her at least start the season strong.

In the 2020-2021 season she finished 3rd Overall in a year in which Tiril Eckhoff won 13 races and fairly well dominated the season. However, Preuß still managed a then career best four podiums and proved remarkably consistent with 19 top 10’s.

Sadly though, until this year, that 20-21 season was the last full year she ran. The 21-22 and 22-23 seasons were completely wrecked by illness and injury and she looked like just a shell of the athlete that we had come to know. Even when she was able to compete she was never able to bring the same level of performance. It looked like a cloud was hanging over her. During those two sad seasons she managed just a single podium and just 9 total top 10’s as she was only healthy enough to race 24 times. When we were able to see her she just looked sad and a little lost.

Then last season we saw a glimpse of not just the old Franziska butt possibly a new one. Sverre Roeiseland was clearly a perfect match for her as in just his second year as head coach of the German women’s team she flashed a new level of high level and consistency. Preuß raced just 11 out of 21 races including five top 5’s and 13 top 10’s, a pace even better than she had in her career year of 2020-2021. Until very close to the end of the season she maintained the highest average finish. Ultimately she was surpassed by Lisa Vittozzi and Lou Jeanmonnot in that statistic but her avg rank of 6.4 was still very close to theirs. Unfortunately she was once again struck by repeat illness several times over.

Looking at her statistics from the races she was able to run, though, you can see how she was able to have that incredible level. It was the absolute best of Franziska Preuß. She had the best shooting of her career as she hit 92.8% of her shots including 95.2% prone and 90.4% standing. That made her the 4th best shooter on the World Cup behind just Vanessa Voigt, Lisa Vittozzi, and of course Lou Jeanmonnot. Additionally she was skiing at a level she had never previously reached running 3.5% faster than the median biathlete and just 1.6% back from the median top 10.

During the offseason Franziska Preuß opted to have sinus surgery. She was sick and tired of being sick a tired. Turning 30 in March of 2024, she knew that she was running out year years during which she would be able to compete at the high level required to challenge for the Overall. If there was ever a moment to go all in, it was now.

Joining her in the battle was Lou Jeanmonnot, the immensely talented French woman who has taken the hearts of biathlon fans everywhere since she joined the World Cup full time in the 2022-2023 season. Known for her steely eyed focus on the shooting range, Jeanmonnot has grown from being a great shooter and a good skier into being one of the clear cut giants of the sport.

In her first full season Jeanmonnot finished 11th in the Overall, as she immediately proved her level with nine top 10’s and the first two podiums of her career. She was deadly on the range hitting 91.7% right out of the gate. Incredibly that was the “worst” that she has ever been in her career.

Last year she came within a couple of races of making herself this season’s defending Overall Champion. She won two of the first three races of the year in Oestersund and was wearing the yellow bib early in the season when she was forced to miss two critical races in Lenzerheide due to COVID. Missing those two races ended up being crucial in deciding the 2023-2024 Overall Globe.

Over the two and a half months of the 23-24 season Lou Jeanmonnot was the only woman who could match, and even surpass, Lisa Vittozzi. From the races in Oberhof through the end of the season Jeanmonnot finished outside the top 7 just one time, 13th in the Oslo-Holmenkollen Individual. From that race to the end of the season, six races in all, she finished on the podium every single time with two victories including the Canmore Mass Start to close the season.

Unfortunately, because of those two lost races in Annecy, and the new that year rule that the two worst results of the season were no longer dropped, by the time Jeanmonnot put on that final trimester surge she too far behind to take the Overall. As it was she still only finished 23 points from taking the Big Globe. Over the final trimester she actually outscored Overall Globe winner Vittozzi by 58 points.

Lou Jeanmonnot, or Looooouuuu, and her loving fans shout out to her, made that leap but going from being a very good skier to a great one. She went from running 2.2% faster than the median biathlete up to a very good 3.7% faster than median. That put her just 0.9% back from the median top 10. She did that while maintaining her incredible sharp shooting an incredible 92.8% overall. In the end she ranked 8th in skiing and 3rd in shooting. It’s no surprise that she made a run for the Overall Globe last year.

So these were our contenders, two top women who had shown the high level needed to win the Overall just last season. Anybody making a list of possible winners of the Globe this season would have had Franziska Preuß and Lou Jeanmonnot on it. They delivered us the most amazing finale we could have dreamed of.

The Lead Up

So those are the women who would contest the Globe in the final races. But before we jump to the final battles it’s worth at least a quick glance at the amazing season that led up to it.

As the First Trimester got underway, Lou Jeanmonnot jumped right to the front of the pack. She led off with a victory in the Kontiolahti Short Individual and put herself directly into Yellow. She would later have another win in the Hochfilzen Pursuit. However, the rest of the way in the first eight races she had just two top 10’s. Multiple times she had an opportunity for a win or a podium but late misses kept holding her back.

Meanwhile, Franziska Preuß immediately showed that she would be one of the women to contest the Overall. Over the first eight races of the season she had six podiums and never once finished outside of the top 5. This included her first two victories since the 2018-2019 Ruhpolding Mass Start. These two wins this season came in Hochfilzen Sprint and the Annecy-le Grand Bornand Pursuit.

The win in Annecy was particularly incredible. She raced it perfectly from the start. Coming out in bib 2, just 1.4 seconds back of Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, Preuß appeared in control the entire way. As became her calling card throughout the season she didn’t race to anybody else’s pace. She was comfortable running her own race from the start. That basically meant being fast but not the fastest, and hitting many if not all of the targets. On this day she went 19/20. She took the lead after shoot 1, and by the time she finally had her only miss in shoot 3, she was too far gone for anybody to catch and ended up absolutely cruising to victory 27 seconds ahead.

At the start of trimester 2 the only question was, could Super Franzi possibly keep up this incredible level? If so she was going to run away with the Overall race. It seemed nearly impossible right? Well right out of the gate the questions stated flying in a big way. Preuß struggled once again in Oberhof, never her favorite locale, as she finished just 28th and 20th.

Insult was added to injury for Preuß as Jeanmonnot came out hot and showed that her relatively sluggish start in the First Trimester was a thing of the past. Jeanmonnot warmed into her 2nd trimester finishing 7th in the Sprint. Not satisfied to merely chip away at the Overall lead, though, Jeanmonnot went out and won the Pursuit. In this race she looked like Lou Jeanmonnot, and that’s a beautiful thing to watch. She had an early miss. After that though she was simply untouchable. She hit her last 15 shots and on laps 2-4 she had course time ranks of 4th, 3rd, and 2nd. With that dominant show of force Jeanmonnot significantly closed the gap on Preuß and thrust herself into the 2nd position.

The Overall race kicked into top gear in Ruhpolding. The Individual was a thing of beautify and showcased the battle that we were about to see. Both Lou and Franzi looked like they were ready to take the crown. Jeanmonnot won the day going 20/20. She showed a mature and steady approach to the race knowing her skiing was good enough that she could back off a little bit and focus on knocking down the targets and still win, which she did. Preuß’s only mistake on the day came in the 2nd shooting. She also showed something new by skiing fast enough to only lose to Jeanmonnot by 35 seconds even with an added penalty.

The rest of the Second Trimester just kept up the intensity. Preuß showed no signs of backing down as she finished out with three more podiums in the Ruhpolding Mass Start and Antholz. Even with that Jeanmonnot somehow cut down the deficit going 9, 1, 1. This was the kind of unreal biathlon you dream of.

After a pause for World Championships, things picked back up in Nove Mesto. Just like in Oberhof Franziska Preuß started slow while Lou Jeanmonnot picked up steam. Preuß initially appeared to be tiring as her speed appeared to be off in Czechia. However, she showed true mental fortitude as she buckled down and finished 3rd and 5th in Pokljuka. She also showed improved course time losing minimal time to Jeanmonnot in the laps that mattered. However, Preuß still wasn’t able to match for Jeanmonnot’s level. Lou finished 4th, 4th, 7th, and then a gorgeous victory in the Pokljuka Mass Start. Crucially, when she came to a crucial final shoot in Pokljuka she showed absolutely zero nerves.

Heading into Holmenkollen these women were absolutely humming. Lou Jeanmonnot trailed Franziska Preuß by just 20 points. Both had shown that they had the skills and the mental fortitude to win it all.

Holmenkollen

The stage was set for an unbelievable final weekend. Both women were coming in hot. Just 20 points separated the two. Jeanmonnot had answered any possible questions about being “ready’ to win. Preuß showed that any fatigue she had in Nove Mesto was gone. It was time to battle.

We started the weekend with the most thrilling Sprint of the season. Close finishes in a Sprint are relatively common. Ultra close finishes of less than a few seconds are not. Gaps of less than one second between 1st and 2nd almost never happens. That’s exactly what we got in the first women’s race in Holmenkollen.

Preuß racing ahead of Lou Jeanmonnot went 10/10. She raced hard and strong literally all the way to the line. She put in a lunge that took her to the absolute limit as she collapsed over the line. Jeanmonnot knew that to have a chance to challenge Preuß she was going to have to be perfect. She came to the range and did exactly that. No nerves just perfect shooting. She raced off the range just 5.5 seconds back. She slowly sliced the lead down throughout the last lap. Coming to the final 600m it was down to 2.3 seconds. Lou left it all on the course and she came to the line with nothing left in the tank. She ended up a mere 0.2 seconds off of Preuß’s time.

Preuß won the race thanks to a perfect ski thrust at the finish. It was a stellar first race. They both answered questions. Preuß was just 3.9 seconds off of Jeanmonnot’s time showing she had the ski strength to win the Globe. Jeanmonnot meanwhile answered any remaining questions about her mental fortitude. Hitting those last 5 standing shots proved that beyond a doubt. The final margin came down to Preuß’s superior shooting speed…and that ski throw. The margin now? Preuß by 35 points.

The Pursuit was one of those moments you just had to see. Preuß and Jeanmonnot took off side by side with a wide margin on the field. It was their own race within a race. On this day Jeanmonnot was not going to be denied. She had an early miss but no bother, she tracked down Preuß after she had a miss of her own in the second prone. The separation came on shoot 3 as Preuß had two misses. Jeanmonnot raced away to a lead she would never give up. Preuß did fantastic work to go clean in her last shoot and limit the damage. However, Jeanmonnot had completed a massive comeback. After Annecy the gap was 213 points. Going into the final day Lou had taken Yellow back by a mere 5 points.

The Final Duel

And now we come to this final day. This final day of the 2024-2025 season that we biathlon fans will remember for the rest of our lives. The day started out as every day had this week: bright and sunny. The only difference was that it was just a tiny bit cooler and a bit breezier. The fans made their way up into the hills of Holmenkollen. The spirits were high but the nerves were palpable.

Franziska Preuß’s family found a spot along the ropes on one of the climbs about midway through the lap up on the Kapellskogen. They had several German families around them turning it into a mini Ruhpolding. Chants of “Super Franzi, Super Franzi” rained down even during the warm up laps. Every German fan on those hills was nervous.

Down in the stadium we chatted with some of the many French fans who were packing into the venue. The feelings were similarly nervous, but also similarly excited. Even in the media center everybody we spoke with was besides themselves with excitement and nerves. Who couldn’t be?

As the music played and the seconds ticked down to the final race of the season Lou Jeanmonnot readied herself. Preuß stared out at the course cool eyed and calm. Neither appeared nervous in the least…at least on the surface. Only they know what they were feeling in that moment.

The race got underway as so many other Mass Starts have, with the group making their way through the first lap. While Julia Simon went hard at the start there were no major attacks. The first shooting arrived quickly. Preuß clean and Jeanmonnot a single miss. Advantage: Preuß.

Lap 2 began with Julia Simon out front but Preuß quickly recovered the time lost on the shooting range. Jeanmonnot meanwhile was doing serious work out on the course. She cut the deficit from 35 seconds at the range down to 12 at the final split on the course. The PA announcer was doing an amazing job giving the crowd a play by play of what was happening on the course. Every time a split came out showing Jeanmonnot closing ground the French crowd roared. By the time the 2nd shoot came Jeanmonnot had put herself right back in striking distance. As Jeanmonnot and Preuß hit their final prone shots of the season they left for lap 3 with 8 seconds separating them. Advantage: Tie

As the athletes made their way around the course on lap 3 you didn’t need a PA announcer to know where they were. Every small group on the course was giving out a roar as Preuß made her way past followed shortly by Jeanmonnot. From down in the stadium there were several moments when we caught a glimpse. Everybody around the stadium was peering desperately into the hills trying to judge if the gap was closing. It wasn’t. Whether Lou was content to keep the gap at just over 10 seconds, knowing it would all come down to the shooting or whether she just didn’t have the strength at that moment to cut down the lead we don’t know. However, as they made their way to the stadium for the first standing shooting we did know that this was still anybody’s ballgame.

From our vantage point scattered amongst the athletes of the who lined the course of the opening straightway of the course the tension was truly palpable. Every athletes seemed to be internalizing the stress of the moment. Feeling the butterflies in the stomach and the tremble in the legs. The first standing shooting seemed to be a major turning point. Franziska Preuß, as had happened several times including in the Holmenkollen Pursuit, threw one wide on the 3rd shooting. Lou Jeanmonnot threw up another clean sheet. Her shooting was fast and she was on the penalty loop while Jeanmonnot was still shooting. Lou, however, left the range with a lead, not just on Preuß, but on the whole field. Her advantage on Preuß was 9.7 seconds. Advantage: Jeanmonnot by a hair.

Franziska Preuß hadn’t really been under stress on the course all day. The pace had been firm but it hadn’t been killer. Now was the moment that we would see if she truly had the legs to contend. There was an open question going around those around us: would she make a move and try to close the gap prior to the shoot or was she going to aim to hold the gap, relying on her strong shooting and potentially save herself for a big final push.

We had our answer early. Preuß immediately made a move to close the gap. She kept closing it down throughout the lap and by the end of the lap she was right on the tails of Jeanmonnot and Hanna Öberg.

This was it. The top 2 women in the Overall were in the top group on the last race of the season coming up to the last shooting. Everything relied on these final 5 shots. Winner take all. There have been a vanishingly small number of high leverage shoots of this caliber in the history of biathlon. Nobody would blame either of these women for just the slightest flinch.

Anxiety gripped the men and women on the course around me and we were standing one hundred meters away from the range. Nobody knew what to expect.

Hit. Hit. Hit. Hit. Hit. Hit. Hit. Hit. Hit. Hit. Jeanmonnot was shooting just slightly ahead of Preuß by approximately 0.5 seconds. Every time she hit a target Preuß followed with another hit. The crowd roared again, and again, and again. Everybody out on the course looked on in joyous amazement. Jeanmonnot and Preuß left together with Jeanmonnot just ahead. This would be decided with one final lap around the track. One final lap. Woman vs. woman. This is it.

The lap started out slow. They were marking each other. Jeanmonnot and Preuß were just waiting for the moment to make their move. Preuß was more than happy to tag along behind Jeanmonnot. Elvira Öberg who started the lap 16 seconds behind was on them within the first km of the last lap. When she caught up she initially tried to move around but Jeanmonnot moved right into her slipstream. Suddenly Preuß’s whole plan seemed to have gone up in smoke. Now Jeanmonnot was getting a free ride and had the opportunity to slingshot around tor an attack whenever she was ready.

That moment came on the 2nd to last climb of the day. Lou made her move. It was violent and decisive. She went hard and snow went flying. For just a moment it appeared to be the moment she pulled away and won the race and the Globe. Franzi Preuß, as she had done so many time this year, answered the bell one more time. She kicked it up into high gear. Jeanmonnot had about a 1.5 meter lead…but that was it. Preuss pulled back strong and recovered. Elvira fell back. It was just the two of them now.

They reached the top of the climb and as the came around the “Bø” Hagen as it was named this week, Preuß came level with her. There they were, the top two women in the World side by side with about 1 kilometer to go. This was it. Just one left turn and they would enter the stadium for the final loop. They would go down along the grandstand, up a short steep climb, then pass behind the shooting range. Finally they would come down and over the “bump,” before the final straightway to the finish.

Where would the move come? The climb surely. And if that wasn’t decisive were we in for a final sprint for the Globe? All of us were having these thoughts as the women came along the Bø Haugen to make the turn into the stadium where we would catch our first glimpses of these two great champions.

We got saw them appear at the corner and then…“Oh my God.” “I’m sick.” “Did that really just happen?!?” These are the words I heard around me immediately. I was surrounded by men and women representing many teams including Canada, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland and Czechia. And those were only the ones right around me. There were representatives from every team around us. Roughly two dozen photographers. Journalists. Represtentives of the IBU. Nobody could believe what just happened.

By now we’ve all seen it but it’s still shocking. Coming around the corner Lou Jeanmonnot went down. She crashed to the snow. While it took her just a couple of seconds to get back up on her feet it felt like she was down for 10. Elvira carefully came around her on the outside. By then, though, Preuß had gotten herself halfway down the straightaway.

Just moments earlier we had been buzzing. Now it was quiet and tense. Nobody could believe what had just happened. Nobody wanted it this way. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. I talked to nearly a dozen athletes and techs on the snow . It seemed that everybody felt the same. It didn’t matter if Franziska Preuß or Lou Jeanmonnot had won, it should have been a a fair fight. Nobody thought Preuß did anything wrong. Nobody thought it was a dirty move. Everybody thought it shouldn’t end like this. They both deserved to have a fair shot to battle it out.

Looking back now we know what happened. Franzi was on the outside and took an aggressive but appropriate line around the corner. Lou came through on the inside and got her own pole on her ski. She caught herself up and went down. Later she would say that she didn’t blame Preuß one bit. In fact, Jeanmonnot said that had she been on the outside she would have taken the same line.

Preuß stayed ahead of Elvira and Jeanmonnot the rest of the way. She attacked the final climb. She made her way behind the range without incident. She came across the bump. She just briefly let her weight slide back but avoided a devastating crash. She came down the final stretch and across the line. Franziska Preuß won the race. She won the Overall Globe. At that moment she had etched her name into the history of the sport for all time. But at that moment it didn’t seem to matter. She didn’t jump into celebration. The time didn’t call for that. Franzi knew the moment and she stayed calm, waiting.

Just a few seconds later Lou Jeanmonnot came across the line and immediately fell to her knees. No close up was needed to read the devastation. It wasn’t just on her face. Her whole body rang with it.

After a brief moment Franziska Preuß did something immensely difficult, and yet something we all knew she would do. Because Franzi, like so much of the biathlon family, is inherently a truly wonderful human being, at that moment, when she could have been celebrating the crowning achievement of her career, she instead walked over to Lou Jeanmonnot, knelt on the snow, and wrapped her arms around her.

Preuß stayed there with her for several minutes. Other athletes came over as well including Elvira who unclipped Jeanmonnot skis and Oceane Michelon who had just wrapped up the u23 Globe. But while they came over briefly and then stood up, Preuß stayed on her knees, arm around Jeanmonnot.

When Lou was able to get up to her knees the two friendly rivals embraced in a long warm hug. They rose together and stood at the finish as the remaining athletes finished up. Those pictures will be seared into our memories for the remainder of our biathlon lives. It was a gorgeous. A picture of friendship. A picture of sportsmanship. The absolute perfect representation of what the biathlon family is all about. We would later learn that in those moments while Preuß was comforting her friend, Lou Jeanmonnot went out of her way asking her coaches not to protest the result, that it wasn’t Preuß fault.

As they stood there watching the other athletes come in, as if they were parents watching their children come home from a long day of play, you could occasionally catch a flash of a smile, or a clear indication of a laugh. It’s stunning to consider. These women just completed a four month season long battle that came down to the last kilometer of the season. They had traded wins on the final weekend. Then at the finish, after a devastating conclusion to what had been to that point an inspiring hard fought race, the two are able to smile and laugh and just be friends.

There is a message in there. A lesson for those who are willing to watch and listen to it. It’s a reminder that there is more to life than winning and losing. Sure we would also rather win than lose. We would all rather hoist the Globe than fall down just short. But at the end of the day life isn’t about the wins and the losses. It’s not about the number of trophies in our trophy case. It’s about the people we surround ourself with. It’s about having friends who will pick us up when we fall down. It’s about living life the right way and the love and friends we find along the way.

Franziska Preuß and Lou Jeanmonnot battled throughout the season. They are going to be linked together forever after this unbelievable battle and fight for glory, and sadly because of the manner in which the Globe ultimately was decided. Jeanmonnot won eight races as well as the Individual and Pursuit Globes. Preuß took home five wins including the Pursuit World Championship as well as the Sprint and Mass Start discipline Globes. She also won the biggest prize available with the Overall Globe and etched her name in the history of biathlon. As a German Overall Champion she surely is going to add to her bank account as well.

In the end though, as sappy as this may sound, we all win. We win for having watched these two wonderful human beings compete. We got to take in 25 incredible races. We win for watching them hold each other, comfort each other, and celebrate each other even while they fought their hearts out for the prizes. That’s the our victory this season.