The King is Dead – Long Live the King

All hail the king, Johannes Thingnes Boe, long may he reign.

After winning three consecutive Overall Globes and definitively ending the long reign of our prior monarch Martin Fourcade, JT Boe had suffered a small setback in the 2021-2022 season when he “only” took home five Olympic medals, including four gold medals. That season he momentarily ceded the throne to Quentin Fillon Maillet. Boe returned with a vengeance, though, and proved his supremacy over the last two seasons, firmly entrenching himself at the top of the sport. He had the best single season we’ve ever seen in biathlon in 2022-2023 and followed that up with solid Overall victory last year. In the middle of all of that he won 14 Worlds medals in 13 races including eight golds.

King Johannes Thingnes Boe appeared to be a man in the prime of his rule. It seemed like he was going to continue his reign without a challenge in sight. Who could stand up to him? Sure, Sturla Holm Laegreid, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Sebastian Samuelsson and others would give it a go, but nothing we had seen from King Johannes the previous two seasons had shown us any vulnerabilities. He was skiing as fast as he ever had and had two of the best shooting seasons of his career. Furthermore, when the race was on the line, JT Bo seemed to have reached a new level of supreme confidence seemingly being able to summon the perfect sub-20 second standing shooting with ease.

To be clear, JT Boe is a beloved ruler. Even supporters of his rivals, while sometimes tired of his frequent victories, show nothing but support for him. His top rivals QFM, Emilien Jacquelin, and Laegreid all show deference, respect, and friendship with him. There is a true bond that appears between Boe and all of these men. It would be easy to expect that with his dominance in the sport that there may be some envy or irritation with him but instead he seems fairly beloved by his fellow competitors. They all seem to genuinely enjoy racing and competing with him, and he by all appearances feels the same.

As the races got underway in Kontiolahti it looked like Boe may have been a little bit “under cooked” in his training prior to the season. He had mentioned being a bit behind on his training and some recent illness. He wasn’t too worried though, and he started out with a strong 2nd place in the Short Individual followed by 5th in the Sprint and 9th in the Mass Start. His course time ranks were top 3 in every race, so the only thing holding him back at that point was shooting. We’ve seen him start like this many times before, and with his self professed under training coming into the race it seemed like we were set for another glorious year under the reign of King Boe. Surely this was going to be the “weakest” he would be all season. At this point you could almost predict the rest of the season because we had just seen it so many times before. Likely as not he would continue to gain steam throughout the season, win a heap of Worlds medals, and then finish strong to win a relatively uncontested Overall.

Nothing in Hochfilzen of Annecy-le Grand Bornand deterred us from this belief. In the 2nd and 3rd stops of the 1st trimester JTB collected three wins, a 2nd and a 3rd. By the end of the racing in Annecy, his highness had never finished outside the top 5 in course time rank except the Hochfilzen Pursuit when he had a large lead and could rest late in the race. Over those eight races he hit 85% or better in all but one race. That didn’t make him the best shooter in the field but for a biathlete with that kind of ski speed it was more than good enough.

Endre Stroemsheim won the Kontiolahti Short Individual giving him the first Yellow bib of the season. JT Boe took it back for one race after the Pursuit. Then, after winning the Kontiolahti Mass Start, Eric Perrot wore Yellow for the first time in his career for the Sprint in Hochfilzen. JT Boe wrestled it back and wore it the rest of the way in the first trimester, extending his lead nearly every race. As the first trimester came to a close just two men were within 200 points of JTB. The kingdom of our liege lord Johannes Thingnes Boe appeared to be as firmly under his grasp as ever.

During the holiday break news started to leak out that JT Boe had been quite sick. In his interviews he noted that the entire family had been laid up with an illness. There were several days where he wasn’t able to train at all. To be honest, at the time it didn’t seem like it was too much of a concern. This wasn’t the first time Boe had been sick over the break. And it was certainly not the first time that he returned to racing after a break by downplaying expectations. Even though it was discussed nobody really thought that he was under too much threat.

The 2nd trimester kicked off with the traditional (for now) Oberhof start. Right off the bat JT Bø looked a little off. It’s not appropriate to say he looked bad. Actually considering he was sick for much of the holidays he came out actually looking quite good. The course at Oberhof is no joke and JT Bø ranked 1st in course time in both the Sprint and the Pursuit. Actually it was his shooting. To be fair his form being off at a difficult venue likely affected his shooting. He hit 70% in the Sprint and finished 13th. He rebounded to hit 17/20 in the Pursuit which, along with his skiing, helped him miraculously climb all the way to the podium. Our King had taken a little bit but there was no real concern his reign was in any trouble.

Unfortunately that was just the beginning of the JT Bø 2nd trimester adventure. Anybody who watched the next race will never forget it. Again, it’s worth reiterating JT Bø didn’t look bad in Oberhof it was just weird. Ruhpolding was a different story. To cut to the chase, in the Ruhpolding Individual JTB had the worst finish of his career.

His shooting wasn’t great as he hit 1-2-2-0 but his attitude was just…aloof? He started out the race normal enough with the 2nd best time on the first loop. He had a single miss in his first shooting and then seemed to start folding the tent. He was 11th best on lap 2. He had 2 more misses and then was 22nd best on lap 3. This was clearly a JT Bø who wasn’t intent on giving it 100% for the day and that itself was reason for concern. He had 2 more misses on his 3rd shoot and completely packed it up. He puttered around, got to his last shoot and went wild with a 5/5 in 20.6 sec. He turned to the crowd and gave a salute and then ambled down the range. He looked ready to pull off the course when Emilien Jacquelin of all people told him that the Yellow bib never gives up. Bø finished the race but gave the least possible effort running with the slowest last lap time and finishing 85th.

It was abundantly clear that something was amiss with our King. This was quite literally something we had never seen. The proud Norwegian was well known for giving 100% even in, and especially in, races he was well back in. We’ve never ever seen him do anything close to the performance he gave in the Ruhpolding Individual. It was just strange. Clearly something was troubling our royal leader.

The next day we found out. His royal highness Johannes Thingnes Bø was preparing to abdicate his throne at the conclusion of the 2024-2025 season. He had been thinking about this for awhile. He was ready to just be a partner to his wife and a father to his children. As he was ruling his biathlon kingdom he was missing out on the things that he truly wanted to be doing. Truly heavy is the head that wears the crown. That was a really tough day and many tears were shed across the biathlon family.

But there was still one last season to win for King Johannes and he told us that he wanted to go out holding tightly to his crown and scepter! Following the Ruhpolding Individual debacle Bø responded to adversity as he always has, with another solid effort. He finished 3rd and reclaimed some momentum.

Unfortunately though, it wasn’t a triumphant close to the 2nd trimester. Antholz has been the scene of many of JT Bø’s great moments. He’s easily has the best record of active biathletes there. His results weren’t amazing, but they also weren’t horrible. He finished 9th and 6th in the Sprint/Pursuit. Bø just didn’t look like himself. He skied well finishing 5th and 2nd in course time. The overall impression was no longer one of confidence. Suddenly the untouchable symbol of dominance no longer looked so untouchable. Was his kingdom crumbling from under him? In fact, things got so shaky that JT Boe lost the Yellow bib.

Well, that’s not entirely accurate. It wasn’t just that JT Boe wasn’t racing well, it’s that somebody else was racing very very well. Enter Sturla Holm Laegried. Yep, you know Sturla Holm Laegreid. While Quentin Fillon Maillet was the one man who actually interrupted the string of Overall Globe dominance of JT Boe by actually winning an Overall Globe, it has been Laegreid who has been his most consistent rival during this time.

In the 2020-2021 season Laegreid came achingly close to winning the Overall. He made a late push and actually wore the Yellow bib in the last race of the season. Ultimately JT Boe won the Overall by the skin of his teeth as, at least watching from home, it looked like the young Sturla Holm Laegreid finally showed nerves in the last shooting stages of the season. He was just 24 at the time! He followed that first full season up by finishing 2nd once again, this time to Quentin Fillon Maillet.

Later, during JT Boe’s phenomenal 2022-2023 season, were it not for JT Boe we would likely be talking about Laegreid’s dominant season. That year, which I hope will not be lost to time, he finished a distant 2nd in the Overall but was absolutely amazing. In his 22 races he had 15 podiums and 20 top 5’s. I broke it down once in a full article but long story short, if JT Boe weren’t around that would have been one of the top 10 individual seasons of all time. Unfortunately for Laegreid, JT Boe was the most dominant biathlete we will ever see so 25 years from now some biathlon fans will look and just see that Laegreid finished 2nd in the Overall for his 3rd consecutive year.

Well, this season Laegreid was once again putting himself in the mix. He entered the 2nd trimester in the 2nd position in the Overall race 115 points back of JT Boe, but himself a solid 81 points ahead of Emilien Jacquelin. For perspective it was 81 points from Jacquelin in 3rd to Nawrath who was in 7th at the time so that was a substantial margin for Laegreid over the 3rd place position.

Maybe Laegreid was warming into his season slowly, or maybe he sensed the opportunity to depose the king was on him, but either way, Sturla turned up the heat in the 2nd trimester. He started Oberhof with a solid if unspectacular 6th place in the Sprint. He quickly improved on that, vaulting from 6th to his first victory of the season in the Pursuit. After a subpar Individual in Ruhpolding the last three races of the trimester were as good as he could have hoped for: 2nd, 2nd, and 1st.

If JT Boe was ever going to be challenged this was the way to do it. Not just waiting for Boe to have a stumble as he did in the 2nd trimester, but to then pounce on that opportunity and grab it with both arms. With four top 2 finishes in the six races in January Laegreid did exactly that.

By now we all know what defines Sturla Holm Laegreid’s biathlon. It’s good to very good skiing paired with excellence on the range. That’s exactly what we saw in Germany and Italy. His ski ranks were good as he was top 7 in course time rank in four of the races. The only times he wasn’t top 7 were the Individual, which was odd, and the Antholz Pursuit when he had a large lead and could slow down on the final loop. His shooting was excellent as well. In those six races he missed just seven shots as he hit 93%.

As trimester 2 came to an end Laegreid was established as a definite challenge to JT Boe’s reign. He had grabbed the lead in the Overall by 48 points. Almost as importantly he had put in a definitive separation from the rest of the field making it a two man race to the finish.

After a pause for the World Championships, which proved to be another successful two weeks for King Johannes with five more medals and becoming the biathlete with the most Worlds golds in history, the final trimester of JT Boe’s reign kicked off Nove Mesto. This first battle of the final campaign of his career, though not decisive, was a victory for the man holding the throne. He finished 3rd in both Sprint and Pursuit while Laegreid only managed 14th and 5th. The end result was JT Boe retaking his Yellow by a most narrow 5 point margin.

Regardless of margin, with just five races remaining JT Boe was in position to retain his throne. Seemingly more important than margin, Boe appeared to have the momentum. After a bumpy 2nd trimester the last three weeks of racing had been definitively in his favor. Boe was clearly the stronger of the two in Lenzerheide for Worlds. In Nove Mesto he had been the fastest man in both races so while he hit just 8/10 in the Sprint and 17/20 in the Pursuit he was more than able to make up for the penalty loops. Sturla, meanwhile, maybe showed a sign of nerves as he his 8/10 in the Sprint and didn’t nearly have the speed to match JT Boe. It appeared more likely than not that JT Boe was going to end his career as our liege lord standing tall.

Suddenly, and without a hint of a warning, JT Boe was felled. As the biathlon world turned to a wet and sloppy Pokljuka, Slovenia, it was announced that our gentle and sturdy monarch was taken down by yet another illness. For whatever reason this final season of his career was doomed to be marked by repeat illnesses that sapped his ability to compete. First before the season. Then during the holiday break. Now during the midst of the final battles of his career.

Johannes lined up alongside Laegreid to race in Pokljuka, but almost from the start you could see something was amiss. He had some of the slowest shooting in his career as he focused on hitting targets at the expense of shooting time, seemingly knowing that he was already at the red line and didn’t have his normal super natural ability to make up time on the course. It resulted in the single slowest shooting day in his career and unfortunately he still had a miss. JT Boe salvaged a 10th place finish. However, that was it. He was too sick to continue. He would skip the Mass Start and seemingly forfeit the Overall.

Sturla Holm Laegreid, to his credit, did not simply allow Yellow to be passed to him. No, he went out and earned it. In the Short Individual he finished 2nd and was beaten out only by a magical race by Jakov Fak. A couple of days later in the Mass Start he followed it up with a 3rd place finish. It was the ultimate Laegreid weekend. He was top 5 in ski time in both races. He hit 19/20 each time. The end result was Laegreid took a 104 point advantage into the final weekend of the season, and JT Boe’s career in their home races in Oslo Holmenkollen.

At this point there was only the most narrow window for JT Boe to be able to retain his crown. It’s worth noting that anybody else in the new era where you can’t drop races, who had an 85th place finish and missed a race entirely, would likely be nowhere close to the Overall race. Yet JT Boe was still technically in contention. He needed to win every race while Laegreid finished in 4th or worse every race.

JT Boe certainly started out the weekend with every intention of giving it a run! He went a perfect 10/10 in the Sprint and was once again in his normal position of fastest man on the course. The crowd was absolutely roaring as he came down the final straightaway. Surely nobody could catch him when he raced like this? JT Boe did everything he had to do to win the Overall. It ended up being the final victory in the great man’s career.

It also was the final gasp of is campaign to retain is title. Sturla Holm Laegreid, made what proved to be the decisive blow to the King’s reign. Racing from bib 68, 10 spots after Johannes, Sturla showed absolutely no nerves at all. He came to the range each time knowing that Boe was perfect and himself hit all 10 shots. While he was just the 7th fastest man on the course that was more than enough for him to finish 2nd, well ahead of the 4th place that was needed for him to steal the title.

After the race JT Boe conceded defeat. When asked if he still had a chance to win the title one more time Boe said that no, Sturla, holding an 89 point lead, was just too strong. While he was technically still standing, the King was battered and bruised and throwing in the towel. The crown wasn’t officially passed, but they were getting it polished and ready.

The next day Sturla Holm Laegreid delivered the knock out blow. All he needed to do was finish in the top 6 to make it nearly impossible for JT Boe to win the Overall. So, what did Laegreid do? He won. This is how you take a man’s crown. You don’t just stumble into it and win it by accident. No, you take it off his head and flex your strength. Laegreid was absolutely perfect that day. He hit every single shot, erasing the deficit by the 3rd lap, and he never looked back. Sturla had enough of a lead to be able to take in the roars of the appreciative crowd down the final straightway, waving the Norwegian flag high and proud.

The King was defeated and the Biathlon World was crowning a new royal. Sturla Holm Laegreid finally accomplished the task that he nearly did three seasons prior. Laegreid is no accidental champion. While his battle with JT Boe came down to the final weekend they were far separated from the rest of the field. He ended the season with a final average finish of 5.0, far and away the best in the field. He had 13 podiums, 2nd only to JT Boe, and had 18 top 5’s, the most in the field. The next closest behind those two were Eric Perrot, Tommaso Giacomel, and Quentin Fillon Maillet who all tied with 6 podiums. and Giacomel and QFM with 10 top 5’s.

As we discussed above, Laegreid has a classic style of biathlon. He’s an amazing shooter that has above average to very good skiing. He’s not like JT Boe or Fourcade or Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in that he wins races in bunches. He’s just has a very very high floor to his performance and consistently shows up on the podium and in the top 5 and with a sprinkling of top 5’s.

With his type of racing there is no reason to expect this will be a one year reign. Sure, there will be plenty of challengers to the thrown. With the absence of an absolute monarch like JT Boe there will be so many men who take aim at the crown including Giacomel, Perot, QFM, Samuelsson and several more. Sturla Holm Laegreid is not going to give away this hard fought throne without a true fight though.

Laegreid has the make up of a man who will be able to complete at this level for many more years. He’s going to attempt to build himself a dynasty to rival those of the great men who have come before him. It won’t be easy, but after this season, and the four that came before it, there is no reason to doubt his composure and his abilities.

JT Boe has taken off his crown for the final time, but that doesn’t mean we are without a King.

The King is Dead! Long Live King Sturla Holm Laegreid!