I have an entire post on the athletes who had either breakthrough seasons or career best years (there is a difference I promise). I also have a different piece on the top rookies for this season. I did want to highlight a few people who made some big improvements in one area or another though. Some of these names will look pretty familiar. Some might be a bit of a surprise. I just wanted a bit of a better way to post it and remember it than just putting it in a post on social media though. So, here we have some of our top improvements year over year in different statistical categories!
These are just looking at year over year improvements. Some of these athletes aren’t true “improvements” but more like reversions to the standard after down years last year. In this case I’m thinking of Sturla Holm Laegreid and QFM. Also, you’re not likely to see many of the absolute fastest on here because they don’t have as much room to actually improve. But that’s not the point of this exercise, it’s to find the ones who made the biggest leap!
The numbers used for this quick look at the skiing vs. median which is basically how fast or how slow an athlete is vs the median athlete of that race or season. I use this because I believe it is the easiest way to envision where somebody is in the field. The median athlete being the exact middle of the field, if they are well above or well below the median you can figure out how they are skiing. Personally I think it’s better than looking at “vs average” where a small number of very good or very bad skiers can skew the numbers whereas with the median, no matter how good the top or how bad the bottom, the median athlete is still the median. It’s not perfect, but truthfully I’m not sure there is a “perfect” metric for skiing comparisons.
Vitezslav Hornig (CZE) – IBU World Cup Biathlon, individual men, Ruhpolding (GER). http://www.biathlonworld.com © Svoboda/IBU.
Men’s Skiing
| Athlete | Improvement in Skiing vs Median |
| Vitezslav Hornig 🇨🇿 | +3.57% -> -1.52% |
| Vebjoern Soerum 🇳🇴 | +0.56% -> -2.89% |
| Viktor Brandt 🇸🇪 | +1.83% -> -0.32% |
| Niklas Hartweg 🇨🇭 | +0.46% -> -1.52% |
| Campbell Wright 🇺🇸 | -1.24% -> -2.27% |
| Tero Seppala 🇫🇮 | -1.06% -> -1.87% |
| Lovro Planko 🇸🇮 | +0.14% -> -0.51% |
| Sturla Holm Laegreid 🇳🇴 | -3.01% -> -3.57% |
| Quentin Fillon Maillet 🇫🇷 | -3.75% -> -4.28% |
| Michal Krcmar 🇨🇿 | -1.17% -> -1.5% |
| Eric Perrot 🇫🇷 | -3.22% -> -3.55% |
| Fabien Claude 🇫🇷 | -2.47% -> 2.76% |
| Jesper Nelin 🇸🇪 | -2.63% -> -2.9% |
Maren Kirkeeide (NOR) – IBU World Championships Biathlon, mass women, Lenzerheide (SUI). http://www.biathlonworld.com© Thibaut/IBU.
Women’s Skiing
| Athlete | Improvement in Skiing vs Median |
| Suvi Minkkinen 🇫🇮 | +2.5% -> -1.51% |
| Maren Kirkeeide 🇳🇴 | +0.11% -> -3.29% |
| Sonja Leinamo 🇫🇮 | +1.00% -> -2.06% |
| Venla Lehtonen 🇫🇮 | +1.67% -> -0.71% |
| Hanna Auchentaller 🇮🇹 | +1.84% -> -0.51% |
| Natalia Sidorwicz 🇵🇱 | +1.3% -> +0.13% |
| Selina Grotian 🇩🇪 | -1.27% -> -2.32% |
| Lena Repinc 🇸🇮 | +1.61% -> +0.69% |
| Samuela Comola 🇮🇹 | +0.6% -> -0.31% |
| Lora Hristova 🇧🇬 | +2.6% -> +1.77% |
| Aita Gasparin 🇨🇭 | +0.26% -> -0.48% |
| Lisa Theresa Hauser 🇦🇹 | -0.89% -> -1.31% |
| Lou Jeanmonnot 🇫🇷 | -3.73% -> -4.01% |
As for shooting it’s much more simple than skiing, we just look at overall hit rate. Same as with skiing there are some athletes where we see their shooting just rebounding back to their career norms such as Sturla Holm Laegreid.
Tommaso Giacomel (ITA) – IBU World Cup Biathlon, mass start men, Ruhpolding (GER). http://www.biathlonworld.com © Svoboda/IBU.
Men’s Shooting
| Athlete | Improvement in Hit Rate |
| Tomas Sklenarik 🇸🇰 | 73.08% -> 80.72% |
| Thierry Langer 🇧🇪 | 80% -> 86% |
| Jake Brown 🇺🇸 | 78% -> 83.75% |
| Sturla Holm Laegreid 🇳🇴 | 88.25% -> 93.33% |
| Eric Perrot 🇫🇷 | 84.76% -> 89.76% |
| Tommaso Giacomel 🇮🇹 | 78.57% -> 82.62% |
| Blagoy Todev 🇧🇬 | 85.38% -> 88.7% |
| Philipp Nawrath 🇩🇪 | 81% -> 83.75% |
| Pavel Magazeev 🇲🇩 | 80.43% -> 83.16% |
| Joscha Burkhalter 🇨🇭 | 81.15% -> 83.75% |
Jeanne Richard (FRA) – IBU World Cup Biathlon, mass start women, Ruhpolding (GER). http://www.biathlonworld.com © Svoboda/IBU.
Women’s Shooting
| Athlete | Improvement in Hit Rate |
| Anastasia Tolmacheva 🇷🇴 | 76.67% -> 88.8% |
| Jeanne Richard 🇫🇷 | 84.21% -> 90.71% |
| Hannah Auchentaller 🇮🇹 | 81.05% -> 87.2% |
| Sara Andersson 🇸🇪 | 79.38% -> 85% |
| Nadia Moser 🇨🇦 | 80% -> 85.45% |
| Lora Hristova 🇧🇬 | 83.18% -> 88% |
| Ida Lien 🇳🇴 | 76.32% -> 80.74% |
| Khrystyna Dmytrenko 🇺🇦 | 87.69% -> 91.56% |
| Tereza Vobornikova 🇨🇿 | 86.94% -> 90.29% |
| Amy Baserga 🇨🇭 | 86.67% -> 90% |
| Selina Grotian 🇩🇪 | 81.43% -> 84.74% |
| Alina Stremous 🇲🇩 | 85.79% -> 88.64% |
| Tamara Steiner 🇦🇹 | 89.63% -> 92.11% |
For some reason the shooting times have been a little bit more difficult to determine. I’ve been trying to find an easier way to do it. Should I do that I will update this post then.