The Comet

For an all too brief period of time, Laura Dahlmeier streaked across the biathlon world like goddess from the heavens. Her senior level career lasted a mere six and a half seasons, yet in that time she left an impact that will be with us forever.

To put in perspective the brevity of career many of her peers continue to race today and more so are in the peak years of their own careers. Laura Dahlemier, six years removed from her retirement, is five months younger than the reigning Women’s Overall Champion, fellow German Franziska Preuss. While Dahlmeier reached the World Cup level a short time before Preuss, they raced their first full season together in 2013-2014. That year proved to be an interesting year of transition for the German women. While they had just one woman in the top 10, they team had three Overall Champions on it: 2006-2007’s Andrea Burke, 2024-2025’s Franziska Preuss, and of course 2016-2017’s Laura Dahlmeier.

It was never hard to guess that Laura Dahlmeier had the talent to do great things in biathlon. Every step along the way showed her potential. Her true warning shot to the biathlon world came at the 2013 Junior World Championships held in Obertilliach. She crushed the competition winning gold medals in the Individual and Sprint with a Silver in the Pursuit. Add to that a gold in the relay and this was a declaration of of intent, an intent to dominate.

In retrospect it’s fun to look back at some of the names that finished in the top 10’s in those races. Franziska Preuss with a bronze medal in the Pursuit and Individual along with 5th in the Sprint. Lisa Hauser silver in the Individual, bronze in the Sprint, and 7th in the Pursuit. Paulina Batovska-Fialkova, Anais Chevalier-Bouchet, and Vanessa Hinz figured prominently in those races too. And Dahlmeier’s winning margins weren’t slim: 48 seconds in the Sprint and 43.9 seconds in the Individual.

Shortly after that magnificent Junior Worlds performance, the 19 year old Dahlemier went straight to the World Cup. She immediately proved that she belonged. In her very first race, a Sprint in Olso-Holmenkollen, she relied on perfect shooting, a touchstone of her career, and finished in 7th place. She raced each of the final six races on the World Cup after that and accumulated a total of five top 10’s in seven total World Cup races that season. She had just one finish outside the top 12 during that stretch, a 27th place Mass Start in Oslo-Holmenkollen. Meanwhile she set a personal best (that would only last six races) of 6th in the Khanty-Mansiysk Pursuit.

It was readily apparent that even at just 19 years old that Laura Dahlmeier would be ready to compete right away. The following season, 2013-2014, she went right to the World Cup and never looked back. She finished 14th Overall that season with two top 5’s and five top 10’s and it would be the “worst” full season of her career.

The following year was the start of her run of true magnificence. Always a terrific shooter, she hit 88.8% or better each of her six full seasons on the World Cup, the then 21 year old turned her ski potential into reality. She leapt from 40th in overall skiing in the 13-14 season up to 6th. She remained in the top 10 of total skiing each season until slipping just outside of it in the last season of her career. Her combination of spectacular accuracy with the rifle along with this level of skiing made her very difficult to beat. Don’t take it from me, it was her teammate Denise Herrmann-Wick who said that when Dahlmeier shot like she was capable of, this skiing made her “unbeatable.”

The 2014-2015 season, with that significant ski speed breakthrough, brought along with it the first podiums and victories of Laura Dahlmaier’s career. Her maiden podium came with a third place finish in that season’s Antholz Sprint. It was followed a mere one week later by her first victory in the Nove Mesto Sprint. What a breakthrough victory it was. She hit a perfect 10/10. With a shooting time six seconds slower than teammate Franziska Hildebrand, Dahlmeier needed every second she could find on the course. Ultimately she squeaked out a trip to the top step of the podium by a grand total of 1.0 seconds. It was her first victory in the 43rd race of her career. Interesting side note, Hildebrand, the hard luck 2nd place finisher in that race, would have to wait until the following season for her first win. Then she took her 2nd and final victory of her career just six races after her first!

Dahlemier added her own 2nd career victory in the very last race of that season, the Khanty-Mansiysk Mass Start. Following 2nd place finishes in the Sprint and the Pursuit , she closed the door on that weekend, and her breakthrough season, in emphatic fashion with a perfect 20/20 shooting as she held off Gabriela Koukalova. That year she also added her first World Cup medals with a gold medal on the relay and a silver in the Pursuit at the Kontiolahti Worlds. Altogether, her 8th place Overall season was a true breakthrough performance and cleared the way for an historic stretch of racing.

Over the following three seasons (2015-2016 through 2017-2018) Laura Dahlmeier unleashed an entire career worth of wins, medals, and podiums. The numbers speak for themselves:

• 19 victories in those 3 seasons alone would tied the entire career of Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and be tied for 14th most of all time.
• 37 podiums in those 3 seasons would rank 21st most podiums of all time
• 3 medals including 2 gold medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics including becoming the first woman to win the Sprint/Pursuit in the same Olympics
• 11 World Championships medals in 11 races at the 2016 Oslo-Holmenkollen Worlds and the 2017 Hochfilzen Worlds
• 2017 Hochfilzen Worlds finishes: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈. One of, if not the most dominant World Championships in women’s biathlon history

Again, just reiterate those statistics take into account only those three seasons. Her final career total ranks include:

• 22 Victories ranks 9th most all time (17.7% win rate is 7th best all time)
• 50 podiums ranks 9th most all time (40.3% podium rate is 7th best all time)
• 11 non-team World Championship medals ranks 3rd most all time

The peak of Laura Dahlmeir’s extraordinary career came in the 2016-2017 season. Her biathlon was absolutely beautiful that year. She finished the season second in skiing behind only Kaisa Makarainen. She hit 91% of her shots which ranked 2nd overall in hit rate. She turned that into 10 wins, 17 podiums, 20 top 5’s and 23 top 10’s in 24 races. She started off that season with a win in the Oestersund Individual and really never took her foot off the gas. Aside from a brief 4 race stretch when Gabriela Koukalova took the leaders bib as Dahlmeier missed two starts, Dahlmeier wore yellow all the way to the finish line in Oslo Holmenkollen.

The apex of her dazzling season was her nearly unbeatable run at the Hochfilzen World Championships. Dahlmeier won gold in every race except the Sprint in which she finished in 2nd, a whopping 4 seconds back of Koukalova. Yes, she was 4.1 seconds away from sweeping all six golds. In the four non-team races that week she hit 68/70 targets, a 97.1% hit rate. She also anchored a very close women’s relay in which the top four teams finished with 14 seconds of each other.

By the time it was over ended she had assembled one of the greatest seasons in women’s biathlon history:

• She took home the Overall Globe as well as the Individual and Pursuit discipline globes. She finished 2nd in the Sprint and Mass Start discipline globe races.

• 4th most wins in a season by a woman ever with the 3rd best winning percentage in a season by a woman.
• Tied-3rd most podiums in a season by a woman ever
• 6 Worlds medals ties Tiril Eckhof and Tora Berger for most by a woman in a globe winning season and is behind only Marte Olsbu Roeiseland’s seven medals in 2020
• Only woman to rank top 2 in both ski speed and shooting percentage in an Overall Globe winning season

The 2016-2017 season proved to be the one and only Overall crown in her brief tenure at the pinnacle of the sport, but it was from her last great moment in biathlon. The following season, as she focused on her stated goal of the Olympic games rather than the Overall Globe, she dropped from 10 total wins down to four while her podiums slipped from 17 down to 10. She still left her indelible imprint on the season by bringing home three Olympic medals including two golds in the Sprint and Pursuit and a bronze in the Individual. The three medals in those Olympics were matched only by Anastasiya Kuzmina. Not even the great JT Boe or Martin Fourcade could do the same that year.

Her final season in biathlon, the 2018-2019 season, was marred by illness and injury. Her first trimester was practically wiped out. Like a true champion, though, she fought back for 11 top 10’s in a 12 race stretch including the last win of her career, a mass start in Antholz on January 27, 2019. That day she had a miss early but hit her final 18 shots to come back for the win. She also held her own at the Oestersund World Championships. Clearly not at her peak level she finished top six in every race including taking home bronze in the Sprint and Pursuit as she hit 29/30 shots over those two races.

After the World Championships the wind went out of her sails. She had fought back and achieved her goal of the season by claiming those Worlds medals and she deflated after that. She missed a week and came back to finish out her career in Oslo Holmenkollen for one final weekend of racing. She crossed the finish line for what happened to be the final time in her career with no fanfare. There were no big celebrations for her. Nobody was popping champagne. No final lap of honor. No glowing tributes to her superlative career. Because nobody knew it was coming.

Two months later she announced her retirement with an Instagram post on May 17, 2019:

“Dear fans, friends, partners and companions – it is time to say goodbye! After an unbelievably tough season full of ups and downs, I no longer feel the one hundred percent passion required for professional sport. That’s why I have decided to end my active biathlon career after some time of reflection.
Since my childhood, I have dedicated myself completely to biathlon. I was able to experience incredibly great and intense moments and got to know some wonderful companions and supporters, without whom all this would not have been possible. Many thanks for all the years I spend in this sport – they made me who I am! To make room for new adventures, it’s time for me to close the biathlon chapter. “

The career numbers are phenomenal. Just to reiterate what was stated above, in six seasons of racing, and prior to the age of 26 when most athletes start to arrive at their peak years of performance, she gave us:

• 22 Victories ranking 9th most all time (17.7% win rate is 7th best all time)
• 50 podiums ranking 9th most all time (40.3% podium rate is 7th best all time)
• 11 non-team World Championship medals ranking 3rd most all time
• 3 Olympic medals and two gold medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics including becoming for the first woman to ever win the Sprint/Pursuit double in the Olympics.
• One of the greatest single seasons of biathlon we have ever seen in her Overall Globe winning 2016-2017 campaign.
• That season included the 2017 Hochfilzen Worlds with 5 gold medals and 1 silver medal. That was one of, if not the most dominant World Championships in women’s biathlon history.
• A three year stretch that alone would rank amongst the best careers in women’s biathlon history.
• From the date of her first victory to the end of her career she attained 22 wins in just 81 races, a phenomenal 27.2% win rate.

But after six incredible seasons she was leaving us. At just 25 years old Laura Dahlmeier was retired. She streaked through our lives and gave us six winters of joy. Six winters of “wow” moments. Six winters of beautiful biathlon. Six winters filled with tears of joy. And then she gave us tears of loss.

But that’s the nature of comets. They come from the heavens to brighten our lives for a just a short time. The shining light day and night demands our attention. They soar past us and stoke our imaginations. We watch them with wonder. They make us forget the limits of the impossible and reassess the definitions of what is possible. They change the world for the better. And sadly, they are impermanent, leaving us long before we are ready.

For a short time a comet name Laura Dahlmeier wowed the biathlon family. She brightened our lives. She gave us new dreams. She changed our little biathlon world for the better.