Finland 2025-2026 Team Preview

Finland, home of the some of the happiest people on Earth. And for the 2024-2025 season home to one of the happiest stories of the biathlon season. Suvi Minkkinen’s mid career surge from talented shooter and occasional top 20 athlete to one of the top women in the sport was seriously one of the most universally beloved and celebrated storylines of the season. It wasn’t just Minkkinen, though. There were signs of optimism throughout the team from several other women showing some of the best form of their career to high performing Juniors, the Finnish team proved to be a team on the rise.

The Finnish nation and program is one of the most supportive in the world. In the biathlon family ever Finnish fan I’ve interacted with has been more than so supportive of their squad. You wouldn’t blame them for having been spoiled by Kaisa Makarinen having one of the greatest careers in the history of women’s biathlon. But even in the years they didn’t have the top level performances, they still bring warm and competitive atmosphere to the beautiful and charming venue in Kontiolahti. We will of course expect that again when we visit there in March.

How about this season though? Will these great fans have a top notch team on the snow competing on the World Cup and in the Olympics this season? Let’s take a look at what we might be able to expect!

Fair warning…the Finnish athletes have some of the strangest racing patterns. You’ll have Juniors racing only IBU Cup races, athletes not racing for two seasons and then returning to the fold. So outside of the “main names” sometimes it’s a little difficult to get a handle on it. That’s not to say they aren’t racing at all just that they aren’t IBU races so we have limited data on them.

Women

Last season will be remembered as the year of Suvi Minkkinen. It wasn’t just her though. Venla Lehtonen and Sonja Leinamo both had the best performances of their careers. The very young Inka Hamalainen showed some sparks as well. All in all it really felt like the Finnish women’s program had turned the page on to a new chapter of their biathlon story. Let’s see what we might hope to see from them this season

Head Coach: Erik Kulstad
2024-2025 Nations Cup Rank: 10th
2024-2025 Relay Finishes: 8th, 10th, 8th, 15th, 15th, 12th
Quota: 5 athletes to start

World Cup – After a season outside the top 10, the Finnish women fought back to claim the 10th position, and with it the 5th starting position. Even that wasn’t as good as it could have been as the team was beset by injuries and illness. They’ll head into the 25-26 season with their sights set even a little higher now. We have a pretty good idea of who the top four women on the World Cup will be. Beyond that we may have a more rotating cast of characters. For now here is who will start the season on the World Cup level:
– Suvi Minkkinen
– Venla Lehtonen
– Sonja Leinamo
– Inka Hämäläinen 
– Noora Kaisa Keranen

Suvi Minkkinen (30)

Years from now when I think back to the 2024-2025 biathlon season of course the first storyline that will come to mind will be the Preuss-Jeanmonnot battle. But after that? Honestly it might be Suvi. I know what you’re saying right now, what about the Bø boys retiring? And that is a big one, but the further we get from that the less I think about the actual retirement and the more I remember their careers and less the retirement. So yeah I think it’s going to be the amazing Suvi Minkkinen breakthrough.

Seriously how often do we see something like this? Yes we also saw Vitezslav Hornig and Milena Todorova last season too, but they are both significantly younger than Minkkinen. She’s just at a point in her career where we don’t see breakthroughs of this magnitude. I mean we don’t usually see them regardless!

Before last season Minkkinen’s best Overall career year was 27th in the 22-23 season and other than that two seasons of 42nd and 43rd. Last season she finished 7th

Before last season she had one career top 10 and three career top 15’s. Last year she had 17 top 10’s. 17!!!! And she had 19 top 15’s. That was in 24 races. Put it another way. Prior to last season she had finished in the top 15 just three times. Last year she only finished outside the top 15 five times. That’s absolutely mind blowing!

Before last season she had never been on the podium. Her career best was 8th. Last year she was on the podium three times. That included winning a bronze medal in the Sprint at the Lenzerheide World Championships. She finished 4th in the Individual, 6th in the Pursuit, and 8th in the Mass Start.

How did Suvi Minkkinen perform such a miracle? Making an absolutely radical decision. She had been a spectacular shooter for three full seasons hitting 90% or better in each of those years. That puts her in rare air amongst the top 5ish shooters in women’s biathlon. So she knew she had the ability to be one of the best in the world, not just one of the best shooters. She needed to find a way to improve her skiing. So she decided to invest summer not only her time but her money into a new training regimen in the Alps. And it paid off in wonderful fashion. For the first time in her career she skied faster than average running 1% ahead of median. Her average course time rank improved from 54th in 23-24 and 44th in 22-23 all the way to 24.5.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	86.7	83.3	85	29.2
2018-2019	95	81.7	88.3	28
2019-2020	81.3	76.3	78.8	29.2
2020-2021	86.2	81.5	83.8	28.4
2021-2022	94.4	89.6	92	29.1
2022-2023	90	91.6	90.8	27.1
2023-2024	93.1	88.8	90.9	26.8
2024-2025	91	94	92.5	26.7

Asking Minkkinen to repeat this performance next season is a huge ask. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t trying. Minkkinen is once again training on her own in the Alps all summer, joining the team for specific altitude camps. She has made no secret of the fact that she wants last season to become her norm. And she wants to do something the great Kaisa Mäkäräinen did, bring home an Olympic hardware. I couldn’t be cheering harder for her!

Venla Lehtonen (30)

Suvi Minkkinen wasn’t the only veteran Finn to show a new and improved level of performance last season. Venla Lehtonen was well on her way to a big time career breakthrough season when she was felled by back to back illness in January. In the first trimester she looked better than we had ever seen her. After three just so-so finishes in Kontiolahti and Hochfilzen Lehtonen hit her stride in Annecy. She set a career best finish of 13th in the Sprint only to break that in the next race finishing 7th in the Pursuit. She rounded out the week with a 22nd in the Mass Start, the first Mass Start of her World Cup career!

Lehtonen kept up the momentum in Oberhof after the holiday break finishing 23rd in the Sprint and 17th in the Pursuit. Those don’t sound as impressive as the finishes above but prior to the 2024-2025 season they would have been career bests. After a stomach bug caused her to miss Ruhpolding she returned for the Sprint in Antholz and finished 22nd. Yet another finish that would have been the best of her career before the season. Unfortunately that was the end of her career best season. She caught the flu and had a difficult recovery ending her season prematurely.

In total in just nine races she came up with the six best finishes of her career. She finished 42nd in the Overall, a HUGE career best over the 87th Overall finish in the 22-23 season.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2022-2023	83.3	86.7	85	32.5
2023-2024	86.2	72.3	79.2	31.5
2024-2025	93.9	78.5	86.2	30.6

Lehtonen improved in every aspect of her performance. Her average course time rank improved from her prior career best of 56th in 2023-2024 to 33rd. She went from 4.4% slower than median to 0.7% faster. That’s very very big. Meanwhile her hit rate was up to 86.2% overall including 93.8% prone. Both were career bests. And that includes a couple of rough shooting days early in the year hitting 60% and 70% in the first two Sprints of the season.

If Venla Lehtonen was able to have a full and healthy training this summer we have to believe she’s capable of replicating the performance of last season. At least from social media it sure looks like it. Now expecting another career year type year is expecting a lot. But how can you not be tantalized by the taste we got last season. I can’t wait to see what she brings to the World Cup this season. Another top 10? Another 5 top 20’s? Another Mass Start or 2? Let’s see it!

Sonja Leinamo (23)

As it turns out Suvi Minkkinen and Venla Lehtonen weren’t the only Finnish women that showed a new level of performance last season. Coming off a more than solid 2024 Junior Worlds where she finished 13th, 14th, and 6th, she started the season right out on the World Cup. Quickly she earned the right to stay there the rest of the season.

In the second race of the season Leinamo finished 27th, which was easily (at that point) the best finish of the 22 year old’s career. After a disappointing Annecy Sprint she came back and opened the 2nd trimester with an 8th place in the Sprint in Oberhof. By the end of the season she had seven of the 10 best finishes of her World Cup career and the top four finishes of her career.

Sonja Leinamo’s biggest improvement last season was in her skiing. She was a VERY good Juniors skier running 10.7% faster than median in her last Juniors season in 2023-2024. That projects to a good ski potential in the future and Leinamo made every effort to make the future now. She leapt from 1% slower than median on the World Cup in 2023-2024 up to 2.1% faster than median in 2024-2025. As a 22 year old she had an average course time rank of 28th on the World Cup. Let’s be honest, that’s really dang good. For all of the amazing success of Suvi Minkkinen and Venla Lehtonen’s career season Sonja Leinamo was easily the fastest Finn last year. Clearly then we all know what held her back. She hit 72.4% with 77.6% prone and 67.1% standing.

Sonja Leinamo has to be enticed by what she was able to do last season. She already has a top 10 to her name! Well ahead of the pace of her teammates Suvi Minkkinen and Venla Lehtonen. Now for her to take the next step its about the shooting. She’s never been a particularly good shooter so this isn’t about returning to form, but finding new levels. Certainly she has a teammate who might be able to give her some pointers.

Leinamo’s future potential is quite high if…huge if…she can get more accurate with her shooting. The speed she has already ranked 20th in overall skiing last season. Just 19 women were faster over the full season. That should continue to improve as well over the next few seasons. She doesn’t need to shoot like Suvi Minkkinen to have similar success. I would love to see her eventually get to the mid 80’s. This season if she can move to the upper 70’s, right around 80%. If she does that she’s going to definitely finish better in the Sprints and qualify for more Pursuits. So let’s aim for that this season more than anything else, let’s try to run more at least 3-4 Pursuits this season. That alone would be a sign of raising the floor of her performance, and likely her ceiling as well.

Inka Hämäläinen (19)

Inka Hämäläinen is just 19 years old. By all rights we should be talking about her upcoming Juniors season and what may happen if she runs on the IBU Cup. The Finnish team is taking a more aggressive run with her though. Last season she ran 100% of her races on the World Cup. Not a single Juniors or IBU Cup races. And it’s not like she was without success either. She finished 30th and 36th in Oberhof and qualified for three Pursuits last season. As a 18-19 year old that’s a pretty good run.

Looking at her development across all three levels over the last three years Hämäläinen has had steady improvement in her shooting. She stated in the 60’s and is now up to the upper 70’s hitting 78.3% last season. She was actually better standing (82.2%) than prone (74.4%) last season. I mention that because her prone/standing splits are never really even but it seems to alternate whether she hits better prone or shooting. However, she’s been getting better every year.

Her skiing meanwhile has shown reasons for optimism as well. In the Juniors in 2022-2023 she was 4.7% ahead of median. In 2023-2024 she was 8.2% faster than median. As always, running 7% or better ahead of median on Juniors has our attention. Last season she was running 2% slower than median on the World Cup. Let’s be honest, she was 18-19 years old. While we can hope that her skiing will eventually be quite solid, it’s still several years away from that.

Inka Hämäläinen definitely has my attention. It’s hard to gauge her because she’s not really competing against her age group at this time. She’s competing against the best in the world. And already she finished 76th in the Overall. We should definitely expect her skiing to continue to advance. we have to be optimistic that her skiing will eventually, over the next 5-7 years, reach a more than respectable level. For this upcoming season maybe she runs about 1% slower than median with an average ski rank in the 40’s about 10+ spots better than last year. Her shooting will hopefully continue to advance and get into the low 80’s this season. She could absolutely find her first top 20(s) this season. She will hopefully reach another 1-2 Pursuits this season. She’s so young though so it won’t always be linear. Regardless of the outcomes of this season, I’m going to remain optimistic on the overall trajectory and where Inka Hämäläinen will end up.

Noora Kaisa Keränen (24)

I just want to start out by pointing out that Noora Kaisa Keränen is still very early in her career. She’s only 24! I really think that’s the most important thing to keep in mind for her.

In the 2023-2024 season, at 22 years old, she ran almost the full season on the World Cup. It was moderately successful too as she ran 11 races and scored points in three of them including a season and still career best finish of 28th. She showed very good shooting hitting 87% and, no surprise considering her age and her Juniors performances, she skied in the back half of the field with an average course time rank of 76th.

Last year she ran basically the full season on the IBU Cup with a couple of World Cup starts in Ruhpolding, Nove Mesto, and Oslo. It was an okay season for her as well as she collected three top 30’s and six top 60’s in 15 races. Her skiing was down from where it was the prior two seasons. She was 2% slower than median after being just faster than median the prior two years in her IBU Cup seasons. Her average course time rank was up to 48th after being down tin the upper 30’s and low 40’s the last two seasons. Then her shooting also dipped down from the mid 80’s to the low 81.7%. Just not what she wanted to see.

However, let’s re-emphasize what we said earlier, she’s 24 years old. We haven’t seen close to the finished product yet. She’s shown consistently good shooting throughout her career with several seasons now in the mid 80’s. As Suvi Minkkinen has shown us it’s never too late for skiing to come along. Now let’s be clear, I am not anticipating a Suvi Minkkinen-like career for Noora Kaisa Keränen. But we haven’t seen everything that she could develop into yet. If she can hold onto the shooting in the mid 80’s that’s a big piece of the puzzle. So let’s keep an eye on the skiing. It’s easy to say but the marker for her is consistently having course time ranks in the 30’s or better on the IBU Cup. If that’s where she is then we’re seeing a nice step forward this season.

Fighting for the 5th Spot/IBU Cup – The top four, assuming they race up to the potential we know they have, should be pretty well set for most of the season. Of course that is assuming good health. Beyond that there will be a number of women hoping to establish themselves in the 5th position. If not there they’ll be on the IBU Cup fighting to earn that position. Speaking of, here is who will start the season on the IBU Cup:
– Eirka Jänkä
– Heidi Kuuttinen
– Rebecca Sandnäs
– Sofia Joronen
– Saga Hurskainen

Erika Jänkä (30)

After running solely on the World Cup from the 2020-2021 season through 2022-2023 the last two years have seen Erika Jänkä split time between the World Cup and the IBU Cup. During that time her performance seemed to stall out. She was running on the World Cup but not having the successes she seemed capable of. During that period she lined up most weekends and only ran two Pursuit races. She had no top 40’s.

Her performance slipped in the 2023-2024 season, and to be fair the level of her teammates rose, which resulted in her split time. Jänkä decided to take matters into her own hands and follow her own training regimen outside of the national federation. The early returns are reasonably positive. While she still spent most of the season on the IBU Cup last season, the performance did look better.

After running slower than median on the IBU Cup in the 23-24 season she was 0.8% faster than median last year. That was better than she ever was in her earlier years also. She only ran three races on the World Cup at the end of the season. Her ski stats in those races didn’t show any improvement, but the skiing she showed on the IBU Cup was certainly a small but definitive improvement. On the range Jänkä hit 83% including 93% of her prone shots. That was right in line with where she had been her last several full World Cup seasons hitting in the low to mid 80’s.

It was really great to see Jänkä decide to chart her own path. This season she’s been primarily training in the French Alps on her own. We’ll see shortly how well the second summer of prep on this course prepares her. Hoepfully we’ll see the skiing a little faster too. The question will be can she get the shooting moving towards the mid 80’s again. That’s not a lot of extra hits, but with a weakness in skiing as she has had she can use every extra hit. A mild to moderate improvement in both may be enough to secure her the 5th World Cup slot this season and maybe a trip to the Olympics even if in a reserve role.

Seela Perualahti (24)

After racing only in the Junior World Championships in 2021 and 2023, Seela Perualahti has raced 32 times over the last two seasons while becoming a full time IBU Cup competitor. As an IBU Cup racer she’s had mixed success. She’s had a single top 40 in each of the last two seasons so not a ton of points scored. Her average finishes were 63rd in 23-24 and 57th in 24-25.

Even though there wasn’t a major surge in her finishes was at least positive movement in her statistics. In her skiing she moved from 3.7% slower than median to 2.0% slower. Still well back of where she wants and needs to be to see a bigger step forward, but a definitely improvement nonetheless. Her shooting hit rate was up from 66.8% to 73.8%. Again, not where she wants or needs to be but a definitely improvement. And that included hitting 83.8% of her prone shots, up big time from 68.4% in 23-24.

With just five Juniors races, and a career best Juniors finish of 32nd, we don’t have a ton of data to go on. And that’s not the profile of somebody we expect to big a big time World Cup biathlete. But you have to like the improvement she made year over year. Hopefully she’s ready to make another similarly big step forward. I would love to see another big jump up in skiing closer to median and shooting up to the mid to high 70’s. Do that and I don’t care what the results are, it will be positive momentum.

Heidi Kuuttinen (27)

Speaking of consistent IBU Cup athletes, the Finns have no more consistent IBU Cup performer than Heidi Kuuttinen. She’s run 14 or more IBU Cup races in three of the last four seasons. And unfortunately for her she hasn’t yet made the World Cup. But if you want to put a good spin on it how about the 2024-2025 season was the best of her IBU Cup career. She had an average finishing position of 45th, the best of her career. She finished 16th in the Brezno-Osrblie Short Individual and 23rd in the Sprint that weekend, the two best finishes of her career. A definitively career best season.

Kuutinen did it with the best skiing of her career to date. Her IBU Cup average ski rank improved to 46th from 51st and she ran 1.7% improved from 3.7% against the median. Both of those are easily career bests. Shit hit 81% including 87.6% prone and 74.3% standing. While not a career best it was a solid season for her. Her average shooting time remained not great at 37.2 seconds per shoot.

It’s unlikely that we’ll see Heidi Kuutinen become a consistent World Cup racer. The competition on this particular team is just too high for her to get regular run on that level unless she makes a big leap. That doesn’t mean she can’t continue to fight up the rankings of the IBU Cup though. Would love to see that continue this season!

Sofia Joronen (27)

2024-2025 was a big season for Sofia Joronen. Since she graduated from the Juniors level after the 2020 Junior Worlds she’s struggled to get regular international racing. After 10 races in the 21-22 season she didn’t race at all in the 2022-2023 campaign. She returned with five races on the IBU Cup in 23-24. Last year, though, she came back for 12 total races and not coincidentally the best racing of her career. She had her best career finish of 22nd in the Brezno-Osrblie Sprint, well ahead of her prior career best of 36th. The next IBU Cup week she actually matched that 36th in the Ridnaun-Val Ridanna Sprint. In all she had four of her five best ever finishes last season. As far as her IBU Cup Overall ranking it was only 114, but she had five finishes in the 40’s so she was very close to adding points in a handful more races. At that level it doesn’t take a ton of points to really move up the rankings quite a bit.

Joronen’s improved performance was almost entirely related to her skiing. She’s never been particularly fast, but she went from 8.3% slower than median on the IBU Cup in 23-24 up to just 3.2% slower than median. That’s an average course time rank improvement from 74th to 50th. Meanwhile her shooting actually stayed pretty decent. She’s usually in the mid to upper 80’s for her hit rate. While she didn’t quite get there last season, hitting just 82.1%, it certainly wasn’t bad.

The reason for optimism for Sofia Joronen at least for her IBU Cup performance is that she can hopefully make further ski improvements and will also hopefully be able to move back towards her career norm shooting in the mid to high 80’s. For her skiing we’ll never expect her to be insanely fast but maybe closer to 1.5-2% slower than median is possible this season? If she does those two things she’ll move up the IBU Cup Overall rankings significantly by just getting a few more of those finishes in the 40’s into the 30’s for more points. Last season it took just 60 points for the top 80 on the IBU Cup. I think that’s definitely in her reach.

Inka Remes (22)

As we enter the 2025-2026 season Inka Remes will be saying goodbye to the Juniors level. The odd thing is she didn’t really race on the Juniors level. I can only find evidence that she ran one race and it was as a member of a relay team. Last season she finished three IBU Cup races and finished 57th, 68th, and 73rd in those three Otepaa races. Her course time ranks were 59th, 73rd, and 75th. She hit 70%, 85%, and 70% in those three races. As far as IBU races go that’s what we’ve seen.

She did run a handful of regional races last season. She finished 3rd and 2nd in the Short Individual and Sprint races in December in Imatra last season made up mostly of young Finnish women. She also competed at the World University Games and finished 30th in the Short Individual while shooting 13/20 and 36th in the Sprint hitting just 4/10 shots.

Overall looks like back half of the field skiing with up and down shooting. But that’s so limited in terms of the actual races that we can see. But that’s what we’ve got. Not a lot to go off of. I have no idea how much of Remes that we’ll see or what we’ll see this season.

Frida Achren (22)

Last season Frida Achren only ran a handful of regional races and raced at the World University Games. We did see her nine races during the 2023-2024 season though. That year she ran six Juniors races all at the Junior European Championships and Junior Worlds. She had her best finish of the season of 11th in the Junior European Champs. She had an average course time rank of 32.5 on the Juniors level and skied 3.1% faster than median. Doesn’t exactly project to blazing speed but it’s not terrible. In those six races she hit 79%. Not too bad for 20 years old.

In the regional races from last season she finished 5th in the Short Individual and 8th in the Sprint in the December races in Imatra. At the World University Games she finished 24th in the Short Invididual, 10th in the Sprint, 22nd in the Pursuit, and 14th in the Mass Start. In those races she hit 76.3% so just a small bit less than her Juniors racing in 23-24.

Again, not a lot to go off of. Don’t know how much Frida Achren that we’ll see. I actually think that we might see her run a little bit on the IBU Cup this season. I am happy to be surprised by whatever we see!

Rebecca Sandnäs (21)

– 2024-2025 season was fourth season of competition. Raced six Juniors races and made IBU Cup debut
– Finished with one top 10, two top 20’s and all six races in top 30 on Juniors
– Junior Worlds: 26th, 25th, 14th
– Best moments: 14th in the Junior Worlds Mass 60. Also 10th in the Junior European Championship Mass 60.
– Average finish: 21st (improved from 37th in 23-24)
– Avg course time rank: 23rd (improved from 50th in 23-24 and 30th as a Youth)
– Shooting percentage: 79% (down from 82%) hitting 84% prone and 74% standing

Lyydia Rainio (21)

– 2024-2025 season was second season of competition. Raced six Juniors races and four IBU Cup races
– Finished with one top 10 and three top 30’s
– Junior Worlds: 22nd, 43rd, and 46th
– IBU Cup: 95th, 69th, 68th, 75th
– Best moments: 8th in Junior European Championship Sprint
– Average finish: 37th (improved from 43rd in 23-24)
– Avg course time rank: 32nd (improved from 45th in 23-24)
– Shooting percentage: 72% (down from 81.3%) hitting 74% prone and 70% standing

Teodoroa Westerlund (21)

– 2024-2025 season was second season of racing. Raced the Junior Worlds. Previously raced well at 2023 Youth Worlds finishing 9th, 20th, and 27th.
– Junior Worlds: 63rd, 48th, and 37th
– Course time ranks: 59th, 62nd, and 48th
– Shooting percentage: 75%, 90%, and 65%

Youngsters and Juniors – Just in case you happen to tune in to a few Juniors races this season and see some Finnish flags I wanted to give you something to look at to help you know a little bit more about them!

Saga Hurskainen (20)

– 2024-2025 second season of competition. Ran Youth Worlds in 22-23 and ran 1 IBU Cup race last season
– IBU Cup: 64th in one Sprint in Otepaa
– Youth Worlds: 55th 44th, and 49th
– Course time rank: 61st
– Shooting percentage: 50%

Eveliina Hakala (19)

– 2024-2025 season was second season of competition. Raced six Juniors races and European Championships
– Finished with a podium, one top 10, 2 top 20’s and four top 30’s in six Juniors races
– Youth Worlds: 29th, 59th, and 59th
– European Championships: 83rd and 94th
– Best moments: Silver medal at Junior European Championships
– Average finish: 32nd
– Avg course time rank: 42nd (down from 30th in 23-24)
– Shooting percentage: 80% (up from 78%) hitting 86% prone and 74% standing

Hanni Koski (17)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Raced the Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 45th, 79th, and 55th
– Course time ranks: 26th, 29th, and 50th
– Shooting percentage: 70%, 30%, and 50%

Venla Mennala (16)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Ran the Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 48th, 42nd, and 30th
– Course time ranks: 32nd, 30th, and 36th
– Shooting percentage: 65%, 70%, and 75%

Emma Lang (18)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Raced the Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 32nd, 46th, and 41st
– Course time ranks: 50th, 55th, and 44th
– Shooting percentage: 90%, 80%, and 75%

Sissi Oikkonen (20)

– 2024-2025 season was second season of racing season. Raced the Junior Worlds and racing 2024 Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 69th and 76th
– Course time ranks: 71st and 80th
– Shooting percentage: 75% and 70%

Men

While the women were having their breakthrough season, the Men were a bit caught in between. There were absolutely some good performances on the Senior level, but the just couldn’t seem to link them together for consistency. The young Finns, though, showed very well. So well that they might not be kept off the World Cup team for that much longer. The veterans are certainly going to have to perform to hold their spots!

Head Coach: Erik Kulstad
2024-2025 Nations Cup Rank: 10th
2024-2025 Relay Finishes: 5th, 8th, 14th, 10th, 10th, 17th
Quota: 5 athletes to start

World Cup – The World Cup veterans are going to have to perform to hold off some of the young men. The veterans have all had really good moments, but the younger generation may be ready to take some spots. It might not be this year but it’s coming. In this section I have the entire World Cup team plus a few others we will likely see on the World Cup at some point this season This is who will start on the World Cup:
– Tero Seppälä
– Tuomas Harjula
– Olli Hiidensalo
– Turkka Nieminen
– Kalle Loukkaanhuta

Tero Seppälä (29)

Over the last five to six seasons it really feels like Tero Seppälä has been holding the line for the Finnish men. While there have been some surges from men like Olli Hiidensalo and Tuomas Harjula it’s really been Tero Seppälä carrying the flag and putting up the top performances for the squad. Well Tero, your long solo campaign may be coming to an end as Otto Invenius is here and Arttu Heikkinen(?) and Jimi Klemettinen are closing in.

For Seppala we now have sixth straight seasons in the top 40 of the overall including a career best 12th Overall in the 2021-2022 season. That was a gorgeous season for the lefty with the distinctive green rifle. That year he had two top 5’s, five top 10’s and 14 top 20’s. All of those were big time career bests. But last year was quietly his 2nd best season. 27th Overall was his 2nd best Overall finish. He had 19 top 40’s (four more than 3rd best), 16 top 30’s (four more than 3rd best), 9 top 20’s and another top 10. For most of the season it just didn’t feel like it, but there he was top 30 at the end of the year.

Tero Seppälä’s skiing statistics have been remarkably stable over this extended stretch of his career. He’s been between 18th and 29th in overall ski ranks each of those seasons. Each of those seasons he’s run between 1.1 and 2.4% faster than the median athlete. His shooting meanwhile every single season has been between 79.7% and 83% each of those seasons except for 19-20 when he hit only 76.9%. He’s also steadily gotten faster with his shooting. The last two seasons he’s averaged 25.7 seconds and 26.4 seconds per shoot which as put him in the top 30 fastest shooters.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	80	71.7	75.9	31.8
2018-2019	80.8	72.5	76.7	31.8
2019-2020	79.2	74.6	76.9	28.2
2020-2021	83.1	76.3	79.7	29.6
2021-2022	88	78	83	28.4
2022-2023	84.8	78.6	81.7	26.7
2023-2024	80	79.2	79.6	25.7
2024-2025	88.2	78.2	83.2	26.4

There is really no reason to expect Tero Seppälä to do anything different. Maybe he’s a little better this season as a rising tide lifts all boats? He did hit a career best 83.2% last season so maybe he gets a little better than that? His skiing probably won’t get a ton better but maybe he has another 22-23 season hidden inside of him? Even if he’s not a ton better there is no reason we should expect anything other than the steady hand of another solid season from Tero Seppälä. The only real question is who comes along with him for the ride.

Olli Hiidensalo (34)

On the other end of the career spectrum is Olli Hiidensalo. Now at age 34th it looks like Hiidensalo is at the tail end of the prime years of his career. After the two best seasons he’s had in biathlon, finishing 38th in 2021-2022 and 30th in 2022-2023 he slipped to 75th in 23-24 as he ran just seven races, and then 87th last season.

But that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t still have it. It’s a classic “I may not be as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.” In the Lenzerheide World Championship Individual Olli Hiidensalo finished 4th. He was 14 seconds off the podium. It was his first career top 10. He only had two other top 15 finishes ever in his career. The five finishes before that: 47th, 84, 60th, 31st, 38th. The five finishes after that: 29th, 63rd, 55th, 43rd, 49th. Where did that come from?!?

That one amazing glorious race in the sun aside (quite literally as it was quite bright and warm that day in Lenzerheide), Hiidensalo is definitely in the later stages of his career now. After his skiing peaked in the 21-23 range running slightly faster than median, the last two seasons he’s slipped back towards about 1% slower. HIs average course time rank fell from 32nd in 22-23 down to 54th and 45th the last two seasons. Meanwhile after a career high hit rate of 84.6% in 22-23, he’s back down to his career average hitting between 80-81% the last two seasons.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	89.6	71.3	80.4	30.8
2018-2019	87.1	78.8	82.9	31.4
2019-2020	87.5	61.3	74.4	30.7
2020-2021	80	65	72.5	32
2021-2022	84.2	77.5	80.8	31.8
2022-2023	89.1	80	84.6	27.4
2023-2024	80	80	80	28.6
2024-2025	83.3	78.9	81.1	26.5

Olli Hiidensalo proved last season that on the right day in the right race he can still make a charge. I would personally be surprised to see him do it for a full season. I still think he can be a touch better than he was the last two seasons. Even if his season average comes out about where it was last season running between 0-1% slower than median and hitting in the low 80’s, he could find a few more top 40’s and a few more points to inch back up the rankings. I don’t think he’ll be able to ski fast enough consistently enough to move back to the top 40 in the Overall, but top 60 seems possible.

Tuomas Harjula (27)

Do you all remember Tuomas Harjula in the 2022-2023 season? After scoring a total of 0 points in 2021-2022 Harjula came charging out of the gates in the first trimester and put up three to 20’s including his first career top 10 in the Annecy-le Grand Bornand Mass Start. He had four of his best six career finishes in a pretty short span. It all led to an Overall finish of 41st in the Overall. It seemed like he had taken a major step forward in his career. Since then he’s run a grand total of seven World Cup races. Seven. What happened?!? Seriously what made that 22-23 run happen and what happened since then?

The year after that surge he went down to the IBU Cup rand ran just 12 races. He ended up finishing 43rd in the IBU Cup Overall, two places back of his World Cup Overall finish the year after. He went from skiing 0.8% slower than median on the World Cup in 22-23 to 0.4% faster than median on the IBU Cup in 23-24. On the World Cup that would have been between 2-3% slower than median. Meanwhile his hit rate stayed pretty steady dropping only from 83.5% on the World Cup in 22-23 to 82.6% in 23-24. Last season those statistics were basically unchanged as he ran 13 race and finished 39th in the IBU Cup Overall. The good news was his ceiling was significantly higher year over year as he had a 4th place finish, the best of his career by far, along with a 14th and 18th to give him three of his top four finishes.

What will we see from Tuomas Harjula? Will it be the Tuomas Harjula from 2022-2023? Will it be the high finishing Tuomas Harjula from the 2024-2025? Or will it be the mid pack IBU Cup Tuomas Harjula from 2023-2024 and most of 24-25? At this point in his career it’s very hard to know. He’s been up and he’s been down and I won’t be surprised no matter who shows up. The safe expectation is that he’ll run the majority of the season on the IBU Cup. Here’s the reason for optimism though. He’s still only 27. He’s hit consitently in the low 80’s the last few seasons. He consistently skied pretty well in 22-23 and he showed flashes again last season. His high end performance this season could be top 20-30 on the IBU Cup level. So skiing more like 1-1.5% ahead of median on the IBU Cup level while again hitting low to mid 80’s.

However, if he’s skiing like that he may demand some World Cup time which would cap his Overall finish on the IBU Cup just because he wouldn’t be able to race as much. But more or less that’s the ceiling I’m expecting this season. With Tuomas Harjula though you never know when he’s going to surprise you!

Kalle Loukkaanhuhta (21)

Thus far in his career Kalle Loukkaanhuhta has been primarily a Juniors competitor. He has raced 20 Juniors races along with 10 IBU Cup races, all of which came last season. Loukkaanhuhta has raced six times in each of the last three Junior Cup seasons racing Junior European and Junior World Championships each season. For the most part he’s been finishing in the mid/upper half of the pack but he has had two flashy finishes: the silver medal in the 2024 Junior European Championship Individual and eighth in the 2025 Junior European Championship Mass 60. Otherwise he has just one other top 20 and two other top 30’s. In the IBU Cup races last season he had two top 40’s including a career best 27th in the Ridnaun-Val Ridanna Sprint. After two great days in Kontiolahti though he’s vaulted his way straight to the World Cup to start the year in Oestersund.

In these two seasons of racing he’s shown flashes of both solid skiing and solid shooting. Focusing primarily on the IBU Cup, last season he skied 1.5% back of median which is solid even if not spectacular for a 21 year old. On the range he hit 80% including 86.7% prone which was roughly in line with his shooting on the Juniors. So good but not great. Certainly plenty there to work with, and being only 21 plenty of time to see how it develops.

In all likelihood Kalle Loukkaanhuhta will probably have a realtively short run on the World Cup. The talent behind him is so high. However, if he can continue to hit around or just above 80% then it’s all about how his skiing develops. Being so young, assuming health, we should hopefully see him get a little bit faster. As he moves towards the middle of the pack (and maybe a little faster) in terms of IBU Cup ski speed he’ll start to finish higher on the IBU Cup. On the World Cup, even with the improved skiing he showed in Kontiolahti, I think it will be a bit more of a struggle. However, he’s so young it’s going to be great to get some experience. Anything more than that is a bonus.

Turkka Nieminen (22)

I had no thoughts in my mind that Turkka Nieminen was going to be on the World Cup. I just didn’t think very much about it because he thus far in his career hadn’t shown a massive amount of success on the Junior Cup. However, he had a HUGE performance in Kontiolahti and here he is starting the year on the World Cup. Here’s a brief recap of what we’ve seen from him so far:

– 2024-2025 season was second season. He raced Junior European and Junior World Championships. Had not raced since 2021-2022.
– Junior Worlds: 61st, 47th, and 51st
– Junior European Championships: 52nd, 13th, and 37th
– Avg Course Time Rank: 45th
– Shooting percentage: 70%

Otto Invenius (24)

Well hopefully one of the men coming along on the ride with Tero Seppala will be Otto Invenius. Invenius has long been identified as a future leader for the Finnish federation. As a Junior he was a multiple time Youth/Junior medalist including a very strong run at the 2022 Junior Worlds in Soldier Hollow when he won silver in the Pursuit, 5th in the Individual and 15th in the Pursuit. That capped off a great final Juniors campaign that included two silver medals at the Junior European Championships in the Sprint/Pursuit.

The following season he moved full time to the World Cup and seemed more than up to the task. He has 12 top 40’s including three top 20’s and his first career top 10 as he finished 34th in the Overall. Even at 23 years old the stage did not look too big for him. As is often the case with young biathletes, though, the pathway is not always a straight one. Last year was a slight step backward with just four top 40’s in 13 races. To be fair he was sick in the middle of the season that really seemed to knock him off his stride. It came as he was just really getting rolling and ended up knocking him out of the World Championships. However there was one very big highlight when he set a new career best with a 7th in the Ruhpolding Individual. Outside of that, though, it was definitely a mild regression.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2023-2024	84	76.7	80.3	26.5
2024-2025	81.1	73.7	77.4	26.3

It was basically a little bit worse at pretty much everything. In 2023-2024 he skied 1% faster than median and had an average course time rank of 32nd. Last year he was exactly median in terms of skiing and his average course time rank fell backward to 44th. His shooting peaked in 2023-2024 at 80.3%. Last season it was just a little worse at 77.4%.

When it comes to Otto Invenius I’m not worried…in the long term. In the short term it might be another bumpy road. While he struggled with illness this summer, Invenius then got mononucleosis this summer. He missed the summer training camp. And further illness kept him out of Loop One. It really hasn’t been a great time for training. That doesn’t mean it’s for sure going to be a bad season. However, I just think we should temper our expectations for how great he can be this year. For his career I still think he’s a future leader for the Finnish team. He can be a top 20 Overall biathlete. For this season, though we’ll see. Anything lose to the 23-24 season would be a success in my eyes.

Arttu Heikkinen (21)

Arttu Heikkinen is clearly one of the most talented young men in the Finnish. At age 21 he’s got talent and performance that right now indicates he should be running on the World Cup this season. He raced nine times on the World Cup already last season! The biggest hold up though has absolutely nothing to do with his talent… A little over a year ago he was involved in a hunting accident where he accidentally shot his godfather resulting in the loss of his eye. For this accident he was convicted of aggravated assault, fined 2,800 Euros and in following with Finnish law, he lost his gun license. That case is now under appeal. There is A LOT of confusion and questions about what happens if he loses his gun license. It’s hard to consider how he would be able to continue in the sport. But we’ll leave that for another time and another place. For now let’s just assume he’ll keep on competing in perpetuity.

Arttu Heikkinen enters the season with just about as high of a profile as it comes for Finnish men these days. At just 21 years old he’s already raced 28 IBU Cup races and 10 on the World Cup. That’s in addition to 25 Juniors races. All of that in the last six seasons when most guys are just transitioning to the IBU Cup.

Over that stretch of heavy racing Heikkinen has done some big work. As a Junior he’s had 10 top 10 finishes including winning the gold medal in the Individual at the 2022 Youth Worlds and the Sprint in the 2024 Junior European Sprint. In total he has five total top five finishes at Youth and Junior Worlds with the most recent coming just last year in the Individual in the Oestersund Junior Worlds.

In addition to that he has four career IBU Cup top 10’s with three of the in the 2022-2023 season and one coming last year. In total last season he had that top 10 and four top 20’s in seven races. With just seven races he finished 57th in the IBU Cup Overall!

On the World Cup he’s raced 10 total times with nine of them last season finishing with three top 40’s.

So far in his career Arttu Heikkinen has succeeded with both his skiing and his shooting. As a Junior his skiing peaked in the 2023-2024 season running 7.8% faster than median with an average course time rank of 8th. He has run most consistently on the IBU Cup the last three seasons. On the IBU Cup his skiing would appear to have stalled. After skiing 2.7% ahead of median in 22-23 he ended up just 1.2% and 1.5% ahead of median the last two seasons. However, I’m not going to worry too much about that right now. To round out the skiing analysis, last year he was 0.9% slower than median with an average course time rank of 53rd. Honestly quite solid for a 20 year old.

His shooting meanwhile has been running in the low 80% range for the last three seasons. Seriously, no matter what level he’s on, for the last three seasons he’s hitting anywhere between 81.4% and 82.7%. That’s a remarkable run of stability at such a young age. The good news is he’s stable in a pretty solid range. The slightly disappointing news is that he hasn’t seen it improve really at all in the last three seasons regardless of level.

Now what we hope to see from Arttu Heikkinen really depends on how much we actually see him. As we said above we’ll pretend that we see a full season. Out of him for both legal and health reasons. While the results have been quite impressive we haven’t really been seeing an improved performance as he’s entered his 20’s. For somebody so acclaimed this might seem like a strangely small and abstract hope for us to see this year, but right now I just want to see some improvement. For his skiing I would like to either see him running near the median or faster on the World Cup. On the IBU Cup I would want to see him better than 2% faster. For his shooting really anything better than 83% would be a step forward. That’s what I want to see from Heikkinen this season.

Jimi Klemettinen (20)

Jimi Klemettinen is another highly talented young Finn who is more than worthy of gathering attention. After making his IBU debut in the 2022-2023 Youth Worlds, Klemettinen went on to race three weeks on the IBU Cup plus Youth Worlds the following year. As an 18 year old he held up reasonably well on the IBU Cup finishing almost every race between 37th and 46th with just two higher than that. For that age range and so little experience that was a very good IBU Cup run. He then went to the Youth Worlds and finished 4th in the Individual before winning bronze in the Sprint.

Last season he made some big time strides forward. Once again he started the season on the IBU Cup. Racing the first four weekends on the IBU Cup he finished between 13th and 25th in seven of nine races. He wasn’t just running and getting experience he was doing exceptionally well. Again he was 19 years old. He then went to the European Championships, against a field that was actually slightly stronger, and first matched his IBU Cup career best of 13th in the Sprint before getting his first career IBU Cup top 10 finishing 8th!

He took that momentum to the Junior World Championships where he won a thrilling silver medal in the Mass 60. He actually had the lead on the last lap but he wasn’t able to hold off uber talented Kasper Kalkenberg. He finished off his season back on the World Cup, after making his debut in the Ruhpolding Individual (87th), and he finished 53rd and 34th in the Sprint and Pursuit in Oslo.

Jimi Klemettinen has clearly been racing effectively on three levels the last two seasons. For his statistics I would focus mostly on the IBU Cup as that’s where he’s raced the most consistently. His skiing has improved markedly. He moved from 2.4% back of median up to 2.9% faster than median. HUGE jump. His average course time rank moved up from 50th to 23rd. Meanwhile his shooting basically held steady as he hit 80.6% last season.

I will not lie, I really enjoyed the Jimi Klemettinen experience the last two seasons. There is no other way to put it but that’s a large rise in ski performance over the last two seasons. His shooting has been steady in the low to mid 80’s on all levels. That’s pretty solid for just being 20 years old as the season starts. Plenty of time to see that improve. Especially if he still has more growth in the skiing.

There is a real chance, that if he’s made another jump in performance that Jimi Klemettinen may grab the World Cup spot and hold on to it the rest of the season. With him being so young I tend to be a bit more conservative in my expectations. I am still going to expect some growth, though, where he will be running not only consistently in the top 20 on the IBU Cup but also more consistently in the top 10. On the World Cup I have no doubts that with another step forward we’ll see his first top 30’s if not to 20’s this season.

IBU Cup – While those are the men who will be starting the season on the World Cup there will certainly be some exchange between the levels throughout the year. Last year nine men ended up starting at least two races on the World Cup for the Finnish men, so you have to expect to see a few of these men get some time on the World Cup too. We’ll list here not just the men currently on the IBU Cup but likely to appear at some point. For now here is who will be on the IBU Cup to start.
– Jimi Klemettinen
– Arttu Heikkinen
– Vili Kotikumpu
– Santtu Panttilo
– Jaako Ranta

Jaako Ranta (28)

While the two men above Jaako Ranta are intriguing, it’s been Jaako Ranta who has been holding down the 5th spot on the World Cup for most of the last three seasons. That includes back to back seasons of finishing 66th and 67th in the Overall the last two seasons. Over that stretch Ranta has continued to raise the floor of his performance moving from no top 40’s three seasons ago, to two in 23-24 and four last season. That’s with running around the same number of races on the World Cup each season. he does only have one top 30 in those three seasons, a 23rd place in the Short Individual in Antholz in the 23-24 season, but raising the floor of your performance goes a long way.

Ranta has done this by simply becoming one of the best shooters in biathlon. His hit rate the last two seasons has been 88.8% in each season ranking 11th and 12th in overall hit rate the last two seasons. It gets even better when you consider his average shooting time the last two seasons has been 23.9 seconds and 22.9 seconds. It’s one thing to shoot fast, but when you are actually hitting the targets at a very high level, that becomes a huge weapon. So even though his average course time rank the last two seasons has been in the 70’s, the shooting has been enough to consistently get him into the points enough to reach the mid 60’s in the Overall ranking.

I already said it but Jaako Ranta is one of the best shooters in biathlon. We should never expect somebody to keep shooting that fast and that accurately because we just don’t see it that often. But if he can do that, and if he can add in a little more speed…? He is only 28 years old so he’s in the age range of peak performance now. Any additional speed raise his ceiling. He already has such a good floor. If he can get just a little closer to the middle of the pack in shooting it could be a pretty fun and surprising season for Jaako Ranta!

Vili Kotikumpu (23)

Vili Kotikumpu made his IBU debut last season with a debut on the IBU Cup. He ultimately raced eight times and scored a season’s best 19th in the Sprint in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna and finished 27th in the Short Individual in Otepaa. Otherwise, outside of finishing 99th in a Sprint in Arber he was basically in the 40’s and 50’s. His skiing wasn’t great as he ran 2.6% slower than median with an average course time rank of 63rd. He hit 81.8% with perfectly even prone/standing splits which is quite respectable.

Just like Juuso Kinnunen we’ll just be hoping to see more of Vili Kotikumpu this season.

Santtu Panttila (25)

Since making his Juniors debut at the 2017 Youth Worlds Santtu Panttila has seen only intermittent racing. The ran three races in 2022-2023 and three races last season. all of which were on the World Cup. All of his finishes are basically between 50th and 60th. His skiing has really not been too good with average course time ranks of 95th and 78th in these two short stints. Fortunately though across those six races he’s hit 88.8% of his shots in those six races. If we see him at all this season hopefully the skiing has made some progress so he can take advantage of that excellent shooting!

Joni Pykaelaeinen (31)

Another 31 year old who reached a career high Overall finish in the 2024-2025 season. After making his debut in 2018-2019 he’s continued to steadily progress every season. In the last three seasons on the IBU Cup he’s moved from 37th to 30th to 22nd. Last season that included his 2nd career IBU Cup top 10 as he finished 9th in the Gielo Sprint as well as a career best four top 20’s and a big career best 13 top 30’s.

It’s a little difficult to ascertain exactly what led to this. His skiing was still near the best of his career, but was decidedly down from where it was the prior three seasons. After having average course time ranks of 16th or 17th the last three seasons, in 24-25 it was 23rd. He skied 2.6% faster than median which was his “slowest” since the 2020-2021 season. His shooting was down a little bit as well to an overall hit rate of 69.5%, down from the low 70’s the prior two seasons.

It’s really difficult to know where both the higher ceiling and the higher floor came from last season. I’m really not sure what to make of it or what to take away from it. The skiing was unequivocally down this season compared to the prior three seasons. Based on race by race evaluation of the course time ranks he did get better as the season went on but not that much. So really I’m not sure what to take away with that.

Where will Joni Pykaelaeinen’s go this season? I’m not entirely sure. My guess is that he’s going to be running steady. He’s not old enough to really see himself coming to the age cliff yet. His finishes will likely regress just a little bit even if his statistical performance does not. That would only make sense. Regardless, I’m going to keep hoping that we haven’t seen the best of Joni Pykaelaeinen yet and he’s got more in store for us this season. But another mid to high level IBU Cup season seems to be in store assuming he gets the starts.

Juuso Kinnunen (21)

Juuso Kinnunen just turned 21 years old and he’s raced a grand total of four times and of course they were all on the IBU Cup. It doesn’t make a ton of sense but it is what it is. He closed last season by racing in Otepaa. He finished 54th, 50th, 72nd, and 63rd. His course time ranks were anywhere from 38th to 60th. He shot between 50% and 70%.

It’s a very limited data set to try to make any observations much less predictions. There aren’t even any regional races to try to glean some information from. Hopefully we see him a little bit more this season!

Heikki Laitinen (31)

On the other end of the age spectrum from Arttu Heikkinen and Jimi Klemettinen comes Heikki Laitinen. 10 years older he may be but Laitinen is also having some of the best racing of his career as well. Over the last two to three seasons he’s been splitting between the IBU Cup and World Cup. Last season he actually finished with both his second highest IBU Cup and second highest World Cup Overall finishes of his career. That’s actually a little more difficult than it sounds because you have to spend enough time on each circuit to accumulate enough points to get to the career best. Regardless, though, just a good indication that he is racing at the peak of his powers right now.

Looking at the World Cup performance, he had an average course time rank of 50th which is the best of his career as he skied 1.3% slower than median. He also hit 76.7% of his shots, which was the 2nd best hit rate of his World Cup career. On the IBU Cup he ran 2.9% faster than median with an average course time rank of 22nd, just slightly behind his career best. Meanwhile he hit 80% of his shots which was the 3rd best overall hit rate of his career.

When athletes get to age 31 they are certainly not “over the hill.” However significant improvement at this point is fairly rare. While he was at or near his career bests in terms of statistics last season, leading to his best Overall finishes, it’s fair to say he was only a little bit better and was more or less within range of his career norms. It’s just that he was on the high end of those career norms all at the same time. This is about where Laitinen is at this point in his career. If he can get it all together like he did in 2024-2025 at the same time he’s a credible World Cup athlete or a solid IBU Cup athlete. I have every reason to hope and expect it again this season!

Patrick Kuutinen (24)

Patrick Kuutinen is a similar story to Santtu Panttila in that his racing has been infrequent the last two seasons. He actually did race consistently from the 2019 Youth Worlds through the 2021-2022 season. Since then he’s raced six times in three seasons. His finishes have been basically in the back 1/3 of the field with five of the being 78th or worse. His average course time ranks are in the 80’s and 90’s and he’s hitting just 75% in that limited racing. When he last raced consistently in the 2021-2022 season he did have a bit better skiing with an average course time rank of 65th. It still seems unlikely that we see too much of Patrick Kuutinen unless he starts making significant strides in his skiing and/or shooting.

Junior and Up and Comers – While Jimi Klemettinen and Arttu Heikinen have been moved up to the IBU Cup level, they are still up and comers! Its just that they are so good I’m sure they are going to find starts on both of the top Senior levels so I’m graduating them out of this group for now. But this is just in case you happen to tune in to a few Juniors races this season and see some Finnish flags I wanted to give you something to look at to help you know a little bit more about them!

Arttu Remes (18)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Ran the Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 32nd, 7th, 28th
– Course time ranks: 41st, 29th, 31st
– Shooting percentage: 75%, 100%, 85%

Akseli Krjainen (19)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Ran the Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 17th, 64th, and 21st
– Course time ranks: 24th, 51st 21st
– Shooting percentage: 80%, 60%, 85%

Kaapo Saarinen (19)

– 2024-2025 season was second season. Ran the Youth Worlds in 2023-2024
– Youth Worlds: 26th, 19th, 30th. In 2023-2024 finishes were 23rd, 26th, and 39th
– Course time ranks: 67th, 42nd, and 33rd. In 23-24 ski time ranks were 48th, 50th, and 51st
– Shooting percentage: 85%, 90%, and 80%. In 23-24 hit 90%, 100%, and 85%

Joel Seppala (19)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Ran the Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 62nd and 76th
– Course time ranks: 54th and 66th
– Shooting percentage: 60% and 50%

Joonas Nelimarkka (21)

– 2024-2025 season was third season. He raced Junior European Championships and one IBU Cup race
– Career best: 16th at 2024 Junior European Championship Mass 60
– Junior European Championships: 56th, 28th, and 46th
– IBU Cup: 91st
– Juniors Course Time Ranks: 45th and 51st
– Juniors Shooting percentage: 70%, 80% and 70%

Tuomas Latvalahti (18)

– 2023-2024 season was debut season. Ran the Youth Worlds. Did not race in 24-25 but remains on training roster.
– 23-24 Youth Worlds: 30th, 45th, and 46th
– 23-24 Course time ranks: 29th, 44th, and 44th
– 23-24 Shooting percentage: 80%, 80%, and 75%