Switzerland 2025-2026 Team Preview

We are in the midst of the best run in the history of Switzerland biathlon. Over the last three seasons the Women’s team has finished 6th, 6th, and 5th in the Nations Cup while the Men finished 5th, 6th, and 5th. Those are the best ever finishes for those teams We’ve seen Niklas Hartweg win the u23 Globe in the 22-23 season and then Lena Häcki-Groß had the best season in Swiss biathlon history as she climbed all the way to 6th in the Overall in 23-24. The established stars are performing. There are some young athletes coming up strong. All things are coming up roses right now for a nation that whose winter sports history has been defined by success in the alpine skiing and not the nordic.

Who can we credit for this? Was it the Benny Weger and Selina Gasparin generation? Is it Sandra Fluger’s new style? Is it just a total attitude shift amongst athletes and coaches? Probably all of the above. After the last three seasons I’m eager and ready to be delighted by this team once again!

Women

The Switzerland women finished 5th in the Nations Cup which is once again the best ever finish for the Swiss women. Last year they didn’t have a great overall performance by a single athlete like Lena Häcki-Groß in 2023-2024. What they did have was solid top to bottom racing throughout the season. The only big loss of Elisa Gasparin who joined her sister Selina Gasparin in retirement

Head Coach: Sandra Flunger
2024-2025 Nations Cup Ranking: 5th
2024-2025 Relay Finishes: 12th, 5th, 4th, 4th, 15th (WC), 4th
Quota: 6 Athletes to Start

World Cup: The Swiss women have no surprises in their initial five World Cup selections. They have four that will likely be locked in for most of the season if there are no illnesses or injuries. Then they have two more openings (one being the former Elisa Gasparin slot) that will give opportunities this year.
– Lena Häcki-Groß
– Amy Baserga
– Aita Gasparin
– Lea Meier
– Lydia Mettler

Lena Häcki-Groß (30)

The 2023-2024 breakthrough of Lena Häcki-Groß was one of the truly wonderful moments in biathlon over the last few seasons. Seeing somebody who is as universally beloved have that moment in the sun was sensational. When she won the Short Individual in Antholz I don’t think there was a single person, including all of her competitors, who was upset. And then she did it again in the Oslo Mass Start! Two wins, five podiums, eight top 5’s and 12 top 10’s on her way to 6th Overall in a highly competitive Women’s Overall race.

Last season wasn’t quite the same level of success, but outside of the magical 23-24 campaign it was still the most successful biathlon season of her career. She finished 19th Overall which matched the 22-23 season but she had another podium, and thre top 5’s and six top 10’s, all of which would have been the best of her career before the 23-24 season. The difference was she only had 11 top 20’s in 25 races. So while she still had a fairly high ceiling, she had a bit lower of a floor.

The difference from one year to the next was basically that her skiing regressed. After two consecutive top 20 overall ski seasons, last year Häcki-Groß slipped down to 36th. Her average course time rank was down to 25th and she ran just 0.6% ahead of median. Compare that to the ski rank of 11th and running 3.4% faster than median in the 23-24 season. The rest of her stats were very stable. Her shooting was down only slightly from 84.3% to 83.1%. Both of those were the best of her career. And she averaged just 24.8 seconds per shoot, also the best of her career as she ranked 7th in shooting time rank last season.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2018-2019	75.4	79	77.2	25.3
2019-2020	68.6	72.9	70.7	26.4
2020-2021	81.2	78.1	79.7	25.4
2021-2022	82.3	80	81.1	27.2
2022-2023	80	78.5	79.3	27
2023-2024	87	81.5	84.3	25.5
2024-2025	85.2	81	83.1	24.8

Over the last couple of years Lena Häcki-Groß significantly raised the bar on her performance. She’s took her ceiling from fighting for top 10’s and only rarely higher to now expecting to be in the top 10 several times per season and fighting for top 5’s and podiums. Häcki-Groß set a high floor with her improved shooting. She now has two full seasons hitting 83% or higher. There is every reason to hope she can continue this. Yes, she was <80% for the rest of her career, but two full seasons is no small sample size. For her to raise herself back to 23-24 levels its all the skiing. I know we’re all hoping to see it back up to where we saw it in the 22-23 and 23-24 seasons. If she does that we’ll be seeing plenty of Lena in the top 10 and likely fighting for Olympic hardware in Antholz!

Amy Basergra (25)

The last four seasons have been a steady upward rise for Amy Baserga. While she might not quite have the profile of Lena Haecki-Gross yet, she’s becoming basically a co-leader of the Swiss women’s team. Her Overall ranking has climbed significantly year over year, last season reaching 16th, up from 25th the year prior, and was actually the highest ranked Swiss woman in the 2024-2025 season. This included by far her most top 30’s and top 40’s. She had 12 top 20’s last season which eclipsed her prior career total of 10. Four of those were top 10’s (doubling her prior career total), including her first career podium. That podium was a 3rd place in the Ruhpolding Individual. If you haven’t seen it yet, go and check out the instagram post from Swiss biathlon team showing Coach Flunger’s reaction when Baserga hit her last shots. So excited!

Always a good shooter throughout her career, the former Junior star, and three time Youth/Junior World gold medalist, has hit new highs with her shooting as she hit 90% of her shots last season. That was good enough for 13th best on the World Cup. Baserga did it with improving her prone percentage every year over the last four seasons from 87.6% up to 92.1% last year! And her standing hit rate was up to 87.9% as well. And she did all of that shooting improvement while getting even faster with her trigger finger. Last season she averaged just 26.2 seconds per shoot, the 7th fastest on the World Cup.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2021-2022	87.6	83.8	85.7	31.2
2022-2023	90.5	88.6	88.6	26.9
2023-2024	92	81.3	86.7	26.3
2024-2025	92.1	87.9	90	26.2

The only thing that hasn’t improved that much is her skiing. The last three seasons she has been running right around the median. It’s remarkably steady actually. Her average ski rank is improving slowly but surely though. Last year she was up to an average course time rank of 35th.

Amy Baserga is a star on the rise. Everything about her looks like she has the potential to put up top 10 finishes in the Overall. She’s already not that far away. The shooting and shooting speed are already there. Any improvement there is an absolute bonus. Now it’s about the skiing. Moving from the median skier to about 2-2.5% faster than median, roughly where between Anna-Karin Heijdenberg and Jeanne Richard would put her solidly in the top 10. That’s a lot to ask and we don’t expect it all at the same time. But as a career aspiration I think it’s absolutely in her reach. As for this season competing for a few more top 10’s and maybe another podium is there for the taking. If she peaks her season at the right time maybe she can get in the battle for a medal at the Olympics. Certainly not an expectation but its not outrageous to think it’s possible!

Aita Gasparin (31)

And then there was one. Somehow the Gasparin sister team, that powered the Swiss roster for a number of years, is down to just one. Selina Gasparin retired following the 2021-2022 season and is now a member of the developmental coaching staff. Last season Elisa Gasparin followed her out the door alongside one of her good friends Emma Lunder. That leaves just Aita Gasparin as the lone standing and racing member of the Swiss biathlon Gasparins.

For her part, Aita Gasparin is showing no signs of slowing down. Last season she ended the year ranked 26th Overall, the 2nd best of her career behind only finishing 24th in the 2022-2023 season. With a 31st Overall in the middle that’s easily the best three year run in her career. Last year she had two top 10’s including matching her career best of 8th with the Antholz Pursuit. It’s only the 2nd time she’s had two top 10’s in the same year! She also had 11 top 20s, the most in her career, as well as 16 top 30’s. She ended up with an average finish of 24th, a career best.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2018-2019	76.3	80	78.1	27.7
2019-2020	87.9	82.1	85	28.2
2020-2021	85	82.1	83.6	28.2
2021-2022	91.8	80	85.9	29
2022-2023	88.9	83.7	86.3	27.9
2023-2024	88.7	86	87.3	27.8
2024-2025	89.7	85.5	87.6	26.4

It was a career year for Aita Gasparin in another way as well. She had the best skiing in her career finally breaking through to being faster than the median for the first time as she ran 0.5% ahead of the median biathlete. It put her averge course time rank at 33rd, just ahead of 2022-2023 for the fastest of her career. She also hit 87.6% of her shots, the best of her career just 0.3% ahead of 2023-2024, but still the best! That included nearly hitting 90% of her prone shots as she hit 89.7% of them. And she did it all with the fastest shooting of her career averaging just 26.4 seconds per shoot. That was nearly 1.5 seconds faster than her previous fastest. She ended the season the 8th fastest shooter.

At 31 years old Aita Gasparin continues to improve. Will she keep getting better this season? Who knows! But it’s fun to dream right! Could she set a new career best? A first career top 5 even? Could she get closer or even inside of the top of the Overall? Maybe not but she’s close enough, why not dream big!

Lea Meier (24)

The last of the women that I expect to be running full time, or at least near full time, on the World Cup this season is Lea Meier. After she raced there 12 times in the 23-24 season she was limited to seven World Cup races last year while spending more time on the IBU Cup. Either way, she as split time between the two levels for the last two seasons after graduating out of the Juniors level.

On the IBU Cup she’s had some solid results over the last two years. This included five top 10’s with three of them happening at the end of last season. Over the final trimester on the IBU Cup last year she had seven top 20’s in the last 11 races, including the European Championships. And two of those non-top 20’s were 21st and 22nd. At the European Championships, the best IBU Cup level fields of the season she went 13th, 22nd, and 19th in the three races with course time ranks between 23rd and 35th. On the World Cup last year she had seven races including finishing a career best 23rd in Oestersund.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2023-2024	90	82.2	86.1	30.5
2024-2025	88	80	84	26.8

Throughout her career Lea Meier has been a solid all around biathlete. Not a speedster but fast enough. Not a sharpshooter but accurate enough. Seriously every level it’s worked out at about level. The shooting that has shown flashes. Over the last two seasons though it’s really starting to come together. After her shooting bouncing between the mid 70’s and the low 80’s, she’s actually been fairly consistent hitting 86.1% and 84% as well as 85.6% on the IBU Cup last year. Her skiing is also on the rise. In her World Cup racing over the last two seasons she’s running about 2-2.5% slower than median with an average course time rank between 58th and 66th.

Lea Meier isn’t quite on the trajectory of the high flying Amy Baserga. But she’s definitely showing some good signs. Now regularly hitting in the mid 80’s is a really good spot to be in. She doesn’t need to get a whole lot better than that. Now let’s see the skiing come along.

Of course roller skiing and snow skiing are two very different things. However the results for Meier this summer have been excellent. She won bronze in the Short Individual and gold in the roller skiing race at the Swiss Nordic Weekend, the only woman on the podium in both races. She was also 4th in the Italian Summer Championship Sprint against a very good field. At Loop One she was 2nd in her heat with an easy 2nd place finish and an awesome final loop there. She ran well in the finals as well!

If the roller skiing is going to mean something for Lea Meier it’s only good. Every time she’s had a chance to show something it’s been excellent. Considering skiing has been what’s been the thing she needs the most improvement in, it really does look like she’s ready to at least improve moderately. I’m optimistic that we’ll see a new ceiling on Lea Meier’s racing this year! If she can get to be around the median skier, and continue to hit mid 80’s, that would put her right around Natalia Sidorowicz’s stats (+0.13% vs median and 84% hit rate). A top 30 Overall season is probably a step to far, but that’s not a bad look for future career growth!

Lydia Mettler (maiden name Hiernickel) (28)

With two seasons under her belt as a biathlete after making the transition from cross country skiing in the 2022-2023 season, we were getting a picture of who Lydia Mettler is as a biathlete. Then last year she missed the season as she became a mom! She posted in March that she wasn’t sure what the future was going to have, but look at her now. It’s been a terrific summer for Mettler as she settles into life as a mom and a biathlete as she won the bronze in the Sprint at the German National Championships along with the bronze in roller skiing at the Swiss Nordic Weekend.

Looking back to where she was after the 23-24 season we see about what we would expect from a cross country skier making the transition to biathlon. Her skiing was still quite good as she consistently ran in the top 10 in course time on the IBU Cup, even it was just a little slower than the year prior. Her shooting also continued to need practice as she hit just 65.2%.

From all appearances she’s skiing quite well now. Is she as good as she was when she first came over from cross country skiing? I guess we’ll find out when the winter season gets under way in November. It would be hard to believe because that’s difficult to hold on to especially as she has to work on the shooting. However, she is looking quite good. Now it’s a matter of getting the shooting to come along. This past September at the German National Champs it was enough to get her to the podium. She was solid in the opening races of the Swiss preseason in Lenzheride! Hopefully we see a lot more performances like that this winter!

IBU Cup – As noted above we have two openings on the World Cup roster for regular weeks this season. One of those would have gone to Elisa Gasparin but her retirement opens up more possibilities. The Swiss women started just six different women on the World Cup last season. It feels like that number will grow this season though so we’re undoubtedly going to see a few of these women race on the top level at some point this season. Otherwise if they aren’t there they’ll be fighting on the IBU Cup to try to earn that position. There are more women here than can run on the IBU Cup on any given week but I think they’ll all get some run at some point (along with maybe a few of the Juniors). Here’s who will begin the season on the IBU Cup:
– To Be Filled In Once Announced

Alessia Laager (20)

A true Junior, with just seven Seniors level races to her credit, Alessia Laager has certainly gotten some, including myself, excited about her potential. While last season was a little more difficult, she had nine Juniors top 10’s across the 22-23 and 23-24 seasons including silver in the Individual at the 2023 Junior Worlds. That and her preseason performance last year was good enough to get her to the IBU Cup for the first trimester. For being just 19 at that point she didn’t do too poorly! In seven races she finished in the top 42 in every race with a season’s (and thus career) best of 20th. She finished the season on the Junior Cup but her performance slipped as the season progressed as she had some health struggles.

My view on Alessia Laager remains high. Except for the end of last season she’s a good to very good last season. In her seven IBU Cup races she hit 84% which is a good reflection of where she is. The two seasons prior to that when she was having hermost success on the Juniors level she hit 86.4% and 87.6%. That’s good enough to be a World Cup biathlete. Amongst full time World Cup women last season that would have bee good enough for top 25 in shooting accuracy. So even at 20 years old she’s already got that skill she can rely on.

Until last season the skiing was on a sharp uphill climb. Over the three Juniors seasons prior against the median she was 1.4% faster in 21-22, 4.4% faster in 22-23, and 6.6% faster in 23-24. Once you’re getting into the 7% and up level as a Junior you’re projecting into at least solid World Cup speed. Maybe not spectacular or top 20 fastest, but good enough to expect to have some solid finishes and regularly be scoring points. As an IBU Cup biathlete at 19 years old she was running exactly at the median in terms of ski speed which is about what you would have expected coming off of her Juniors racing in 23-24.

I haven’t wavered. I still think Alessia Laager has a bright future. I believe that last season’s struggles were more related to health than anything else. Prior to that, and including last season’s first trimester, was all reason for optimism. I think we’ll see a return to form this season. Back to shooting at least in the mid 80’s. Hopefully the skiing will be back on the progression curve it was on before last year, meaning looking at better than 7% faster on the Juniors (if not closer to 8-9% faster than median). On the IBU Cup I would be looking at her running 0.5-1.5% faster than median. Definitely attainable check marks. And if she does that we may see her start a weekend on the World Cup too!

Coralie Langel (24)

This past winter Frenchwoman Coarlie Langel made the difficult decision to transfer out of her home federation to join the nation of her grandfather. She already had Swiss nationality thanks to that so after meeting with the Swiss officials after a Swiss Cup race last winter she made the leap. From all things I’ve read including her interviews with Nordic magazine it’s been a pretty smooth transition. And from social media there have been a ton of posts of her training outside of training camps with Lea Meier. It looks like they’ve been fast friends already.

Speaking of training, Langel was plugged into the “B” training team but at least based on the posts she’s been spending a fair amount of time training with the “A” team members as well. It’s at least an early indication of her form and the way the Swiss coaching staff views Langel’s position in the team. That also means she gets to test herself against them on a regular basis as well as Austrian interloper Lisa Theresa Hauser who joins them regularly due to her strong relationship with Sandra Flunger who serves as her coach as well.

Again, from another Nordic Magazine interview which has had a number of personal interviews with her, she was out of training for two months due foot problems. She did speak very highly of her experience and attention from the Swiss training staff. I

Otherwise it’s been since the last Olympic season that we saw her compete at all. In seven IBU cup races that season she had two top 10’s and three top 20’s. We’ll see what happens come this season. After starting the season on the IBU Cup we’ll see how she develops throughout the season. Regardless I think this was an excellent pairing for both Coralie Langel and Swiss federation. Here’s to good things!

Lena Baumann (19)

I want to be very careful about putting Lena Baumann in this category. She’s just 19 years old right now. However, she’s coming off a great 24-25 Juniors campaign and is showing very good year over year growth. It would not be impossible to think that she might get an IBU Cup start or three this season, but I think she’s going to primarily focus on the Junior. I really wanted to put her up here because of how I think about her future.

Last year she was sterling. She ran a full season of 13 races on the Juniors level last season. She put up nine top 20’s and three top 10’s. Even her non-top 20’s weren’t bad as she finished between 20th and 23rd three additional times. But the peak of the season came at Youth Worlds when she had 5th place finishes in both the Sprint and the Mass 60.

Over the last three seasons Baumann has improved every year with her skiing. Her average course time rank was up significantly from 32nd to 15th this year as she ran 6.2% faster than median on the Junior Cup. Just glance upward to the Laager section to see what we said about how to think about Junior ski projections. If she can make a similar improvement this season we’ll be similarly excited.

Her shooting is also improving every season as well. In her three Juniors years she her hit rate climbed up from 72% to 74% and then 81.1% last season. While her standing hasn’t improved significantly in that span she’s proven that she can put in the work and make the improvements with her prone shooting up from 76% to 90.5%.

Again, Lena Baumann will in all likelihood be running almost exclusively as a Junior this year. But if her her performance trajectory remains we can expect to see her get at least a weekend or two of IBU Cup experience. In that case we would be hoping to see her skiing up to the 7-8% faster than median range with hitting in the low to mid 80’s, hopefully with improvements coming in the standing shooting. She’s still so young though, so even if that doesn’t all happen this season we’ll remain very optimstic!

Irene Cadurisch (33)

This season feels like a full circle moment for Irene Cadurisch. Four years ago Cadurisch’s career nearly came to an end. During the women’s relay at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games Cadurisch collapsed. She missed the remainder of the year and actualy didn’t race again until she returned to the IBU Cup in January of 2023. She then raced the remained of the 23-24 season and ran a full season on the IBU Cup last year.

When you compare her performance from the last two years vs before her health issues during those Olympic Games the change is obvious. Her shooting remains solid and steady. Her entire career she’s hit between the mid 70’s and the low 80’s except for just a couple of seasons higher or lower. Her shooting speed has slowed a touch but not dramatically. It’s the skiing. Considering she had a cardiovascular issue and had to take so much time off I guess it can’t be a surprise. Looking at her IBU Cup performance in 19-20 and 21-22, her last IBU racing before the Olympics, she skied 1% and 2.5% faster than median. The last two seasons she’s 3.6% and 2.8% slower than median. Her average course time ranks dropped from 30th and 22nd down to 51st.

This is absolutely not meant as a criticism of Irene Cadurisch. It’s just the data. And it’s not surprising. She missed all of the time after the issue. And without knowing the exact details (and not that she needs to share them with us!) it might be physically difficult for her to get to the same level of work that she had previously. Not that the desire isn’t there, but the physical ability is limited.

Regardless, I know we’re all hoping the absolute best for Irene Cadurisch both now and in the future. I think a return to the Olympics this season would be very difficult just based on the level of competition. The level of the entire team is just higher now that it was. However, we can still be hopeful and optimistic that she can race at her highest possible level!

Susanna Meinen (33)

The 33 year old Susanna Meinen might be the most consistent athlete in biathlon. Okay that’s a stretch. But her performance over the last two seasons on the IBU Cup is kind of crazy. Average finish in each season was 38.8 each year. Her average ski rank was 19.6 in 23-24 and 19.9 last season. And for good measure it was 19.9 in the 22-23 season. Her hit rate in 23-24 was 64.2% and 65% last year. I’ve been looking at these numbers for approximately 800 hours and I don’t think I’ve seen anybody else with so little year to year variance.

Now at this point in her career we know who Susanna Meinen is. And the numbers above are a pretty good representative of who that biathlete is. On the IBU Cup she’s a good enough skier to consistently run about 3-4% ahead of median. On the World Cup she runs a little slower than median. As a shooter she probably would like to be a little cleaner. She consistently hits in the mid 60’s up to the low 70’s.

It’s hard to predict that she might see a lot of improvement. If she starts on the IBU Cup then we have a pretty good idea of who we’ll be. She’s not old enough to get to the point where her performance would be expected to fall off. She’s also a little older than we might expect to see have any significant improvement. She’s a solid and dependable IBU Cup athlete and that’s worth celebrating and respecting!

Lara Berwert (22)

After competing only on the Juniors thus far in her career, Lara Berwert is graduating up to the Seniors level this season. So far she has run three seasons worth of races on the IBU Junior Cup with various levels of success. She had a top 20 in each of the last two seasons, with seven total top 30’s. Her best finishes were 14th in a Sprint in 23-24 and a Mass 60 in the Jakuszyce Mass 60 last season.

She’s been a a decent shooter so far. She hit 82.1% in the 23-24 season and 79% last season. She has pretty even splits between prone/standing. Her skiing, though, is what needs the most improvement. On the Juniors level she consistently runs back of median with an average course time rank in the 50’s.

For Berwert to get consistent racing going forward she either needs to turn into a sharp shooter, moving form the low 80’s up to the low 90’s, or she needs to make significant strides in her skiing. We’ll wait and see what she’s able to show us this season!

Flavia Barmettler (27)

After no races in 2022-2023 and just six IBU Cup races the following year, Flavia Barmettler returned with 11 races last season. That was her most in season since the 2020-2021 season. Unfortunately though she failed to reach the top 40 and had just three top 60 finishes.

Year over year she had a slip in average ski rank from 36th down to 58th and she went from running slightly faster than median back to 3% slower than median. Meanwhile her hit rate dropped back from 71.1% to 66.2%.

With the increased competition in the team it’s going to be harder and harder for Barmettler to squeeze out more starts on the IBU Cup. However, in order to do so, she’ll need to be a lot more like she did in 23-24 than 24-25. And it wouldn’t hurt to have her hit rate back in the 70’s either. Fingers crossed!

Juniors – Now how about a few women to watch for on the Juniors level. A few of these could be pretty interesting this year! Otherwise it’s a good reference for if/when you see them pop up on a top 10-20 on the Juniors at some point this season.

Marina Benderer (20)

– 2024-2025 season was second season of competition.
– Finished with two top 20’s and three top 30’s
– Junior Worlds: 42nd, 36th, 47th
– Best moments: 16th in the Ridnaun-Val Ridanna Individual as well as in the Goms Mass 60. Those are her career best
– Average finish: 37th
– Avg course time rank: 50th (down from 46th)
– Shooting percentage: 84.4% (improved from 83.2) with fairly even splits

Sophia Imwinkelreid (18)

– 2024-2025 season was first season of competition
– Finished with a top 10 and three top 20’s
– Youth Worlds: 35th, 19th, and 8th
– Best moment: 8th in the Mass 60 at Youth Worlds
– Average finish: 36th
– Avg course time rank: 42nd
– Shooting percentage: 75.8% while hitting 83.3% prone and 68.3% standing

Molly Kafka (18)

– 2024-2025 season was first season of competition
– Finished with one top 20 and four top 30’s
– Youth Worlds: 25th, 33rd, and 21st
– Best moment: 17th in the Goms Sprint and the 21st in the Mass 60 at Youth Worlds
– Average finish: 36th
– Avg course time rank: 44th
– Shooting percentage: 81.7% while hitting 88.3% prone and 75% standing

Enya Muerner (21)

– 2024-2025 season was second season of competition
– Finished with two top 30’s and three top 40’s
– Junior European Championships: 69th, 62, 35th
– Best moment: 24th in the Jakuzsyce Mass 60
– Average finish: 44th
– Avg course time rank: 55th (down from 49th)
– Shooting percentage: 79.2% (down from 81.5%) with slightly better prone over standing shooting

Ronja Rietveld (21)

– 2024-2025 season was third season of competition and first full season
– Finished with one top 20 and five top 30’s
– Junior Worlds: 44th, 39th, 44th
– Best moment: 18th in one of the Jakuzsyce Sprints
– Average finish: 34th (improved from 61st)
– Avg course time rank: 43rd (improved from 62nd)
– Shooting percentage: 81.7% while hitting 87.% prone and 75.6% standing. (Improved from 64.3% last year and 75.7% the year prior)

Giannina Piller (17)

– 2024-2025 season was first season of competition
– Youth Worlds: 36th, 22nd and 24th
– Avg course time rank: 38th
– Shooting percentage: 84% while hitting 80% prone and 88% standing

Men

For the Swiss men the 2024-2025 season was a bit of a mixed bag. Niklas Hartweg had a bit of a resurgence. He never truly went away he just had a bunch of bad luck. He got healthy and went on a run in the middle of the season to show again why we all like him. Joscha Burkhalter had the best season of his career. Sebastian Stalder had a bit of a step back though. There is definitely room for somebody to move up and snag a spot if they show the ability!

Head Coach: Sandra Flunger
2024-2025 Nations Cup Ranking: 6th
2024-2025 Relay Finishes: 8th, 13th, 11th, 5th, 7th (WC), 9th
Quota: 5 Athletes to Start

World Cup: The Swiss men have a full gamut of athletes on the World Cup squad. There are two young men who are entering the prime years of their career and are looking to establish themselves as consistent top-20 contenders if not higher. Another young man still looking to make the big move to reach a higher level. One man near the end of his prime that remains a major boom or bust. And then the 5th spot appears to be likely a rotation for whomever can earn it. Here’s who will begin the season on the World Cup:
– Niklas Hartweg
– Sebbe Stalder
– Joscha Burkhalter
– James Pacal
– Dajan Danuser

Niklas Hartweg (25)

Just three seasons ago Nik Hartweg won the u23 Globe over Tommaso Giacomel in sensational fashion. After wearing the blue bib for nearly the entire season, Hartweg appeared to be running out of gas towards the end of the season. The legs were dead and he gave the blue bib just two races from finish line. But then suddenly, without warning and without explanation, he suddenly found his legs and surged in the last two races of the season, including a superlative Mass Start 2nd place finish, to take home the globe.

It almost feels like Hartweg made a deal with the devil for that globe. Since then he’s struggled with several illnesses that seem to strike at the worst time. He had a fall while training in the summer of 2024 that required surgery and a long recovery. This season he’s had another injury and recent illness. He was even robbed this summer! What else can happen?

To be honest that probably puts far too negative a spin on what Hartweg has accomplished over the last two seasons. To be sure the 23-24 season was a bit of a lost season as he struggled with recurrent illness. Last season though had some significant high points. Hartweg actually had more top 10’s last year than he did in his 11th place Overall season in 22-23. He also had only one fewer top 5 last season than 22-23. That included a stretch of four consecutive top 10’s and six top 10’s in eight races in the 2nd trimester which were both personal bests. He also had a 5th in the Individual at the World Championships in Lenzerheide setting a new Worlds personal best. The big difference for Hartweg in 22-23 vs 24-25 was the lack of podiums, and three finishes outside the top 40.

Looking closely at the statistics Hartweg did have the best skiing of his career. He ran 1.5% faster than median (vs 1.3% faster in 22-23) and accomplished a career best average course time rank of 21st (compared to 26th in 22-23). So the difference was his shooting was down. And that’s not to say bad. He hit 85.5% of his shots last season. But that was down from 23-24 not to mention the astounding 93.3% he hit in 22-23.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2020-2021	83.6	74.5	79.1	26
2021-2022	82.5	78.8	80.6	28.3
2022-2023	95.6	91.1	93.3	25.1
2023-2024	83.7	89.7	86.7	24.5
2024-2025	87.3	83.6	85.5	24.1

Hartweg is still just 25 years old so he’s certainly still in the growth phase of his career. He’s already a comparatively better skier now than he was as a Junior. Of course he’s faster based on pure speed, but he’s already developed as much if not more ski speed than we could have expected based on his Juniors racing. There is no reason to expect that to stop now, especially under the tutelage of Sandra Flunger where he seems to be thriving. Now it’s going to be about eeking out a few more percentage points in his hit rate. 93.3% might be too much to hope for again, but what about 88-89%? That seems possible. If he can do that, and stay as one of the fastest shooters in the game he’s going to be in the top 10 again and again. Hartweg has the potential to be a consistent top 10 Overall biathlete for the next many years. Here’s to hoping we see the first of those come this year!

Sebastian Stalder (27)

After two consecutive top 20 Overall seasons, the 2024-2025 season was (hopefully) a momentary set back. There was really no indication of the step backwards to come until last season got underway. Sebastian Stalder was doing fantastic. He had established himself as one of the best shooters in biathlon with consecutive seasons hitting above 90%. He went to the Martin Fourcade festival in September of 2024 and took home the win against the all star field.

Then last season began and suddenly the ski speed had developed just wasn’t there. While he still hit 90% overall his average course time ran fell from 34th and 42nd in 22-23 and 23-24 all the way down to 67th. He went from running just a touch faster than the average biathlete down to 1.7% slower than median. As a result his average finish fell from 23rd over the prior two seasons down to 36th.

Stalder did have a solid run in the middle of the season. He actually had two of his best finishes of the season at the Lenzerheide World Championships as he finished 13th in the Sprint and 11th in the Mass Start. Otherwise there weren’t that many days to write home about. After seeing the pressure on the Czech team during the 2024 Nove Mesto Worlds you start to wonder if it was something similar with Stalder (and much of the Swiss team) for the 24-25 season. It’s a long way of saying that there was no obvious cause for the slip in form. No obvious injury or illness.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2020-2021	88%	80%	84%	28.2
2021-2022	87%	80%	83.5%	27.8
2022-2023	92.5%	90%	91.3%	26.1
2023-2024	92.9	88.1	90.5	25.8
2024-2025	93.8	86.2	90	25.3

Sebastian Stalder comes into the 2026 Olympic season at 27 years old and should be just at the beginning of the peak performance levels of his career. He is easily one of the top shooters in biathlon and that’s just who he is. He’s also hit 26.1 seconds or faster each of the last three seasons ranking top 20 in that category in each season. So now, it’s all about if the ski speed he had in 22-23 and 23-24 can come back, or especially be improved upon. I am completely optimistic that it will return and that we haven’t yet seen the best of Sebbe Stalder.

Joscha Burkhalter (29)

While Niklas Hartweg and Sebastian Stalder have each had their individual struggles recently, Joscha Burkhalter has been on the rise. It hasn’t exactly been meteoric but it has been steady progress reaching new career high Overall finishes in each of the last two seasons. Last year that meant an Overall rank of 37th which came on the back of big time career highs in top 40’s (14), top 30’s (11), top 20’s (4) and his second career top 10 which was 10th in the Ruhpolding Individual. Each of those except for the top 10 was at lest twice as many as he had ever had in a season of his career. Maybe the most important statistic for Burkhalter was racing a career most 20 races last season including three Mass Starts and missing just two Pursuits.

Burkhalter’s success is a result of making slow and steady progress in pretty much every aspect of his performance. His ski rank has improved every single year. Just look at his average ski rank the last four seasons going from 60th to 52nd to 48th to 37th last year. In that span he went from skiing 2.2% slower than median to just 0.3% slower than median. Big growth in small steps!

His shooting growth hasn’t been quite as big over the last four seasons but still it’s been moving upward. He hit 81.5% in the 21-22 season, and has risen up to 83.8% last year. He also reached a new career fastest average shooting time with an average shooting time of just 24.1 seconds.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2021-2022	79	84	81.5	25.6
2022-2023	81.3	78.7	80	27
2023-2024	81.5	80.8	81.2	25.3
2024-2025	86.3	81.3	83.8	24.1

I love that Burkhalter just keeps moving forward. With the expected performances of Hartweg and Stalder this season there is a real chance that the Swiss men could have three top 30 men. Hartweg and Stalder should be there assuming good health. If Burkhalter can keep his current growth trajectory that would put him skiing just a small bit faster than median with shooting around 85%. That would put him right around the top 30 Overall level and I can definitely see it happening.

Dajan Danuser (29)

Over the last several years Dajan Danuser has found himself stuck between the World Cup and the IBU Cup. The optimistic view of this is that he’s been consistently performing well enough to get regular starts on the World Cup. He just hasn’t been quite good enough to have performances that demanded to stay on the World Cup. Unfortunately that also means that his IBU Cup Overall finishes don’t always look as good as they might if he had stayed on there for a full season.

In the 2024-2025 season Danuser spent five weeks on the World Cup and had some of the best finishes of his career there including a career best 46th in the Oberhof Pursuit. Speaking of, he qualified for two Pursuits last season, the first in his World Cup career. And he just missed out in Oslo finishing five positions out of the top 60. He also ran 16 races on the IBU Cup and finished with six top 30’s and three top 20’s on the way to 54th in the Overall rankings.

Danuser’s strength is easily his skiing. Last year he finished 14th in overall skiing on the IBU Cup while running 4.5% faster than median, which is easily the best of his career. On the World Cup he was right around the average biathlete in terms of ski speed. So it makes sense that he had an average course time rank of 44th, about mid pack. His shooting, though, is really what’s holding him back. Last season the IBU Cup he hit just 66.5% including just 58.3% standing. That’s just a slight step back from last year. However, on the World Cup he actually hit 72.2% which was the best extended run of shooting in his career. That included 68.9% standing, not coincidentally the best extended run of standing shooting in his career.

The story for Dajan Danuser is the same as Jeremy Finello. The only difference is that Danuser isn’t quite as fast as Finello and unfortunately, thus far, his shooting hasn’t regularly been as good. For him to get regular World Cup run he doesn’t need to get too much faster. If he could just fine around 75% or better on the range he’s going to be doing the World Cup tour this season.

James Pacal (21)

If coach Sandra Flunger and the Swiss ski federation decide to go with a younger group this season, James Pacal is likely one of the men they would turn to. Aside from a running the Ruhpolding Individual last season, when he finished 75th, Pacal ran regularly on the IBU Cup and then finished the season at Junior Worlds.

On the IBU Cup, as a 20 year old, James Pacal finished with nine top 40’s, six top 30’s, and three top 20’s in 13 races. This included a 19th in the European Championship Sprint and a 22nd in the following Pursuit. He also put up his career best (so far!) as a 14th in the Mass 60 in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna. Then he went to the Junior World Championships and won the bronze medal in the Individual which also happened to be his best career Juniors finish. he followed that up with 18th in the Sprint and 44th in the Mass 60.

Pacal success over the last few seasons is in no small part thanks to the incredible improvement with shooting. Looking back to his Juniors he was regularly hitting in the mid 70’s. Over the last two years on the IBU Cup, where he’s run 18 races in that time span. He’s improved significantly to hitting mid to high 80’s including hitting 93.7% in the prone shooting last year. He also improved his standing shooting all the way from the low 70’s up to the low 80’s.

Meanwhile he’s also improved his skiing significantly. When he was running primarily on the Juniors level he was never one of the fastest. So to expect that of him as soon as he got to the IBU Cup, especially as a 20 year old, is too much. However he’s running faster than average and last year had an average ski rank of 38th. Considering the previously two years his average ski rank as a Junior was just 27th, I’ll take this as a sign of improvement.

James Pacal certainly has all the potential of a future World Cup athlete. If I had to guess he’ll run primarily on the IBU Cup this season. But that’s a pure guess. He may very well run regularly on the World Cup as well just to get his feet wet. Especially if he shows signs of continued improvement. For what it’s worth, he’s the only Swiss man (of those that raced) to finish top 10 at the Italian Summer Championships in both the Sprint and the Pursuit. Not to mention at the Swiss Nordic Weekend he also took silver medal in the Short Individual behind only Sebastian Stalder. For this season, continued improvement is all I’m hoping to see. A little faster. A little better prone. A little better standing. A little faster shooting. All building towards what I’m hopeful is going to be a VERY successful World Cup career.

IBU Cup – The Swiss men started eight different men on the World Cup last season. That means that while those five men listed above are starting the season on the World Cup we’re undoubtedly going to see a few more race on the top level at some point this season. Otherwise if they aren’t there they’ll be fighting on the IBU Cup to try to earn that position. Here’s who will begin the season on the IBU Cup:
– To Be Completed Once Announced

Jeremy Finello (33)

You might not have noticed, but last season Jeremy Finello achieved the best Overall rank of his career, finishing at 42nd. He did it in just 11 World Cup races (plus two World Championship races that obviously don’t count in the Overall), which to be fair is a decent number for him because he misses out on Pursuits on a regular basis. He ended up with an average finish of 41st (not surprisingly the best of his career) and career best matching five top 30’s. Also his eight top 40’s in his 13 races which is the best top 40 rate of his career.

Finello did it by getting stronger at his strongest asset. Last year he had the best average ski rank of his career at 11th. He ended up with the 6th best overall skiing for the season behind: JT Boe, Martin Ponsiluoma, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Sebastian Samuelsson, and Tommaso Giacomel. Each of those men were top 15 in the Overall. Finello was 42nd. Why? Because he hit just 70% including just 53.3% standing. That’s been the story his entire career and at age 33 it likely won’t change, even if we can be hopeful it will.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2018-2019	85.6%	76%	80.8%	31.4
2019-2020	94.3%	65.7%	80%	31.1
2020-2021	82.1%	58.6%	70.4%	28.7
2021-2022	100%	50%	75%	31
2022-2023	81%	56%	68.5%	30.3
2023-2024	61%	71%	66%	30.1
2024-2025	86.7%	53.3%	70%	29.7

We know who Jeremy Finello is. He’s a world class skier. If he could hit 1-2 more standing shots per race he would be one of the best biathletes in the world. But again, this is who he is. His ski speed should keep Finello regularly on the World Cup, just in case this is the week he hits his shots. But if the Swiss ultimately decide to go with a younger roster or give other men the opportunities you can certainly understand why.

Matthias Riebli (21)

Another young Swiss man that is starting to earn some attention is Matthias Riebli. Last season was just his second of international biathlon competition on the IBU level races and he showed significant year over year improvement. He ran another full season of Juniors competition along with his first four career IBU Cup races. After having three total top 30’s in the 23-24 season, Riebli scored nine (!) of them last season including three top 10’s and a 5th. That included a career best 4th in the Junior European Championship Sprint which he followed up with a 7th in the Mass 60. He also finished 13th, 37th, and 25th in the Junior World Championships. He even had a touch of success in the IBU Cup when he had a 22nd in one of the Sprints in Otepaa!

While Pacal has developed a strength in shooting over the last two to three seasons, Riebli has been improving on the strength of his skis. His average course time in his Juniors races improved from 38th to 18th year over year. Still not a speedster but that’s a great improvement. He ran 5% faster than median last season. And in his limited IBU Cup races last year he was just slightly faster than median. That doesn’t project to world class speed, but he’s still young in his development curve so I think we can be optimistic that he’ll be fast enough to be solid on the World Cup.

Shooting meanwhile continues to improve. He went from 74.2% to 77.8% over the last two years. While his standing shooting stayed stable his prone improved nearly 10%.

One good vote of confidence in Riebli’s development is that he was selected as part of the team that competed at the Loop One festival in Munich. Of course there was a little illness going through the team so that helped boost him into the lineup, but still they have many men they could have picked up. Clearly he’s been working very hard. And clearly that hard work is paying off. And clearly there are some improvements happening. Like I said above he’s still young in his development curve. I’m hoping that means we’re about to see him take off this season with a big run on the IBU Cup.

Gion Stalder (26)

While Sebastian Stalder has established himself as one of the leaders of the Swiss men’s team, Gion Stalder has slowly but surely raising the level of his game as well. The last few seasons that has meant running consistently on the IBU Cup. The last four seasons he’s seen his average finish improve from 44th to 33rd with incremental improvement every season. His IBU Cup Overall score didn’t improve as much, though, because he’s been getting a few races on the World Cup the last two seasons taking away opportunities for more IBU Cup points.

Looking at his statistics, he has seen mild improvement in his skiing. Over that period he’s gone from running 1.2% slower than median to 0.3% slower than median. His average course time rank has improved from 51st to 43rd. His hit rate is where the most improvement has been. He’s gotten his hit rate up to 84.2% including prone hit rate up to the low 90’s while his standing is in the mid to high 70’s.

Gion Stalder’s shooting is good enough to be more regularly on the World Cup. It would be even better if he could improve his standing up to the low 80’s. Shooting consistently mid 80’s or higher would be fantastic. He’s also entering what should be the peak performance years of his career. Let’s see how good he can get his skiing this season. As of right now I have him slightly ahead of him in the pecking order. However, Stalder is still relatively young and can get there if he can keep up his improvement.

Felix Ullmann (22)

I honestly don’t know how it’s possible that Felix Ullmann is only 22 years old. I feel like he has to be 26 at this point. He’s been running full seasons split time between the Juniors and IBU Cup for each of the last three seasons. It’s wild. He had a very good Juniors season in 22-23 including a top 5, two top 10’s and five top 20’s. Since then, on the Juniors level, he has two top 10’s and five top 20’s total in the last two seasons.

To be fair he has been racing more on the IBU Cup during that time. I almost wonder if the split time between the circuits, the frequent and uneven travel, has affected him a little bit. Over the last two seasons on the IBU Cup he’s been running around 50th for each of the two seasons. Not to bad at all for a young man!

On the IBU Cup his skiing has been okay. Average course time rank of 60th last year and 44th the year prior. That’s mean running around 1-1.5% slower than median. Meanwhile he’s been hitting 76% and 77.8% in those two seasons with a significant preference for prone shooting. That’s about in line with what you would expect from him based on his Juniors statistics. As a Junior he’s only slightly faster than median. On the range he’s hitting in the high 70’s to low 80’s. Except on the Juniors level he’s much better on his standing shooting.

If you just look at his statistics from the last two seasons it doesn’t project to high potential. However, I am inclined (and hoping) to think that the transfers between levels has been difficult and that it’s been two years since we’ve seen the “real” Felix Ullman. I am hopefully that now that he’ll only be running on one circuit (since he’s graduated from the Juniors). I’m hopeful this season, on the IBU Cup, we’ll see him go right around if not faster than median. And I’m hoping that we’ll see his hit rate get to, and maybe slightly above 80%. Doing that for a full season, and a solid year of IBU Cup racing would be a great start and we’ll go from there!

Mathis Profit (22)

Coming off of a 2024-2025 season during which he did not race on the IBU level, Mathis Profit nevertheless remained on the Swiss national training roster on the “C team.” Not too long ago we would have expected to see Profit a bit higher on this list. He was excellent at the 2022 Youth World finishing 5th in the Individual and 6th in the Sprint. The last two seasons have not been quite as bright. He had two top 40’s on the Juniors in the 22-23 season with Junior Worlds finishes of 54th, 26th, and 39th. In 23-24 he ran just give races with finishes of 35th, 37th, 39th, and 41st before at 13th in the Junior European Individual. He did run five IBU Cup races in 23-24 with all of his finishes between 44th and 58th.

During that very good run in the 21-22 season he shot pretty well and hit 81% for the season. That was much better than he’s done since then. In the 22-23 season he hit just 68.5% and 75% in the 23-24 season. As a Junior skiing wasn’t his strength so he ran around 1.5% faster than median in both 21-22 and 22-23. In 23-24 he ran 0.6% slower than median on the IBU Cup, a little faster than you would expect.

With him being on the training roster I would expect we’ll see Profit back racing again. We’ll see what happens with him this season. Probably running a little faster than we last saw him. If he can shoot into the low 80’s again he’ll probably consistently finish in the top 40 or better on the IBU Cup. Would love to see him get a full season of racing. Honestly that would be a great place to start. Those stats would be roughly what Magnus Oberhauser did last year in 19 IBU Cup races which put him at 43rd in the IBU Cup Overall. I’m not trying to set the bar too high but I would be happy to see that from Profit this year.

Yannik Kreuzer (29)

After several seasons away from biathlon Yannik Kreuzer returned to the Swiss national team in the 22-23 season. Since then he’s been running occasionally on the IBU Cup. He’s run about 3-4 weekends per season on the IBU Cup the last two season racing 11 times in 23-24 and 9 times in 24-25. He’s had a moderate amount of success with three top 40’s in 23-24 and two last season.

Statistically it’s been about what you would expect with those finishes. He had an average course time rank of 61st last season, actually the best of his career. And he ran just 1.3% slower than median on the IBU Cup, also the best of his career. Meanwhile he hit a really solid 85.5% including a terrific 94.5% prone.

Kreuzer is actually a good shooter and he’s showing progress with his skiing every year. Really the only thing against him is his age. If he was 25 as opposed to 29 we might all be more optimistic for his future. If he continues to improve at his current trajectory, and runs right around median on the IBU Cup, while shooting mid to upper 80’s, he’s actually going to be performing better than some of the men ahead of him on this list. The Swiss team might prioritize more racing for younger athletes and you can’t fault them for that. But really nice to see Kreuzer continuing to put in this work even if he has relatively slim hopes for making it to the World Cup.

Sandro Bovisi (28)

Just like last years Sandro Bovisi finds himself starting off the season off of the national team roster. Last year that didn’t stop him from running all but two weekends of the season on the IBU Cup so I can’t imagine it would stop him this season. He had another middle of the pack season. He finished 91st on the IBU Cup down a little bit from where he has been the last four seasons. His average finish was 51st, down a touch from where he was the previously three sasons in the low to mid 40’s.

Bovisi’s performance slipped a little bit in his skiing. After running around 0.5 to 1% faster than median for most of his career, last yera he was 0.7% slower than median. Meanwhile his shooting remained stable as he hit 77.5%. Interestingly enough he hit 82% prone, the best of his career, but his standing shooting at 73% was on the lower end of his career shooting. Meanwhile his average shooting time was a bit slow averaging 35.5 seconds per shoot.

Truthfully I don’t know where Sandro Bovisi goes from here. Without an improvement he’s likely to be pushed out by younger athletes with possibly higher career possibilities. This sort of feels like a make or break season. Another season like he had the last few years is okay. A run higher would give him new hope for the future of his career. However, if he slips a little bit then he’s going to be overtaken by some of the younger men on this list.

Yanis Keller (23)

Will see Yanis Keller this year? I’m not sure. I haven’t seen anything about him retiring and his Instagram isn’t visible to me. But here’s what I wrote about him before last season:

Out of the Swiss Junior men Yanis Keller is one of the most experienced with 17 races across three seasons. He actually didn’t even run an IBU level race on the 2022-2023 season and returned for just four last season.

In his first two years of racing he had two top 10’s including 5th in the 2021 Youth Worlds Pursuit and 7th in an Juniors Pursuit race in Martell-Val Martello along with another 11th place finish. After missing the 22-23 season he returned last year for four races and although he had a 14th place finish he couldn’t quite break into the top 10.

In his time in the Juniors Keller has proven to be a very good shooter. In each of the last two seasons he raced in he hit 88% or better. The only thing that held him back from greater glory and more top 10’s was his skiing. He clearly has the potential, and as long as his skiing is even moderate, hitting 88% gives him a solid base to race off of. It would be great this season, though, to see if his skiing can take that next step!

Juniors – And now a few men to watch for either on the Juniors level or recent graduates from the Juniors level. A few of these could be pretty interesting this year! Otherwise it’s a good reference for if/when you see them pop up on a top 10-20 on the Juniors at some point this season.

Jens Berger (20)

– Has run two races in each of 2023-2024 and 2024-2025
– Last season finished 55th and 54th in the races in Goms last season for his only two Juniors races
– Course time ranks: 45th and 41st
– Shooting percentages: 50% and 60%

Silvano Demarmels (21)

– 2024-2025 season was fourth season of competition. Also made IBU Cup debut with four races
– Finished with one top 10, four top 20’s, and seven top 30’s
– IBU Cup finishes: 50th, 47th, 70th, and 81st racing twice in Obertilliach and Otepaa
– Junior Worlds: 51st, 19th, and 23rd
– Best moments: 5th in one of the Sprints in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna. Also finished 12th in the Individual at Junior European Championships
– Average finish 26th
– Avg course time rank: 29th
– Shooting percentage: 77% with exactly even splits

Remo Burch (20)

– 2024-2025 season was third season of competition and first full season of racing. Did not race Junior Worlds
– Finished with one top 20 with four top 30’s and five top 40’s
– Junior European Championships: 67th
– Best moment: 14th in the Individual in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna. Best weekend was back to back 25ths in the Sprint and Mass 60 in Goms.
– Average finish 38th
– Avg course time rank: 52nd
– Shooting percentage: 82.5% with roughly even splits

Paul Stalder (22)

– 2024-2025 season was his first career season of racing
– Finished with two top 20’s and four top 30’s
– Junior European Championships: 17th, 39th, and 41st
– Best moment: 13th in the Mass 60 in Jakuszyce and 17th in the Individual at Junior European Championships
– Average finish 38th
– Avg course time rank: 38th
– Shooting percentage: 73.8% while hitting 67.5% prone and 80% standing

Vince Vogel (19)

– 2024-2025 season was his first career season of racing
– Finished with a top 20 and two top 30s
– Youth Worlds: 21st, 33rd, and 56th
– Best moment: 21st in the Individual at Youth Worlds
– Average finish 43rd
– Avg course time rank: 48th
– Shooting percentage: 68.8% with roughly even splits

Levin Kunz (18)

– 2024-2025 season was 2nd of racing having raced Youth Worlds in each of the last two years
– Youth Worlds: 64th, 42nd, and 32nd
– Best moment: 32nd in the Mass 60 at Youth Worlds
– Avg course time rank: 42nd
– Shooting percentage: 62% with roughly even splits