Sweden 2025-2026 Team Preview

Sweden shares a border and a friendly, but intense, rivalry with their Norwegian neighbors. It’s a constant competition in everything. While historically one sided, the biathlon battle is starting to heat up! The Swedish women, boosted by the Öberg sisters, finished ahead of the Norwegian women in the Nation’s Cup in the 2022-2023 season for the first time in a decade. After the Norwegian women retook the 2nd spot in the rankings in the 2023-2024 season Sweden stormed back last year and finished an easy #2 behind the French freight train. They appear poised again to be the top challengers to the French women. Meanwhile on the men’s side Sebastian Samuelsson continues to strive to *finally* overtake the Norwegian powerhouse. Thus far his Swedish men have not been able to topple the Norwegians but maybe now with the Bø bros gone Sebbe can get his boys on the winning side a little more frequently?.

As we enter the 2025-2026 season there is reason for optimism for both the men and the women. Samuelsson is in what should be his peak years. Last year he had two wins and only three men had more victories last season. He will absolutely be a threat for Olympic medals and World Cup podiums. Fee men can claim to be faster than Martin Ponsiluoma on the skis. Can he get his rifle under control? The Swedish men’s relay team could be better this season as well! On the women’s side the Öberg sisters should continue to fight for wins every time out. They have at least eight women who could be good to very good World Cup competitors. Meanwhile the women’s relay team should once again be in contention for the relay title this season.

Women: The Swedish women are in the middle of a surge of biathlon talent. Just like the French and German women there is a surplus of possible World Cup athletes all pushing for precious World Cup starts. And this year fighting for the limited slots in the Olympic races. And, in the background all season long, can the Swedish women who have finished 2nd in the Nations Cup four of the last five seasons finally push the French off the top step?

Coaches:
– Head Coach: Johannes Lukas
– National Shooting Coach: Jean-Marc Chabloz and Johan Hagstrom
– 2024-2025 Nations Cup Rank: 2nd
– 2024-2025 Relay Finishes: 1st, 3rd, 5th, 1st, 🥉(WC), 6th
– Quota: 6 Athletes to Start

The Contender – There is one woman who, even on this talented roster, stands in a class of her own. Yes, Hanna Öberg has a pile of World Championship and Olympic medals, but it is her sister Elvira who has the chance to take an Overall title. Elvira has finished higher in the Overall for the last four seasons, even when missing chunks of time due to illness.

Elvira Öberg (26)

Elvira Öberg is just 26 years old. I think that needs to be restated a few times. She’s just 26 years. Sometimes it feels like within the biathlon community that there is more disappointment around Elvira than there is any right to be. She was so amazingly good at such an incredibly young age that expectations immediately went through the roof. Then seeing equally young and talented Lou Jeanmonnot battling for the Overall the last few seasons when Elvira wasn’t quite at that level it made it seem as if Elvira was not quite where she “should” be.

Let’s be honest though, Elvira is a highly talented 26 year old biathlete who still has a sky high ceiling and all the make up of a woman who will continue to challenge for the Overall for years to come. Again, she’s still just 26 years old and in all likelihood should continue to get even a little better over the next few years. We’re talking about better than she already is, consistently a top 5 Overall force. She has at least three wins in three of the last four seasons. Last year she had nine podiums in 20 races, her best podium rate of her career. Her 15 top 10’s were behind only Lou Jeanmonnot, Franziska Preuss, and Suvi Minkkinen whose sky high shooting gave her a consistently very high floor.

Elvira Öberg’s calling card has always been her skiing. Every year she’s one of the top skiers on the Women’s World Cup. In each of the last three seasons she not only runs well ahead of median with an average course time rank in the top 10. Last year her average course time rank of 4.8 was the best of her career. In terms of overall skiing she was behind only Anamarija Lampic and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet and along with those three women was one of the only women running faster than the median top 10.

At this point the only statistical part of her performance that is keeping her from even more glory is the shooting. While she has settled in hitting regularly in the mid 80’s, including 85.3% last season, it’s just a little back from where she would need to be to grab that coveted Overall Globe. Her average shooting time has also been pretty well maintained around 29 seconds per shoot for the last five seasons.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2019-2020	76	82.7	79.3	32.5
2020-2021	83	81.5	82.3	29.5
2021-2022	82.6	87.9	85.3	29.4
2022-2023	89.3	87.9	88.6	29.4
2023-2024	84.3	83.3	83.8	28.9
2024-2025	84.7	85.9	85.3	29

The other thing that has gotten in Elvira’s way a couple of times recently is her health. It seems like even if she isn’t missing races from it she’s gotten respiratory infections multiple times in each of the last few seasons. Last season it came right as she was gaining momentum with a win in the Ruhpolding Mass Start win. She missed out on Antholz which ultimately took her out of the running for the Overall. At that point she was in 3rd place and she was just 36 points behind Lou Jeanmonnot. She also missed the races in Pokljuka and any hope of a miracle comeback in that Overall race was done. It was a similar story in 2022-2023 as well when repeat illnesses sapped her legs down the stretch.

Elvira is right there as one of the top women in biathlon. There is so little separating her from the top of the Overall picture. She has all the speed anybody could ask for. Just a tiny bit better shooting, a tiny bit faster shooting, and a season of good health luck would take her to the top. And I want to repeat again, she’s only 26. There is no doubt in my mind, that as long as Elvira wants to be doing it, she can be in the mix for the Overall for the next 7-8 seasons. She’s a gem and a true talent and I love watching her race. I’ll enjoy watching her fight!

World Cup – After Elvira Öberg we have a large glut of talent, especially with the return of Linn Gestblom, fighting for the remaining five World Cup spots. You could make an argument that Hanna Öberg, Ella Halvarsson, and Anna Magnusson should be in a category of their own. I think just for discussion purposes it’s nice to leave them all together for now. I count seven women (at least!) fighting for these remaining selections. In all likelihood most of these women will race on both levels this season and maybe all by the end of the first trimester. It’s such a tight competition the Swedes can’t even make a decision with less than a week to go. Here’s who they have listed:
– Elvira Öberg
– Hanna Öberg
– Ella Halvarsson
– Anna Magnusson
– Linn Gestblom
– Sara Andersson*
– Anna-Karin Heijdenberg*
– Johanna Skottheim*
*1-2 of these women will be selected this week. At this point with them listing six on the IBU Cup roster it looks like they are going to take seven to Östersund and maybe only race Linn Persson in the Sprint/Pursuit? We shall see!

Hanna Öberg (29)

For Elvira I repeated about 15 times about how she’s still just 26 years old I don’t exactly do that with Hanna Öberg, but how is it possible that she’s already raced 182 times on the World Cup. If you include relays it’s 252 times. That’s a crazy number. It was already eight seasons ago that she won a surprise gold medal in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Since then she’s had five top 7 Overall finishes.

The last two seasons, though, have been a slight step backward for the elder Öberg as she finished in 12th each season. Some of that was due to missed races and some of that was due to her performance. She only has three podiums in the last three seasons after having four or more in each season from 2018-2019 through 2022-2023. WIth that she hasn’t had a win in that stretch either after having at least one in every season from 2017-2018 through 2022-2023. That included four wins alone in the 2022-2023 season. During that she won two small globes: the 2018-2019 Mass Start and the 2019-2020 Individual globe. And she finished top 3 in the small globe races seven other times. Add in 14 World Championship medals and Hanna Öberg is compiling a heck of a career. But how do we get the momentum moving forward again?

While always a fast shooter, Hanna Öberg has at times had her struggles with accuracy. That includes hitting just 78.3% total last season. Not too long ago though, she hit 85.8% in 2023-2024 and 86.2% the year prior. Actually the bigger issue for Hanna Öberg the last two seasons was that her skiing slipped a little bit. She ran only 2.8% faster than median last season with an average course time rank of 14th. Don’t get me wrong, that is absolutely excellent for almost everybody. But for Hanna Öberg with such high aspirations, when combined with the drop in shooting, it took both the ceiling and the floor out of her performance.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	85.7	89.5	87.6	29.6
2018-2019	91.5	85.5	88.5	27.4
2019-2020	90	82	86	25.7
2020-2021	85.2	83.8	84.5	26.7
2021-2022	80	80	80	25.9
2022-2023	82.2	90.3	86.2	25.8
2023-2024	86.8	84.7	85.8	24.1
2024-2025	80.6	76	78.3	27.3

It turns out that Hanna Öberg has been competing with a bit of knee tendonitis for the last few seasons. That’s continued to bother her throughout this season. We have to hope that she can get that straightened out this season. But likely it is going to be something that she has to manage. In that case she really does need to get her shooting back up. If she’s hitting in the mid 80’s or higher, her skiing is absolutely good enough, even with the knee pain, to get her into the podium mix. And for Hanna Öberg, that most importantly means in the fight for World Championship and Olympics medals.

It may be that Hanna Öberg has already had the best full season of her career from start to finish. I personally think she’s got plenty left to give and may be able to have another top 5 Overall in her even this season. Regardless I think that Hanna is going to continue to be a threat for World Championship and Olympic glory. And no matter what she’s always fun to watch!

Ella Halvarsson (26)

The 2024-2025 season gave us plenty of “holy cow where did that come from moments.” Most notably there was Suvi Minkkinen and Vitezslav Hornig and Milena Todorova. But the first of the season was actually Ella Halvarsson.

Halvarsson started out last season with an absolute bang. In her first race of the season, her first World Cup race since the 2022-2023 season when she raced only two times, by teaming up with Sebastian Samuelsson for the Single Mixed relay in Kontiolahti. Not only did she race well but they won! It wasn’t like Sebastian Samuelsson did all of the heavy lifting either. Halvarsson had just three extra rounds and the fastest skiing in on her third loop to set up Sebbe for the win. She followed that just two days later with second place in the Short Individual. She was officially here.

The rest of the season proved that this was no fluke. She finished in the top 10 five more times the rest of the season including winning silver medal in the Individual at the Lenzerheide Worlds. For the season she raced 21 times and finished top 20 12 times on her way to 18th in the Overall. She also established herself as a key member of the relay team that had four podiums including two wins and a bronze at Worlds.

Halvarsson’s calling card turned out that she had no one particular strength, but also absolutely no weakness. She was just rock solid in every aspect of her biathlon. She ended up ranked 24th in overall skiing and had an average course time rank of 21st. She hit 85.7% for the season which was 24th most accurate for the women’s World Cup last season. Her average shooting time was 27.3 seconds which was 18th best last year. That’s a lot of really solid performance across the board!

Compared to her prior IBU Cup racing her shooting was actually down a couple of points from where she had been the last three straight years. Not a huge drop, just a small nudge. But she could definitely get a little higher without even doing something outside of her career norms. The big improvement last season, though, was her skiing. Prior to last year 2023-2024 was the best skiing of her career as she was 1.8% faster than median on the IBU Cup with an average course time rank of 28 for that level. That means she was faster relative to the her competitors on the World Cup last season than she ever had been vs IBU Cup competition prior to that. That’s a significant jump in skiing!

Can we expect Ella Halvarsson to keep that up this season? My answer is yes. She’s on an exceptionally strong team that can absolutely develop strong skiing. I think this is a real improvement and we’ll see her back it up this season if not get better. And as noted earlier her shooting was very good last year, but it could be even slightly more accurate without being better than what we’ve already seen in her career. Halvarsson can absolutely replicate her performance from last season.

She can definitely do better as well. Truthfully I think she’s going to actually be a little faster this season than last season. She’s going to raise her floor up a little bit. I’m not necessarily predicting a top 10 Overall season, but maybe a couple more finishes in the top 10 and even more consistently in the top 20 are in order as well. And a definite threat for a medal in the Olympics!

Anna Magnusson (30)

After a very solid Juniors career where she had six top 10’s at Youth and Junior Worlds in nine races, including the 2016 Junior Worlds Sprint silver medal, Anna Magnusson seemed well on her way to a great career when she finished 23rd Overall in her first World Cup season at just 22 years old. Things didn’t really take off for her after that as she had four seasons where she just wasn’t quite able to reach that level again. Somewhat quietly though, over the last three years Anna Magnusson has turned in the three best Overall seasons of her career.

As she has finished 14th, 15th, and 20th Overall she earned her first career win in Annecy-le Grand Bornand in 2022, as well as three total top 5’s and 18 top 10’s. She’s also found way routinely into the relay as the Swedish women are quite a bit of success. For Magnusson it’s been improvement pretty much everywhere. The last three seasons have been the best three ski seasons of her career. She’s been able to have average ourse time ranks between 22nd and 25th while skiing 1-1.3% faster than median. By both markers her best skiing ever. She also has had consistently solid hit rates hitting between 85.5% and 86.8% in each season. Interestingly outside of the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons ehs’s always been in the mid 80’s. She also had easily the fastest shooting of her career as she averaged from 28.4 seconds down to 28 seconds each season.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2020-2021	73.7	80	76.8	32.2
2021-2022	85	83.5	84.2	31
2022-2023	91	82	86.5	28.4
2023-2024	88	83	85.5	28.1
2024-2025	90.3	83.2	86.8	28

What Anna Magnusson has done the last three seasons has been really great. She elevated her performance across all levels, and then has maintained that level with no drop off at all. She now looks exactly like we might have hoped she would back when she was tearing it up at Youth and Junior Worlds. As it turns out sometimes we just need to have a little patience. It usually takes until the mid to late 20’s to start seeing the best performances out of somebody. Anna Magnusson was right on time on that trajectory. Hopefully we haven’t seen the best yet!

Linn Gestblom (31)

Thank goodness is sounds like we are finally going to have Linn Gestblom back in the fold for this season. Her left shoulder have been a problem for a long time. She finally had her first procedure on it following the 2022-2023 season. However it never really god back to normal. Even with some pretty good results int eh 23-24 season including four top 10’s with one of them coming in the World Championships in the Individual. The shoulder was still causing problem, though and she called an early end to her season after those Championships. She had a successful procedure in February 2024 but by November she decided with her medical team that in order to be ready for a 2025-2026 Olympic season she needed to take the entire season off.

So now as Linn Gestblom prepares to return to the Swedish national team it has been since mid February of 2024 since we last saw her racing on snow skis. That’s a loooooong time. She did race at the Swedish Summer championships and showed a little bit of rust but still finished 5th in the Short Individual.

Just to reacquaint ourselves with Linn Gestblom’s racing she is a very solid shooter and a definitively better than average skier. In her last few seasons of racing she hit 88.9 and 88.5%. Those were the two best marks of her career. She also was in her best ski form ofher career. Over the last four seasons she had average course time ranks of 18th, 17th, 20th, and 20th. It really all came together in 2022-2023 when she had four podiums and 12 top 10’s, both big career bests, on her way to 14th Overall.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	89.3	85.7	87.5	33.2
2018-2019	87.1	87.9	87.5	33.3
2019-2020	89.3	82.1	85.7	31.6
2020-2021	89.1	78.6	83.8	30.9
2021-2022	86.5	80	83.2	30.2
2022-2023	88.3	89.4	88.9	25.7
2023-2024	88.9	88.2	88.5	29.2

Now will we get that Linn Gestblom this season? I guess we’ll find out soon. That’s a lot of rust to knock off. I can imagine that she’ll have the vast majority of the biathlon family pulling for her this season!

Sara Andersson (22)

For the now six time Youth/Junior World medalist the 2024-2025 season had to have been both exhilarating and extremely frustrating. Coming off a very successful 2023-2024 season in which Sara Andersson made her World Cup debut, scored her third career IBU Cup podium, and won another Junior Worlds gold medal, Andersson started the season on the World Cup with high hopes and expectations. Right out of the gates she started to live up to them finishing 12th in the Kontiolahti Individual followed by 7th in the Sprint. She added an 11th in the Annecy-le Grand Bornand Mass Start for good measure.

After that amazing start though, she got sick. And then sick again. She didn’t make it back to racing until the European Championships and she clearly wasn’t herself. But she got healthy in time for the 2025 Östersund World Championships, her last run at being a Junior World Champion. She made the most of it taking home silver in the Sprint and gold in the Mass 60! She then went back to the World Cup where she closed out the season strong, looking more like herself, finishing 22nd and 23rd at the Nove Mesto World Cup.

Throughout her high flying Juniors career Sara Andersson has prove to be fast. Very very fast. Consistently running as one of the fastest women in the field. In fact dating back to the 2021 Youth World Championships she’s only had a course time rank less than 4th just twice in 13 races. You don’t need me to tell you that this profiles to very good speed as she develops on the World Cup. And her shooting hasn’t been half bad either consistently shooting in the 80’s in the Juniors races.

As she’s come along to the World Cup, even still so young, racing last season at just 21 years old, she was running significantly faster than average. Her average course time rank last season was just 27th! And last season she hit 85% which backs up everything she’s done as a Junior. This was not a surprising 85%, this is just about where she’s always been with her shooting.

There is no reason to expect anything less from Sara Andersson this season. She’s been an amazing Juniors skier and we are still several years away from seeing the best of her potential ski speed. In all likelihood she should be faster this year than last year. And it should keep building slowly but surely. And after now five seasons hitting in the mid 80’s there is no reason to expect a sudden drop off. Sara Andersson is primed to be a stallwart not only on the Swedish World Cup team, but in the top 20 of the World Cup period. And that’s just for now. I don’t think it’s too dramatic to say that sooner rather than later we’ll likely see her in the top 10 of the Overall. Maybe not this season but it’s coming.

Anna-Karin Heijdenberg (25)

Anna-Karin Heijdenberg has quickly raced herself into my heart as one of my favorite athletes to follow over the last few seasons. Heijdenberg really hasn’t been one of the most heralded young women to come out of the Swedish Juniors ranks. Her career best Juniors finish was just 27th in the 2022 Junior Worlds. Then she didn’t race at all in the IBU in the 2022-2023 season. It would not have surprised anybody if that was all we ever saw of her. There just wasn’t a big profile or history of success.

Anna-Karin Heijdenberg did not go away. She got to work and made herself better. She came out in the beginning of the 2023-2024 season and claimed a spot on the IBU Cup. From there she demanded that we take notice. And more importantly for her she demanded that her federation take notice. Over the first trimester she raced six times and had five top 10’s including her first career podium. While she didn’t quite keep up that level of performance the rest of the season, she did have three more IBU Cup top 10’s in the 2nd trimester including 4th at the European Championships Sprint. When Linn Gestblom went home for her shoulder surgery Heijdenberg came up to the World Cup and in four races she claimed at 15th and a 25th.

Last season she earned herself a spot on the World Cup right out of Idre Fjall and she stayed there all season long. While the results weren’t absolutely spectacular they gave her no reason to send her down. She did go to the European Championships and absolutely rocked it. She medaled in every event winning bronze in the Individual, gold in the Sprint, and silver in the Pursuit. She used that as a launch point to close out the season on the World Cup including a 4th and 8th in the Short Individual and Mass Start in Pokljuka. Long story short, I couldn’t be more proud of Anna-Karin Heijdenberg did.

As a biathlete Heijdenberg has showed nice improvement in her skiing. Last season she was up to 1.9% faster than median with her average course time rank improving from 31st to 22nd. Meanwhile she had her hit rate up from 75% to 80%. If you look back at her IBU Cup hit rate from her greatly successful run in 23-24 it was 77.8% as well. So regardless of which level she was shooting better.

The Swedish team is going to be very tough to make. They get six starters for the World Cup races this season. It’s going to be even more tight for the Olympic roster when they have to cut down to four plus reserves. For Heijdenberg to make the World Cup roster she’s going to have to continue to improve. She’s already fast but a little bit faster wouldn’t hurt. The best thing she can do to improve her chances, and if she makes the World Cup roster her results, it will be the shooting.

Her career will be longer than this season. Eventually, her hit rate, for her to reach her impressive potential would be in the mid to high 80’s. For this season though, hitting 83% or better for the full season, would be a good checkpoint on the way to the overall success of her career. That plus continued ski improvement would show me everything I need to know about her continued development and her destination.

Johanna Skottheim (31)

You know what I love about Johanna Skottheim? She won’t go away. This team is packed with highly talented and highly touted women. Enough talent that they have five straight seasons in the top three of the Overall with all but one of the top two. She’s older than all of them, even Linn Gestblom by 1 month! But that doesn’t mean she just throws in the towel and gives the younger Swedes the team for good. Nope, she keeps grinding and fighting.

Just look at last season. Left off the World Cup team to start the season, all she did was go to the IBU Cup and collect five top 10’s in six races. She came straight to the World Cup. By Ruhpolding she won just the fifth top 5 of her career when she finished 5th exactly in the Individual. She finished with that top 5 along with three top 21 finishes and seven top 40’s to finish 45th in the Overall. That’s a level of tenacity I just can’t help but admire and root for. Then this summer at Swedish Summer Nationals she showed once again why she’s one of the best roller skiers you’ll see as she won the Super Sprint, came in 2nd in the Sprint, and 4th in the Short Individual.

As Skottheim fights on, she’s a solid biathlete across the board. She continues to shoot pretty well. While normally hitting in the mid to upper 80’s in her career, she saw that dip a little the last two seasons. However it was back up to 84.2% last season as well. Her skiing meanwhile has been solid as well. She actually last year as good as she’s ever been with an average course time rank of 38th, right around her career best. And it doesn’t hurt that she has an average shooting time of 26.7 seconds.

This Swedish team is going to be a tough one to make. Skottheim is the 8th women on this list and so far each of them could easily not only make the team but has a solid run on the World Cup as well. But there just isn’t room for eight. Heck there isn’t even room for seven. So unfortunately each week at least two of these women won’t be racing. I sure hope that Skottheim gets at least a couple of runs at the World Cup this season though!

IBU Cup – Beyond the high level talent the Swedish team actually has a very large number of women who will run on the IBU Cup. They won’t necessarily be on your radar right away, and we’ve seen some Swedish surprises the last few seasons. Two years ago Anna-Karin Heijdenberg rode a hot 1st trimester to the World Cup. In fact the last few seasons there has been a woman who was off the radar for a year or two who came up and grabbed a spot on the IBU Cup. So while two of the IBU Cup spots will likely be taken by the two women above who aren’t on the World Cup that particular week, most of the remaining spots will be taken up by women below. However don’t be surprised if there is a “she’s back?” or a “where did she come from?” on the IBU Cup too. Here’s the IBU Cup team to start the season:
– Emma Nilsson
– Anna Hedstrom
– Annie Lindh
– Johanna Nordqvist
– Elsa Tanglander
– Ida Erickson

Emma Nilsson (31)

After getting some good run on the World Cup in the mid to late 2010’s, the 2020’s have been pretty much only IBU Cup for Emma Nilsson. Regardless, and even with the big talent glut in front of her, the 31 year old continues to race hard. Last season she nearly had her best Overall season ever on the IBU Cup, which would have been 11th. She finished 12th in the Overall and was just 1 point away from tying for 11th and 5 points away from the top 10. That’s such a thin margin!

Nilsson’s performance has been very steady for the last five to six years as well. Her skiing has really budged much at all as she was 2.7% faster than median. It’s a small margin but it was the 2nd best ski season of her career. Her average course time rank was 22nd which was the third best of her career. Meanwhile she hit 84.9% which is right in line with where she’s been for seven of the last eight seasons, outside of just her 88% she hit in 2017-2018.

With such consistency it’s hard to see her performance changing all that much this season. If she races at this level once again, with that skiing and shooting performance remaining steady, there is no reason to expect a significant change in her overall race results. Another IBU Cup season with a handful of top 10’s a few higher finishes, and finishing in the top 30 nearly every race would seem to be in the mix. And maybe this season she has a chance to get into the top 10 of the IBU Cup Overall!

Anna Hedstrom (28)

The 2024-2025 season was a career best for Anna Hedstrom. She raced once again on the IBU Cup and showed significant improvement in skiing, shooting, and shooting time. The result was 11 top 30’s, easily the most of her career, five top 20’s, the most of her career, and two top 10’s, the most of her career. She ended up finishing 28th in the IBU Cup Overall. You won’t be surprised one bit to find out that was also the best Overall finish of her IBU Cup career.

It’s easy to see where that improvement came. Her average course time rank last season was 9th on the IBU Cup. Her prior best was 15th and 18th in 2019-2020 and 2023-2024. She hit 76.5% of her shots last season as she moved up from consistently hitting in the mid 60’s for the entire rest of her career. She also had the best shooting speed of her career averaging 29.8 seconds per shoot, her first time averaging less than 32 seconds per shoot.

Anna Hedstrom is one of those perfect reasons to, if you have the time and inclination, follow biathlon outside of the World Cup. Watching her make this improvement in the relative quite of the IBU Cup, and with a long road to go before she could possibly make the World Cup was so wonderful. You just have to feel so good for her to put in the work and see it pay off like it did. I really hope she can come through with another season just like it or even better. If she skis like that it’s all about how far her shooting can improve. Maybe top 20 on the IBU Cup this season? Or better?

Annie Lindh (28)

While last year was her big surge, Anne Lindh continued her improvement put together yet another IBU Cup Overall best. After improving from a prior best of 47th in 2020-2021 to 24th in the 23-24 season, last year she took it a short step further to 21st. She did it by getting two additional top 40’s, three additional top 30’s, and one additional top 20 all of which were career bests for her. Interestingly she had a higher peak performance in the 23-24 season with two 6th place finishes and an 8th and a 9th while all of her top 10’s last season were either 9th or 10th.

While her skiing stayed pretty stable in the mid 70’s, right where it has been the last three seasons, her skiing did take a nice step forward. After skiing 2% faster than median with an average course time rank of 26th in 23-24, she improved to 2.9% faster than median and an average course time rank of 22nd.

Annie Lindh, just like Anna Hedstrom, is a great example of continuing to fight on even when it seems nearly impossible to reach the mountain top. I’ve really appreciate Lindh’s continued efforts at improving her performance and hopefully we’re not done yet. While the skiing has come along very well hopefully this is the season when she can finally break free of the mid 70 hit rates that have seeming ensnared her the last few years. With that maybe she can find that higher ceiling once again and aim for top 20 of the IBU Cup Overall.

Johanna Nordkvist (25)

After having not run a single IBU level international race since the 2019 Youth Worlds, Johanna Nordkvist returned to the IBU Cup last season and ran quite nearly the full season. In total she collected 13 top 40’s including three top 20’s. This included setting her career best of 16th in the Geilo Individual. With basically no prior racing to compare to Nordkvist was basically setting the baseline for everything here.

Statistically she was decent everywhere but not necessarily great anywhere. She was right around the median in terms of skiing giving her an average course time rank of 40th. She had a hit rate just under 80% and she averaged 36.2 seconds per shoot.

With this being her first racing back it’s really difficult to know…was this an over performance? Was this not nearly as good as she could be? Hopefully we get to see a lot more of Johanna Nordkvist this coming season!

Elsa Tanglander (18)

Elsa Tanglander is a highly talented Junior athlete who will be making the leap up to the IBU Cup at least to start the season. She is a very fast athlete who needs to find her way on the range. However, based on some more recent results this summer and in Idre Fjall I’m wondering if she’s been able to find some new level of consistency.

– 2024-2025 was third career season. Raced only Youth Worlds in each of the last three seasons
– She won gold in Sprint at 2024 Youth World Championships. Has four top 5’s in nine career races. Also three finishes of 40th or worse.
– Youth World Championships: 46th, 4th, 40th
– 4th tied second best career finish
– Course Time Ranks: 2nd, 4th, 17th
– Shooting percentage: 55%, 80%, and 55%
– Tanglander has such enticing speed. But her shooting remains a significant work in progress. If she can just find a way to harness the rifle she’s going to be dangerous.

Ida Ericksson (20)

As Ida Ericksson makes the graduation from the Juniors to the Seniors this season she will get her first opportunity at the IBU Cup season opening races in Obertilliach. Here’s a brief summary of her Juniors career:

– 2024-2025 was second season of racing. She raced at Junior European and Junior World Championships after making IBU Cup debut in Idre Fjall
– Junior World Championships: 58th
– Junior European Championships: 40th, 58th, and 36th
– IBU Cup finishes: 55th, 59th, and 43rd
– Junior Course Time Ranks: 55th, 67th, 48th, and 51st
– Junior Shooting Percentages: 80%, 80%, 85%, and 70%

Nicolina Lindqvist (28)

The last few years Nicolina Lindqvist has been good enough to continue to find a way to earn a few starts. Seven starts in 2022-2023. Three the next year. Nine starts last season. And each year she finds a way to consistently score points. It’s been a few years since she had one of her best finishes, but she did finish 28th in the Obertilliach Mass 60.

Nicolina Lindqvist has been a pretty good shooter in her career. The last two seasons she’s hit 85% and 84.6% with sensational prone shooting. She’s missed just two prone shots total in the last two years. The reason she hasn’t gotten more run is her skiing has held her back. She skied 2.2% ahead of median last season about in line with her career averages. It gave her an average course time rank of 52nd.

For Nicolina Lindqvist to continue to get some run she’s going to have to keep that shooting up. Maybe she can ski a little bit faster too and fine the top 20 for the first time in her career? I would certainly love to celebrate it!

Juniors – Listing here a large number of Juniors and other young athletes. Some of these athletes are actually graduating form the Juniors but they have basically their entire careers thus far as a Junior so I left them here. The Swedes maintain a fairly expansive roster of Juniors and I included everybody even if they had not raced before in an IBU event or regional event. I tried to put the “top names” to watch near the top though.

Emma Larsson (17)

– 2024-2025 was debut season and raced at Youth World Championships
– Youth World Championships: 18th, 18th, and 11th
– Course Time Ranks: 24th, 21st, and 16th
– Shooting percentage: 85%, 80%, and 85%
– Equally young like Tanglander, Emma Larsson’s superior shooting makes her a more stable performer even if her ceiling isn’t quite as spectacular.

Elsa Brant (20)

– 2024-2025 was second season of racing. She ran a full Junior Cup season for the first time in her career. Also made IBU Cup debut with five races
– Recorded three top 20’s in six races and a single top 10
– Junior World Championships: 8th, 45th, and 43rd
– IBU Cup finishes: 52nd, 34th, 25th, 32nd, and 31st
– Average Course Time Rank: 30th (down from 24th in 23-24)
– Shooting percentage: 77% hitting 80% prone and 74% standing. (Improved from 74% in 23-24 with all of improvement coming from standing shooting)

Astrid Karlstedt (20)

– 2024-2025 was debut season and raced at Juniors World Championships and one Junior European Championships race
– Junior World Championships: 40th, 33rd, and 34th
– Course Time Ranks: 34th, 26th, and 34th
– Shooting percentage: 80%, 70%, and 60%

Greta Lindkvist Seldahl (19)

– 2024-2025 was second season of racing. She raced Junior European and Junior World Championships
– Junior World Championships: 40th and 58th
– Average Course Time Rank: 49th (down from 24th at Youth Worlds in 23-24)
– Shooting percentage: 65% hitting 60% prone and 70% standing. (Down from 76% in 23-24)

Hanna Lidstrom (18)

– 2024-2025 was debut season. Raced at Youth World Championships
– Youth World Championships: 43rd, 64th and 37th
– Course Time Ranks: 47th, 52nd, and 54th
– Shooting percentage: 75%, 60%, and 80%

Ida Backen (20)

– 2024-2025 was debut season. Raced at Junior European and World Championships
– Junior World Championships: 53rd
– Junior European Championshpis: 65th, 56th, and 50th
– Course Time Ranks: 69th, 59th, 47th, and 38th
– Shooting percentage: 75%, 80%, 65%, and 75%

Nilla Gronborg (18)

– 2024-2025 was debut season. Raced at Youth World Championships
– Youth World Championships: 71st and 74th
– Course Time Ranks: 54th and 50th
– Shooting percentage: 60% and 60%

Anine Karlsson (18)

– 2024-2025 was debut season and raced just a single race at Youth World Championships
– Youth World Championships: 85th
– Course Time Ranks: 61st
– Shooting percentage: 40%

Ida Bergfors (20)

– Raced two regional races in Lima where she finished 4th in the Mass Start and 3rd in the Individual
– Shooting percentage: 95% and 85%

Klara Saetter (19)

– Raced two regional races in Lima where she finished 5th in the Mass Start and 4th in the Individual
– Shooting percentage: 90% and 90%

Marta Wernersson (18)

– Previously raced at Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon in 2024. Finished 67th and 51st in Individual and Sprint
– Shooting percentage: 80% and 50%

Astrid Hagstrom (17)

No IBU racing to date

Etna Jonasson (17)

No IBU racing to date

Hanna Oscarsson (17)

No IBU racing to date

Tuva Richardsson (17)

No IBU racing to date

Lydia Hagg Eveby (18)

No IBU racing to date

Tuva Li Nilsson (19)

No IBU racing to date

Men: The Swedish women have a high level competition for the six World Cup roster spots. The Swedish men seem to be at a loss at times while looking for who should take the final spots on the World Cup. The top Swedish men should be able to provide some fireworks. Sebastian Samuelsson can win pretty much any race he lines up for. Martin Ponsiluoma is as fast as nearly anybody in biathlon. Jesper Nelin has had a late career surge and turned into a very solid biathlete finishing 15th, 23rd and 22nd the last few years. And even still, they are quite competitive. They won the World Championship gold two seasons ago and were on the podium for the relay in four of six races last season. Let’s see what they can do!

Coaches:
– Head Coach: Johannes Lukas
– National Shooting Coach: Jean-Marc Chabloz and Johan Hagstrom
– 2024-2025 Nations Cup Rank: 3rd
– 2024-2025 Relay Finishes: 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th
– Quota: 6 Athletes to Start

World Class – The top two men for the Swedish team are special. Sebastian Samuelsson can win any race. Martin Ponsiluoma is one of the top 3-5 fastest men in biathlon meaning he’s a threat as well. Each of them has top 5 Overall finishes within the last three seasons. It’s all a matter of putting together the shooting along with the skiing and doing is consistently.

Sebastian Samuelsson (28)

I think that sometimes we have the same problem with Sebastian Samuelsson like we do with Elvira Öberg. He was so good at such a young age that we have set the standard unbelievably high. So even with he finishes in the top 6 Overall it feels like there are almost as many questions as to why he isn’t better as there are celebrations for his incredible performances. To be fair he brought some of it on himself as he “poked the bear” countless times with JT Boe and the Norwegians. Still, he has held a position as one of the only men who could go head to head with the Norwegians and come out victorious. I have these distinct memories that won’t fade of a 23 year old Sebbe Samuelsson going head to head with JT Boe late in relays and coming away with the win for team Sweden. But also, more often than not, after instigating with the Norwegians he was unable to back it up. And that’s not even a demerit to him, the Norwegians were just so strong!

It feels like he’s been around for ages at this point, but really it’s only been those five seasons that he’s been a major player. Over the last five seasons Sebastian Samuelsson has won at least one race each season including two in the 2021-2022 season and last year. One of those victories last season came in the season closing Mass Start when he pulled away from Eric Perrot and Endre Stroemsheim late in the race to take home a very strong win and cement his place, once again, as one of the men to watch for the next few seasons.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	85.2	85.2	85.2	29.8
2018-2019	83.6	76.4	80	30.6
2019-2020	84.2	77.5	80.8	27.8
2020-2021	88.6	85.7	87.1	28.6
2021-2022	86.8	81.1	83.9	29
2022-2023	91.5	81.8	86.7	28.3
2023-2024	86.5	80.5	83.5	26.4
2024-2025	90	76.7	83.3	26.5

Sebastian Samuelsson’s calling card has been his skiing. In each of the last five seasons he’s been a top nine overall skier and in the last four seasons he’s been in the top 5 every year. What separates him from similarly fast skier and teammate Martin Ponsiluoma is that he happens to his his shots a little more frequently, particularly his prone shots. He’s regularly been between 83.3% he hit last season and his career best 87.1% from five years ago. He’s actually a pretty good prone shooter hitting over 90% in two the last three seasons. And more so, his shooting speed is improving as well. The last two seasons he’s averaged 26.4 seconds and 26.5 seconds per shoot, his fastest of his career by far.

There is no reason to expect Sebastian Samuelsson to be anything other than one of the top men in the world. He’s entering what should be the peak physical years of his career. He’s proven that when he’s healthy he is going to be competing for podiums and wins. He might not be there every race, but few men will be there more frequently than him. The Swedes also don’t really try to hide the fact that they aim for success at championships above pretty much anything else. Sebastian Samuelsson should absolutely be in the mix, and be one of the favorites, to add to his two career Olympic medals.

Martin Ponsiluoma (30)

Martin Ponsiluoma is classic example of how being amazing at one aspect of biathlon isn’t enough. You have to be at least good in both. You don’t have to be incredible at both skiing and shooting, but you really need to be at least good. Ponsiluoma has been top six in overall skiing each of the last five seasons. The last three seasons he’s been top three. But he just hasn’t been good enough with the rifle yet to have that amazing year.

In 2022-2023, his bets season to date, he finished 5th in the Overall. That year he was very very good with his 2nd career win and six total podiums that season. Those six podiums are one fewer than he has had in every other season in his career combined by the way. However, that season could have been even better if he could hit better than 79.3%. If he hits 84%, while not challenging JT Boe who was incredible that year, he would have likely been top three in the Overall.

There really just isn’t a whole lot to say about Martin Ponsiluoma that we don’t already know. He’s mega fast. He can’t seem to break 80% in total hit rate. It’s like an invisible wall he can’t seem to get over or around, and lately he’s getting worse not better. Last season he hit just 73.3%, his worse in the last six seasons, primarily because his prone shooting, normally his weak spot, dropped all the way to 70.9%. It was almost like watching Lisa Vittozzi a few years back.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	74.3	91.4	82.9	27.2
2018-2019	82	86	84	27.8
2019-2020	69.1	78.2	73.6	28.4
2020-2021	77.1	81.9	79.5	27.3
2021-2022	75.6	72.8	74.2	28.3
2022-2023	78.6	80	79.3	26.1
2023-2024	77.1	80	78.6	26.7
2024-2025	70.9	75.7	73.3	26.7

Martin Ponsiluoma is so tantalizing. He can give you these moments where he seems to be getting it all together. But then like last year it seems to just dissolve. Hopefully this year is the year. Hopefully this is the season he pairs together his near fastest in the World Cup speed alongside of shooting that breaks 80%. If he does that he’s aiming at a top 5 in the Overall. If he doesn’t, then his speed still makes him a threat to podium any given day if he can just find a way to hit those targets.

World Cup Probables – After the top two men on the World Cup roster there is a definite level of men who *probably* safe including Jesper Nelin and Viktor Brandt. These guys will more than likely run the entire season on the World Cup. But I wouldn’t call them absolute locks. (Okay maybe Jesper Nelin is a lock at this point). Along with the two men above here’s who will begin the season on the World Cup:
– Sebastian Samuelsson
– Martin Ponsiluoma
– Jesper Nelin
– Viktor Brandt
– Malte Stefansson
– Melker Nordgren

Jesper Nelin (33)

Truth be told Jesper Nelin really is a lock. I would find it truly shocking if he isn’t one of the top six men on the Swedish team at any point this season. Not only because the depth really isn’t there yet but also because Nelin has been really quite good the last three seasons. They’ve been the best of his career as he’s finished 15th, 23rd, and 22nd in the Overall. Over that stretch he’s had nine top 10’s with three each in the last three seasons. The 2022-2023 season he had one total top 10. In the Oslo-Holmenkollen Mass Start in 2023-2024 he had his first career podium as he finished 3rd. He had his second career top 5 in the Pokljuka Mass Start last season. Nelin has had a significant surge as he’s reached his 30’s!

Nelin’s improvement has really been all about the shooting. He’s moved from a mid to high 70’s shooter to a mid 80’s shooter. After never hitting above 79.2%, over the last three season’s Jesper Nelin has had a hit rate of 85%, 83.4% and 82.9%. He’s been improving in both his prone and standing shooting, but the standing shooting was the major improvement. He was hitting low 70’s even upper 60’s some years. The last three seasons he’s been right around 80% standing. That’s not amazing but its no longer a major weakness! When you combine that improved shooting with his steady skiing, running with average course time ranks consistently in the teens four of the last five seasons, you get a guy who is a top 30 Overall performer. And that’s exactly who Jesper Nelin is.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2017-2018	83.9	74.6	79.2	27.9
2018-2019	86.4	71.2	78.8	29.7
2019-2020	89.2	67.7	78.5	28.9
2020-2021	78.4	69.7	74.1	30.7
2021-2022	81.6	70.4	76	31.5
2022-2023	90.5	79.5	85	30.8
2023-2024	86.3	80.6	83.4	29.5
2024-2025	87.9	77.9	82.9	29.1

Can Jesper Nelin keep it up? I see no reason why not. There is no reason to expect his skiing to fall off a cliff this season. He’s nowhere nearly too old and he just had the fastest season of his career. Can he keep up the shooting? Man I hope so. Three seasons is a really good sample size so hopefully this is just Jesper Nelin’s new normal. Maybe he’s not a potential star like Sebastian Samuelsson and Martin Ponsiluoma, but Jesper Nelin is a steady workhorse that the Swedish team definitely needs.

Viktor Brandt (26)

The Swedish Men’s relay team has been following a similar pattern for the last several seasons. They put two men in the first two legs followed by Martin Ponsiluoma in leg 3 and Sebastian Samuelsson in leg 4. The first two men try their best but by the time Ponsi and Sebbe take over they have a big hole. Then those two men put on a massive comeback to drag them back to the podium contention. That plan has worked very well sometimes. Since the last Olympic Games they have eight podiums in 19 relays including the gold medal at the 2024 World Championships. But man it has to be easier some times right?

The way it gets easier is getting consistent performance from their top two men on the relay. Jesper Nelin is locked in as one of those men. The 4th man has been a bit of a rotating effort. Over the last two seasons though, they seem to have focused in on Viktor Brandt as that man. That includes leading off that that World Championship gold medal effort. After the top three men on this list, no Swedish man has more World Cup starts than Viktor Brandt and by a decent margin. To me, all of this makes Viktor Brandt the most interesting man on the Swedish team as we enter the 2025-2026 season.

Over those two seasons Viktor Brandt has raced 31 times on the World Cup, with 20 of those races coming last season alone. He had easily his best season in terms of results grabbing nine top 40’s including three top 20 finishes and his first career top 10 which came in the Pursuit in Holmenkollen.

The improvement for Brandt came with continued advancement in his skiing. He was never super fast as a Junior. On the IBU Cup his skiing didn’t really show signs of improvement. The last two seasons though he made big gains. He went from running significant slower than median to skiing a little faster than median. His average course time rank improved from 57th up to 38th. And while his shooting didn’t get any better, it also didn’t get any worse which is half the battle. He kept his hit rate steady hitting 83.1% last season after 84.1% the season before. Meanwhile he maintained his position as one of the fastest shooters in biathlon averaging just 24.8 seconds per shoot which was 14th faster on the World Cup last season.

	Prone %	Standing %	Total %	Shooting Time
2023-2024	91.8	76.5	84.1	24.7
2024-2025	85.6	80.6	83.1	24.8

For the Swedish team to continue to advance towards their aspirations, they are going to need Viktor Brandt to continue this ascension. He’s shown really good signs with his ski improvement over the last two seasons. That was a huge thing for him, and for the team, especially on relays. Because even if he isn’t going to be a perfect shooter, he at least won’t be shedding as much time on the tracks. Hopefully this season sees him take another step forward to be even a little faster, maybe with his average course time rank sneaking into the 20’s.

However, the thing I’ll be watching most closely for Brandt is going to be his shooting. During his half season of World Cup racing in the 23-24 year he hit 84.1% including 91.8% prone. Last season, while he only dropped 1% in total hit rate his prone shooting regressed down to 85.6 while his standing shooting improved. If, and it’s a huge if, he can get his prone shooting back towards 90%, while still hitting 80% or better standing, that would be so magnificent for both himself and the prospects of the Swedish relay team.

Ultimately I think that Viktor Brandt will once again be better. I’m anticipating continued ski growth. I’m anticipating the hit rate being 85% or maybe a little higher. Ultimately I think that’s enough for at least 5-6 top 20’s, he’s going to run at least one Mass Start this season, and I’m hoping he can get his Overall rank closer to 30th in the Overall.

World Cup Possibles – Rounding out the final two spots on the roster (and sometimes on the final spot on the relay) is a bit more tricky. The optimistic way to look at this is is that there is a real opportunity for one of these men to take hold of a World Cup spot. These men just have to do it. Two of these men (Stefansson and Nordgren) will start the season on the World Cup, but I imagine that we’ll see a number of men cycle through the 5 and 6 spots on the roster. Here’s who will start the season on the IBU Cup:
– Emil Nykvist
– Oscar Andersson
– Anton Ivarsson
– Henning Sjokvist
– Alfred Ericksson
– Victor Berglund

Malte Stefansson (25)

One of the most frequent men to help round out the World Cup roster over the last several seasons has been Malte Stefansson. After racing 14 times as a 20 year old in the 2021-2022 season he hasn’t quite reached that level yet, but he has still raced 23 times over the last three years. He hasn’t had overwhelming success with eight top 40’s in the last four seasons and average finishes usually in the mid to late 50’s. It really makes Stafansson serviceable, but also clearly indicates why he’s not a lock on a World Cup position even with so much experience.

Stefansson has been a solid skier that struggles significantly with the shooting. His average course time rank in the last three seasons has ticked upward from 38th to 34th while he continues to ski about 0.5 to 1.5% faster than median. However his hit rate is regularly in the mid to low 70’s. And if you look to the IBU Cup it’s not like he’s shooting much better there either. Over the last four seasons when he races on the IBU Cup he’s been hitting between 72% and 76.4%. He doesn’t make up for it with fast shooting either as he has never averaged less than 31 seconds per shoot.

So far in his career Malte Stefansson has been fast enough of a skier to earn fairly regular starts on the World Cup. He hasn’t had significant pressure form the younger guys on the roster yet but unless he gets significantly fast (which is possible) or starts to finally make some gains with his shooting (also possible but we’ve seen no evidence of it yet) his hold on a World Cup spot will get continuously more tenuous. The good news for Stefansson is that he is so young. We’ve seen Viktor Brandt make improvements so hopefully we can see Malte make improvements as well to more definitely earn those World Cup starts.

Melker Nordgren (23)

Melker Nordgren made his first career IBU level races at the Junior Worlds in 2024. He finished 68th and 53rd. I had no idea what to expect last season. He ended up racing 10 times on the IBU Cup, more and more as the season went on, and it wasn’t too bad. In 10 races he did have a three top 40’s to score a few points. Most of his finishes though were in the 50’s and 60’s.

Nordgren’s skiing was okay but limited his ceiling a bit. He averaged 1.3% slower than median and had an average course time rank of 59th. To his credit, though, he did hit 79.2% with fairly even splits. That’s really not terrible for where he is in his career arc. He averaged 31.5 second per shoot.

That was probably better than I would have expected last season. This off season there have been some good signs. You might have noticed he’s been attending training camps with the “A” team this offseason. The coaches really like the skiing development that he’s showed. It looks like we’re about to see a much better Melker Nordgren than we’ve ever seen before. How that will translate to his performances this season I have no idea. I can’t wait to see what the coaches have seen!

Emil Nykvist (28)

Another man who has earned at least a handful of starts on the World Cup for each of the last few seasons is 28 year old Emil Nykvist. With 26 starts in the last three seasons he’s been one of the guys, just like Malte Stefannson, rounding out the full six man roster behind the top four listed above. In those 26 starts he’s put together eight top 40 finishes with half of those being top 30’s.

When he’s racing on the IBU Cup he’s actually been having increasing levels of success though. The last two seasons he had the first top 10 finishes of his IBU Cup career with five of them. And last season he had the first IBU Cup podium of his career with a bronze medal in the Individual at the European Championships. And he followed that up with a 6th place finish in the Sprint to solidify his position as one of the best in the field against the best competition of the IBU Cup calendar. These are all good indications that he’s been raising his level.

It really doesn’t matter what you look at Emil Nykvist has been getting better. He’s faster on skis, more accurate shooting, and quicker with the shooting. Looking first at his IBU Cup statistics, where he’s been racing more consistently, his average course time ran on the IBU Cup just four seasons ago was 71.3. Last year it was 23.3, his third straight season of getting faster. He’s mved from 3.1% slower than median up to 2.7% faster. Huge improvement. Meanwhile his hit rate on the IBU Cup is up nicely as well. In his first two seasons of consistent IBU Cup racing he hit 78.7% and 79.2%. The last two seasons he’s hit 86.5% and 87%.

On the World Cup the ski improvement isn’t quite as clear as his average course time rank the last two seasons is 59th and 60th. That’s actually slower than he was in 2022-2023 when his average course time rank was 47th. His hit rate, though, confirms what his IBU Cup racing has shown as he’s hit 88.9% and 86.7% the last two seasons.

Emil Nykvst definitely has potential to stake a claim to one of the top 6 spots on the World Cup. If he keeps the same trajectory with his skiing that he’s shown on the IBU Cup, that would indicate that he could be near a median skier on the World Cup this season. That’s significantly better than he’s shows the last two seasons in limited World Cup racing. Also with mid to high 80’s shooting, that’s a tool that pretty much nobody ahead of him on this list has. If he can keep the skiing coming along that high shooting may make him an intriguing start on the relays as well. At the very least it could get him the call up to the World Cup squad more frequently this year.

Oscar Andersson (23)

At the 2021 Youth Worlds Oscar Andersson looked like he was a definitive part of the future for Sweden biathlon. That year he finished 7th, 4th, and took bronze in the Pursuit. Things haven’t progressed super smoothly since then, but maybe starting to look up. He started the 2021-2022 season on the IBU Cup and for the most part looked overmatched but did have two top 40’s including a 28th. After that he didn’t return to the IBU Cup until last season, only competing at the Junior World Championships in 2022, 2023, and 2024. In those three Junior Worlds, in 7 races, he had a best finish of 11th in the 2024 Inidividual and two 19th place finishes.

Then to start the 2024-2025 he came back to the the IBU Cup and looked much better. To be fair, it’s not surprising that he looked much better against IBU Cup competition at 22 years old vs 19. Within two races he set a new career best of 21st in the Idre Fjall Sprint. He had his first top 10 in the next race in the Pursuit. In the end he raced 17 times and had 10 top 40’s including four top 30’s.

Oscar Andersson showed nice improvement last season. He was never all that fast as a Junior. In those Junior Worlds races his course time ranks were in the upper 30’s. Last season on the IBU Cup his course time ranks were in the mid 50’s and he was just 1.2% slower than median. Considering he was barely faster than median on the Juniors that’s a nice little improvement. His shooting, never consistent previously, was actually solid last sitting hitting 81.2%.

Oscar Andersson has also showed a new very good shooting speed averaging just 25.6 seconds per shoot in the 2024-2025 seconds last season. He showed even faster shooting speed at the recent Loop One festival. His total shooting time for his heat race was just 33.3 seconds with 16.7 second prone shoot and 16.6 second standing shoot. Absolutely wild.

Oscar Andersson certainly has a shooting speed that is unmatched on his team and could be one of the best on the World Cup. The key is going to be able to do it that quickly and continue to improve his accuracy. If he can shoot that fast and hit in the mid 80’s that would make up for a lot of his deficiency on the skis. And he’s still just 23 years old and should continue to improve. While we don’t expect him to be a crazy speedster like Ponsiluoma or Samuelsson, he should still be faster than he is now. If he makes the World Cup this season it’s going to be both because of he’s able to shoot fast and accurate and he’s a little faster on the skis. He’s certainly worth keeping an eye on regardless of what level he’s on though!

Anton Ivarsson (24)

The Swedish leadership continues to indicate that they feel Anton Ivarsson has a significant future with the Swedish team. After racing seven times on the World Cup in the 2023-2024 season, with two top 50’s, he returns in 24-25 with four more races. Unfortunately last year he wasn’t able to add any top 50’s to his totals. He missed the 2nd trimester of racing but returned for the European Championships and closed out the year on the IBU Cup. He looked much more like himself to close the season with a 4th in the Ridnaun-Val Ridanna Sprint along with an 11th and a 13th in the last seven races of the year. He had five top 30’s in that seven race stretch to close the IBU Cup season.

With last seasons racing he continues to prove that he’s a solid IBU Cup athlete. He is regularly in the top 20-30 and competing for top 10’s every season. He has two top 5’s in his IBU Cup career with a 3rd in the 2022-2023 season and a 4th last season. When he gets to the World Cup he’s just not quite able to convert that into his first World Cup points. And that’s not terribly surprising because he’s just 24 years old as this season get started!

Since he’s raced most consistently on the IBU Cup we can check out his statistics on that level. It turns out they’ve been pretty stable the last three seasons. His average course time rank remains in the low to mid 20’s every season as he skis about 2.5% faster than median. His shooting has been a little more variable. He hit 82.2% three seasons ago before improving to 86% in the 23-24 season followed by 78.8% last season. Meanwhile shooting times average around 28-29 seconds. Overall a pretty steady profile. That leads to the results we saw above where he’s able to regularly get top 30’s but not breaking through to more consistent top 10-20.

The good news for Ivarsson is that he’s still young. And he’s not starting from a terrible place. His skiing is decent and his shooting has shown potential. Plenty of time to get some traction. The goal for this season would be skiing a little bit faster. That would be moving above 3% faster than median on the IBU Cup and on the World Cup maybe 1-2% slower than median. Not amazing but progress! For his shooting a hit rate in the low 80’s like 82-83% would be a good sign of stability. If he does those 2 things he probably won’t be regularly on the World Cup but might grab a weekend or two. And it would certainly lead to more top 20’s on the IBU cup!

Henning Sjokvist (27)

Henning Sjokvist was absent for the 2024-2025 season due to continuing chronic issues. Thankfully this season it looks like he’s ready to make a comeback. He’s been training well for the summer and he looks to be expressing some optimism for the upcoming season.

For the three season prior to that though, he raced on the IBU Cup at least 10 races per season with improved performance each season. In the 2023-2024 season he raced 19 times and had 14 top 40’s. Not just his best overall total but also his best top 40’s percentage. He also had 11 top 30’s which was definitely the best of his career. He also showed a higher ceiling by putting together seven top 20’s and two top 10’s.

SJokvist also has statistics that were getting better and better over those three seasons of racing. He improved each year across every aspect of biathlon. His average course time rank improved from 47th up to 36th. He has been skiing from 1.1% slower than median up to 0.4% faster than median. His shooting percentage improved each season up from 78.1% to 85.7% last season. His average shooting time was slightly better from 32.5 seconds up to 30.2 seconds.

If Henning Sjokvist is healthy we’ll hopefully see him take another step forward just like he was before last season. I’ll keep my fingers crossed because he was definitely make slow and steady advances towards being a guy who could challenge for World Cup races.

Alfred Eriksson (24)

Alfred Eriksson is another man who, like Oskar Ohlsson seemed to have been on the outs. He was racing fairly consistently on the IBU Cup even without high level performance for a number of years. Then in 2023-2024, his first season of graduating out of the Juniors, he raced only three times. Last year he raced well enough to earn a few more opportunities, though, racing 15 times on the IBU Cup for his busiest season to date. In those 15 races he had seven top 40’s and three top 20’s. He set a new career best with a 13th place in the second Sprint of the weekend in Arber and he had two 18th place finishes as well.

To be fair to the Swedish federation, Eriksson really didn’t show a lot earlier in his career. And on a team with such high aspirations and competition, it’s easy to see how he got bumped down a little bit. Prior to last season he had just three IBU Cup top 40’s in 14 races. On the Juniors he had no top 40’s in any of his Youth or Junior Worlds races. His best finish as a Junior was 41st way back int he 2018 Youth Worlds Sprint.

In his performance throughout his career Eriksson has been decent at skiing and decent at shooting but never great at either. Last season was the best of his career in terms of his finishes, which is ultimately what it’s all about. Looking at his statistics though, nothing really stands out. He skied 2% slower than median and his average course time rank was 54th. He hit 80.5% of his shots which was the best of his career to date. He averaged 29.5 seconds per shoot as well.

We’ll definitely continue to monitor Alfred Eriksson because he’s still so young. Looking at his Juniors finishes you wouldn’t expect too much. However he’s already outperforming those expectations on the IBU Cup. We’ll let ourselves be hopeful and hoping to be surprised!

Victor Berglund (22)

Victor Berglund will be making the graduation from the Junior levels to the Senior levels this season. At this point he hasn’t shown an incredible amount in his Juniors racing. But we’re about to learn a lot more about him on the IBU Cup. Here’s what we’ve seen from him so far:

– 2024-2025 season was second season of racing. Previously raced 2022 Youth Worlds. In 24-25 raced at Junior European and Junior World Championships and made IBU Cup debut in Idre Fjall and Obertilliach
– Junior Worlds: 21st and 31st
– IBU Cup finishes: 59th, 79th, and 88th
– Best moment: 21st in Individual at Junior Worlds
– Juniors Avg Course Time Rank: 47th
– Juniors Shooting Percentage: 68.9% with even splits
– IBU Cup Course Time Ranks: 66th, 56th, and 79th
– IBU Cup Shooting Percentages: 90%, 50%, and 60%

Erik Larsson (23)

As a Junior Erik Larsson definitely flashed some potential. At the 2021 Youth Worlds he had a 6th and a 7th in the Sprint and the Pursuit. Two years later he had another top 10 with a 9th at the 2023 Junior Worlds again in the Sprint. His Juniors career wasn’t packed with high finishes but just enough in the right places to whet the appetite.

With those flashes he started earning IBU Cup starts as early as the 2020-2021 season. Over the last five seasons he’s lined up to start 30 IBU Cup races. He’s run about 6-7 per season peaking with 10 races in the 23-24 season. In those 30 races he has four top 30’s and six top 40’s. Three of those top 30’s have come the last two seasons including a career best 15th in the Idre Fjäll Sprint in the 23-24 season.

Erik Larsson’s strength is easy to see. He’s a very good skier and getting better every season. Last year was his fastest yet running 3.7% faster than median on the IBU Cup which gave her course time ranks consistently in the teens and twenties. The hold up has been the shooting. It’s been rough… The last three seasons his total hit rates have been 59%, 66.4%, and 60%. Last year was the best standing hit rate of his career at a grand total of 52%. And he doesn’t make up for it with shooting speed. An average shooting speed of 35.3 seconds last season was pedestrian.

Erik Larsson has ski power. And he could make better use of it if he wasn’t wasting so much of it on the penalty loop. That’s the long and the short of it for Larsson. He skis well enough to be on the World Cup. But even Martin Ponsiluoma dominated Larsson in the shooting range. This would be a great season to get if figured out though. I sure hope we see that happen and raise his ceiling considerably!

Jacob Larsson (21)

The youngest man on this section of the list, Jacob Larsson, is just 21 years old so we can’t expect too much. He also seems to be internally ranked above the men in the next section. And he’s not really a Junior anymore. He doesn’t really belong in any of the groups. But he gets here by default.

Larsson made his debut at the 2022 Youth Worlds and since the has raced 28 total times across the Junior Cup and IBU Cup. In his Juniors career he’s raced 13 times over the last four seasons. His career best was 13th at the Junior European Championship just last season in the Mass 60. Besides that he has one other top 20 and four total top 30’s on the Junior ranks.

Relative to that he actually feels like he’s been a bit more successful on the IBU Cup. Over the last two seasons he has competed in 15 races and he has four top 30’s with three coming just last season. One of those tied his career best of 24th in the Geilo Pursuit.

Regardless of level he’s been a better skier than shooter. As a Junior he’s skied as fast as 4-5% faster than median. He had his best average course time rank of 11th in the 2022-2023 Juniors season. As a Senior last season was definitely his fastest. He was up to 1.6% faster than median with an average course time rank of 34th. The shooting has been more of a work in progress. Regardless of level he’s more routinely hitting in the mid 60’s.

For Jacob Larsson there were definitely signs of progress last season. The skiing was absolutely faster. The best thing he could do this season is continue to find starts. His skiing has absolutely been trending upward. Being so young there is every reason to hope that continues. The shooting is the big question mark. Hopefully this season we see him shooting in the 70’s. That’s really not asking too much. Hes hit 70% or better in seven of his 15 IBU Cup races. So let’s just eliminate the very bad days. If he can do that it’s a step in a good direction. That’s all I need to see this season.

IBU Cup – The following men have an outside chance at seeing some World Cup time. However, they are going to have to perform well early and often to really grab the attention. None of them start the season with high expectations. The thing is, though, if you race well enough you can force you way to the top. And the expanded national teams including Team Östersund allows more opportunities as well.

Oskar Ohlsson (27)

After running no races from 2020-2021 through 2022-2023 Oskar Ohlsson returned to race a single weekend of competition in the 23-24 season. After having a 32nd, a 15th, and a 24th that weekend Ohlsson then raced a full season on the IBU Cup last year. It was his first full season of racing since 2019-2020. It’s just the second full season of international biathlon competition. Over 24 races last season he showed a decent floor as he had 15 top 40’s but just four of those were top 20’s. However, he did have the best finish of his career with an 11th in the Individual in Geilo, and four of the top five best finishes of his IBU Cup career.

Ohlsson did show some solid skiing last season, the best of his career. He had an average course time rank of 24th while running 2.7% ahead of median. His shooting was the problem that kept him from turning more of those top 40’s into top 20’s. He hit just 73.7 with even splits. It was better than he was earlier in his career when he was hitting in the low 60’s, but still low enough to put a pretty hard ceiling on his routine performance.

At 27 years old Ohlsson certainly isn’t too old to still have some improvement and show new levels of his performance. However, he does appear to be more on the outside looking in as far as how the federation views his prospects. I will also be a fan of an athlete, that regardless of the obstacles keeps on fighting. Hopefully this season Ohlsson finds a way to get a little more accurate and maybe even builds a little bit on the skiing. If he’s able to consistently find the top 20 on the IBU Cup he may just force himself into the conversation for a World Cup debut at some point.

Up and Comers and Juniors: Listing here a large number of Juniors. The Swedes maintain a fairly expansive roster of Juniors and I included everybody even if they had not raced before in an IBU event or regional event. I tried to put the “top names” to watch near the top though.

Martin Hoiby (20)

– 2024-2025 season was second season of racing. Raced at Junior European and Junior World Championships and made IBU Cup debut in Otepaa
– In his career he has four top 20’s in nine Juniors races. He has one top 10 in two IBU Cup races.
– Junior Worlds: 65th, 14th, and 27th
– Best moment: 10th in Sprint in Otepaa
– Juniors Avg Course Time Rank: 19.2
– Juniors Shooting Percentage: 63% hitting 72% prone and 54% standing
– IBU Cup Course Time Ranks: 40th and 32nd
– IBU Cup Shooting Percentages: 85% and 100%

Oskar Bergman (19)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Raced at Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 14th, 9th, and 18th
– Course Time Ranks: 53rd, 41st, and 18th
– Shooting Percentages: 90%, 100%, 80%

Elmer Nordlander (17)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Raced at Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 29th, 34th, and 49th
– Course Time Ranks: 35th, 30th, and 55th
– Shooting Percentages: 75%, 70%, and 65%

Tore Sandegard (19)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Raced at Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 50th and 21st
– Course Time Ranks: 47th and 45th
– Shooting Percentages: 65% and 90%

Oskar Jansson (19)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Raced at Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 43rd, 40th, and 43rd
– Course Time Ranks: 30th, 36th, and 45th
– Shooting Percentages: 70% for every race

Vincent Grein (22)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Raced at Junior Worlds
– Junior Worlds: 58th, 48th, and 43rd
– Course Time Ranks: 45th, 43rd, and 51st
– Shooting Percentages: 70% for every race

Anton Modigs (19)

– 2024-2025 season was debut season. Raced at Youth Worlds
– Youth Worlds: 24th, 54th, and 36th
– Course Time Ranks: 54th, 51st, and 38th
– Shooting Percentages: 90%, 70%, and 75%

Thjin Omblets (18)

– Last competed at the 2023-2024 Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon
– 2024 Youth Olympics: 61st and 82nd
– Shooting Percentages: 70% and 30%

Olle Gedda (18)

– Last competed at the 2023-2024 Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon
– 2024 Youth Olympics: 58th and 63rd
– Shooting Percentages: 50% and 30%

Kalle Helgesson (18)

No IBU racing to date

Simon Akerlind (18)

No IBU racing to date