2025-2026 First Trimester Breakthrough & Career Best Seasons

It’s time for one my favorite exercises of the first trimester…celebrating biathletes in the midst of breakthrough seasons! There is almost nothing in biathlon that I love more than watching athletes reach new levels of success. Sometimes it is finally reaching potential that was seen in Juniors/IBU Cup. Sometimes it is the result of putting in a really hard summer to push to a new level. And sometimes it is the culmination of work that has been years and years in the making. For us as fans, each of these is so much fun to see!

Before we get started the most important thing I want to point out is that there are different levels of breakthroughs. Sometimes it is an athlete who shoots up to the top. Sometimes it’s an athlete who goes from middle of the pack to borderline contention. Or maybe it’s an athlete who just starts scoring points for the first time on a regular basis. These are all breakthroughs worthy of being celebrated. I will mention a handful here that I’ve really enjoyed watching. If there is anybody that you want to shout out please comment below or send me a note on Twitter/Instagram!

To the Top!

🇳🇴 Johan-Olav Botn

Age	26
Current Rank	1
Career Best Rank	29
Total Career Races	15
Key Stat	Shooting Percentage: 96.2%

We’ve all known that Johan-Olav Botn is talented. Over the last several years he had 12 wins on the IBU Cup and finished 2nd and 3rd on the IBU Cup Overall. His speed is unquestionable. The only thing that was holding him back from complete dominance was his shooting. It was never atrocious. The last three years on the IBU Cup he hit 83.3%, 80.5% and 86.8%. However, it was just never quite good enough to let him reach his full potential.

Well that’s changed now. Johan-Olav Botn is hitting a ridiculous 96.2% this season nearly 10 full percentage points improved from last year on the IBU Cup. Heading into the Mass Start at le Grand Bornand he had just three misses for the entire year before nearly matching that on the prone shooting in that race (he finished 18/20 so nowhere close to bad!).

This shooting improvement has all happened without him losing ski speed. His course time ranks this season are 1, 2, 11, 3, 9, 9, 9, 3. Nothing shameful in that as he’s running 4.34% ahead of median behind only Sebastian Samuelsson, Martin Ponsiluoma, and Johannes Dale-Skjevdal. There is nothing worrisome there! He’s only behind three of the acknowledged fastest men in the biathlon world! The only “slow” part of his performance is his shooting speed as he is averaging 29.6 seconds per shoot. It’s 62nd on the World Cup this season.

The results are undeniable. Botn has three wins, five podiums, and his “worst” finish on the season is 5th. He grabbed yellow in the first race of the season and has only extended his lead since then out to 113 points after the first trimester.

The only question is…can this possibly continue? We’ve never seen him do it before. But does that make it less “real?” Will he default back to his normal mid to low 80’s shooting? If he does that will make the yellow bib race very exciting. But right now there is no reason to believe that will happen. He’s remarkably slid directly into the void left by Johannes Thingnes Boe to put another Norwegian strong man at the front of the pack.

Consistently in the Top 10

🇳🇴 Maren Kirkeeide

Age	22
Current Rank	2
Career Best Rank	10
Total Career Races	43
Key Stat	Wins: 1

Maren Kirkeeide was one of the popular picks to win what was expected to a very strong u23 globe competition. As the first trimester comes to a close she is not only leading that competition by a LARGE margin but she stands 2nd in the Overall behind only the acknowledged most consistent athlete in biathlon over the last three seasons Lou Jeanmonnot. The highlight of her season came in the last race at le Grand Bornand when she powered herself to victory on the final lap of the Mass Start. It was an absolute show of force as she first pulled Jeanmonnot and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet up to and past Camille Bened to take the lead. Then she just increased her effort and actually gapped Jeanmonnot and Braisaz-Bouchet who are not only two of the strongest skiers in the women’s field but also racing in front of home fans. Even with multiple pushes by the French women Kirkeeide was able to stay clear and take her maiden victory.

This was just the capstone on an excellent first trimester that saw Kirkeeide take on the mantle of the strongest Norwegian woman with three podiums, four top 5’s and six top 10’s. She’s skiing 3.2% faster than median putting her 8th in Overall skiing, but obviously with some serious power when needed. She’s also shooting 90%. Top 5-10 skiing plus 90%+ shooting is the magic marker for Overall contender. If she is able to keep this up, while she may not be able to surpass Jeanmonnot, she’s at least going to make her work all the way to Holmenkollen to win the Overall.

🇸🇪 Anna Magnusson

Age	30
Current Rank	4
Career Best Rank	14
Total Career Races	169
Key Stat	Standing Shooting Percentage: 90.8%

Before the season practically nobody had Anna Magnusson has a potential challenger. I say practically nobody because one very special podcast did mention her on the season preview episode. Don’t believe me? Go back and check! I promise it is in there!

Anna Magnusson has been one of the less heralded of the Swedish women’s powerhouse over the last several seasons. Quietly operating in the shadows behind the Oeberg sisters and even Ella Halvarsson, Linn Getsblom and at time Sara Andersson, she’s just been consistently putting together solid seasons finishing 14th, 15th, and 20th in the Overall the last three years.

This season Magnusson exploded out of the gate. After a 9th in the opening INdividual she went on a run of four consecutive podiums to wrestle the yellow bib away from Suvi Minkkinen and wear it for two races. While she didn’t have a spectacular week in Annecy she still finished up the first trimester in 4th in the Overall and primed for a massive career best season.

While she is obviously having a terrific all around season, one of the primary areas of improvement that led to this breakthrough first trimester has been her standing shooting. Her prone shooting has stayed an excellent 90.8%, just a hair better than last year. But her standing shooting has advanced from seven straight years in the low 80’s to match her prone at exactly 90.8%. That along with improved skiing taking her from running around 1-1.3% faster than median the last three seasons up to 2.4% faster than median has led to this surge.

As of today Anna Magnusson has four podiums. In her entire career before this season she had just two podiums. She already has five top 10’s which is just two shy of the most she’s ever had in a season in her career. This is the very definition of a breakthrough season in a similar, if a little less dramatic, fashion to Suvi Minkkinen from last season. Even their ages, with Anna Magnusson doing it at age 30, is similar as well. Here’s for hoping she closes out her season like Minkkinen did last season, with continued success all the way through the end of the year and hopefully including some Olympic hardware!

🇫🇷 Camille Bened

Age	25
Current Rank	6
Career Best Rank	52
Total Career Races	11
Key Stat	Shooting Percentage: 96.9%

Look I’ll admit it. I’m not totally objective when it comes to Camille Bened. I love her story. We also were lucky enough to get to interview her this summer. Between our recorded conversation and our offline chat she’s become one of my favorite biathletes. Just a really great person who has had to overcome some serious injuries to not only regain her prior level but surpass it and move towards her full potential. I love any athlete that is able to do that. So Bened’s success this season has been especially gratifying.

After winning the IBU Cup Overall for the 2024-2025 season, on most teams Camille Bened would have been a sure thing for the start of the World Cup. On the extremely talented and deep French women’s team, though, Bened had to prove herself over the summer and at the test races in Bessans. She did that by winning two of the races to lock up her spot on the World Cup spot. That still didn’t mean she was a sure thing to stay there. Not only could one of the other talented women have risen up to grab her spot, but while the team had seven spots to start the season that would drop to six after the first two weeks. With the “locks” on the team that left basically one open spot.

Camille Bened showed up in Oestersund ready to do battle. She has hit a crazy 96.9% this season which has helped her overcome her ski speed that ranks “only” 38th best at 0.81% faster than median. The result has been better than anybody could have expected. She started the season with a podium finishing 3rd in the Individual before having four more finishes in the top 6 already this season. She has put up 313 points and currently ranks 6th Overall. Last season 313 points would have earned her 24th Overall at the end of the season. So if she doesn’t score another point the rest of the season (highly unlikely) she is already basically secured a top 30 Overall finish.

The most exciting part of Bened’s season is that the French federation has already announced that she is secured of a spot on the Olympic roster. I have a hard time seeing her not starting at least the Individual race in Antholz. She could also find herself on what should be a medal-winning relay squad if they choose to put her along with Lou, Justine, and Simon. Really feels like the 4th spot comes down to her and Michelon. No matter what I’m absolutely thrilled for Camille Bened!!!

Borderline Contention

🇩🇪 Philipp Horn

Age	31
Current Rank	12
Career Best Rank	20
Total Career Races	100
Key Stat	Skiing -3.6% vs Median

As the calendar flips from 2025 to 2026 who is the top German man in the Overall? That would be Philipp Horn who at age 31 is authoring his career season. He has already secured the first podium of his career as he finished 3rd in the Sprint in Hochfilzen along with two other top 10’s of 4th and 8th. It’s a remarkable performance. So why doesn’t he land with the group above? Well it’s completely subjective but he just hasn’t felt quite that close to the top or as consistent as the athletes just ahead of him on this list. That’s not to take away from him though because he’s been fantastic.

Year over year Horn’s ski improvement is from 2.5% faster than median to a career best 3.6% faster than median. His average ski rank is improved from 17 to 10. At this early junction of the season he ranks 7th in overall skiing, absolutely the best of his career. Even by shooting only 80.8% this season he’s still been able to climb to 12th in the Overall to end the first trimester. Hopefully Horn is able to continue this in the New Year because this is absolutely a joy to watch!

Raising the Ceiling

🇨🇭 Joscha Burkhalter

Age	29
Current Rank	18
Career Best Rank	37
Total Career Races	83
Key Stat	Standing Shooting Percentage: 89.2%

If you had Joscha Burkhalter as the leading man for the Swiss team at the end of the first trimester then that would certainly have been a surprise. However, he has continued his steady improvement over the last two seasons, and as the biathlon world takes the holiday break it is Burkhalter as the highest ranked Swiss man sitting at 18th in the Overall. It’s been already been a record setting season for Burkhalter as he has matched his career finish finishing 10th in the Annecy-le Grand Bornand Mass Start. In total he has five top 20’s which matches his entire career total prior to this season, and surpasses his prior career most in a season of four. He’s finished in the points every race and currently sits at 165 points, the most he’s ever scored in a season.

The big area of improvement for Joscha Burkhalter has been in his shooting. FOr most of his career he is shooting in the low 80’s with his career best to date coming last season when he hit 83.8%. This year he’s up to 90.8% including a big 7.9% increase in standing shooting to 89.2%. That has allowed him to have a little extra strength in the legs and may have contributed to his skiing being a career best 0.5% faster than median, his first time on the faster than slower side of the median line.

Burkhalter’s development does great things for the Swiss team. We know Nik Hartweg’s talent when he’s able to be healthy. Sebbe Stalder has shown top 20-30 Overall talent as well. That’s a solid 3 man lineup for a relay. Now we just need James Pacal or Dajan Danuser to come along and we’ve got a solid top 5-6 contender!

🇨🇿 Lucie Charvatova

Age	32
Current Rank	19
Career Best Rank	27
Total Career Races	182
Key Stat	Shooting Percentage: 79.2%

Lucie Charvatova is no new fresh talent on the World Cup. She’s 32 and has been racing consistently on the highest level since the 2015-2016 season giving her a solid decade of experience. It’s also given us a decade of watching her. At this point we all know what to expect. Good skiing. Solid prone shooting. Completely hit or miss standing shooting. Coming into this season her career best standing shooting was 72.3% in the 2018-2019 shooting. Every other year she’s hitting in the 60’s from the standing position.

This season she’s back to hitting 72.3% standing. Combined with a career best 86.2% prone shooting and she’s nearly breaking 80% for the first time in her career as she sits at 79.2% after eight races this year. Even though her skiing isn’t quite at her normal level, she’s still been consistently popping up in the top 20. Already three times this season, which is just one off her career best of four in the 2019-2020 season. She’s up to 19th in the Overall which is well ahead of her career best of 27th. If she can keep this up it would be a spectacular late career best season!

🇺🇸 Deedra Irwin

Age	33
Current Rank	22
Career Best Rank	38
Total Career Races	94
Key Stat	Standing Shooting Percentage: 94%

The year got of to an inauspicious start for Deedra Irwin. First a crash during national trials. Then she was benched for the non-relay races in Oestersund. Since then she’s been on a mission. She finished 17th in both races in Hochfilzen before finishing 10th, 25th, and 13th in Annecy. That 10th place finish was the 3rd top 10 of her career. Her four top 20’s already ties the most she’s ever had in her career. She is just three top 30’s away from the most top 30’s in her career. As of now she’s 22nd in the Overall with a prior career best of 38th. This is by far the best run in the 33 year old American’s career.

The key to Deedra Irwin’s surge this season has been her shooting, particularly her standing. While her prone shooting is actually slightly down, she’s hitting 94% standing. Her previous career best for a season is 83%. Her overall hit rate is now 89%. She’s also having her best career skiing running 0.6% faster than median. This has been part of a very good 1st trimester for US Biathlon!

🇸🇮 Polona Klemencic

Age	28
Current Rank	21
Career Best Rank	28
Total Career Races	121
Key Stat	Prone Shooting Percentage: 90.8%

This is a career best season for Polona Klemencic but it is really more of a return to her previous career best (that I honestly didn’t know if we would see again). She already has a top 10 for this season, her 3rd in her career, as she finished 10th in the Hochfilzen Sprint. She has four top 20’s, the most she has had since she had eight in the 2022-2023 season. It’s really been a mix of both her skiing and shooting that has gotten it done.

To be fair to Klemencic the improvement really came in the back half of last season. From Ruhpolding through the end of last season she had just three finishes outside the top 31. But she has continued it through to this season and continued to look better as well!

She’s hitting 83.8% overall this season including 90.8% prone which is a solid step up and the best of her career for both. Her prior bets overall his rate is 81.7% and her prior best prone shooting 90.8%. Her skiing though is the best she’s been since that 2022-2023 campaign. She is running 1% faster than median compared to being exactly median the last two seasons. Her career best is 2% faster than median. Hopefully she can keep this up and make a run at a first career top 20 Overall finish!

🇪🇪 Regina Ermits

Age	29
Current Rank	24
Career Best Rank	47
Total Career Races	124
Key Stat	Skiing -0.3% vs Median

Regina Ermits is in the midst of a pretty big surge forward this season. At the end of the first trimester she is in 24th in the Overall which would as of this point would be a 23 position improvement over her prior best of 47th from last season. She already has 18 more points than last year which means that even if she procures no more points this season (highly unlikely) she’s in for near a career best season.

The highlight of her first trimester was when she finished 8th in the Hochfilzen Pursuit to match the best ever finish of her career. She already has three top 20’s this season, just one shy of the most she’s ever had in a season. She has five top 30’s already, just two shy of her career most in a season. This indicates both a high ceiling and a high floor. A terrific overall improvement!

Ermits is having the best skiing season of her career running faster than median for the first time ever. Her average ski rank is 35th also the best of her career. But equally as important is her shooting which is a very good 88.5% this season easily the best in her career. This includes 90.8% standing which matches the best in her career. Can she keep it up? Only time will tell. But so far it’s been magnificent!

🇵🇱 Jan Gunka

Age	23
Current Rank	27
Career Best Rank	57
Total Career Races	49
Key Stat	Shooting Time: 25 seconds

How exciting have the Polish men been? Jan Gunka, Konrad Badacz, and Grzgorz Galica have all made some noise this season. The noisiest of all, though, has been Jan Gunka. So far this season the 23 year old has four top 30’s and two top 20’s including a career best 13th in the Pursuit in Annecy. Considering before this season he had a career total of two top 30’s and this is a big step forward as he sits 27th in the Overall.

While Gunka is definitely skiing better than he ever has in his career, running just 0.4% slower than median compared to a previous career best of 1.3% faster than median, the biggest change has been his shooting speed. Last year was his previous fastest shooting season as he averaged 28.4 seconds per shoot. This season he has dropped that down to just 25 seconds per shoot including just 21.8 seconds per standing shoot. And he hasn’t dropped his shooting accuracy at all as he continues to hit in the low 80’s in both prone and standing shooting. He currently ranks 9th in average shooting time. last season he was 71st in shooting time. Gunka actually has the 7th best standing shooting time!

No matter what happens the rest of the way this will already be a career best Overall season from Gunka. However, if he continues at this rate it will end up being the best Polish men’s season in over a decade. The Polish men are coming!

Building a Floor

🇸🇪 Malte Stefansson

Age	25
Current Rank	31
Career Best Rank	64
Total Career Races	49
Key Stat	Shooting Percentage: 80%

As the Swedish men continue to be dominated by the strong Sebastian Samuelsson and Martin Ponsiluoma, the “others” including Jesper Nelin, Viktor Brandt and Malte Stefansson have each shown some good signs as well. No, it hasn’t been spectacular, but a top 10, two top 20’s, and three top 30’s is easily the career best for Stefansson. Before this season he had just a single career top 30. He’s up to 31st in the Overall compared to a prior career best of 64th!

Before this season Stefansson had never hit 80% in a season. This season he’s hitting exactly 80 including exactly 87.3% which is a terrific improvement! He’s also seen his skiing jump from 1.3% faster than median last season to 2.1% faster than median this season. His average finish has a HUGE improvement from 58th to 33rd! Almost most importantly from the perspective of the Swedish team he ran a very good relay in Hochfilzen and had just 2 extra rounds! I believe that the Swedish team will love that most of all!

🇺🇸 Maxime Germain

Age	24
Current Rank	34
Career Best Rank	53
Total Career Races	40
Key Stat	Top 20’s: 2

Maxime Germain is having himself a very nice start to the 2025-2026 campaign. Good enough that he’s already secured his spot on the 2026 Olympic team! Through the first trimester he has two top 20’s, equaling his career total to date, and has scored points in three top 40’s. He also set a new career best of 11th in the Oestersund Sprint and had his 3rd best career finish in the Oestersund Pursuit!

Unfortunately he also had finishes of 54th and 87th in the last two Sprints. Fortunately in the Hochfilzen Pursuit he put together a great race and moved from 54th up to the points and finished 35th. Maxime Germain doesn’t really belong in this category because he isn’t so much building a floor as raising his ceiling. His average finish is still 44th thanks in large part to that rough Sprint in Annecy. However, his skiing has continued to improve as he is running faster than average, 0.9% faster than median to be precise, for the first time in his career. He already has more points this season than he did last year. He is well on his way to a best ever Overall season!

🇨🇿 Mikulas Karlik

Age	26
Current Rank	37
Career Best Rank	74
Total Career Races	45
Key Stat	Skiing -2.4% vs Median

Mikuulas Karlik made the World Cup team and was almost an after thought as most of the discussion about Czechia team was about Tomas Mikyska in particular starting on the IBU Cup. However, Karlik has done a remarkable job of solidifying his position this year. He has earned three of his six best career finishes and four his top eight including a career best 24th in the Pursuit in le Grand Bornand. He overall collected 47 points and sits in 37th compared ot his career best Overall finish of 74th back in the 2020-2021 season.

Karlik has had a particularly good skiing season. After running 1.7% faster than median in the 2021-2022 campaign he’s been losing ground with this skiing since then. This year, though, he’s running 2.4% faster than median with average ski rank of 20th. That’s leaps and bounds better than the last three seasons of 33rd, 44th, and 44th. He’s also hitting a career best 78.2% which isn’t spectacular but it’s 6% better than his career best! Let’s see how he does the rest of the way, but no matter what it is already a career best year for Karlik. At this rate he may confirm a spot on the 2026 Olympic team!

🇪🇪 Kristo Siimer

Age	26
Current Rank	38
Career Best Rank	63
Total Career Races	62
Key Stat	Standing Shooting Percent: 85.5%

Our second Estonian athlete on this list is Kristo Siimer. At 26 years old he already has 62 career races (I just like the inverse numbers there) and has a career best Overall finish of 63rd. This year he’s far outpacing that with 46 points (already a career most) and sitting in 38th in the Overall. That’s thanks in large part to two 26th place finishes in the Sprint and Pursuit in Annecy along with a 29th in the Individual Oestersund and qualifying for the Mass Start. All in all he has four of his top six career finishes this season!

Siimer has never been an amazing shooter in his career, mostly because his standing shooting has never been better than 74.8%. This season he’s seen significant improvement in his standing shooting as he’s hitting 85.5%. He’s also having some of the best skiing of his career nearly running even with the median. It would be really exciting for Estonian athletes to have Regina Ermits and Kristo Siimer continue to race so well this season. It could make the Olympics very exciting. Even if you don’t have an athlete competing for the medals it’s fun to see your nation finishing in the top 20…or even the top 10!

Points! Points! Points!

🇵🇱 Konrad Badacz

Age	22
Current Rank	45
Career Best Rank	70
Total Career Races	34
Key Stat	Prone Shooting Percent: 97.8

Konrad Badacz is the second Polish young man on this list which speaks to the improvements the Polish squad is seeing this season. He already has secured the two best finishes of his career as he finished 25th in the Hochfilzen Sprint and the Pursuit in le Grand Bornand. He’s finished in the points in three of his six races this season, which is one off the most he’s had in a season in his career.

Badacz’s shooting has propelled his performance forward so far this season. Even though his standing shooting is down 2.6% compared to last season, his prone shooting is up to a wild 97.8% with just one miss this season from the prone position. Certainly is getting him off to good starts this year and he’s been able to convert three of them to point earning finishes! He finishes trimester one with 35 points, more than his entire career up to this time (27 over the last 2 seasons) and he is in 45th Overall. Not bad for the 22 year old!

🇰🇿 Vladislav Kireyev

Age	25
Current Rank	44
Career Best Rank	60
Total Career Races	59
Key Stat	Skiing 0.4% vs Median

Here’s a name that I don’t know that many people have thought about this season: Vladislav Kireyev. The 25 year old already has 101 career World Cup races but 42 of those are relays. This season, though, he has three of his top eight career finishes including a career best 20th set at the Hochfilzen Pursuit. As things sit right now Kireyev already has 35 points, the most of his career, and he is 44th in the Overall.

Kireyev has seen improvements all around. His average ski rank is improved from a career best 55th in the 23-24 season up to 46th this year. He’s running just 0.4% slower than median compared to 1.8% slower than median in his prior best ski season. His hit rate is up to 88.9% up from a prior career best of 87.8%. All told his average finish is improved from 57.1 to 43.8. Hopefully Kireyev can keep it rolling right through the Olympics so we can see that flashy Kazakhstan kit on tv in this February!

🇳🇴 Marit Oeygard

Age	26
Current Rank	41
Career Best Rank	N/A
Total Career Races	7
Key Stat	She’s Racing!

Marit Oeygard was one of the major surprises of the November selection races in Geilo. Earlier this summer she practically gave up her biathlon ambitions to focus on medical school. She made one last run at biathlon and what a run it has been! She qualified for the World Cup straight away from Geilo. She has three top 30’s and a 33rd to finish in the points four times this season. Of course Norway has higher ambitions but considering everything that Oeygard is doing (she is studying every day after training and racing!!) it’s really a remarkable run.

So far this season she’s shooting a very good 91.1% which has given her the floor to her performance and allowed her to have those three top 30’s. She’s already assured of starting out the season in Oberhof, which could be a tough course for her, but hopefully she can keep putting up points and keep enjoying this Cinderella run!

🇨🇭 Lea Meier

Age	24
Current Rank	45
Career Best Rank	69
Total Career Races	35
Key Stat	Skiing -1.2% vs Median

Lea Meier is one of the secretly funniest athletes in biathlon. I had the pleasure of getting to watch a spirited game of spike ball with the Swiss women last season. Meier was actually hilarious. She also has made a really nice skiing improvement this season. You could see it coming over the summer with her racing but it’s exploded this year. She has moved from 2% slower than median to 1.2% faster. Her average ski rank is up from 67th to 33rd. As of right now she’s 27th in overall skiing on the World Cup just ahead of Ella Halvarsson. For comparison last season she was 77th.

The result is that she’s completely changed her performance. Last year she had just three top 40’s. and one top 30. This year she’s blown the ceiling off and had a career best of 26th in the Hochfilzen Sprint which she then improved to 14th in the Pursuit. The only thing keeping her from a spectacular rise is her shooting. Most of her career she’s hit in the mid 80’s and this season she’s hitting 78.9%. If she can get a regression to her normal shooting and keep this level of skiing we’re going to see her make her first career top 10’s and finish pretty high up the Overall!

🇱🇻 Estere Volfa

Age	20
Current Rank	50
Career Best Rank	85
Total Career Races	12
Key Stat	Prone Shooting Percentage: 100%

Young Estere Volfa has been part of a really nice first trimester from the Latvian team. Veterans like Andrejs Rastorgujevs and Baiba Bendika were solid early in the season. The young ones have flashed as well with Estere Volfa and Rihards Lozbers showing some fun results as well. Even on the IBU Cup it’s been a solid season.

For Volfa she has set her career best twice this season, both in Oestersund, as she finished 28th in the Individual before a 23rd in the Pursuit. She also qualified for the Pursuit in Annecy with a 58th in the Sprint but was unable to run due to illness which also caused her to miss Hochfilzen. However, through 4 races scoring points in two of them is pretty good! Also she’s 2 for 2 on qualifying for Pursuits!

The key for Volfa has been her shooting, particularly her prone, which is a perfect 60/60 this season. So no damage being done early in races. She already has 31 points this season so she is practically assured of a new career best Overall rank. But her points per race indicates that she could even move towards the top 40 this season!

🇨🇦 Shilo Rousseau

Age	25
Current Rank	68
Career Best Rank	No Prior Points
Total Career Races	12
Key Stat	Skiing 0.1% vs Median

Sometimes the biggest breakthrough is doesn’t happen at the top of the standings but nearly unnoticed further down. Shilo Rousseau only had six career races before this season and has run six more this year. While the results in isolation aren’t going to turn any heads, the year over year improvement is remarkable. Her average finish has improved from 83 to 51.5. She qualified for the Pursuits in Oestersund and Annecy. And she scored her first career points when she finished 31st in the Sprint in Oestersund.

All of this has been made possible by a tremendous ski improvement. Over the summer she made the decision to delay her intended career in medicine to focus on biathlon for at least the next few seasons. The result is a big time skiing improvement. She improved from 4.2% slower than median last season up to right around the median this season. Her average ski rank has improved from 82nd to 44th. That’s a huge move up!

Hopefully this is just the start for the 25 year old Canadian!