2025-2026 Ruhpolding Recap

The Winners – Top Performers of the Week

Nations Medal Table for the Week

Nation	Medals
France	🥇🥇🥈🥈🥉
Sweden	🥇🥇🥈🥉🥉
Norway	🥇🥇🥈🥉
Italy	🥈🥈🥉
Germany	🥉

Athlete Medal Table for the Week

Athlete	Medals
Lou Jeanmonnot	🥇🥈
Hanna Oeberg	🥇🥈
Sebastian Samuelsson	🥇
Johannes Dale-Skjevdal	🥇
Eric Perrot	🥈
Tommaso Giacomel	🥈
Lisa Vittozzi	🥉
Isak Frey	🥉
Camille Bened	🥉
Martin Ponsiluoma	🥉

Women’s Athlete of the Week: Lou Jeanmonnot – During the week in Oberhof Lou Jeanmonnot was good but not near to the super high standard that she’s set for herself as she finished 7th and 10th. While that was happening though Suvi was able to cut the Overall lead down to just 50 points.

That’s not the case anymore now though. Lou Jeanmonnot came to Ruhpolding and looked like Queen Lou Jeanmonnot. It was beautiful performance as she finished 2nd in the Sprint. But she looked even better in the Pursuit. She was in control from the moment she left the starting gate. She was absolutely perfect on the range until the 17th shot of the race. By that point though she had progressively built a large enough lead to withstand the miss.

The entire race Lou was in command. She ran hard enough on the tracks that she held the chasers at bay, but not so hard that she was exhausted on the range. She also kept enough in reserve that she was able to put in a big surge if necessary. There was never a moment where it felt like she wasn’t going to finish it off for the win, even when she had that miss.

In Ruhpolding Lou looked like Lou and that’s dangerous for the field. Now she’s given herself a 136 point lead as she becomes the heavy favorite for the 2025-2026 Overall title.

Men’s Athlete of the Week: Sebastian Samuelsson – Sebastian Samuelsson’s first win of the season has been coming. You could just feel it. Always fast, Samuelsson is skiing faster his year than he ever has in his career. He’s currently running -4.9% vs median, a big career best, with an average ski rank of just 4.4. He’s shooting 84.2% which isn’t the best anybody has ever seen but more than good enough to get a win. In fact I said so just a week ago arguing that he was under valued in the Overall Globe race calculations!

Well, he proved us right! In the Sprint he came out and just looked outstanding. Perfect shooting for the day. Excellent skiing. He got the win that we could all see coming. Then in the Pursuit he limited the damage of 2 misses in the last shoot with a very good final lap to climb back up to 6th. With Giacomel in 5th it meant that Samuelsson gained a few points for the weekend on the Overall. It wasn’t enough to call him a favorite, but he certainly helped consolidate it into a 3 man race and Samuelsson is right there with Giacomel and Perrot!

Women’s Young Athlete of the Week: Maren Kirkeeide – We’ve talked about it a ton but Maren Kirkeeide isn’t just one of the best young women in biathlon by wearing the Blue bib, she’s one of the best women in biathlon period. She also has proven to have one heck of a super power in her closing. After showing that with an impressive final lap in the Annecy-le Grand Bornand Mass Start where she pulled away from, and then held off, Lou Jeanmonnot and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, Kirkeeide did it again in the Ruhpolding relay.

She left the range for the last lap of the women’s relay in 3rd position. She was alongside Hanna Oeberg and was 11.4 seconds back of Lisa Vittozzi and 8 seconds back of Julia Simon. She and Hanna Oeberg made their way to Simon by the middle of the lap. As they were going around Simon, Kirkeeide put in a surge and pulled away from not only Simon but also Oeberg. Then she kept pushing. And pushing. And pushing. Suddenly Lisa Vittozzi was not only in sight but within reach. She pushed straight through to the final stretch. With one final sprint she moved around Vittozzi with about 50-75m to go and went straight to the line for the win. It was a massive show of strength.

That alone would be a huge weekend for anybody. Kirkeeide went ahead and finished 9th in the Sprint and 4th in the Pursuit to close up on Suvi Minkkinen and the 2nd position in the Overall. And at this point, Kirkeeide is so good that her having finishes of 9th and 4th just doesn’t make anybody look twice. It’s just expected. What a power!

Men’s Young Athlete of the Week: Isak Frey – Isak Frey is one of the most brilliant young talents in biathlon. Maybe even the most brilliant talent. We always knew that he would find his way to the podium sooner rather than later. That doesn’t ‘make what he did this weekend any more special. On a day when basically every other Norwegian looked like they had tar on their skis, Isak Frey came through with 10th best ski time of the day. That’s the 2nd best course time rank of his career. That plus 10/10 shooting gave us a glimpse of what we’ll likely be seeing a LOT of over the next decade: Isak Frey standing on the podium. And he does it standing alongside Sebastian Samuelsson and Tommaso Giacomel two of the top men in the World Cup Overall.

At this point Isak Frey is going to run away with the u23 Globe. He’s skiing 1% faster than median. He’s hitting 89.5%. This is just the start for the young man!

Women’s Race of the Week: Women’s Relay – The 2026 Ruhpolding Women’s Relay proved to be one of the most thrilling women’s relays of all time. In fact it was the closest 1-3 finish in World Cup biathlon history. We already discussed the thrilling final charge made by Maren Kirkeeide above. The entire relay was a tight and close affair which was dramatically different from the Oberhof relay. While the French women ran away from the start with the French relay, this time the top 7 remained within 20 seconds by the time of the final exchange. There was never a moment when it felt like this race was being controlled by any individual or team.

Men’s Race of the Week: Men’s Pursuit – This was a classic 4 shoot race. The first several laps and shoots were dominated by a relatively small number of me. But crucially while there were only a handful of men at the head of the race, they could never shake the chase group. Nobody ever fell *too* far behind. After shoot 3 there were 11 men within 30 seconds. It was still 10 coming to the last shoot with three of them within 7 seconds.

But then nobody wanted to win. Basically 1-2 misses from everybody except for Johannes Dale-Skjevdal and Martin Ponsiluoma. That allowed them to come back from +23 to compete for the podium in the final lap of the race. Johannes Dale-Skjevdal was still behind Eric Perrot going to the last lap. He surged up to him in the first half of the lap. Then he waited for the first big downhill. He used Perrot slipstream (which lets be honest is quite narrow!) to slingshot around to the lead. Dale-Skjevdal put in a move and made it stick.

Further back Ponsiluoma was charging up the field alongside Fabien Claude. They charged up from 10 seconds back of Tommaso Giacomel going to the last lap and caught him right in the final straightaway to finished 3rd and 4th.

I don’t have the time right now to go back and discuss every move of the last lap but it was so much fun. Definitely one of my favorite single laps of the year!

Super Sprints – A super quick hop through some top stories

Yellow Bib Updates

1) Men’s Top 5

Athlete	Total (Points Back)
Tommaso Giacomel	736
Eric Perrot	654(-82)
Sebastian Samuelsson	640 (-96)
Johan-Olav Botn	560 (-176)
Johannes Dale-Skjevdal	501 (-135)

As we come to the last weekend of the second trimester things are getting pretty dang interesting. Tommaso Giacomel continues to wear Yellow and did himself no harm in Ruhpolding. But Eric Perrot and Sebastian Samuelsson continue to hang tight. At this point, with all three coming to Nove Mesto, it’s going to be a battle all the way to Holmenkollen.

The big question now is if Johan-Olav Botn can return to his first trimester form. He returns to racing this week after missing both Oberhof and Ruhpolding due to illness. The initial plan was for him to go to Lavaze for training but since he hasn’t raced since le Grand Bornand the plan is for him to get a return to racing this week. It would be A LOT for him to return for his first race back after all that has happened coming in the Olympics. It also gives him a chance to stay in the Overall mix. We’ll learn a lot about his ability to do so pretty quickly! Because at this point Giacomel, Perrot, and Samuelsson are playing so well they aren’t just going to let him get back into it.

2) Women’s Top 5

Athlete	Total (Points Back)
Lou Jeanmonnot	718
Suvi Minkkinen	582 (-136)
Maren Kirkeeide	576 (-142)
Hanna Oeberg	560 (-158)
Elvira Oeberg	506 (-212)
Anna Magnusson	501 (-217)
Camille Bened	441 (-277)

The women’s Overall race, on the other hand, is really a two woman affair with one very heavy favorite. Two time runner up Lou Jeanmonnot wears Yellow as we enter the last two races of the 2nd Trimester. After initially planning to skip Nove Mesto Suvi Minkkinen will contest these races as well so Lou Jeanmonnot won’t be able to just waltz to the Overall title after last year’s sensational battle.

However, both of the Oeberg’s will head to a pre-Olympics camp in Livigno while Maren Kirkeeide heads to Lavaze to prep. That leaves Anna Magnusson and Camille Bened in 6th and 7th as the next closest women in the Overall. While Magnusson isn’t completely out of it, and these are two very very good biathletes, it is hard to imagine either of these women, making that big of a come back on Jeanmonnot. But, it’s biathlon and you never know what may happen!

3) “Sometimes the Hammer. Sometimes the Nail” – Sometimes there is a situation in biathlon where you have to make a decision. You can take the high risk/reward route where you race for the win but could potential blow up your chances. Or you take the stable route and likely raise your floor but also limit your top end finishes. There were two prime examples of that this week.

First there was Campbell Wright. Wright had gotten off to a fantastic start. He left the range after the prone shoot with the 4th best time just 4.6 sec back of Samuelsson’s top time. After a very solid 2nd lap he had the 2nd best time going in for the standing shoot (Jacquelin hadn’t come through yet). He was 16.8 seconds back of Samuelsson who he knew had just gone clean. Wright knew that to have a chance for the win, and maybe even for the podium he had to shoot fast. Shoot fast he did. But he also went 1/5. He ultimately finished 56th.

A little while later came Tommaso Giacomel. Giacomel was in his first race wearing the Yellow bib as the leader of the Overall. Right away he had a miss in the prone shooting. But he put his head down and didn’t lose focus, so when he came in for the standing shoot in the Sprint he was still within 20 seconds. A win was unlikely so he had a choice, go fast and try to get the win, or take his time to make sure he goes 5/5 and do his best to protect the Yellow bib. Giacomel took the risky route and let loose all 5 shoots in 18.8 seconds and nailed every one of them. He left the range in 2nd and held on to it the rest of the way.

Both men came in with the same proposition: take it calm and just try to get 5 down and protect a very good finish, or shoot fast and try to play for glory. In the end Giacomel hit the shots and finished 2nd. Wright missed and barely made the podium. But you both men made the correct call, you play to win the game.

I was able to exchange messages with Wright after the race. He told me he knew the situation. He said “Sometimes you’re the hammer and sometimes you’re the nail.” In the Sprint Giacomel was the hammer and Wright was the nail. But when they come to that situation next time I hope both men make the same decision!

4) Emotional Week – The week in Ruhpolding proved to be a week full of emotions. It’s not hard to understand why. It’s been a trying year for many reasons. It’s an Olympic season so many of the athletes are feeling the pressure trying to perform to make the Olympic team. There is the normal wear and tear of a season which can be physically and emotionally draining under the best of circumstances. And then there was the horrible tragedy of Sivert Bakken’s loss which weight so heavily on so many of these athletes. Not to mention the stories that are unique to each individual that are playing out sometimes without any of us knowing.

You could see these emotions playing out throughout the week in Ruhpolding.
– One of the happy moments was Selina Grotian who, after a trying season, was able to secure the two top 15 finishes she needed to qualify for the Olympic team. She finished the Pursuit in 13th position and was almost immediately emotional knowing that she had overcome the very bumpy first four weeks of her season that had been disrupted almost immediately by illness.
– There was Suvi Minkkinen who, after climbing to within 50 points of Lou Jeanmonnot after a great week in Oberhof, suffered a setback in her Overall ambitions. There could be many reasons for her distress. For one, she may have been upset with her performances. She said afterwards that she thought her first shot was a good one. Ultimately she missed 2 of her first 5 shots in the Pursuit. She got it back together and finished 18/20 but still managed to finish 9th while Jeanmonnot won. There was also likely some emotion in that she had likely started to believe she could challenge Jeanmonnot for the Overall title. While she is certainly still in it, Lou put herself in exceptionally strong position to win it all this week. It’s a long season and it get difficult for everybody at some point.
– There were the happy emotions from Johannes Dale-Skjevdal. His joy was obvious. After getting bumped down to the IBU Cup again he has surged back and capped his comeback with a fantastic win. He also was able to accomplish this victory in front of his wife and infant son. That was clearly a major motivator for him!
– Oceane Michelon appeared nearly lost this week after she finished 32 in the Sprint. She said afterward how she wasn’t finding any joy in the sport at that moment. She followed that up with big smiles in the Pursuit as she charged all the way back to 6th.
– And then there were plenty huge smiles this week including Camille Bend‘s brilliant smile after her podium.

5) Estere Volfa Junior Cup Success – Just want to quickly mention Estere Volfa who has been competing on the World Cup this season. At just 20 years old she could have been on the Junior Cup or the IBU Cup but she’s been challenging herself against the best and having some good success with two top 30’s already. This week she was back home for the Madona Junior Cup event and showed off how much she’s learned. She finished 2nd, 1st, and 1st. It’s the kind of finish where if she hadn’t already seen her so much on the World Cup we would be talking about her as a rising potential star for Latvia. Well she is a rising star! It was great to see her show off this week in Madona and get to celebrate with her family, friends, and home nation fans!

Flower Ceremony – Some Personal Top Finishes (not comprehensive but I tried!)

3) Camille Bened – After a phenomenal podium to start of the season, Bened has put together a sensational season with now seven top 10’s in 12 races. In the Pursuit she got herself back on the podium for the second time this season and in her career!

7) Marthe Krakstad Johansen – It’s been a triumphant second trimester for Marthe Johansen. She had an excellent opening leg of the Oberhof relay and was solid in the Ruhpolding relay. In the Ruhpolding non-relay races she finished 7th in the Sprint and 8th in the Pursuit. The 7th place finish tied her career best last set in Oestersund to start the 2023-2024 season.

12) Lea Meier – Lea Meier continues what has been a very good season with two more top 20’s this week. She finished 18th in the Sprint and used that as a springboard to leap to 12th, a new career best, in the Pursuit. Her prior best was 14th in the Hochfilzen Pursuit. She’s now up to 36th, a huge jump from her prior career best of 69th.

21) Shilo Rousseau – It was another big step for Shilo Rousseau this week. She finished 28th in the SPrint which was already a career best. She followed that up with a phenomenal Pursuit including at one point being solidly in the top 10. A late miss knocked her down but it was another excellent week for this breakthrough athlete now with four finishes in the points!

27) Siri Skar – While making her career World Cup debut this week Siri Skar immediately finished in 27th in the Sprint. Not a bad start!

28) Henning Sjokvist – It’s been a later to his World Cup career, coming into the season with just one prior start. But the 27 year old, after starting out with a great two weeks on the IBU Cup has come up to the World Cup starting in le Grand Bornand. This week he set a new career best of 28th in the Pursuit. It could have been even better except he wasn’t fully credited after the Braunhofer crossfire incident. The ability and the form is there. And now he gets to go to the Olympics!

30) Nicola Romanin – Another athlete who had to wait until ater in his career to get more consistent World Cup racing was Nicola Romanin. He finally made his World Cup debut at the end of last season and he returned in Ruhpolding for his 2nd and 3rd races. He finished 34th in the Sprint for his first finish in the points. Now a 3th in the Pursuit is his new career best!