2026 Olympic Wish List

I’ve been thinking about these Olympic Games for months now. Truthfully for the last couple of years. As it’s been approaching I think about how much I want to certain athletes to get a moment of Olympic glory. Well now the races are upon us and I’ve decided to make my official wish list. This is not necessarily realistic in all instances, just purely a list of people I would love to see on the podium. It’s not any more complicated than that. So let’s get going!

1) Dorothea Wierer medal(s) – This one is easy. It’s the last time we’ll ever see Dorothea Wierer race. The last chapter of her career has clearly been built around this moment. Hanging on for this year. Building for a peak for the championships. She came into the season on amazing form winning the first race. She has three podiums and four top 5’s. Wierer is still skiing pretty well running -1.9% vs median. She’s not quite shooting her best at 85.5% But she is shooting faster than ever averaging just 24.9 seconds per shoot.

In her career Dorothea Wierer is one of the most decorated athletes we have seen. She is one of seven women who have multiple Overall Globes. She has 12 World Championship medals including five non-relay medals. She already has Olympic medals with three total and one non-relay medal coming in the 2022 Sprint. She doesn’t *need* the medal, but how amazing would it be?

The skills and ability are clearly there to make it happen. This is a real possibility. She has the form and we know she has the smarts to know how to work her race. Dorothea Wierer is the classic example of “She’s not as good as she once was, but she’s as good once as she ever was.” This dream really could come true, and if it does I think the biathlon world will collectively shed many many tears.

2) Italy! Italy! Italy! – I can’t help it. I’m a romantic at heart. Except in rare instances I will almost always cheer for the home nation at the Olympics. The excitement of the fans when their athletes does well, and those athletes getting to have those moments in front of their fans, there is not much like it in sports. And if they win, then they get to climb the podium and hear their national anthem playing to accept their medal in front of family and friends and fans. It sends chills every time.

2026 will be no different. I would LOVE for the Italians to get to celebrate their team as many times as possible. I already mentioned Dorothea Wierer above but what about the Mixed Relay too. I could see the following happening: They start out the Olympics with a tremendous Mixed Relay. Lukas Hofer starts off well using the momentum of the second trimester. Tommaso Giacomel is on fire and hands off with a 15 second lead. Dorothea Wierer and Lisa Vittozzi go clean on the range and do enough to bring home the Italian squad with a medal to start of the Olympics

And would it be too much to ask if Lukas Hofer could find a way to get to the podium just like he did in Nove Mesto? Lisa Vittozzi could figure into the podium mix in every race she lines up for. And Tommaso Giacomel is instantly a favorite for medals.

Hopefully the Italian fans get to scream themselves silly!

3) Campbell Wright and the American Squad – The 2026 season has easily been the best American biathlon season since the retirement of Lowell Bailey and Tim Burke. And while the American men, led by young gregarious super star Campbell Wright, are currently ranked 6th in the Nations Cup, the momentum isn’t limited to them. On the women’s side Deedra Irwin is having the best season of her career as she currently ranks 26th in the Overall with 2 top 10’s and 6 top 20’s this season. Luci Anderson and Margie Freed have each had finishes in the points and shown an ability to be feisty. And on the IBU Cup Anderson and Joanne Reid have had their best ever senior finishes.

Would it be too much to ask for the Americans to finally win an Olympic medal? Obviously the top contender will be Campbell Wright. He already had the best World Championships in US Biathlon history last year in Lenzerheide when he took home not one but two World Championship silver medals. He just had another podium finish recent in Nove Mesto. He’s had six top 10’s already this season. His skiing is the best it’s ever been at -3.1% vs median which is good enough for 13th best amongst all men at this point. That plus 87% shooting and he’s definitely got a chance to break US Biathlon history in the Olympics.

Beyond Wright the US team has an outside chance at a medal for the Mixed Relay or the US Men. The Mixed Relay just finished 4th in Nove Mesto, albeit against a weakened field. But on the right day with a perfect race they aren’t out of it. The US Men’s Relay team also has an outside chance if they get lucky with somebody else having a bad day on the range. And lastly Deedra Irwin with the right circumstance in the Individual could surprise. We’ve already seen it. In Beijing she finished 7th in the Individual. In Nove Mesto she was running towards a top 5 finish until she had late misses. It’s not impossible!

4) Franziska Preuß – Even before the season I would have had Franziska Preuss on my wish list. Now that she has officially announced her impending retirement she’s only solidified my dream to see her come through with a medal.

Last season was already a dream come true. Finally she was able to stay healthy for an entire season and proved her abilities, which will now be crystalized forever in the form of her Overall Globe which came in a thrilling fashion we may never see again. At this point there is nothing left for her to solidify per place in biathlon history. She’ll be remembered forever. She has the Overall. She has 11 World Championship medals with three non-relay including two just last season. The gold medal in the Pursuit the cherry on top of her amazing season. The only thing left would be a non-relay Olympic medal.

It’s not just the medal that I want for her though. I want her to get the adulation of the crowd who can show her how respected and loved she was. If that can happen at the Olympics as she’s having a medal placed around her neck then it would truly be another dream come true!

5) A Surprise Medalist – Every Olympics it seems there is a surprise medalist. At this point the 2022 Olympics appear to be a little bit of an exception. But in 2018 there was MIchal Krcmar. In 2014 Jaroslov Soukup. In 2010 Pavol Hurajt and Elena Khrustaleva. We could just keep going on. This season I would like to see it again. It’s always an amazing moment when one of these unheralded athletes, or at least unexpected athletes, makes a miraculous bid for immortality. We’ve seen some of those in the last couple of years too. Milena Todorova comes to mind from just last season. Earlier this season we saw Sonja Leinamo and Camille Bened (who would no longer be a stunner on the podium). Who will it be at the 2026 Olympics? Well I put together a little list here: To Be Posted

6) Favorites Race Well – Having said the above, I also want to see the “big names” race well. I always want to see everybody have their best races when the lights are brightest and the stages the biggest. It would be heartbreaking if Lou Jeanmonnot and Eric Perrot, just to pick two athletes who racing so well right now, went out and just weren’t able to compete at their best. You never know how many chances you’re going to get at the Olympics. Just look at Ingrid Tandrevold. After her health scare at the 2022 Olympics you would have hoped that it was just a warmup for her amazing 2026 Games. Sports are just like that and biathlon sometimes most of all.

You only have so many times in your life you can go to the Olympics truly in control of your biathlon performance. I just hope that these athletes can go and race their hearts out!

7) Johannes Dale-Skjevdal – Over the last several years Johannes Dale-Skjevdal has become a sentimental favorite of mine. When he is at his best he has proven that he can absolutely be one of the best with Overall finishes of 3rd and 5th while currently sitting 6th in the World Cup Overall. He just seems to have bad luck at all of the worst times.

There is a saying like that goes “He has one foot in the grave and one foot on the banana peel.” That’s how it’s felt for Dale-Skjevdal at times. He’s gone from being on top of the world to off the World Cup squad twice. After finishing 5th Overall in 2020-2021 he barely raced at all on the World Cup the following season. After finishing 3rd on the Overall two years ago he was quickly dropped back to the IBU Cup in 24-25. To be quite clear it wasn’t necessarily unfair. He had streaks of bad racing that corresponded with other athletes on the IBU Cup racing well and taking his spot. It just always felt like he had a shorter sting and less tolerance for poor performance.

The thing about Dale-Skjevdal is that he always surges back after these disappointments. After last year and starting this year on the IBU Cup he’s been as good as ever. This year he has four podiums, six top 5’s, and eight top 10’s in nine World Cup races. That includes his fourth career win which came in Ruhpolding. You could feel how emotional that was coming after the death of his teammate and friend Sivert Bakken as well as coming with his baby boy there with him. The emotions he has showed has only made me love him him more.

I hope that he can have one more surge in him to take home a medal or two from these Games. Something for his kid to play with as he’s growing up. Very few things would make me happier this year!

8) Switzerland Medal – This is a bit of an outlier on this list, but part of this dates back to last year’s World Championships in Lenzerheide. You could almost palpably feel the stress of the Swiss team trying to meet the moment with a medal winning race. As those Championships went on the stress ratcheted up. Ultimately they fell just short. There was nothing to be ashamed of in their racing, that’s just how it goes sometimes.

I would desperately love for them to get redemption. For most of the season that looked like a long shot. The women’s team, outside of Amy Baserga and Lea Meier wasn’t performing up to the level we have become accustomed to seeing. Nik Hartweg has been beset by illness off and on while Sebbe Stalder hasn’t recaptured the same form from two seasons ago leaving Joscha Burkhalter as the top man in the Overall with his continued solid racing.

Now, though, things are looking up. In the second trimester Nik Hartweg showed new life in his legs. He had some really good relay performances that, while they didn’t completely translate to non-relay success, showed that he has the good feelings back. Amy Baserga finished 5th, 12th, and 9th in her last three races to carry serious momentum to the Olympics. Lea Meier set two more personal bests. Lena Haecki-Gross returned to the top 10 with a 4th in the Nove Mesto Short Individual while basically the entire Swiss women’s team had season’s best finishes.

All in all things are on the upswing for team Switzerland and it would warm my heart to see them have some glory in Antholz this Olympic Games.

9) Germany Men’s Relay – With apologies to the Norwegians, French, Italian, and Swedish men’s relay teams…two of you all will have to be disappointed this year for this dream to come true. This German Men’s Relay team just feels like the little engine that could. If you list their four names alongside the four of the other major teams they are the one that stands out without having the top end performers right now. Maybe the Italians and Swedes aren’t stacked 1-4 like France and Norway, but the top two for each are undeniably stronger than any two you pick from the German team. And yet…they keep finding a way to get in the mix. 4th in Oestersund. 5th in Hochfilzen just 15 seconds back of the podium. A heartbreaking 5th in Oberhof just five seconds from the win. 3rd in Ruhpolding.

The moment I really made this wish was in the Oberhof relay. Watching David Zobel go head to head against Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen, Eric Perrot, Sebastian Samuelsson, and Tommaso Giacomel and come up so so so close to not only a podium but a wild win in front of home fans was crushing. Then for them to come back the next week and find the podium in Ruhpolding! I want a vindication moment for this group of men. The big name team with the underdog athletes. Let’s go boys! Get it done!

10) Suvi Minkkinen – You really thought I, the head of the Suvi Minkinnen fan club, was going to leave her off this list? Absolutely not! Her performance the last two seasons is nothing short of stunning compared to the bulk of the earlier years of her career. As has been told many times she radically changed her training and took her skiing from and obvious weakness now to a strength. Two seasons ago her average course time rank was 54.4. That wasn’t a bad year either. To that point it was her second best ever. Well this season her average ski rank is 16.6. And that’s with still hitting 90.4% after a couple of unusually inaccurate weeks in Ruhpolding and Nove Mesto. Frankly it’s now so well known I think we don’t talk about that enough. How often have we ever seen an athlete that deep into her career completely transform herself?

In the process she has written herself into the Finnish biathlon history books. She’s piled up 26 top 10’s, 8 podiums and 1 win in that stretch along with a World Championship medal with a bronze in the Sprint at the 2025 Lenzerheide competition. By practically every measure she is right now, even if she never raced again, the second most accomplished Finnish biathlete ever behind only the great Kaisa Mäkäräinen.

But what if she did something that Mäkäräinen didn’t do? The only real hole in Mäkäräinen’s resume is a lack of Olympic medals. Of Suvi Minkkinen were to win a medal over the course of the next two weeks she would do something no Finnish woman had ever done before. What a remarkable statement and exclamation point that would be on this so rarely accomplished late career surge. You all know of my affection for Minkkinen and her story. Her standing on top of a podium in Antholz this year would move me in a way nearly nothing else would at these Olympic Games.