The focus at the Olympics is of course on those athletes who compete for and win the medals. And why not? It’s the dream that all of these athletes are striving for. A medal at the Olympics represents one of the greatest achievements in sports.
But the Olympics is about far more than just three athletes per race. For so many just arriving to the Games is the culmination of years if not decades of exceptionally hard work and dedication. Any sort of good racing once there is a bonus . The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics saw many athletes live out their dreams, and even though they didn’t result in medals, are absolutely worth celebrating!
While I’ve picked quite a number here, it’s worth mentioning that this list could literally include every biathlete in the field because truly, making it to the Olympics is a moment worth celebrating.
Olli Hiidensalo – We certainly got our Games off to a fun start with Olli Hiidensalo. Lately this man just knows how to peak his performance for the mid season Championships. Last year he set a big time career best finishing 4th in the Lenzerheide World Championships. This year he matched that performance by once again running the race of his life and finishing 4th in the Individual at these Olympics.
Hiidensalo did it with his clean shooting. He went clean in this Mixed Relay. He went clean in the Individual. And then he went clean in the Sprint too as he finished 11th!
While Hiidensalo could have been devastated by finishing 1 place and 35 seconds off the of the podium. There weren’t any tears from him though, at least not sad ones. Hiidensalo was as happy as if he had won gold. He looked absolutely thrilled that he was able to race his very best on the biggest stage in the sport. You absolutely couldn’t be happier for him!
Polish Women – Over the last four seasons we’ve seen a rebirth of sorts of the Polish women under the tutelage of Coach Tobias Torgersen. The 2025-2026 season represents another significant step forward for this group. After a solid showing in Nove Mesto, the team came out and gave it their best in Antholz:
- Kamila Zuk – A career that once showed nearly unbound promise was nearly derailed by injuries and a general difficulty of living up to those expectations. This season she’s been showing that she’s getting things back on track and now she has real tangible progress to stand on. Her 8th place finish in the Sprint is tied as the 2nd best finish of her career and her 6th total top 10 and just her 2nd in the last 6 seasons.
At this point in her career she is still just 28 years old. That’s how excellent she was in the early parts of her career, particularly as a Junior. She feels like she should be at the end of her career but really she could be just at the beginnings of a new peak. It’s worth noting that in the history of Polish women’s biathlon at the Olympics I could only find 9 previous top 10 finishes. This was a big time finish. - Joanna Jakiela – As one of the two women who has made the most tangible progress under Coach Torgersen’s tutelage. Ealier this season she had the new best finish of her career, finishing 6th in the Oestersund Sprint. In the Olympics her 11th in the Mass Start tied what was her prior career best finish. That in addition to a 16th in the Pursuit which tied for her 2nd best career finish before this season.
To put it a little more clearly, at the 2026 Winter Olympics Joanna Jakiela’s finish of 11th and 16th tied for the 1st and 2nd best finishes of her career prior to the 25-26 season. This was a very good Games for Jakiela and at just 27 years old and clearly on the upswing in her career we likely haven’t seen the best of her yet! - Natalia Sidorowicz – The steadiest and most consistent of Coach Torgersen’s crew, Sidorowicz had a quiet season up until Nove Mesto. She’s been dealing with back pain on and off throughout the year which has hampered her. Lately she’s showing more of her old self though. After the 11th in Nove Mesto she overcame a flare up of her back pain to finish 13th in the Pursuit, 15th in the Mass Start, and 23rd in the Individual. That 13th in the Pursuit was particularly impressive as she moved up from 41st good for the 3rd best Isolated Pursuit race of the day.
- Anna Maka – The senior woman of the squad Anna Maka was solid if unspectacular in Antholz as she finished 45th in the Individual and Sprint followed by 40th in the Pursuit.
- Relay – These women really put it together. It wasn’t a perfect relay as they did have 12 extra rounds used, but the Kamila Zuk, Joanna Jakiela, Anna Maka, and Natalia Sidorowicz now goes down as the best Women’s Relay team in the history of Polish biathlon. Their 6th place finish may not sound like much in the context of Norway or Germany or France, but its the best in the history of the federation. It’s progress and the optimistic view is that it wasn’t even their best they could potentially do. Finger crossed it’s only one step along the journey to the ultimate destination!
United States Men’s Relay – The last few seasons have seen a nice resurgence of the US Men’s team. It came about as some men like Paul Schommer and Sean Doherty were deeper into their careers, blessed with experience and their peak years. But it was really about adding in the dynamic young men of Campbell Wright and Maxime Germain. As a result we’ve seen the US men have 12 top 10’s in the last 13 races. Seven of those finishes were top 6 finishes. That’s easily the most consistent run in the history of US Men’s relay teams.
While they have yet to find the podium they do have three top 5 finishes including 2024 World Championships and now the 2026 Winter Olympics. Those match the top finishes for the US Men’s team at the World Championships and the Olympics. Great news! While this particular group of men won’t be competing together for too much longer with the impending retirement of Paul Schommer, this has been a very fun run!\
Anne de Besche – In the history of the Olympic Games the Scandinavian nation of Denmark has been a bit of an afterthought compared to it’s more successful cousins. Anne de Besche along with Ukaleq and Sondre Slettemark are working to rectify that. The nation’s small but growing biathlon federation has done a very good job of getting good attention and interest in the program. That included recruiting Anne de Besche, who was born and raised in Norway, but whose parents are Danish, to start racing under the Danish flag.
She’s flashed her potential on the IBU Cup this summer. But now she showed it on the biggest stage possible. She finished a fairly remarkable 16th in the Sprint including a course time rank of 16th as well. She followed that up by finishing 20th in the Pursuit again with the 16th best ski rank. This qualified her for the Mass Start.
Without question this was the greatest performance in the history of Danish biathlon. But it might not be for long. And hopefully at the 2030 Olympics we see Denmark arrive with two men and two women so they can race in the Mixed Relay!
Lea Meier – Lea Meier actually did some of the best job of celebrating the moments that weren’t medal winning moments. While she’s having a career season so far, she had her best yet at the Olympics. In the Individual she finished in 7th. This was the single best race of her entire career. It also earned her a certificate from the IOC that is given to every athlete that finishes top 8 in a race at the Olympic Games. She made sure to show it off on Instagram and I thought that was a particularly great thing to do. Just showing how happy she was with a finish that didn’t bring her a medal. It was a HUGE deal for her to have that race on that day.
Lea Meier followed that up with a few more good races. She finished 13th in the Sprint which would have been the 2nd best finish of her career before the Games. Meier went on to finish 24th in both the Pursuit and the Mass Start, the first Mass Start of her career and at the Olympics no less. It’s worth noting that after having just two top 30’s in her career before this season she now has 9 top 30’s and 6 top 20’s this season. It’s been so fun watching her enjoy the fruits of her hard work this season!
Tereza Vinklarkova – Certainly not the most celebrated of the Czechia team that came to the Olympics. Just looking at the roster she was clearly the one who has had the least success in their careers. Yet she didn’t let that stop her. She came right out in the Individual and had the best World Cup level race of her career when she finished in 11th. Her career best before that was 29th and she had just two top 40’s. And she finished in 11th! Her ski rank of 36th was the 2nd best of her career behind only 35th in the Ruhpolding Pursuit. And hitting 19/20 shots certainly didn’t hurt as she matched the shooting in a 4 shooting race in her career.
To me that wasn’t even the most impressive part of her Olympics though. As the 5th woman on the squad her job coming into the Games was really just to give the best effort she could in the non-relay races. With Marketa Davidova’s back injury once again flaring up causing her to drop out, Vinklarkova was thrust into the Women’s Relay squad. And they didn’t just put her in the relay, they put her in Davidova’s spot as the anchor leg. If the team didn’t have an amazing relay and she was running well outside of contention then maybe it would have been a fairly easy job. Just go do your best. But her team was on a real run. The first three legs of Jessica Jislova, Lucie Charvatova, and Tereza Vobornikova actually fought all the way up to 4th at the time of the last exchanges, and were well within striking distance.
Vinklakova, the woman who was never expected to be in that position, came into the race now with the pressure of keeping the Czechia team in medal contention. Well the pressure ay have gotten to her early as she ended up on the penalty loop after the prone shoot. But she fought hard. She skied her heart out and went 5/5 in the final trip to the range. She eventually brought home Czechia in 5th. Even with Davidova in the race that would have been a more than respectable finish. It was a tremendous effort by Tereza Vinklarkova and one that she should be proud of!
Baiba Bendika – At 34 year old this may be Baiba Bendika’s last Olympics. If it was, and I’m not saying it was, Bendika surely did herself proud. She put up a heck of a fight. Her finishes in the non-relays were solid including 22nd in the Individual, 15th in the Sprint, 42nd in the Pursuit, and 22nd in the Mass Start. Her skiing has always been her strength and it was once again. She was 2nd fastest in the Individual and 6th in the Sprint. It was sincerely a massive effort on her part. Just one or two shots away from a truly spectacular Olympics.
The real cherry on top for Bendika, though, was the relay. After Estere Volfa got the team off to a good start in leg 1 (more on her shortly), Bendika took over and was on a mission. Latviawas in 6th and +24 when Bendika took over. After the leg 2 prone shoot she was up to 5th and +19. After the standing shooting she was in 3rd place and just 10 seconds back of Juni Arnekleiv and Maya Cloetens. That’s when she unleashed her super power. By the final climb of the lap she put in a charge, later saying she couldn’t help herself. She flew over the top and all the way to the exchange. At the midway point of the Women’s Relay Latvia, yes Latvia, was leading the race. If that’s her last time through the Winter Olympics what a way to leave it.
The real legacy of Baiba Bendika may be how she has been bringing along the young Latvians Estere Volfa and Elza Bleidele. Speaking of Estere Volfa…
Estere Volfa – Young Estere Volfa is one of Baiba Bendika’s little ducklings that she’s been shepherding through the World Cup this season. Pretty soon, the highly talented young Volfa is going to be flying on her own. She came in to the Games on a pretty high high after running amok in the Junior Cup in Latvia and at the Junior European Championships with three wins and five podiums in six races. She took it to a new level in Antholz.
After having a career best of 23rd before the Olympics, she finished 23rd or better in three of the four races. That included her first 2 career top 20’s of 16th in the Sprint and 11th in the Pursuit. That 11th was the best ever finish by a Latvian woman in the history of the Olympics.
She also, as we discussed above, led off the Latvian women’s relay on the way to Baiba Bendika passing off in first position. At just 20 years old Volfa looks like she is going to be carrying the Latvian flag proudly into the next Olympic cycle.
Lotte Lie – Over the last four years Lotte Lie has become the best women’s biathlete in Belgian history. Sure there was Nathalie Santher, but she came to the nation much later in her career. She has been at the forefront of the Belgian federations development including opening their own biathlon center a few years ago. While 2026 wasn’t her first trip to the Olympics, it certainly was with any sort of expectations which she has built for herself with 3 top 30 Overall finishes in the last 4 seasons.
Lotte Lie came to Antholz and immediately did herself proud. In the Individual Lie finished in 19th. That’s the best finish at the Olympics in the history of Belgian biathlon. Truly a special moment. The following week she was lead leg of the first Women’s Relay team ever at the Olympics. For a woman who has meant to much to this progressively stronger era in Belgian biathlon history, that was a fantastic moment in and of itself. And she did herself and the entire federation proud. She was perfect on the range and handed off to Maya Cloetens at the first exchange in 7th and just 29 seconds off he lead. Now that’s a massive achievement and something huge for her to be proud of!
Maya Cloetens – Maya Cloetens is the first big home grown talent for Belgium biathlon so this relay was also a magnificent moment for her. She, just like Lotte Lie, was perfect on the range. While not quite as dynamic on the skis as she might normally be, she exchanged in 5th position.
We found out later that she was competing with a stress fracture in her left ankle. To make matters worse she contracted COVID during the Games. That significantly restricted her skiing ability. I’m sure that was significantly disappointing to Cloetens. The Olympics come about once every 4 years. Depending on your career arc you may only get 1 to 3, maybe 4 at most, chances at the Olympics. For her first trip to be impacted so significantly by a stress fracture and COVID had to be so hard for her. But she did an absolutely amazing job overcoming those obstacles and putting up such a fight. Talk about grabbing your Olympic moment!
Nicola Romanin – At 32 years old it seemed like Nicola Romanin had missed his chance. Going into the year he had raced on the World Cup a grand total of one time, the final Sprint of the 2024-2025 season. He even said prior to the season that he had pretty much given up on his dream of making it to the Olympics. But then he started off the IBU Cup season with some strong races. He made his way to the World Cup in Ruhpolding and finished 34th and 30th. That was enough for him to secure his spot on the Italian Olympic team. That right there was his Olympic dream.
That wasn’t enough though. He finished 16th in the Sprint, a new career best. Then he finished 28th in both the Pursuit and Mass Start, both of which would have been career bests before the Games. Talk about seizing your moment. At 32 years old this more than likely will be his one chance at the Olympics. It was in front of home fans. And he not only raced or raced well, he raced his very best. These are the types of Olympic moments we can only dream of!
Anna Andexer – Young Anna Andexer came up to the World Cup last season with heaps of potential. She was a super start on the Juniors level showcasing massive potential. At just 23 years old she came in to her 1st Olympics with six career top 30’s but a career best of 24th set earlier this season in the Sprint at le Grand Bornand.
Well she blew the doors off in Antholz. She started off with a tough Individual where she finished 62nd. Andexer followed that race up with a big time race in the Sprint where she finished in 9th. After finishing 21st in the Pursuit she qualified for the Mass Start. At the Mass Start she really showed off by once again finishing 9th. Going head to head with the top women in the world in the Mass Start she finished 9th with 19/20 shooting.
Now she showed what she can really do. Right up with the best women in the world and she didn’t flinch. Hopefully that frees her up and she can continue to show off the rest of the season and beyond!