Dates: March 12, 2026 – March 15, 2026
Schedule:
Thursday March 12th: Men’s 10km Sprint
Friday March 13th: Women’s 7.5km Sprint
Saturday March 14th: Men’s 12.5km Pursuit + Women’s 10km Pursuit
Sunday March 15th: Single Mixed Relay (M+W) + Mixed Relay (M+W)
Course Overview:
I had very little memory of the Otepaa course so I’ve been really curious looking at these course profiles. The thing that stands out to me right away is that early lap steep climb. It features in all of the courses. I’m really most curious how it could play into the Single Mixed Relay which is such a punch race with such short laps. It could prove to be decisive.
Weather:
The other interesting feature to my eye is how, for the most part, once the athletes climb early one, they pretty much stay higher and then come back down late in the lap. This does allow them to rest of the legs a bit and recover before the shooting. The notable exception seems to be the Men’s Sprint course, the 3.3km course, where they come back down mid lap with 2 smaller climbs later. The women’s Sprint course does also include the 2nd of these two late lap climbs, but without going all the way back to the low point on the course first, so it should be less punishing.
Right now there is a pretty strong breeze blowing up from the south. That’s bringing with it a lot of warm air to the Baltic states including Estonia. As we saw in Arber at the Youth/Junior World Championships last week it leads to warm sloppy conditions. That’s exactly what we’re seeing in Estonia right now as temperatures stay well above freezing into actually quite nice Spring weather. It’s unfortunately also well above freezing at night as well so no overnight freezing. And unfortunately some weather sites are indicating possible rain on Saturday night into Sunday. Could be a mess.
Globe Updates:
Overall – No major changes in the Overall situation after Kontiolahti. Lou Jeanmonnot and Eric Perrot both well on their way to a France Overall sweep.
| Athlete | Score |
| Lou Jeanmonnot 🇫🇷 | 879 |
| Suvi Minkkinen 🇫🇮 | 703 |
| Anna Magnusson 🇸🇪 | 695 |
| Elvira Oeberg 🇸🇪 | 671 |
| Hanna Oeberg 🇸🇪 | 649 |
Lou Jeanmonnot with finishes of 35th and 16th in Kontiolahti had the type of weekend that Suvi Minkkinen could have used to catapult herself back into the Overall fight. Unfortunately Minkkinen just didn’t have the firepower to do so. Lou Jeanmonnot, even while not looking her usual absolutely amazing herself, is still by far and away the best woman in biathlon this season and cruising on her way to an Overall Globe.
Now the real question is how the order will come out behind her. Could Sweden end up with 2-4 in the Overall standings? At this point it really looks like that could be the case!
| Athlete | Score |
| Eric Perrot 🇫🇷 | 999 |
| Tommaso Giacomel* 🇮🇹 | 797 |
| Sebastian Samuelsson 🇸🇪 | 723 |
| Johan-Olav Botn 🇳🇴 | 707 |
| Sturla Holm Laegreid 🇳🇴 | 569 |
Eric Perrot just re-emphasized why he’s going to win the Overall this season. With a win in the Individual, in incredibly impressive fashion, and then 2nd in the Mass Start, he now owns 276 points over Samuelsson and nearly 300 points on Botn. It’s over.
Sprint – Still 2 races to go in the Sprint races so plenty of chances for these races to go in a number of different directions.
| Athlete | Score |
| Lou Jeanmonnot 🇫🇷 | 311 |
| Suvi Minkkinen 🇫🇮 | 255 |
| Maren Kirkeeide 🇳🇴 | 239 |
| Hanna Oeberg 🇸🇪 | 238 |
| Elvira Oeberg 🇸🇪 | 218 |
Lou Jeanmonnot is absolutely in the driver’s seat. With 2 races to go Suvi Minkkinen is 56 points back and Maren Kirkeeide is 72 points behind. Not eliminated with 2 races to go, but they both need to be on the podium AND they need Lou Jeanmonnot to continue to finish outside the top 10 like she did in Kontiolahti. Not saying that’s impossible but Lou Jeanmonnot might want to start clearing some spac eon the trophy shelf.
| Athlete | Score |
| Tommaso Giacomel* 🇮🇹 | 309 |
| Sebastian Samuelsson 🇸🇪 | 274 |
| Eric Perrot 🇫🇷 | 241 |
| Quentin Fillon Maillet 🇫🇷 | 202 |
| Johan-Olav Botn 🇳🇴 | 200 |
With two races still to play the Men’s Sprint race is VERY interesting. Tommaso Giacomel remains in the lead but that almost certainly will not hold to the finish as he of course won’t be racing. Samuelsson does not look like he’s on top form, while Eric Perrot shows no signs of slowing down. However, if Samuelsson has one final push left in him he might be able to hang on by his fingernails.
Pursuit – The other Globe race with two races still to play. The women’s race is open, but the men’s race looks to be pretty safe.
| Athlete | Score |
| Suvi Minkkinen 🇫🇮 | 287 |
| Lou Jeanmonnot 🇫🇷 | 277 |
| Hanna Oeberg 🇸🇪 | 245 |
| Anna Magnusson 🇸🇪 | 236 |
| Elvira Oeberg 🇸🇪 | 229 |
Suvi Minkkinen remains on top in the Women’s Pursuit Globe race. This is the best chance she has to take home a Globe this season. She’s got 10 pts on Jeanmonnot with 2 races to run which makes this a virtual tie at this point. Neither Jeanmonnot or Minkkinn appears to be in top top form right now (Jeanmonnot less about ski form and more about unusual misses on the range), so Hanan Oeberg, Anna Magnusson, and Elvira Oeberg are lurking. This race absolutely could get interesting in a hurry.
| Athlete | Score |
| Eric Perrot 🇫🇷 | 307 |
| Tommaso Giacomel* 🇮🇹 | 296 |
| Sebastian Samuelsson 🇸🇪 | 264 |
| Johnannes Dale-Skjevdal 🇳🇴 | 260 |
| Martin Ponsiluoma 🇸🇪 | 223 |
On the other hand the Men’s Pursuit race is pretty much over. I could see Dale-Skjevdal having a great Pursuit and making a run at making it interesting, but Perrot is still in excellent form right now. Hard to see him finishing far enough down the order twice to let Dale-Skjevdal or Samuelsson back up towards the top.
Mixed Relay – This Globe race is more or less over but it will be officially decided in the on Sunday in Otepaa with the Mixed Relay and Single Mixed Relay. Hard to see France stumbling so hard to allow Norway back to the top but it’s biathlon so I guess we’ll see!
| Athlete | Score |
| France 🇫🇷 | 305 |
| Norway 🇳🇴 | 250 |
| Italy 🇮🇹 | 223 |
| Finland 🇫🇮 | 216 |
Nations Cup – In the Nations Cup there are four main areas you want to watch:
– The Winner
– 5th place – top 5 get to start 6 in Sprint/Individual on the World Cupf
– 10th place – positions 6-10 get to start 5 in the Sprint/Individual
– 17th place – 11-17 get to start 4 in the Sprint/Individual
So let’s take a look at these battles with 2 weekends still to play. I’m going to focus on the teams that are really still in the mix to either move up or down a category. It will make sense when you look at it.
Women’s Nations Cup Order
1) France 🇫🇷 5944
2) Sweden 🇸🇪 5724
…
5) Germany 🇩🇪 4759
6) Finland 🇫🇮 4668
7) Czechia 🇨🇿 4666
…
10) Slovakia 🇸🇰 3979
11) Poland 🇵🇱 3962
12) Slovenia 🇸🇮 3740
…
17) Canada 🇨🇦 2965
18) Latvia 🇱🇻 2927
1st Place Battle: France is well on their way to the Nations Cup, but Sweden isn’t letting this go without a battle. If they can keep stacking podiums they may make it close. But let’s be honest, France is the heavy favorite.
5th Place Battle – This has suddenly become a real competition with Franziska Preuss’ midseason retirement. Marelene Fichtner provided a big time boost with her 5th place finish in the Individual, but what Marlene gives she then takes away. The relay finish was a big time blow. Now Germany is holding on by just under 100pts against Finland and a surging Czechia squad. The Mixed Relays could play a big role here.
10th Place Battle – Slovakia is buoyed by the Paulina Batovska-Fialkova podium in Kontiolhti, but Poland brought themselves right into the mix with two weekends remaining. Just 17 points separating the two. Poland had a late season heartbreak last season. You would hate to see it happen again.
17th Place Battle – Latvia sacrified some points with Estere Volfa racing for glory at Youth/Junior Worlds. In doing so they put themselves at risk of losing their 4th starting position. Big time pressure on both the Sprint AND the Mixed Relays this week. Canada has the edge but these women need to race their hearts out to hold that critical 4th starting spot.
Men’s Nation’s Cup Order
1) Norway 🇳🇴 6232
2) France 🇫🇷 6045
…
4) Germany 🇩🇪 5099
5) Italy 🇮🇹 4827
6) Czechia 🇨🇿 4536
7) United States 🇺🇸 4435
…
9) Switzerland 4096
10) Slovenia 🇸🇮 3922
11) Ukraine 🇺🇦 3866
…
16) Lithuania 🇱🇹 2646
17) Bulgaria 🇧🇬 2624
18) Belgium 🇧🇪 2592
1st Place Battle – Hard to see Norway, with out they are running right now, slippping up too much and letting France come in and grab the Globe. But no way is France going to just let them take it!
5th Place Battle – Honestly don’t see this one changing much at all. Italy is without GIacomel but they *should* be able to hang on over Czechia. USA would need a near miraculous couple of Sprints with Campbell Wright podiums and more.
10th Place Battle – Pretty interesting competition coming down to the wire. Likely that Switzerland in either 9th or 10th but they can’t relax. Ukraine is going to really make Slovenia work for it though. Wouldn’t be surprised to see them flip before the end.
17th Place Battle – This is the most intriguing of all of them to me. Having 4 starters is key because it makes the logistics of competing in the relays so much easier. This race is just razor thin with only a few races remaining.
News and Notes:
1) 🇳🇴 Gro Randby joins the World Cup – Gro Randby missed the first half of the season with some sort of illness. Likely mononucleosis, because that is more common, but we can’t rule out Chagas disease, because that is what has been reported in all of the articles. Regardless, she was out of competition and training for a number of weeks. At that point you may have expected it to be a lost season. Not so!
Gro Randby returned to racing with a xc skiing event that occurred during the Olympics. She returned to the IBU Cup in Sjusjoen and finished 12th and 21st. Then she went to Lake Placid and went wild finishing 2nd in the Short Individual before back to back wins in the Sprint and Pursuit. The Pursuit was particularly wild as she lapped 21 women along the way.
During these few weeks the 23 year old has shown very strong skiing. I’m really excited to see what she can do on the World Cup!
Recent History
There has been exactly one World Cup competition that has been competed in Otepää. The World Cup debut at this venue occurred four years ago at the close to the 2021-2022 campaign. At that point the biathlon world was in a pretty significant state of flux. Most notably it was just the second week where the Russian and Belarusian athletes were excluded. Of course we’ve gotten used to that now but at the time the invasion of Ukraine was still fresh and we were still getting used to not seeing these athletes in competition. Also, similar to now, it was the end of an Olympic cycle and you could feel the end nearing for a number of popular athletes.
Women’s Top 5 Finishers 2021-2022
(Only including athletes who will appear in Otepää)
| Athlete | Finishes |
| Julia Simon 🇫🇷 | 🥇 |
| Elvira Oeberg 🇸🇪 | 🥇 |
| Vanessa Voigt 🇩🇪 | 🥈 |
| Karoline Knotten 🇳🇴 | 🥉 |
| Linn Gestblom 🇸🇪 | 4 |
| Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold 🇳🇴 | 5 |
Men’s Top 5 Finishers 2021-2022
(Only including athletes who will appear in Otepää)
| Athlete | Finishes |
| Quentin Fillon Maillet 🇫🇷 | 🥇🥈 |
| Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen 🇳🇴 | 🥇, 4 |
| Sturla Holm Laegreid 🇳🇴 | 🥈 |
There were two weeks of IBU Cup competition in Otepää last season. There were a handful of athletes that competed there that will be here this week.
A few notable Women include:
– 🇫🇷 Camille Bened: 9, 2, 3, 3, 2
– 🇳🇴 Juni Arnekleiv: 5, 3, 17, 4
– 🇮🇹 Rebecca Passler: 2, 5, 12, 29, 7
– 🇨🇭 Lea Meier: 21, 10, 51, 5, 61
– 🇪🇪 Susan Kuelm: 1, 17
A few notable Men include:
– 🇳🇴 Isak Frey: 1, 4, 3
– 🇳🇴 Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen: 2, 2, 1
– 🇳🇴 Johannes Dale-Skjevdal: 3, 3, 4
– 🇳🇴 Johan-Olav Botn: 4, 1, 2, 4, 1
– 🇮🇹 Nicola Romanin: 13, 20, 19, 30, 26