Sterling Sturla

It was late in the 4th lap of the Men’s Pursuit in Holmenkollen. Sturla Holm Lægred and Eric Perrot were locked in a tense battle. Although the Overall Globe competition had already been decided there was still a battle for pride. Eric Perrot and his 2025-2026 Overall Globe vs Sturla Holm Lægred, the defending Overall champion, and the hottest man on the World Cup.

Standing there alongside Tiril Eckhoff I couldn’t resist asking her for her expert opinion…how was the race going to turn out? Without hesitation she said, “Eric is going to come in and shoot fast because that’s the only way he can win. Sturla will go slower but hit all 5. Even if Eric hits all 5 Sturla will win in the final sprint. He’s just stronger.”

I remember it clear as day because that’s exactly how it played out. Perrot went 5/5 in just 18.1 seconds. Lægred a slightly slower 5/5 in 23.8 seconds. Lægred made up the resulting gap in the uphill straight in the climb out of the stadium. Before they turned out of view they were side by side. It did ultimately come down to a final sprint and Lægred did ultimately stay away for the win…although it was a little closer in the end than anybody (including Eckhoff!) expected.

After the race, as the flower ceremony was taking place, Eckhoff and I were chatting again about the race. I asked her about Sturla Holm Lægred’s current form. It’s better than he has ever had before, and some of the best racing we’ve seen since the peak days of JT Bø just a few years ago. How long could he keep this up? Eckhoff started by mentioning “well I had a season a lot like this” referencing of course her amazing 2020-2021 season when she was virtually untouchable.

That was exactly the question I was wondering. The level that Lægred had shown since the start of the Olympics was absolutely phenomenal. Truly a spectacular level of form. Could Lægred run like this for an entire season? Could he put up an historic season?

Well first we should take a look at how good this run was.

After an inauspicious start to the season which he admitted was made worse by repeatedly trying to race and train through illness, Lægred finished the 2nd trimester 12th in the Overall. At that point it was easily his worst season in terms of Overall rank of his career. His skiing was slower than usual so that even though he was still shooting fairly well he had a grand total of 0 podiums and just two top 5’s, both of which had occurred in the season opening weekend in Östersund.

He immediately showed that he had found himself in the Olympic Individual. He earned his first podium of the season by winning the bronze medal in a race in which he hit 19/20 and scored the 6th best ski time of the day, his 2nd best course time rank of the season and first time in the top 6 since Östersund, before he got sick. That turned out to be the floor of his performance for the next month.

Over the rest of the Olympic Games Lægred scored a medal in each of the non-relay events finishing with bronze in the Sprint followed by silver in the Pursuit and Mass Starts. Added to the silver in the Men’s Relay, Lægred’s five medal haul was the most of any biathlete at the 2026 Olympic Games and tied him with JT Bø, Quentin Fillon Maillet, and Marte Olse Roeiseland for the most medals at a single Games.

During those Olympics the most definitive sign of a renewed Sturla Holm Lægred, outside of obviously the massive medal haul, was the continued excellent skiing. As noted above he had just one top 6 ski rank prior to the Olympics. He had three in four non-relay races in Antholz. The other race was the Pursuit where his ski rank was 8th. He also had an absolutely fantastic 3rd leg in the Men’s Relay besting Ponsiluoma and QFM by 13.8 and 15.6 seconds each. Throughout the entirety of the Olympics Lægred had just 4 missed shots giving him a total hit rate of 95% (76/80) for the Games.

It turned out this was just the start. The 3rd trimester of the World Cup was the Sturla Holm Lægred show. After a brilliant performance by Eric Perrot to take the Individual in Kontiolahti in which he matched Lægred shot for shot over 20km, Sterling Sturla ran off a streak of five straight World Cup wins.

Now five straight World Cup wins may not sound like much but it was truly historic as it tied the 3rd longest World Cup winning streak in history behind only Johannes Thingnes Bø in 2022-2023 and Ole Einar Bjørndalen in 2004-2005. It tied the longest winning streak in Martin Foucade’s career. We’re talking about the men who form the extreme upper echelon of biathlon history.

And it wasn’t just the streak itself it was the manner in which he did it. In the middle of the historic success Lægreid authored one of the most dominant races of all time. Coming off of the Sprint in Otepaa Lægreid , of course after a win, started with an advantage of 10.7 seconds on Emilien Jacquelin. Certainly not gigantic by any means. And there were 12 men within 1 minute including Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Sebastian Samuelsson, and Johan-Olav Botn. 12.5km and 19/20 shooting later Sturla Holm Lægreid crossed the finish line a staggering 2:33 ahead of Jacquelin, his next closest competitor. It broke the record for the largest margin of victory in a Pursuit by a man in World Cup history.

We mentioned above his skiing during the Olympics, but it only got better. He had an average ski rank of 2.7 in the final 7 races of the 25-26 campaign. During his winning streak that included ski ranks of 3, 1, 2, 2, and 1. Those were only the 3rd and 4th occasions in which he was the fastest man on the course, doubling his career total in just a two week stretch. He ran on average 4.9% faster than the median athlete in the final trimester. Compare that to the fastest man on the World Cup who was 4.6% faster than median this season.

If Lægreid were to keep that up for an entire season he would be looking at putting himself in rare air. These are the types of numbers achieved by the true speedsters. JT Bø finished 4.9% faster than median or better five times. Bjørndalen the same number. Fourcade’s best ever was 4% faster than median. That these are the men I’m comparing him to tells you what we are talking about.

His shooting was somehow even more spectacular. After the Olympic Games he had three missed shots in seven races for a hit rate of 97.5% (117/120). His shooting was so good over the final trimester that it allowed him to set the new highest hit rate for a season in men’s World Cup history.

In the Overall picture Lægred surged from 12th up to 2nd. In the final 7 races of the season, with finishes of 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4 he earned 580 out of a possible 630 points. That comes out to a ridiculous 82.8 points per race. You don’t have to ask but yes, that was by far the most points per race by any man in a trimester this season. For comparison, in the 3rd trimester Eric Perrot earned 429 points (61.3 pts/race) and Emilien Jacquelin scored 402 points (57.4 pts/race). And along the way he pulled off a gigantic comeback to clutch the Sprint Discipline Globe right out of Sebastian Samuelsson fingers giving him the 5th Discipline Globe of his career.

This was without question the greatest form of Sturla Holm Lægred’s career. But again, we have to ask, is this sustainable? It can’t be right? It’s just too amazing. Let’s again turn to somebody who is far smarter than me for guidance.

Eckhoff explained, “Once you’ve done the work and gotten yourself into this form, it’s actually easy to keep it. Shooting form can come and go a little more quickly. But once you’re in this level of ski form, once the season starts, an athlete like Sturla can keep this up really all year.”

Later Tiril Eckhoff said, “Nobody knows what Sturla has been through. I mean what he went through is the craziest story in the history of biathlon.” She was referencing of course the infamous interview of Sturla Holm Lægred at the Olympics when he confessed to cheating. Eckhoff went on to explain that she was truly impressed by the mental strength of Lægred to perform like this when everything else is in chaos.

Eckhoff shook her head and looked on in a manner that can only be described as a appreciation. Sometimes you catch these moments when a great athlete looks on and seems to be seeing somebody in a new light. When they are realizing that one of their own is ready to take a significant step. In that moment Tiril Eckhoff seemed to be considering how great can Sturla Holm Lægred truly be?

And if she is wondering it then it’s fair for us all to wonder. What he did in the final month of the season was find a level of form that is reserved for only the greatest of the sport.
– 5 consecutive World Cup victories tied for 3rd most consecutive World Cup wins all time
– 10 consecutive podiums. JT Bø only had 2 streaks longer in his career. Fourcade only 2 equal or longer. Bjørndalen never achieved that.
– Hitting 183/190 across the final 11 races
– Skiing -4.6% vs median

These are the statistics of a legend. We’re talking about the true greats. Lægred’s place in history already seems to be assured. But can he elevate himself to a level just beneath the true pantheon of the sport? Can he keep that up for an entire season and put up one of the truly great seasons of all time?

Maybe we should ask the man himself? Is he tired? Can he keep it up? I asked him in Holmenkollen this exact question. His answer: “It actually feels a bit easy right now. I put in the work to get to this level back in January and now it’s just about keeping it.” And then a comment that should truly scare the field, “I look around at everybody else and I know they are more tired than me.” He ended the interview by acknowledging Eric Perrot’s tremendous season and making special mention that he truly earned the Overall Globe this season before closing “I want to fight for it again next year.”

Clearly this season Sturla Holm Lægred discovered the formula for raising his performance to stratospheric heights. If he’s able to replicate that come November 2026, then based on what he’s said and almost more importantly what Tiril Eckhoff, a champion who has been on a magical run said, look out. The biathlon world should be on notice. Lægred isn’t just coming for the Globe, he’s coming for everything.