2025-2026 Most Improved

This season I want to try something a little bit different. I wanted to look at who had improved the most this season. In biathlon there are three primary statistics that athletes, coaches and fans look at: Ski Speed, Shooting Accuracy, and Shooting Speed. Now that’s not to say there aren’t other things. Range speed is just as important, and in some respects even more important, than shooting speed. However, when people talk biathlon these are the three things they look at.

This year I wanted to look at who made the biggest improvements this season over their previous career bests in these statistics. I’ll be honest this project ended up a lot bigger than I anticipated it being. I was pretty thorough but I’m sure there are a few athletes in each category that slipped through my reach.

In general though we will look at the top 5 most improved men and women in each category.

Most Improved Skiers

For ski improvement we’ll be looking at skiing vs median. I find this to be the best way to conceptualize skiing. Basically how far ahead or behind you are from the middle of the skiing pack. If you are 0.0% then you are the exact middle of the pack. If you are -1% you are 1% faster than the middle of the pack. If you are +2% you are 2% slower than the middle of the pack.

Sure there are plenty of other statistics you can use. You can look at percent back from the median top 10. You can look at pure ski speed. You can look at average ski rank. And more…

But this is just what I usually default to unless I’m looking at the very top top skiers.

Women:

Tereza Vinklarkova (+3.9% ->+1.3%)

The biggest skiing breakthrough we saw this season came from a woman that we in all likelihood will never see race again. At 27 years old Tereza Vinklarkova finally had a completely full healthy season. She was able so show herself, and all of us, exactly what she was capable of. Vinklarkova ran 1.6% slower than median which was a whopping 2.3 improvement from her prior best of 3.9% slower than median. Her best average ski rank before this season was 73. This year it improved all the way to 55th.

This still doesn’t show the full picture. From the start of the second trimester to the end of the season her average ski rank improved to 42nd. She had four races of ski ranks in the top 40. In those races she ran 0.95% slower than median.

It’s no surprise then that from the start of the 2nd trimester to the end of the season she had the best racing of her career. That run included eight of the 10 best finishes of her career including finishing 11th in the Olympic Individual. She also slid into Marketa Davidova’s spot as the anchor of the Czechia Women’s Relay team and did a tremendous job as they finished 5th in the Olympics and 4th in Konthiolahti.

It’s completely understandable that she wants to step away on a high note. I respect it immensely. But I definitely wish that we would get to see what else she could do?

Oleksandra Merkushyna (+4.3% ->+2.6%)

For the last several seasons Oleksandra Merkushyna has been an interesting talent worth keeping an eye on as she comes up through the Juniors rankings. She had her biggest moment before this year when she won the 2024 Youth Worlds Mass 60 gold medal. Then this season she made her big move.

On the Juniors level she had a fantastic week in Arber at the World Championships. She won gold in the Mass 60, silver in the Individual, and was 4th in the Pursuit. But this is focused mostly on World Cup improvements. In the first trimester there wasn’t anything head turning. Her best finish was 67th and she raced only the Sprints and the Östersund Individual. In the second trimester is where she started to show her improvement.

Merkushyna finished 59th and 50th in the two World Cup races she ran that semester. Not personal bests but improvements from November/December. Then in the last five races she did the following:
Olympics: 17th, 42nd, 48th
Oslo-Holmenkollen: 14th, 32nd

That included three races that were better than anything she had done yet and four of her five best finishes. And of course, in the middle there, were her amazing races at Junior Worlds in Arber. The big leap for Merkushyna came with her skiing. For the season, which included the early races, she ran 2.6% slower than median which was up from 4.3% slower than median in the 2024-2025 season. This meant her average ski rank improved from 71st to 65th.

But, if you cut out the first trimester here’s how that looks: skiing 2.07% slower than median with an average ski rank of 56th. It also included the first time in her career skiing faster than average for the field when she was -0.6% vs median in the Oslo-Holmenkollen Sprint – and that with bib 60.

This was a great improvement and matches with what we see in her Juniors racing. In those three Junior Worlds races she ran -11.1% vs median. That looks wild but of course there is a wide variety of talent and experience in Juniors races. In general if you are running 10%+ faster than median on the Juniors level that projects to good ski speed.

Clearly I am pumped to see this and I am definitely intrigued for what we might see the next few years!

Lea Meier (+0.4% -> -0.9%)

If you were watching last summer you could see Lea Meier’s ski improvement. All summer long she was putting up good results and her ski rankings were very intriguing. But the question with summer racing is always “is it real?” Well this season Lea Meier proved without a doubt that her ski improvement was in fact very real.

Meier surged this season from 0.4% slower than median up to 0.9% faster than median. Her average ski rank dropped from a prior career best 46th four seasons ago down to 30th. Her peak was even more intriguing. From Ruhpolding through Kontiolahti, for her a run of nine races over about eight weeks, she had six races with a course time rank of 24th or better. She was skiing 1.25% faster than median during that stretch.

Along the way Meier had 12 top 30’s including eight top 20’s and two top 10’s. Prior to this season her career best was 23rd. She surpassed that nine times this season. Ultimately she finished 31st in the Overall and was the second highest ranked Swiss woman this year.

This was a phenomenal breakthrough season for Lea Meier driven almost entirely through her skiing. She has been shooing in the mid 80’s for the last four seasons now. If that can start to tick up a few more points, a long with the skiing continuing to improve, Lea Meier is going to be a major player the next few years.

Daryna Chalyk (+4% ->+2.8%)

24 year old Daryna Chalyk had one of the most improved seasons of any woman on the World Cup circuit. The things is, most people won’t notice this as she had 0 top 40 finishes and thus scored 0 World Cup points. So she won’t show up on the Overall lists just like she didn’t last season. However, she was one of the top improved women in each of these three categories.

In ski speed alone she improved from 4% slower than median in the 2024-2025 season up to just 2.8% slower this year. Her average ski rank improved from 81st to 65th. That ranks as the 4th biggest improvement for a woman on the World Cup over her prior career best. It also helped her secure a near permanent spot on the Ukrainian World Cup squad this season.

Chalyk’s first points feel like just a matter of time. She raced in six of the eight Sprints contested this season missing only Ruhpolding and the Olympic Sprints. She finished top 60 in three of them to make it to the Pursuit. She had eight top 60 finishes as well as finishes of 61st and 62nd. It included three finishes in the 40’s. That meant just two finishes outside the top 62 this season. Those points are coming!

Pascale Paradis (+2.4% ->+0.2%)

This one actually snuck in here as a real surprise for me. In general it just felt like Pascale had what I would call a growth here. Certainly some potential, but overall she didn’t quite have the same success in terms of results (outside of one or two races) that she did in the 24-25 season. All year it felt like she couldn’t get her skiing and shooting to get in sync. Well I was wrong.

Long a fan of Pascale Paradis and her future potential for the Canadian team, this season’s skiing statistics begin to play that out a little bit. Her average ski rank improved from 63rd to 43rd this season. Her skiing vs. median went from +2.4% to just +0.2%. For the season she ranked 52nd in overall skiing on the World Cup this season. That’s actually awesome considering she’s still just 24 years old and this was her first season with the new coaching staff.

The other interesting part was that her skiing was getting stronger as the season went on.
Trimester 1: Avg Ski Rank: 51.75 & Skiing 0.6% slower than median
Trimester 2: Avg Ski Rank: 52 & Skiing 1.4% slower than median
Olympics + Trimester 3: Avg Ski Rank: 34.3 & 0.56% faster than median

That also included the single best race of her career the Oslo Pursuit. She finished in 27th after starting in 59th. She was 13th in Isolated Pursuit. That day she was 14th in ski time just behind Oceane Michelon and just ahead of Paulina Batovska-Fialkova.

What a way to end the season. That final trimester would have ranked 40th in overall skiing if replicated over a full season. It would have put her alongside names like Camille Bened and Amy Baserga. Now we are getting somewhere!

Others: Just a few others worth mentioning in their respective ski improvements this season
– Anna Magnusson – Not one of the top 5 this year but she did improve from -1.3% vs median to -2.2% vs median. This dropped her average ski rank from a prior career best of 22nd to 15th. This went a long way towards helping her earn that Yellow bib earlier this season and finish 7th Overall.
– Julia Tannheimer – Just 20 years old she improved from -2.3% to -3.2% vs median. Nearly 1% improvement. She ranked 9th overall in skiing. Wild!
– Chloe Levins – A bit off the radar, primarily because her skiing still has a ways to progress, but she did improve from 3.4% slower than median to 2.7% slower than median. An improvement of 0.7%. She’ll need to keep that improvement up if she wants to hold down one of those four starting positions next season.
– Inka Hamalainen – 21 year old Finn Inka Hamalainen made a nice little improvement from 2% slower than median to 1.3% slower. Her average ski rank jumped from 58th to 51st.
– Joanna Jakiela – Part of what propelled Joanna Jakiela to her career best 46th Overall finish was her ski improvement. She went from 0.5% faster than median to 1% faster this season.

Men:

Renars Birkentals (+1.9% -> -0.1%)

The 2025-2026 season was a major year for the Latvian team. There were of course the successes of young women Estere Volfa and Elza Bleidele. Baiba Bendika had another solid season including terrific showings at the Olympic Games. Precocious Rihards Lozbers showed his potential all over the place. Andrejs Rastorgujevs had three more top 10’s. And then of course Renars Birkentals reminded us that we need to be watching him as well as he collected 12 top 40’s, two top 20’s, and his first career top 10, all on his way to finishing 43rd Overall.

This year Birkentals had the biggest skiing improvement vs his career best. He moved from a prior career best of 1.9% slower than median up to 0.1% faster. His average ski rank jumped from a prior career best of 58th to 38th this season. Simply put he was just skiing in an entirely new class this year.

In an 11 race stretch from Hochfilzen through Kontiolahti he had six races with a ski rank of 27th or better. That may not sound amazing but his best ever single race ski rank was 41st prior to this season. The next step will be getting his shooting to move back in the other direction. He hit 84.3% two years ago but dropped back to around 80% in each of the last two seasons. If he can get back to the mid 80’s he would replicate roughly what Rastorgujevs did this past season. And that’s without any further ski improvements which we will hopefully continue to see!

Zachary Connelly (+3.4% -> +1.4%)

Believe it or not we have two Canadians on the list of most improved skiers! Zachary Connelly may have only joined the World Cup squad in the second trimester, but in doing so he was able to have four of the top five finishes of his career and six of the top eight. This included a career best 41st in the Pursuit at the Winter Olympic races in Antholz. While still no finishes in the points, he did show some significant signs of improvement.

Clearly, landing in this category, the biggest improvement he had was in his skiing. He had the three best skiing days of his career at the Olympics including ski ranks of 19th and 20th in the Sprint and Pursuit. Ultimatley he had seven of the nine best skiing days of his career this season.

Connelly improved his average ski rank from 71st to 52nd. He improved from skiing 3.4% slower than median to just 1.4% slower than median. That’s a significant year over year improvement! The new coaching staff sure seemed to make some significant impacts on the team in just one season. Hopefully they will be able to keep that up the next few years!

Vitalii Mandzyn (+0.1% -> -1.2%)

After finishing 31st in the Overall in his terrific 2024-2025 season, Mandyzn pushed higher in the standings finishing 25th Overall this year. While he had only 1 more top 40 this year than last year, he increased from 12 top 30’s to 16 year over year. And he did this while his hit rate dropped from 87.4% to 83.9%. He was able to do this because he improved from being roughly median in skiing to 1.2% faster than median. His average ski rank improved from 37th to 27th.

During the season he had six top 20 ski ranks including the 8th best course time in the Olympic Mass Start. Mandzyn had 11 of the 14 best course time ranks of his career. He also had the six best ski days of his career when comparing to the median. He had his career best in the Olympic Individual running 4% faster than median and three races total running 3% or better vs median.

With this solid ski improvement he puts himself in position for to be top 20 when his shooting rebounds. If he gets back to hitting in the mid to high 80’s and skis even a little bit faster, that would put him the range of what Isak Frey accomplished this season. Frey finished15th overall. That would be acceptable I would imagine!.

Vladislav Kireyev (+1.8% -> +0.6%)

One of those names that just kept popping up here and there was Vladislav Kireyev. Although the results were not completely overwhelming he did have five top 20’s including a career best 20th in the Hochfilzen Pursuit. In addition to that career best he also had four solid if not spectacular finishes of 33rd x2, 35th, and 37th. Those were good enough for the 7-10th best finishes of his career.

While his shooting remained right around his career average in the mid to high 80’s, this year he hit 86.4%, he did have a career best skiing year. He improved his skiing from 1.8% slower than median up to 0.6% slower. His average ski rank improved from 55th to 50th

It was another solid season for the Kazakhstan athlete. He is moving towards the top 50 slowly but surely. At just 25 years old that is absolutely within reach in the next few seasons if his skiing trajectory continues.

Martin Uldal (-2.3% -> -3.2%)

This was a bit of a surprise to me. Not that Uldal didn’t seem fast, it’s that he didn’t seem like he was significantly faster year over year. Well it turns out he had one of the larger improvements over his prior career best. This season Uldal jumped from 2.3% faster than median up to 3.2% faster! That landed him as the 14th fastest man on the World Cup this season.

It stood out the most in those head to head moments. For example, the Pursuit in Otepää. He had the 5th best course time that year. Uldal started the day in 11th and even with five misses – to be fair on a wildly windy day – he finished in 3rd. On the final lap he started out in 4th position and easily overtook Campbell Wright who started out the lap 4 seconds ahead of him. Wright of course was no skiing slouch this season with the 18th best skiing on the World Cup.

Martin Uldal has all of the potential in the world. The skiing is improving every year. The The shooting is stable in the mid 80’s. And, though he averaged 28.2 seconds per shoot this season, he has the ability to shoot as fast as anybody in the field. While he may not ultimately contend for the Overall, he has the ability to become a persistent force in the top 10 for the next several seasons.

Others: Just a few others worth mentioning in their respective ski improvements this season
Tuomas Harjula – A return to form for Tuomas Harjula who just snuck ahead of his Overall career best from 41st to 39th. He did it with improved skiing moving from 0.8% slower than median to 0.1% slower while his average ski rank improved rom 50th to 38th.
Mikulas Karlik – The surprise Czechia man this season, Mikular Karlik surged from -1.7% vs median to -2.3% vs median. His avg ski rank jumped from 32nd to a more than respectable 20th! That plus his shooting improvement boosted him to a major career year.
Oscar Lombardt – Oscar Lombardot wrestled control of one of the coveted French World Cup positions this season (for at least one year anyway). She improved her skiing from 1.3% faster than median to 1.9% faster. His average ski rank climbed from 30th to 19th. For him to hold one of those six World Cup spots he’s going to need that to keep climbing the next couple of seasons!
Viktor Brandt – While the Swedish men continued their look for a 4th consistent man for their lineup, Viktor Brandt stepped up to secure that position. He moved from -0.3% vs median to -0.9% with his average ski rank improved to 32nd. He ultimately finished 29th Overall with seven top 30’s for the year.
Lovro Planko – Mr. Planko didn’t have a career best season, but he did have a career best ski season. His average ski rank improved from 38th to 34th as he improved from -0.5% vs median to -1%. Coach Auchentaller will happily look to make him even faster.
Maxime Germain – One of Lovro Planko’s good friends, Maxime Germain, also showed a nice little improvement in skiing. he moved from 0.1% slower than median up to 0.4% faster than median. Always good to be on the negative side of things.
Philipp Nawrath – While Philipp Nawrath was having his career best Overall season complete with a whopping 13 top 10’s he was also skiing ahead of his career best. He improved from 3.1% faster than median and an average ski rank of 13th to 3.5% vs median and an average ski rank of 9th.
Eric Perrot – Somehow Eric Perrot keeps getting faster. At 24 years old he improved to 4.1% faster than median good enough for for 5th fastest man on the World Cup this season. That was up from 3.6% faster than median in the 24-25 campaign.
Tommaso Giacomel – Not to be outdone Tommy Giacomel also made another solid ski improvement from 3.9% faster than median to 4.3% faster. Hat put him behind just Martin Ponsiluoma, Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, and Johan-Olav Botn.

Most Improved Shooters

For shooting accuracy it is pretty simple. We are just looking at pure hit rates. Nothing more needs to be said.

Women:

Margie Freed (+18.7%)

I honestly can’t believe what I’m about to type. It just doesn’t compute. Margie Freed improved her overall hit rate by 18.7%. That’s no joke. She bumped from 62.7% up to 81.4%. If you felt like you were seeing a lot more of Freed this season, well there is your reason why. She simply was spending a LOT less time on the penalty loop and that let the converted XC skier start to realize per potential.

This massive leap, which included jumping from 54.5% to 73.8% with her standing shooting, took her from a poor shooter the 65th best shooter on the World Cup. She ranked just behind Anna Andexer in terms of overall hit rate this season and ahead of athletes like Jessica Jislova, Anna-Karin Heijdenberg, Julia Tannheimer, and Joanna Jakiela.

Freed ended up finishing in the top 40 nine times including 21st in the Individual at the Olympics that didn’t end up counting towards her Overall score. She set a career best of 13th in the Sprint in Oslo before racing in her first career Mass Start that weekend as well. Freed finished he season 54th in the Overall and has moved herself squarely into the middle of the picture for the US Biathlon Women’s team going forward.

There is still some low hanging fruit for Freed that could lead to significant improvements. Her average shooting time this season was 39 seconds. If she can cut that down to 30 seconds, still not fast but not very slow either, she could gain 18 seconds per Sprint and 36 seconds per 4 shoot race. Let’s go Margie Freed!

Daryna Chalyk (+7.4%)

We’ve already discussed the surprising under the radar improvements of Daryna Chalyk this season when we discussed her skiing above, so we won’t revisit all of that. However, she did improve her shooting in a great way as well. She improved from an overall hit rate of 72% in 2024-2025 to 79.4%. That’s a whopping 7.4% year over year improvement. This included improving her standing shooting from 68% to 76.7%!

She had just one shooting day with a hit rate below 70% and had eight days of 80% or better shooting. Hopefully this is just the start of a boom for her shooting. Still plenty of areas to improve for her with hopefully both prone and standing cresting the 80% mark next season.

Regina Ermits (+3.0%)

One of the “loudest” career best seasons this year came from Estonian Regina Ermits. At 30 years old she put together career bests in top 40’s (14), top 30’s (12), top 20’s (8), and top 10’s (2). All except for top 40’s were roughly double her prior career bests. All totaled she finished 25th Overall. The biggest marker of her improvement was really that she competed in each Mass Start race except for the one at the Olympics.

While she skied near the top of her career best performances, she wasn’t any faster than she ever has been. This improvement came entirely because of her shooting. Ermits improved her hit rate over her career best by a solid 3.0%. She bumped it up from 85.8% in the 2018-2019 season to 88.8% this year. Since that 18-19 season her best had been 82.3% two seasons ago with that being the only season with a hit rate in the 80’s in that span. And this improvement came almost entirely because of her prone shooting. Ermits hit 86.9% of her prone shot this season, her first time over 80% since the 18-09 campaign. It was a major leap over the 69% she hit in the 24-25 season.

Let’s be hopeful that this is the new normal for Regina Ermits. We won’t know for sure until we see her next season. But they have re-upped the coaching staff for another go around and maybe they jut hit on something that works very well for her. A slightly different position. Or maybe just confidence. Sometimes you just need to get in the rhythm and she certainly did this season. But it would be very fun to see her run this back again next season!

Anna Andexer (+2.4%)

Young Austrian Anna Andexer had quite a season. While Overall she was only two positions better this season than last, it is because her peak came at the Olympics which doesn’t count towards the Overall. There she finished 9th in the Sprint and the Mass Start as well as 21st in the Pursuit. This was just the start of scratching the surface for a young woman with a very high ceiling.

One of the key improvements that Andexer made this season was starting to improve her shooting. Always a solid skier, this season running 0.6% faster than median, she also is starting to find her footing with her shooting. She saw her overall hit rate rise into the 80’s for the first time in her World Cup career hitting 81.4% overall. She saw near equal improvement to her prone and standing shooting.

This season Andexer had six races where she hit 90% or better. She had just nine such instances in the last three seasons of IBU Cup and World Cup racing combined. It will come as no surprise that she had her two best shooting days in those 9th place finishes. She hit 10/10 in the Olympic Sprint and then 19/20 in the Mass Start.

Also, she ended the season on a fairly bad shooting streak. She hit just 43/60 over the last trimester. Looking at her shooting before that poor finishing run and she was at 83.9% which would have been a solid 4.4% improvement. As it was a 2.4% rise is nothing to be ashamed of! Long story short I think that there is every reason to remain optimistic on Anna Andexer’s high ceiling!

Lora Hristova (+2.0%)

After a magnificent performance at the 2023 World Championships, Lora Hristova pegged herself as one of the top names to watch. Little did we know that the moment to watch her would be so soon. Still just 22 years old she had an absolutely magnificent moment at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Of course we know she took the bronze medal int he individual. But it wasn’t just one good race. She finished 11th, 7th, and 14th in the final three non-relay races of the Olympics!

While ultimately she achieved these great results with a major surge in her skiing peaking at the Olympics, she set herself up for that by raising her baseline with her shooting. This season she hit 90% for the year including 85.6% standing. That was a 2% improvement in overall hit rate year over year driven almost entirely by the standing shooting rising from her prior best of 80.8%. With a 90% hit rate she ranked 7th in overall shooting this season.

We saw what happens when that amazing shooting matches up with her ski potential. At this point it might be that she’s just too young to ski at that level for more than a few weeks. But we know now that potential is hiding in there. This shooting looks like it is here to stay. If she can start skiing consistently at a top 25 level like she did at the Olympics she will have a very high Overall potential indeed!

Others: Just a few others worth mentioning in their respective shooting improvements this season
– Deedra Irwin – Overall hit rate up from 85.2% to 87.1%, a 1.9% improvement
– Anna Magnusson – Overall hit rate up from 87.4% up to 88.8%, a 1.3% improvement

Men:

Johan-Olav Botn (+9.9%)

Johan-Olav Botn came out in the first race of the season and hit 20/20. For somebody who had never done that on the IBU Cup it was quite impressive for him to do it right out of the gate at the start of the season. But he couldn’t keep that up right?

Just kidding. Botn hit 10/10 in the Sprint. He followed that up with 18/20 in the Pursuit. By the end of the 1st trimester he hit 125 of 130 non-relay shots. It was outrageous. But he couldn’t keep that up right? That was just three weeks of magic.

Just kidding. He ended the season 327/360 for a hit rate of 90.8%. That was good enough for the 3rd best hit rate of the season behind Sturla Holm Lægreid and Dimitrii Shamaev.

This came a year after hitting 86.8% on the IBU Cup, which was a solid improvement over a prior best of 83.3%. Now Botn has top 3 skiing and top 3 shooting. Along the way he took five wins, 12 top 5’s, and 19 top 10’s in 21 races including an absolutely chills-inducing Olympic Individual gold medal. Absolutely incredible.

I cannot wait to see what he can do next season!

Mihail Usov (+6.4%)

Moldovan biathlete 29 year old Mihail Usov just cruised along under the radar this season, quietly putting up 90% hit rate after 90% hit rate. Ultimately he ended the season hitting 90.8%, good enough for the 4th best overall hit rate on the World Cup this season. It makes you wonder why we didn’t hear more about him this season. Unfortunately he skied 7.7% slower than median which gives him a real struggle to be competitive.

However, let’s focus on the good. His 90.8% overall hit rate was a big time improvement over his prior career best. Before this season his best shooting was 84.4% giving him a big time 6.4% improvement. His standing hit rate improved from 84.4% to 93.8%!

Joscha Burkhalter (+3.7%)

Over the last seveal years Joscha Burkhalter has made steady progress into becoming a credible #3 for the Swiss men. While Niklas Hartweg and Sebastian Stalder have gotten most of the attention, quietly this season Burkhalter was the most consistent man. Maybe his ceiling hasn’t quite reached the same level, but he’s been plugging away and just keeps turning in solid results.

This season he put together seven top 20’s including a 10th that tied the best result of his career. Overall it put him in to 24th, easily the best Overall finish of career and ahead of both Stalder (30th) and Hartweg (31st) this season.

Burkhalter has done this with across the board improvements. While his skiing appeared to plateau this season his shooting took another step forward. He hit 87.5% overall, an improvement from his career best of 83.8% in the 24-25 campaign. He had a 3.2% improvement in his prone shooting as he hit 89.5%. Overall he had the 13th best hit rate on the season.

The improvement of Burkhalter was one of the great successes of Sandra Flunger’s time at the helm of the Swiss biathlon team. Hopefully the new coaching staff will be able to continue the steady improvement while hopefully getting his skiing into the negative territory for the first time in his career. A top 20 Overall finish is absolutely within his grasp.

Dominic Unterweger (+3.1%)

While Austrian Dominic Unterweger didn’t set a new career best or have a career best Overall finish, it was still a successful season. He finished with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best finishes of his career including 31st in the Individual in Kontiolahti and 32nd in the Individual at the Olympic Games.

Unterweger’s skiing was roughly the same over the last three seasons, but his shooting has shown continuous improvement. After hitting 84.6% in the 2022-2023 season he has steadily improved to hitting a very good 89.3% last season. That 3.1% improvement over his prior career best helped him to the 10th best overall hit rate on the men’s World Cup.

Now Unterweger has a real strength to build off of. If he can go and almost entirely avoid the penalty loop or the 1 minute Individual penalty that’s a good place to start. Now to start getting that skiing to improve. Last year he was 3.1% slower than median. However if he can start seeing that improve over the next few seasons he’s really got something going!

Mikulas Karlik (+2.8%)

One of the most surprising breakthroughs this season (to me!) was that of Mikulas Karlik. This man went from being a classic “tweener” stuck between consistent World Cup time and the IBU Cup, to, for this season at least, fully established on the World Cup. It seemed like he was going to be squeezed out. All he did was go out and finish 37th Overall with three top 20’s and seven top 30’s.

To accomplish an improvement like that it really requires good all around improvement. Karlik rediscovered a lost ski speed he hadn’t had in fours seasons as he ran 2.3% faster than median, up from 1.7% faster than median as we noted briefly above. He also saw his hit rate improve 2.8% over his prior career best jumping from 72.5% in the 2022-2023 season to 75.3% this year. That included his standing shooting eclipsing 70% for the first time in his career as he hit 71.1% of those shots.

Clearly there is a lot of room for growth for Karlik. It almost makes you wonder how he was able to finish 37th Overall. But it also makes you optimistic and hopeful for what he might be able to do next. If he can keep that ski speed he rediscovered and start to find himself hitting closer to 80%??? That would be a big ask and a big improvement but why not shoot for the moon right?

Others: Just a few others worth mentioning in their respective shooting improvements this season
– Paul Schommer – In the final season of his professional career Paul Schommer improved his hit rate from 84.4% to 87.1%. Nice way to go out!
– Olli Hiidensalo – Overall hit rate up from 84.6% to 86.7% for a 2.1% improvement and career best.
– Sturla Holm Lægreid – While only a 0.7% improvement this year, it meant improving from 93.3% to 94% giving him the best hit rate in men’s biathlon history.

Most Improved Shooting Speed

Over the last decade or more there has been an increasing emphasis put on shooting faster and faster. Last season there was seemingly a little bit of a reversion. Several of the top athletes slowed down just a touch on the range putting more of an emphasis on hit targets vs pure shooting speed. Nobody displayed this more than Johan-Olav Botn.

Women:

Lisa Vitozzi (-3.8 sec)

Lisa Vittozzi’s shooting speed improvement was nothing short of sensational. She wasn’t a slow shooter to start with. In the 2023-2024 season when she won the Overall Globe she ranked 33rd in overall shooting speed. This year, though, she leapt straight to the top. Her average shooting time dropped from a career best 27.2 seconds in the 21-22 campaign to 23.4 seconds this season. A whopping 3.8 second cut in average shooting time that left her as the fastest shooter on the World Cup.

3.8 seconds might not sound like a lot but over the course of a four shoot race that is 15.2 seconds or nearly a full penalty loop worth of time. But considering she shot just a hair under 90% at 89.7% last season, she wasn’t spending much time on the penalty loop anyway.

However, this just added an additional asset for her performance. She was the 12th best skier last season and had the 10th best hit rate. There are now absolutely no weak spots to her performance. She can now match nearly everything that her top competitors could throw at her. It comes as no surprise that the woman who finished #3 in the Overall this year, and already has a Globe in her trophy case, is going to be in the mix for more trophies and medals in the next few years.

Anna Andexer (-3.6 sec)

We already mentioned Anna Andexer’s improvement in shooting accuracy above, which was actually likely even better than the final result indicated. Well she also did it while shooting faster. She started from a very mediocre space in terms of shooting speed. Even though we noted that many athletes were prioritizing hits above shooting speed this season, Andexer was still well back in terms of shooting speed.

In the 2024-2025 campaign, her average shooting speed was 34.8 seconds per shoot. She improved this to 31.2 seconds in the 2025-2026 season. This was done via significant improvement in both prone and standing shooting. She improved her prone shooting by about 4 seconds and her standing shooting by around 3 seconds.

Even with that 3.6 second, on average, shooting time improvement. She still has some improvement that can be made to help her collect a bit more time. Her shooting time of 31.2 seconds ranked just 66th this season. For comparison, relatively conservative shooter Lou Jeanmonnot was still on average about 1.5 seconds per shoot faster. Over the course of a 5 shoot race that’s an additional 6 seconds that Andexer has to find on the course to match the ultra quick Jeanmonnot. And compared to Vittozzi she’s losing about 8 seconds per shoot.

Daryna Chalyk (-3.5 sec)

Once again Daryna Chalyk stands as one of the most improved women. This season she cut her average shooting time from 32.6 seconds down to 29.1 seconds. This took her to 39th fastest shooting this season which is more than respectable. In five of her 11 races this season her shooting time rank was 21st or better. This is turning into a strength for her.

Maria Remenova (-2.8 sec)

25yo Maria Remenova had a career best year in 2025-2026 as she scored her first career points with four top 40’s including a career best 20th in the Nove Mesto Short Individual. She also displayed some clutch racing as the anchor leg in several of the Slovakian relays including a 5th place finish in Hochfilzen and 7th in Konthiolahti.

While Maria Remenova’s skiing improved this year, her biggest relative improvement was in her shooting speed. Her average shooting time improved from 28.8 seconds over a prior career best of 31.6 seconds. That’s a 2.8 second improvement. Year over year it was actually an improvement from 32.2 seconds.

This season she actually ranked 32nd fastest in shooting speed on the World Cup. Remenova had just three races with an average shooting time of greater than 30 seconds. She had four races of shooting time ranks in the top 25 for that individual race. Now if Remenova can get her shooting accuracy back over 80% and continue to make skiing improvements it could really help buoy the Slovakian women in the post-Paulina Batovska-Fialkova era.

Oceane Michelon (-1.9 sec)

I will be completely honest, this one surprised me. Not that I thought Michelon was a slow shooter or anything like that. I just didn’t realize she had made such a significant jump in her average shooting speed. After her u23 Globe winning 2024-2025 season in which she had an average shooting time of 28.4 (not bad at all), she improved that to 26.5 second average shooting this season. That ranked an excellent 13th in overall shooting time.

There is absolutely no doubt that Michelon is on a trajectory that has her angling for the top levels of women’s biathlon over the next several seasons. She didn’t need to add faster shooting, but it certainly doesn’t hurt her.

Crucially for Michelon, she figured out when and where to display her shooting speed. In the last four Mass Starts of the season she had average shooting times of 23.4, 23.7, 24.8, and 23.5. Those were four of her top five shooting times each season. It’s using that shooting speed in a combative format when it can deal a psychological blow to her opponents as well.

Just an interesting quirk, that really doesn’t matter all that much: in the Olympic Mass Start in which Oceane Michelon won the gold medal, she was faster than Julia Simon, the silver medalist, in her standing shooting by 0.3 seconds which matching her with 9/10 hit rate. Simon is well known for her rapid fire approach on the range, particularly in these head to head matches. Michelon matching her hit rate and speed is, for me, a very interesting thing to see.

Others: Just a few others worth mentioning in their respective shooting speed improvements this season
– Kamila Zuk – Avg shooting time dropped from 31.2 sec to 29.6 sec. A drop of 1.6 sec per shoot
– Maren Kirkeeide – Avg shooting time dropped from 30.5 sec to 29.0 sec. A drop of 1.5 sec per shoot
– Deedra Irwin – Avg shooting time dropped from 30.9 sec to 29.8 sec. A drop of 1.1 sec per shoot
– Inka Hamalainen – Avg shooting time dropped from 31.9 sec to 30.8 sec. A drop of 1.1 sec per shoot

Men:

Konrad Badacz (-4.1 sec)

This season Konrad Badacz made one of the biggest single season improvements in shooting speed that we’ve seen. Clearly an emphasis of new coach Uros Velepec, Badacz’s average shooting time dropped from 29.7 sec to 25.6 sec. He had the 13 best shooting times of his career (in just 18 races). He started out the season with a shooting time of 29.6 seconds and 27.4 seconds in the first two races. The rest of the season, across 16 races, he had just two races with an average shooting time slower than 26.1 seconds. It’s worth noting that before this season Badacz had just a single race with an average shooting time faster than 26.1 seconds.

This meant that even with Konrad Badacz’s skiing and shooting be relatively stable he still had a significant career best season with eight top 40’s, five top 30’s, and a career best Overall finish of 45th. This was an improvement from 70th and and 77th each of the last two seasons.

Jan Gunka (-4.0 sec)

Just like his teammate Konrad Badacz, Jan Gunka benefitted from Uros Velepec’s coaching on shooting speed. Gunka’s shooting speed improved from 28.4 seconds to an even better 24.4 seconds. That not only was a significant personal achievement, but it made him the 5th fastest shooter on the Men’s World Cup circuit.

This season Gunka ranked in the top 20 in shooting time every single race of the season. Prior to this season he had only ranked top 20 in shooting time in a race just three times. Just like Badacz, Gunka’s skiing and shooting hit rate remained relatively stable. But he too had a magnificent career year including nine top 40’s and three top 20’s. He rose from 57th in the Overall last season up to 41st Overall this year.

Tomas Mikyska

During the 2025-2026 season improved his average shooting time from 26.7 seconds to 26.1 seconds. While a relatively small shooting speed improvement it was one of the better improvements amongst the men this season. The big improvement of Mikyska was that he eliminated the slower shooting days more than actually getting faster. Still, he ranked top 15 in shooting time in six of the nine World Cup races he ran.

Eric Perrot (-0.4 sec)

Eric Perrot’s shooting time improvement this season, when looked at across the entire year, was relatively small at just 0.4 seconds. His average shooting time improved from 25.9 seconds to 25.4 seconds. This was because Perrot was judicious in how he used his shooting speed. Many days, he was in a position where he didn’t have to shoot fast. He could take his time and just make sure to hit the targets. In fact we praised him many times for doing so. He just didn’t necessarily need to.

There were times when Perrot utilized this skill as a significant tool in his arsenal. Look at the Oslo-Holmenkollen Pursuit. That day Perrot knew that with Sturla Holm Lægreid’s exceptional ski form, and with Lægreid was on one of the hottest shooting runs we’ve seen lately, that in order to win, he was going to have to shoot fast to have a chance. That day he averaged just 22.1 seconds per shoot which tied his career best. This included standing shooting times of 18.6 and 18.1 seconds. It was the fastest standing shooting time of his career. For good measure he broke both of those personal records the following day in the Mass Start averaging 21.5 seconds per shoot and 17.8 seconds per standing shoot. That was one of eight races this season in which he was top 5 in shooting time.

For a man who just won the 2025-2026 Overall Globe this is another big time weapon in his arsenal.

Vitezslav Hornig (-0.4 sec)

While Vitezslav Hornig was sneaking into a new career Overall best, improving from 20th to 19th, Overall, he improved his average shooting speed from 25.9 seconds to 25.5 seconds. This included a dramatic career best average shooting time of 18.1 seconds in the Annecy-le Grand Bornand Sprint. In that race he has an 18.5 second prone shooting and 17.1 second standing shooting. To top it off he went 10/10 that day. Truly one of the best shooting performances we saw this season!

Olli Hiidensalo (-0.4 sec)

One of the most fun stories at the 2026 Winter Olympics that didn’t ultimately lead to a medal was Olli Hiidensalo’s shooting run to start the Games. This included two of his quicker shooting days averaging 23.4 seconds per shoot in the Pursuit and 24.6 seconds in the Individual. He later had his career best shooting speed when he averaged just 22.1 seconds in the Otepää Sprint when he went 10/10 and finished 14th. Always fun to see a man at this stage of his career find new ways to improve.