The Blink Festival held annually in Sandnes, Norway is usually the first time where the biathlon family perks up its ears and tunes in. Though primarily comprised of Norwegians, some of whom most biathlon fans likely don’t recognize (due to their insane depth), it does usually draw at least a handful of top international competitors. As a result it is consistently one of the top 2-3 fields of the summer season. It is the rare instance where we actually get a chance to measure some top athletes against themselves…at least where they are in August. Fair warning, Blink is only a little closer to the next season than the prior season, but it’s still fun to take a look at what we saw and what it *might* (heavy emphasis on might) mean.
Also just a note on my general thoughts on summer biathlon: We never know where somebody is in their training schedule. Sometimes they are coming into a competition like this after a couple of harder weeks with more “dead” legs. Sometimes they’ve primed for this event to try to get a good signal of where there relative peak performance is at this point. As a result I make it a rule not to take any negative findings out of summer biathlon competitions. I look for positive signs only. As an example, last year at Blink we saw Leonhard Pfund really start to show a new level which he went on to prove this last year. Or Lea Meier who flashed new ski speed in summer events and absolutely backed that up on the World Cup. But, we don’t hold bad performances against somebody.
There are 3 main sections:
– Some short thoughts and take aways from the weekend
– Full list of results for the top competitors from the weekend
Top Thoughts From the Full Weekend
1. 🇫🇷 Oceane Michelon Turning Heads – Look we already know that Oceane Michelon is good. She just won the 2026 Olympic gold in Mass Start and silver in the Sprint while finishing top 8 in the Overall rankings for the 2nd consecutive year. She’s not a future star, she’s a star right now. What she did at this season’s Blink, though, hinted at something even higher.
In the shooting contest she was lights out. She started out with I believe 2 reloads in her first quarterfinal (sorry I lost my notes from that day so relying solely on memory!). She followed that up by absolutely blowing the doors off in the semifinals and the finals. In the semifinals Michelon threw down a 13.8 seconds 5/5. To that point it was the fastest time yet by a woman by 1.6 seconds. Michelon wasn’t done yet. In the finals she raised the bar yet again with an absolutely blistering 12.4 second blaze to the shooting title. This gave her the top 2 times for a woman in the shooting competition, the shooting title, and 2 wins in 3 bouts. Michelon, though, was just getting warmed up.
Next up was the Super Sprints. Oceane Michelon was already secured of a spot in the finals by being one of the “protected” athletes. She wasn’t content to just breeze through the qualifier though. Michelon wanted to prove her form. She went out in bib 3 and put up an 9/10 on the range, backing up the good shooting from the morning, while having the best skiing of the race. She beat her teammate Julia Simon, with equal shooting, by 16.5 seconds. She closed out the Super Sprint final with yet another victory. This time she went 19/20 (giving her 28/30 in the two races combined). She soared to the Super Sprint victory by 16 seconds, again over Julia Simon.
While Michelon didn’t complete the sweep by taking the Mass Start competitions she certainly gave it a run. She finished 2nd in her quarterfinal and in a virtual tie for 1st in her semifinal (letting up when her place was secured to move on. Her bid to take the sweep ended early in the finals though. She had 3 misses in the 2nd shooting and could never quite get all the way back in to the race. Regardless though it was a heck of a weekend.
Last year I posited that Eric Perrot is one *the* guys now after his fantastic performance. Michelon didn’t need a great performance at Blink to be listed amongst the top women in biathlon, but this was certainly a moment of declaration!
2. 🇦🇹 Dominic Unterweger! – Maybe the most surprising performances of the weekend came from 27 year old Austrian Dominic Unterweger. No stranger to the World Cup with 44 career starts, he is potentially going to be relied up on in a whole new way with openings on the top level of the squad. This week he should some really cool things.
Always a fast shooter, and lately a very accurate one hitting 89.3% last season, he started out hot in the shooting competition. He won his quarterfinal with a 13.6 second 5/5 showing which was the fastest of the quarters. He followed that up with another spectacular effort going 5/5 in 12.3 seconds to take his semifinal. He finished off with 1 needing an extra round in the finals and finishing 6th in that round. Overall though 2 wins with the 3rd and 4th fastest shoots of the entire competition, the only man with two of the top 5 fastest.
The Super Sprint was a less fun competition for Dominic as he missed the finals. He bounced back very strong in the Mass Starts on Saturday, though. He landed in a favorable quarterfinal but performed very well. He was in the top group all the way through finishing alongside three others at the top of the group and helping to knock out Einar Hedegart. He put his foot down in the semi finals by winning that race that included Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, Oscar Lombardot, Johan-Olav Botn, Emilien Claude, and Martin Uldal. That’s no small feat! He follows that up by getting in the mix right away. He got out strong and found his way to the top 3 alongside Vetle Christiansen, Emilien Claude, and Johannes Dale-Skjevdal after a 4/5 first shoot. He stayed there with a 5/5 in the second shoot. Then he nailed the first standing shoot and got off the range in first!!! Unfortunately he faltered late with a miss in the last shoot and ultimately finished in 8th.
However that didn’t take any shine off the weekend for him. Afterwards he was quite pleased with his shooting as usual, but especially so with the skiing. He felt that he’s been making some good strides this summer and felt that this proved he’s on the right tracks. Next up for him the Austrian Champs and then maybe Loop One. Tentatively, though, I’m excited to see what he can do once the competition turns to snow!
3. 🇳🇴 Vetle Reclaims his Throne – Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen is one of the top roller biathletes every season. He just loves these competitions. I don’t have the stats at my fingertips but it feels like every year he’s in the mix at Blink. Well last year the slim reaper Eric Perrot dominated. (Hey Kevin Durant shrugged off the nickname, why can’t we give it to Perrot?!?). Christiansen came back with a fire this year.
Assured of a spot in the Super Sprint final Vetle Christiansen took the tact of conserving energy. He was clean on the range but finished a whopping +53 back of Emilien Claude and Eric Perrot. That strategy paid off in a big way when he went all out in the finals. He was 18/20 which was the second best shooting of the day and in the end he had enough to just hold off the French invaders Eric Perrot and Emilien Claude by under 1 second.
The Mass Starts were just an absolute domination. Quarterfinals: 1st. Semifinals: 1st. Finals: 1st. Once again the finals came down to Eric Perrot vs Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen. Perrot had a 1.1 second advantage to start the lap but the big diesel engine of Perrot was just too much on the streets of Sandnes. Christiansen pulled up to Perrot, and then pulled away late to take the crown.
At this stage of his career Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen has nothing left to prove, but it sure is fun to see him come out and compete like this!!
4. Top Women Performing Well – Just a quick check in on the top women who came out to compete this week:
- 🇫🇷 Oceane Michelon: Shooting Competition: 1st. Super Sprint Qualifier: 1st. Super Sprint Final: 1st. Mass Starts: 2nd, 3rd, 13th.
- 🇫🇷 Julia Simon: Shooting Competition: 7th. Super Sprint Qualifier: 2nd. Super Sprint Final: 2nd. Mass Start: 2nd, 1st, 2nd
- 🇸🇪 Elvira Oeberg: Shooting Competition: 4th. Super Sprint Qualifier: 6th. Super Sprint Final: 6th. Mass Start: LL, 2nd, 1st
- 🇫🇷 Justine Braisaz-Bouchet: Shooting Competition: 3rd. Super Sprint DNF (below). Mass Starts: 1st, 4th, 12th
5. 🇵🇱 Great Week for the Poles – You know who had a great week in Sandnes? The Polish team. They were a bit under the radar as they came in to the week, but they certainly weren’t when they left it. Let’s look competition by competition:
- Lysebotn Climb: For the women Joanna Jakiela and Natalia Sidorowicz finished in 19th and 20th respectively. This put them in 8th in 9th amongst biathletes. For perspective Jakiela was 2:41 back of the top biathletes, Swede Anna-Karin Heijdenberg and just 17 seconds back of Julia Simon. Strong effort!!! On the men’s side Grzegorz Galica was 20th up the climb and the 5th best man! He was 3:24 back of Einar Hedegart who was both the fastest overall and fastest biathlon man up the climb. This was clearly a strong start!!
- Shooting Competition: Joanna Jakiela continued her strong week in Norway by reaching the finals of the shooting duels. She ultimately finished in 9th. However, for a woman who has finished the last four seasons hitting between 78.3% and 82.1% this was fantastic. Natalia Sidorowicz didn’t make it out of her quarterfinal. On the men’s side both Fabian Suchodolski and Grzegorz Galica made it to the semifinals where they finished 7th and 8th in their semis.
- Super Sprints: The Polish women continued their strong showings in the Super Sprint. These two women were not assured of a spot in the finals and had to earn their way in. Guess what they did? They absolutely earned their way to the finals!! Sidorowicz (8/10) finished 7th and Jakiela (7/10) in 8th. They were both +31. Pretty good skiing there for Joanna Jakiela as she was the top finisher with 3 misses. She also finished well ahead of several other athletes with 2 or more misses who would traditionally be figured to be faster than her including Anna-Karin Heijdenberg. It was another strong finish in the finals with Jakiela hitting 17/20 and finishing 4th. 4th!!! She was ahead of Jeanne Richard by 11 seconds with equal shooting. Natalia Sidorowicz hit 16/20 and finished a very solid 7th.
The men were not going to be outdone. They also were not assured of a spot in the finals. No worries. Marcin Zawol and Wojciech Skorusa went 8/10 and finished within 10 seconds of Emilien Claude who won with equal shooting accuracy. Fabian Suchodolski ultimately didn’t make the finals as he finished in 15th. Grzegorz Galica had six misses and finished in 32nd. In the finals Zawol and Skorusa put up solid efforts. Skorusa had 2 misses in the prone shooting but finished 10/10 in his last two trips to the range to make up ground. He finished up in 7th and was 0.2 back of Johan-Olav Botn for top 6. Zawol was 15/20 and finished up 11th. - Mass Starts: The Mass Starts started out very well for the Polish women. Joanna Jakiela took 3rd in her quarterfinal while Natalia Sidorowicz moved on finishing 6th in hers. While Sidorowicz bowed out in the semis, she was just 4.8 seconds from Jeanne Richard who won her semi and just 1.8 seconds from qualifying for the finals. Jakiela, meanwhile, made the finals by finishing 6th in the semis. Ultimately she finished in 14th in the Mass Start final, but it was a great overall weekend.
In the Mass Starts it was Grzegorz Galica who was carrying the flag. After a tough run in the Super Sprints Galica ran to the finals by finishing 3rd in his quarterfinal behind Eric Perrot and Martin Nevland, before finishing 2nd in his semi final squeezing between Vetle Christiansen and Eric Perrot. Fabian Suchodolski did qualify for the semifinals while Wojiciech Skorusa and Marcin Zawol did not advance. In the finals Galica finished 14/20 on the range and crossed the ine in 10th. To his credit even as the misses piled up he kept fighting back on the course.
6. 🇳🇴 Karoline Knotten Ahead of Schedule – Anybody who saw Karoline Knotten in Holmenkollen knew something wasn’t right. She looked off on the course and she looked clearly in pain off of it. She wasn’t finally diagnosed until May when she was found to have a ruptured appendix. By mid June she still wasn’t in full training. She didn’t even come in to Blink half baked. She was at best one quarter baked. Well, she’s feeling pretty darn good about the results.
Knotten started out with a bit of a rough go in the shooting competition. She made the semifinals, but the normally very good shooter bowed out at that point with a tough second shoot. She, thankfully for her, was secure of a spot in the Super Sprint final as she had 3 misses in that Qualifier and finished in 30th. Later that day she ran to 10th in the Super Sprint Final. Honestly, knowing what she went through that looked about like what you would expect.
The Mass Starts were a better story. She made it through her qualifier in the 7th position. Not great but she was through. In the semifinal though she put out a great effort finishing in 3rd just +4.6 back of Julia Simon and 3.9 sec back of Elvira Oeberg and just ahead of Justine Braisaz-Bouchet. It was, for me anyway, an eyebrow raiser. Just a good moment? More to come…? Definitely more to come. She proved that this was no fluke by backing up 3rd with another 3rd. Once again behind only Elvira Oeberg and Julia Simon.
Sure, these are shorter courses on roller skis in August. Considering she was doing basically nothing until 6 weeks ago this was an amazing performance. She’s understandably quite happy with what this says about her form and her ability to get back to her desired level before November. This was GREAT to see!
7. 🇫🇷 Justine Braisaz-Bouchet Dodges Disaster – There was a moment on Friday evening where it looked very bleak for the 30 year old. During the first lap of the Super Sprint qualifier she took a tumble and hurt her wrist. After the first Super Sprint shoot she pulled out. Thankfully she bounced back on Saturday and immediately showed she was okay by winning her quarterfinal. She performed well in the semifinal as well before four misses in the first shoot of the Mass Start final ended her real contention chances.
Overall though, great news for Justine. She came out without major injury and confirmed it in the Mass Starts.
8. 🇳🇴 Norwegians Popping – I just wanted to point out a couple of Norwegians who had a pretty good week. It’s a marquee moment for many of them!
- Kasper Kalkenberg – Shooting Competition: 5th. Super Sprint Qualifier: 8th. Super Sprint Final: 9th. Mass Starts: 3rd, 4th, 6th. The 21 year old is clearly on the rise. This is a really nice mid summer checkpoint.
- Une Christine Tronerud Kvelvane – Shooting Competition: Quarterfinals. Super Sprint Qualifier: 5th. Super Sprint Final: 11th. Mass Starts: 1st, 5th, 4th
- Julie Kvelvane – Shooting Competition: Quarterfinals. Super Sprint Qualifier: 11th. Super Sprint Final: 9th. Mass Starts: LL, 11th. Just 19 years old but we’ll keep an eye on her.
- Silje Berg-Knutsen – Shooting Competition: Quarterfinals. Super Sprint Qualifier: 18th. Mass Starts: 3rd, 2nd, 11th. Still just 21 years old with three top 10’s at Junir Worlds last season. Nice checkpoint for August!
- Synne Owren – Shooting Competition: Quarterfinals. Super Sprint Qualifier: 10th. Super Sprint Final: 8th. Mass Starts: 9th in Quarterfinal
9. 🇱🇻 Don’t forget the Latvians! – Maybe it wasn’t flashy but the Latvian contingent in Sandnes had quietly a solid weekend. Basically every competition there was somebody representing the Latvian flag with a good performance.
It started with the Lysebotn climb showing with the solid performances of Baiba Bendika and Estere Volfa finishing in 14th and 15th overall and 4th and 5th best biathletes up the climb. Bendika was 59 seconds behind Anna-Karin Heijdenberg’s leading time while Volfa was just 17 seconds further back of her teammate.
In the shooting competition both Baiba Bendika and Estere Volfa qualified for the finals. Baiba especially should be pleased as standing shooting has been her struggle point throughout her career. In the men’s duels the boys were represented in the finals by young Matiss Meirans!
The Super Sprints were really the only competition where the Latvians didn’t have great success. The top man in the competition was Renars Birkentals at 18th and the top women were Elza Bleidele and Estere Volfa finishing 23rd and 24th.
The Mass Starts were a new day though with new athletes ready to shine. In thge women’s brackets it was Elza Bleidele blazing a path to the finals as she finished 5th in her quarterfinal and semifinal before taking 8th in the final. On the men’s side Renars Birkentals took 4th in his quarterfinal and 9th in the semifinal before finishing 9th again in the finals. Estere Volfa, Baiba Bendika, and Rihards Lozbers all made the semifinals as well.
10. 🇳🇴 Einar Hedegart – I know I said I would focus on the good stuff but this was a bit of a special case. Hedegart is an immensely talented skier. The young man is literally world class. He took home bronze in the 10km Freestyle in XC Skiing at the 2026 Olympics along with two relay medals. But he’s been clear, that while he is an amazing skiier, he yearns desperately to be a great biathlete. The problem is the shooting. He’s made several runs at biathlon but ultimately what has happened every time is the shooting hasn’t been good enough that, on the ridiculously stacked Norwegian team, he hasn’t been able to earn even regular IBU Cup time much less World Cup.
After the conclusion of the 2025-2026 season he had a fairly public back and forth with the Norwegian biathlon federation regarding his desire to be not only on the Norwegian national training team, but on the “A” team. To be fair, he is an AMAZING skier. Even on a squad with men like Johan-Olav Botn, Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, Sturla Holm Laegreid, etc, Hedegart would easily be the fastest man. If he learns to shoot regularly he’s going to be near impossible to beat. But herein lies the rub. Shooting is damn hard.
Hedegart ultimately got a compromise wherein he accepted a spot on the “B” team, but he gets to have direct coaching by the “A” team coaches. In other words he pretty much got exactly what he wanted.
The 2026 Blink Festival gave us the first glimpse at how everything is going. From a skiing standpoint he’s clearly incredible. He won the Lysebotn climb! The shooting is clearly still a question mark. In the shooting duels he was out in the quarterfinals. You can’t hold that too much against him. Also out in the quarters were Johan-Olav Botn, Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen. and Johannes Dale-Skjevdal as well as others he’s going to be competing with for starts like Martin Nevland, Ole Surhke, Andreas Aas, etc.
It didn’t really get better. In the Super Sprint Qualifiers he was secure in a spot for the finals and went 7/10. Honestly not bad. He clearly didn’t push himself too hard on the skis as he finished 35th while also finishing with 3 misses was Eric Perrot finishing 2nd. In the Super Sprint Finals Hedegart was 10/20. And unfortunately he didn’t turn it around for the Mass Start competitions as he finished 7th in his quarterfinal. In that particularly quarterfinal he finished behind Jakob Wallenius and Martin Femsteinevik as well as Sindre Jorde, Johan-Olav Botn, Emilien Claude, and Dominic Unterweger. In that race it went off the rails immediately with the prone shooting and he never recovered.
Now it’s time to reiterate, this is one weekend in August. There is a LONG way to go. Sometimes when you’re working really hard on something it gets worse before it gets better. That could be happening here. This weekend did make me wonder though. Back in the Spring Hedegart said that he is now full time on biathlon and won’t go back to XC skiing. It’s easy to say that after a great XC season and in the optimistic moments of April. However, I wonder what happens if come November his shooting hasn’t improved. After the glory of Olympic medals in XC skiing would he really be okay toiling on the IBU Cup or even the ASKO Cup?
11. Lysebotn – Every year the thought of climbing Lysebotn blows my mind. What kind of lunatic does that? Of course these are professional athletes in absolutely incredible shape. Lyseboth isn’t really for analysis, but I wanted to call out a couple of things that stood out to me:
- 🇸🇪 Anna-Karin Heijdenberg with an absolute eyes emoji to take the title of top biathlete. It earned a hat tip from Baiba Bendika who regularly challenges for the top biathlete up the incredible climb. A lot of grit from this woman. Just one more reason to absolutely love her as an athlete.
- 🇸🇪 Elvira Oeberg has an enormous motor but she’s never really known as a mountain climber. I’m VERY impressed. 10th overall and a little over 30 seconds back from Heijdenberg for top biathlete.
- 🇱🇻 Baiba Bendika and Estere Volfa cruising up in 14th and 15th overall 59 seconds and 1:16 off Heijdenberg’s pace.
- 🇳🇴 While Hedegart took the crown major congratulations due to Ole Suhrke who took 4th. After a strong second half of the 2025-2026 season I’m very intersted in Surhke this upcoming season. Unfortunately, like Hedegart, the shooting went awry on Friday and Saturday.
- 🇳🇴 Very impressed with Martin Uldal finishing 9th up the climb +2:40 back of Einar Hedegart. Way to go!
Top Competitors
Top Women’s Competitors
| Athlete | Super Sprint Qualifier | Super Sprint Final | Mass Start Quarterfinal | Mass Start Semi Final | Mass Start Final |
| 🇫🇷 Julia Simon | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 🇫🇷 Oceane Michelon | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
| 🇸🇪 Elvira Oeberg | 6 | 6 | 9 | 2 | 1 |
| 🇳🇴 Marthe Johansen | 13 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 7 |
| 🇳🇴 Karoline Knotten | 30 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 3 |
| 🇫🇷 Jeanne Richard | 4 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| 🇳🇴 Une Kvelvane | 5 | 11 | 1 | 5 | 4 |
| 🇵🇱 Joanna Jakiela | 8 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 14 |
| 🇵🇱 Natalia Sidorowicz | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | DNS |
| 🇳🇴 Gro Randby | 14 | DNS | 4 | 4 | 10 |
| 🇦🇹 Tamara Steiner | 27 | DNS | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| 🇫🇷 Justine Braisaz-Bouchet | DNF | DNS | 1 | 4 | 12 |
| 🇳🇴 Silje Berg-Knutsen | 18 | DNS | 3 | 2 | 11 |
| 🇳🇴 Julie Kvelvane | 11 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DNS |
| 🇳🇴 Guro Femsteinevik | 9 | 13 | 3 | 13 | DNS |
Top Men’s Competitors
| Athlete | Super Sprint Qualifier | Super Sprint Final | Mass Start Quarterfinal | Mass Start Semi Final | Mass Start Final |
| 🇳🇴 Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen | 40 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 🇫🇷 Eric Perrot | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| 🇫🇷 Emilien Claude | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| 🇳🇴 Sturla Holm Laegreid | 4 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
| 🇳🇴 Kasper Kalkenberg | 8 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 6 |
| 🇳🇴 Martin Uldal | 16 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| 🇫🇷 Oscar Lombardot | 9 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 14 |
| 🇳🇴 Johannes Dale-Skjevdal | 11 | 13 | 2 | 5 | 9 |
| 🇳🇴 Martin Nevland | 3 | 10 | 2 | 6 | DNS |
| 🇳🇴 Andreas Aas | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | DNS |
| 🇦🇹 Dominic Unterweger | 28 | DNS | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| 🇵🇱 Grzegorz Galica | 32 | DNS | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| 🇦🇹 Patrick Jacob | 45 | DNS | 3 | 3 | 11 |
| 🇦🇹 Lukas Haslinger | 19 | DNS | 1 | 7 | 12 |
| 🇵🇱 Wojciech Skorusa | 7 | 7 | 9 | DNS | DNS |
| 🇵🇱 Marcin Zawol | 6 | 11 | 10 | DNS | DNS |