Biathlon IBU World Cup 2021 - 2022

[heywoodu 15,145]

1 hour ago, NearPup said:

If the  Olympic committee don’t select him then he should absolutely switch to the US. Talk about an NOC being ungrateful, the fact that his selection is even in question is ridiculous. This is an athlete almost any other NOC would be extremely happy to select.

As far as I'm aware, he has already given up, both in biathlon and cross-country, where he would easily have qualified. It sucks, but it comes to show how much certain countries actually value their athletes as a whole.

[heywoodu 15,145]

1 hour ago, Joshi said:

Talking about depth, NZ has a total of 10 biathletes who practice this sport. I mean you can already see why the US biathlon team see him as an absolute freak with the added bonus of being a dual citizen. But you know what if he turns out to be an absolute gem in future olympics and does it for the US and not for NZ because of us snubbing him, you'd think that the NZOC will review their shortcomings. Well you'd like to think so. It's not like we have that many potential Winter Olympic medalists anyway...

And surely New Zealand fans would still cheer for him anyway? Assuming they would be proud of him and not whichever flag he happens to have next to his name  

[Monzanator 4,503]

21 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

As far as I'm aware, he has already given up, both in biathlon and cross-country, where he would easily have qualified. It sucks, but it comes to show how much certain countries actually value their athletes as a whole.

Does NZ care about anything other than rugby & maybe cricket? Poland usually tries to enter as many athletes as possible and nobody really cares whether such athlete has a shot of making Top 16 let alone a medal If he/she makes whatever A or B standard they will be selected no matter what (sometimes it completely backfires as evident by our swimming entry mishaps in the last two SOG).

[Grassmarket 3,409]

1 hour ago, Monzanator said:

Does NZ care about anything other than rugby & maybe cricket? Poland usually tries to enter as many athletes as possible and nobody really cares whether such athlete has a shot of making Top 16 let alone a medal If he/she makes whatever A or B standard they will be selected no matter what (sometimes it completely backfires as evident by our swimming entry mishaps in the last two SOG).

It's rational for a small country to concentrate a limited budget on a few sports.  Cycling, sailing, rowing, equestrian, canoeing,....they get a lot of medals for a 5m population country.   Apart from Alice Robinson, their main hopes are in the freestyle events, so....biathlon is not like athletics or swimming where you can chuck a few people in and hope for the best, it's an expensive commitment.  Similar situation years back with Jakov Fak & . 

[prso1000 662]

I have a question about Latvia and Olympic qualification in male biathlon. 
their doper still appears in the IBU qualifying point list. And will remain within top 10 spots for individuals when it comes to Olympic qualification. As the spot is not given to an athlete but NOC does it mean Latvia will earn a spot thanks to proved doper. 
that is crazy if true. 
 

[dcro 10,210]

8 hours ago, Grassmarket said:

It's rational for a small country to concentrate a limited budget on a few sports.  Cycling, sailing, rowing, equestrian, canoeing,....they get a lot of medals for a 5m population country.   Apart from Alice Robinson, their main hopes are in the freestyle events, so....biathlon is not like athletics or swimming where you can chuck a few people in and hope for the best, it's an expensive commitment.  Similar situation years back with Jakov Fak & . 

It's not that similar. Fak got pampered by our NOC basically more than any other individual athlete. He just made up his mind about the switch and would not yield... at all.

 

And he did not yield because the  Slovenian training camp gave him an ultimatum... Either change nationality or you are out 

[hckošice 14,834]

1 hour ago, prso1000 said:

I have a question about Latvia and Olympic qualification in male biathlon. 
their doper still appears in the IBU qualifying point list. And will remain within top 10 spots for individuals when it comes to Olympic qualification. As the spot is not given to an athlete but NOC does it mean Latvia will earn a spot thanks to proved doper. 
that is crazy if true. 
 

Will be removed for the IBU Individusal Points qualification at the end. His past year results counts for only for the classic olympic qualification (top 20)

[SalamAkhi 317]

10 hours ago, Grassmarket said:

It's rational for a small country to concentrate a limited budget on a few sports.  Cycling, sailing, rowing, equestrian, canoeing,....they get a lot of medals for a 5m population country.   Apart from Alice Robinson, their main hopes are in the freestyle events, so....biathlon is not like athletics or swimming where you can chuck a few people in and hope for the best, it's an expensive commitment.  Similar situation years back with Jakov Fak & . 

But Wright mainly trains in Europe and I don't think his federation provide him that much support, probably financially. But we're not even talking about investing a lot of money in biathlon, we're talking about not putting a spoke in an promising athlete's wheels, more so since this athlete could easily represent another country with more room for improvement.

[dcro 10,210]

Wright may be young, but that's nothing for the NZ standards. Their two medalists from Pyeongchang were both 16 (!) at the time. Alice Robinson is 20 and already has multiple WC wins and is a medal favorite. Wright is far, far away from medal podiums at this point.

 

Okay, not every sport is the same, but maybe NZOC doesn't know any better, or maybe they are just not very impressed by him. 

[RobtheAggie 340]

I would happily have him in the US camp.  No question.  Not sure if he would beat out the top 4 this go around, but he would be in there for the 2026, no question.  A core of Paul Schommer, Jake Brpwm, Cervenka and him ...  I could get hopeful about that group.