Biathlon IBU World Cup 2021 - 2022

[heywoodu 15,174]

20 hours ago, Monzanator said:

I'm surprised more teams don't try to give citizenship to some of these Norwegians? I mean Lie's mother is Belgian so it wasn't a clear cut buyout but some of those lesser names will be wasted while they could have had some careers representing Belgium or Holland?

The Netherlands only accepts them if they get actively involved in improving the national program and athletes and such. Michael Rösch was first planning to compete for the Netherlands actually, but this is what made him change to Belgium. Good thing for Belgium, because even though he might not have been constantly training in Belgium, it would simply be an outright lie to say he didn't influence Belgian biathlon in a really good way in a matter of a few years. They're of course not front runners, but just the fact that they could realistically compete in World Cup relays with Belgian-born athletes only (so not counting Claude) was unimaginable not very long ago.

 

Although like said before, of course Lotte Lie's situation is not at all comparable with Michael Rösch, who already had had a great career and fell off in his later years, so wanted another option, whereas Lie has had the Belgian nationality literally her entire life.

[Monzanator 4,525]

@heywoodu Why did Charlene Sloof stop competing for Holland though?

[heywoodu 15,174]

9 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

@heywoodu Why did Charlene Sloof stop competing for Holland though?

I would assume several reasons. Both just not at all living in the Netherlands anymore, but also increasing her Olympic chances. That would sound odd, since Sweden is strong*, but presumably getting into the top-5 of Sweden (or so) was more realistic than getting in the top-8 of the World Cup, which the Dutch would surely require.

 

*remember this was still before the Swedish women exploded all of a sudden, that happened a little later  

[Werloc 3,171]

4 hours ago, heywoodu said:

I would assume several reasons. Both just not at all living in the Netherlands anymore, but also increasing her Olympic chances. That would sound odd, since Sweden is strong*, but presumably getting into the top-5 of Sweden (or so) was more realistic than getting in the top-8 of the World Cup, which the Dutch would surely require.

 

*remember this was still before the Swedish women exploded all of a sudden, that happened a little later  

I remember Swedish women banned from entering in Sochi, that was an awful sight. I remember feeling bad for Stroemstedt when she was the leading Swede that season and I think that she retired, because she couldn't go to the OG. Also, right on time with that decision Brorsson became the European pursuit champion, so I felt bad for her too. She beat Roeiseland that day that fell off from 1st place and another very interesting fact was that Padial Hernandez took a double silver for Spain that year and it's crazy to think that she didn't really have any more achievements after that insane 2013/14 season.

[heywoodu 15,174]

10 hours ago, Werloc said:

I remember Swedish women banned from entering in Sochi, that was an awful sight. I remember feeling bad for Stroemstedt when she was the leading Swede that season and I think that she retired, because she couldn't go to the OG. Also, right on time with that decision Brorsson became the European pursuit champion, so I felt bad for her too. She beat Roeiseland that day that fell off from 1st place and another very interesting fact was that Padial Hernandez took a double silver for Spain that year and it's crazy to think that she didn't really have any more achievements after that insane 2013/14 season.

Wow, I had totally forgotten about Padial Hernandez for the past years  Whatever did happen to her? She wasn't a World Cup podium contender or anything, but she surely wasn't half bad!

[rybak 3,222]

10 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Wow, I had totally forgotten about Padial Hernandez for the past years  Whatever did happen to her? She wasn't a World Cup podium contender or anything, but she surely wasn't half bad!

She retired after Pyeongchang due to lack of funds from Spanish federation.

[JonPhi 250]

Most of the  Olympic Athletes will also miss Antholz. They will go to Training in Val Martello.

[JonPhi 250]

Also some of the  Olympic Starters will miss Antholz. Could be Norwegian success days in Antholz.

[RobtheAggie 340]

Belgian Thierry Langer broke his foot during a training session and will miss January.  He is trying to be back for Feb and the Olympics.  I also read that Roseland will skip Anthotz as well.

[RobtheAggie 340]

On 12/29/2021 at 5:33 AM, JonPhi said:

Most of the  Olympic Athletes will also miss Antholz. They will go to Training in Val Martello.

Seems like they will send their B team, so they can still try an maintain their spot in the nations cup race.