Biathlon IBU World Cup 2018 - 2019

[Gianlu33 5,303]

Dorothea won the world cup, amazing news for our sporting moviment! I hope to see the race in the next days..

[phelps 8,337]

3 hours ago, Monzanator said:

 

Wierer was supposed to retire after last Olympics but they convinced her to go until the 2020 WC which will be held in Anterselva. Now I wonder if they convince her to go until the next Olympics? Both Tomasz Sikora & Weronika Nowakowska said there was some extra juice in the Italian team since their coach (P.Favre) joined the French team before the season without a warning so they wanted to prove they can perform without him as well. I guess they did just that.

 

the problems were not with Patrick Favre joining France (it was well known already before the Pyeongchang Olympics that he would eventually leave the squad)...

 

Wierer's feud was with Patrick Obereggen, who literally abandoned the Italian team in the middle of the pre-season trainings to go with the Norwegian women's team...

 

and it was also a man Wierer had a closer (professional) relationship with...from that, things did heat up a bit when the misdemeanor happened, but Doro finally decided not to waste any energy on that and simply chose not to talk to him and of him anymore...

 

and when Obereggen tried to talk with Wierer quite some time after they had those troubles (around the Antholz world cup stage, I read), she just refused even to listen to him...basically she has cancelled him from her life...

[Werloc 3,191]

9 hours ago, heywoodu said:

So, next season, who's gonna fight for the overall win?  

 

Wierer

Vittozzi

Eckhoff

Dahlmeier

Herrmann

Öberg

Roeiseland

Egan

 

Quite some potential.

I don't understand why Egan is on this list. Finished one time on the podium, definitely not enough consistency shown for an overall win. I'd still say that Laura is an easy favourite if she manages to avoid health issues along the way. This year was extremely weak, to be honest, with Laura's health, Makarainen's second half of the season and Kuzmina's lackluster start, I'd say Dorothea got really lucky this year. Even Oeberg could have taken it, though she missed 5 races. Although, putting your money on Sweden might be risky, not knowing how the team will be affected with Wolfgang's retirement. Eckhoff is a bag of nerves and I think a bit too unreliable of an athlete to go for an overall title. If Herrmann keeps up with her training and starts the next season as she finished this one, she is definitely a danger. And if Braisaz manages to fix herself up, perhaps an outside contender?

[Werloc 3,191]

I think this was the smallest amount of points for an overall crystal globe winner ever, of course, not counting Olympic years with three races less (1 got cancelled this season). I did quick research and it adds up, since 2007/08 had a different point system with 50 points for win.

 

Dorothea herself had collected 973 points in a season, where she took 3rd place.

 

I think it's the case of a lot of people being good, but nobody was great, because going over a 1000 is pretty usual in the field.

 

Also, props to Tandrevold who was the only woman alongside Wierer to score points in every race this season.

[Werloc 3,191]

Quickstat:

 

Surprisingly enough, with Johannes being off of the podium only 6 times this year, there were 22 different men to get on the podium (4 for Norway, Germany, France, 2 for Italy, Austria, Russia, Sweden, 1 for Ukraine and Bulgaria).

 

Meanwhile, in a women's competitive season, there were only 21 different women on the podium (5 for Germany, 3 for Norway, 2 for Italy, Slovakia, France, 1 for Sweden, Poland, Ukraine, United States, Russia, Finland and Czech Republic).

[Monzanator 4,798]

5 hours ago, phelps said:

 

the problems were not with Patrick Favre joining France (it was well known already before the Pyeongchang Olympics that he would eventually leave the squad)...

 

Wierer's feud was with Patrick Obereggen, who literally abandoned the Italian team in the middle of the pre-season trainings to go with the Norwegian women's team...

 

and it was also a man Wierer had a closer (professional) relationship with...from that, things did heat up a bit when the misdemeanor happened, but Doro finally decided not to waste any energy on that and simply chose not to talk to him and of him anymore...

 

and when Obereggen tried to talk with Wierer quite some time after they had those troubles (around the Antholz world cup stage, I read), she just refused even to listen to him...basically she has cancelled him from her life...

 

Thx for the correction, Tomasz Sikora talked something about Patrick Favre for a while so I couldn't tell whether it was him or someone else. Then again why talk about the men's coaches during the women's races?

[heywoodu 16,060]

6 hours ago, Werloc said:

I don't understand why Egan is on this list. Finished one time on the podium, definitely not enough consistency shown for an overall win. I'd still say that Laura is an easy favourite if she manages to avoid health issues along the way. This year was extremely weak, to be honest, with Laura's health, Makarainen's second half of the season and Kuzmina's lackluster start, I'd say Dorothea got really lucky this year. Even Oeberg could have taken it, though she missed 5 races. Although, putting your money on Sweden might be risky, not knowing how the team will be affected with Wolfgang's retirement. Eckhoff is a bag of nerves and I think a bit too unreliable of an athlete to go for an overall title. If Herrmann keeps up with her training and starts the next season as she finished this one, she is definitely a danger. And if Braisaz manages to fix herself up, perhaps an outside contender?

Mostly because she had a breakthrough season (already before yesterday) and improved so much she could be an outside contender if she keeps on improving. However, much to my shock I just noticed she is already 31 instead of, what I thought, somewhere around 24-25   So yeah, less of an outside chance than I thought.

Edited March 25, 2019 by heywoodu

[RobtheAggie 340]

From an American perspective the growth of Clair Egan and Joanna Reid were great surprises.  Susan Dunklee had a very inconsistent season.  By finishing 13th in the Nations Cup, they will be able to have 4 in each race, this should help.  Now there is some good younger athletes, but I doubt that Dunklee and Egan will still be racing when they get to the IBU World Cup.

 

On the men's side, the retirement of Lowell Bailey and Tim Burke were always going to cause a massive drop off.  They dropped from 13th to 15th in the Nations Cup, but they missed the two athletes who is they shot well, had the ski speed to both be in the top 10.  Sean Doherty finished in 25th overall, with Nordgren in 57th.  Doherty finished the season with some good results, possibly a sign of his potential and realty getting closer.  Jake Brown did ok, Max Durtschi as well. For the team to improve, Doherty needs to become a top 20 athlete,  Nordgren top 40, and two more need to develop into legitimate contenders for top 60.     

[heywoodu 16,060]

Doherty has always shown the potential to be a top-20 athlete and this season it has started to come out more and more often. I'd be pretty confident in his improvements  

[RobtheAggie 340]

I think that both Doherty and Egan next season can be top 20.  Dunklee could, if she regains some consistency, top 30 is more likely.  As stated above, better than expected on the women's side, about what was expected on the men's side.