Biathlon IBU World Cup 2022 - 2023

[OlympicsFan 858]

Now that Eckhoff (29 wins, 5th all-time), Roiseland (19 wins, 14th all-time) and Hermann (12 wins, 21st all-time) have retired, the currently active women with the most wins are Wierer (16 wins, 17th all-time), H. Öberg (10 wins, 25th all-time) and Simon (8 wins, 29th all-time). Pretty crazy that there are only 2 women with at least 10 world cup wins. Also for reference: Boe had 16 wins just this season!

Forsberg, despite her short career, has the record with "only" 42 wins. Neuner, despite retiring only 1 month after turning 25, is second with 34 wins. There are 4 men with more than 42 wins. If someone like E. Öberg would become more consistent and compete into her thirties, she could completely smash Forsberg's record.

[RobtheAggie 340]

13 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

You are probably right. Of course Belarus/Russia could challenge them, but i don't think those nations will be allowed to come back next season. In the women's nations cup the point difference between France in first (7713) and Italy in fifth (7210) is smaller than difference between Italy and Switzerland (6435) in 6th. Czech Republic/Ukraine/Belarus/Russia all used to be very competitive. In 2020/2021 Belarus/Russia/Ukraine were 5th/6th/7th in the nations cup and the Czech Republic was 5th in the nations cup last season. I think only the Czech Republic could break into the top 5, probably by replacing Norway/Germany. Sweden/France/Italy (unless Wierer retires) all have multiple athletes who can make the podium. Norway has a better number 1 option (Tandrevold) than Germany, but Germany probably has better depth/potential. I am not sure if Slovenia could be a surprise challenger, even Lampic breaking through might not be enough.

The US had a chance to keep their 5th spot for next season, but lots of illness and injuries limited Joanne Reid and Deedra Irwin to only a few starts.  One question that remains to be seen is when Russia and Belarus finally do get a chance to race again, and I do not think that it will happen next season, where will they start?  Will they start with 0 team points, thus only a few start spots?  It will be interesting to see.

 

I think that we will see a few more retirements prior to the end of the summer.  There seem to always be a few that decide after the month of April where they all take a break that it is not worth it to go again.  

 

 

[JonPhi 250]

Frenchmen with catastrophic skis, that can make Julia Simon's weekend a drama.

[OlympicsFan 858]

The norwegian men make biathlon/cross-country skiing incredibly boring. If FIS/IBU would be interested in a good product, they would limit their spots + introduce a rule that everyone has to use the same material.

[JonPhi 250]

Going to be a very very long Women's Sprint tomorrow, at least until Bib 90

https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/2223/BT/SWRL/CP09/SWSP/C51A_v1.pdf

[FireRun 191]

20 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

You are probably right. Of course Belarus/Russia could challenge them, but i don't think those nations will be allowed to come back next season. In the women's nations cup the point difference between France in first (7713) and Italy in fifth (7210) is smaller than difference between Italy and Switzerland (6435) in 6th. Czech Republic/Ukraine/Belarus/Russia all used to be very competitive. In 2020/2021 Belarus/Russia/Ukraine were 5th/6th/7th in the nations cup and the Czech Republic was 5th in the nations cup last season. I think only the Czech Republic could break into the top 5, probably by replacing Norway/Germany. Sweden/France/Italy (unless Wierer retires) all have multiple athletes who can make the podium. Norway has a better number 1 option (Tandrevold) than Germany, but Germany probably has better depth/potential. I am not sure if Slovenia could be a surprise challenger, even Lampic breaking through might not be enough.

Lampič can become good for sure, but I'm not expecting much. We don't really have a good track record when it comes to cross country > biathlon switch. We had a lot of them over the years and nobody really became a contender. They were lucky if they scored points. I'm sure Anamarija will improve her standing shooting, but by how much? And how will this affect her skiing time. I mean since December she hasn't been at her best in that area. The good thing is that at least we have Polona Klemenčič who seems to have had a massive improvement this season and can already fight for the top 10. 

[OlympicsFan 858]

2 hours ago, JonPhi said:

Going to be a very very long Women's Sprint tomorrow, at least until Bib 90

https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/2223/BT/SWRL/CP09/SWSP/C51A_v1.pdf

Excited to see what Grotian can do. She probably won't be at her best after all the traveling + focusing on the junior world championships, but let's see.

[JonPhi 250]

16 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

The norwegian men make biathlon/cross-country skiing incredibly boring. If FIS/IBU would be interested in a good product, they would limit their spots + introduce a rule that everyone has to use the same material.

The FIS will intervene drastically for the first time on Tuesday at the City Sprint in Tallinn. There will be a first approach towards equal conditions for all.

https://www.nrk.no/sport/testar-ut-felles-smorjing-i-langrenn---utlendingane-jublar-over-nytt-grep-mot-norsk-dominans-1.16336009

[BlueWhiteJerry 20]

Why must athletes' careers be so short  It sometimes feel like they've just come into their prime...and boom, they're retiring. 

 

I don't wanna manifest anything, but if I had to guess as to the retirements on the men's side, seems Fak or Eder are most likely. Serafin Wiestner  is also confirmed retiring.

[heywoodu 15,124]

1 hour ago, JonPhi said:

The FIS will intervene drastically for the first time on Tuesday at the City Sprint in Tallinn. There will be a first approach towards equal conditions for all.

https://www.nrk.no/sport/testar-ut-felles-smorjing-i-langrenn---utlendingane-jublar-over-nytt-grep-mot-norsk-dominans-1.16336009

This is some of the very best news ever in cross-country skiing, something that should be adopted on a large scale!

 

Next thing is to somehow limit the number of skis per athlete for a competition. It is bullshit for top athletes to have the option of 40-50 pairs (!) of skis per race, that immediately neutralizes any chance anyone from any less rich nation has to ever be competitive.

 

Great step with the wax though! In Planica the race organizer already limited some of the resources they could bring. Like, Norway wanted to bring three equipment trucks for stuff like waxing, which is way way over the top of course, so they were only allowed to park one  

 

Edit: a bit further reading, and athletes can register 2 pairs of skis for the race the day before! I guess they can still bring a gazillion and then choose 2, but still, that's a good step!

Edited March 17, 2023 by heywoodu