Biathlon 2019 - 2020 Discussion Thread

[Monzanator 4,499]

announced the A-Team squads for the upcoming season:

 

Men:

 

J.T. Boe

Tarjei Boe

V.S. Christiansen

Erlend Bjoentegaard

Johannes Dale

Sturla Holm Laegreid

 

Women:

 

Tiril Eckhoff

Marte Olsbu Roeiseland

Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold

Emilie Aagheim Kalkenberg

Karoline Offigstad Knotten

Ida Lien

 

Looks like the end of the World Cup road for Lars Helge Birkeland who didn't compete individually after Ruhpolding last season already. I don't see him grinding on the IBU Cup for too long at age 32. Sturla Laegreid takes his place on full-time basis.

 

Following Solemdal's retirement her spot is taken by Ida Lien rather than the more experienced Thekla Brun-Lie and Karoline Erdal. This is a bit of a surprise.

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by Monzanator

[RobtheAggie 340]

Those are two strong teams.  I guess if you know who the best are, just go ahead and announce it.  

[heywoodu 15,135]

I would have been surprised with Brun-Lie in it, but Lien over Erdal? Didn't really see that coming, interesting.

 

And yeah, Birkeland is done for. There's easily five guys who could get a World Cup chance ahead of him who aren't in this list yet.

[RobtheAggie 340]

Maybe Birkeland can find a grandparent from another country so he could switch.  We would take him here in the US.

 

Back to the 1200 shots a day.  Is it a finances thing that Sweden can/is doing this and others do not?  Or is it a methodology.  Just wondering. 

[brunamoura 251]

5 horas atrás, RobtheAggie disse:

Maybe Birkeland can find a grandparent from another country so he could switch.  We would take him here in the US.

 

Back to the 1200 shots a day.  Is it a finances thing that Sweden can/is doing this and others do not?  Or is it a methodology.  Just wondering. 

Every nation/federation gets a list of equipments, clothes and an amount of money from IBU according to the position of the country in the Nations ranking. The highest the country is in this ranking, the more it gets. That includes boxes of ammunitions. Brazil gets around 10.000 ammunitions every season, so we can imagine Sweden gets a lot more (just like Germany, Norway, Italy...). Apart from the boxes of ammunition, the swedish federation (as well as the other high level national federations as from the countries mentioned above) gets good money from its sponsors and IBU, which provides the possibility to afford a very good structure to its athletes (meaning, they can buy as many amnunitions as they need). Apart from being financially able to provide this to the athletes, the swedish federation is very serious when it's about methodology of trainings. I remember when Brazilian federation and swedish federation had a partnership, we could train with them and that was our best period - many shots per day, very specific shooting trainings...

So, we can say that the swedish federation plays hard and with great focus, giving their athletes, in all possible ways, all the structure that they need. 

[Monzanator 4,499]

7 hours ago, heywoodu said:

I would have been surprised with Brun-Lie in it, but Lien over Erdal? Didn't really see that coming, interesting.

 

And yeah, Birkeland is done for. There's easily five guys who could get a World Cup chance ahead of him who aren't in this list yet.

 

The men's B team is:

 

Aleksander Fjeld Andersen

Sivert Guttorm Bakken

Sindre Fjellheim Soils

Sindre Pettersen

Endre Stroemsheim

Vebjoern Soerum

 

Fredrik Gjesbakk & Haavard Bogetveit along with Birkeland didn't even make the second squad.

 

Women's B team:

 

June Arnekleiv

Marthe Krakstad Johansen

Asne Skrede

Anne Bunemann De Besche

Jenny Enodd

Karoline Erdal

 

Brun-Lie is missing so I guess we won't be seeing her again anytime soon either.

[heywoodu 15,135]

5 hours ago, Monzanator said:

The men's B team is:

 

Aleksander Fjeld Andersen

Sivert Guttorm Bakken

Sindre Fjellheim Soils

Sindre Pettersen

Endre Stroemsheim

Vebjoern Soerum

 

Exactly. I'd choose pretty much all of them over Birkeland by now.

 

As for the women, I doubt it'll be long before Skrede gets her chance.

[Gianlu33 4,556]

Khovantsev was fired by Russian federation after that he declared that he wasn't payed since November. Probability the new national coach will be Polkhovsky

[RobtheAggie 340]

On 11/04/2020 at 10:05, Gianlu33 said:

Khovantsev was fired by Russian federation after that he declared that he wasn't payed since November. Probability the new national coach will be Polkhovsky

 

A short article where Khovantsev shares a few thoughts.  One thing that is telling is that he does not shy away from doping.  He insinuates that resent results are partly to blame because athletes who grew up in a doping culture are trying to adjust to a non-world.  In essence, there was a strong doping culture in the Soviet/Russian biathlon team(s).

[Grassmarket 3,406]

33 minutes ago, RobtheAggie said:

 

A short article where Khovantsev shares a few thoughts.  One thing that is telling is that he does not shy away from doping.  He insinuates that resent results are partly to blame because athletes who grew up in a doping culture are trying to adjust to a non-world.  In essence, there was a strong doping culture in the Soviet/Russian biathlon team(s).

It was always my theory that the reason the Russians doped was that they were all brought up on a stupidly macho old-fashioned по-советский harder-and-longer training culture and that doping was the only way mist if them could get through it.