Biathlon IBU World Cup 2020 - 2021

[Werloc 3,164]

This season is pretty weird and surprising to me.

 

I've followed and supported Hauser for a while now. I saw her as a young and up and coming star that lead the Austrian women's team, yet Innerhofer somehow got her win, whilst Hauser couldn't get into top 5 for years.

 

I always thought she could get on the podium, she was one of the best shots, but last year I've started wondering if top 10s are her peak and this year she is blowing away all of her critics and even managed her first win.

 

Let's see if there will be more, there's too many one time winners in biathlon, having at least two is much more fun. Lukas Hofer, this is your season.

[JonPhi 250]

Really bad skiing performances from the French and Swedish girls today’s .... especially the Swedish girls getting slower and slower from stage to stage. Skottheim is already out of the team, but the ladies from the IBU Cup are Not That better. 
With 0 mistakes Hanna Oeberg would not had even catched Haused, who had one penalty.

 

Braisaz ist a really Desaster. I was really surprised about her 0 0 0, but then ... She said something like, her rifle was out of control like in the Relay in Oberhof, where her fingers were freezed. Maybe she will not race the relay on Sunday.

 

Chevalier started really quick, but tied up from loop to loop, she said it was very difficult that there was nobody around her. Looks like Simon has a good race followed by a bad race. 

[Werloc 3,164]

2 hours ago, JonPhi said:

Really bad skiing performances from the French and Swedish girls today’s .... especially the Swedish girls getting slower and slower from stage to stage. Skottheim is already out of the team, but the ladies from the IBU Cup are Not That better. 
With 0 mistakes Hanna Oeberg would not had even catched Haused, who had one penalty.

 

Braisaz ist a really Desaster. I was really surprised about her 0 0 0, but then ... She said something like, her rifle was out of control like in the Relay in Oberhof, where her fingers were freezed. Maybe she will not race the relay on Sunday.

 

Chevalier started really quick, but tied up from loop to loop, she said it was very difficult that there was nobody around her. Looks like Simon has a good race followed by a bad race. 

Skottheim's injury was just a lot more serious than it seemed. As for the rest of the Swedish girls, yeah, huge underperformances, Persson looks closest to her actual level right now.

[RobtheAggie 340]

Did anyone else notice a different sound with the shooting?  There was a higher pitch sound as they shot.  Or at least I thought so.  People often say that the last shot in the individual is the hardest.  I wonder if that one, or the relay, or mass start or pursuit is missed the most.  

 

 

[Fly_like_a_don 1,090]

27 minutes ago, RobtheAggie said:

Did anyone else notice a different sound with the shooting?  There was a higher pitch sound as they shot.  Or at least I thought so.  People often say that the last shot in the individual is the hardest.  I wonder if that one, or the relay, or mass start or pursuit is missed the most.  

 

 

Did notice it too. Last shot in all events are hard. Individual and  Sprint especially . Relays at least there are extra 3 targets if not shot within 5.  Pursuit and mass start are head on races so there will be different things in head like has someone completed their shoot or before shooting u see opponents target so the 1st and 2nd shot is more harder. 

[Swewi 382]

9 hours ago, JonPhi said:

Really bad skiing performances from the French and Swedish girls today’s .... especially the Swedish girls getting slower and slower from stage to stage. Skottheim is already out of the team, but the ladies from the IBU Cup are Not That better. 
With 0 mistakes Hanna Oeberg would not had even catched Haused, who had one penalty.

 

Braisaz ist a really Desaster. I was really surprised about her 0 0 0, but then ... She said something like, her rifle was out of control like in the Relay in Oberhof, where her fingers were freezed. Maybe she will not race the relay on Sunday.

 

Chevalier started really quick, but tied up from loop to loop, she said it was very difficult that there was nobody around her. Looks like Simon has a good race followed by a bad race. 

Swedish ski shape looked worse already last weekend and now worse but I can just hope it is the altitude and that they just need a few more days. I don´t know if it is my feeling or a fact that swedes are worse than others to prepare for high altitude. Tour de Ski as example, Ebba Andersson minutes after skiiers she is usually better than in val Mustair and then still finished 3rd in the overall after they travelled to the other venues.

[heywoodu 15,141]

4 hours ago, RobtheAggie said:

There was a higher pitch sound as they shot.  Or at least I thought so. 

Most of the shots sounded normal to me, but yeah there were a few at some point that sounded like a laser or something  

[Grassmarket 3,408]

7 hours ago, RobtheAggie said:

Did anyone else notice a different sound with the shooting?  There was a higher pitch sound as they shot.  Or at least I thought so.  People often say that the last shot in the individual is the hardest.  I wonder if that one, or the relay, or mass start or pursuit is missed the most.  

 

 

Not so much the last shot as such, but the last shot when you are in a medal winning position.  So it’s one of those cases in sports where the normal statistical analysis doesn’t give you the answer. Like baseball players with low batting averages who get ninth inning hits or HRs.

[RobtheAggie 340]

3 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Most of the shots sounded normal to me, but yeah there were a few at some point that sounded like a laser or something  

Thanks for confirming to me that I was not just hearing things.

[heywoodu 15,141]

I'd still like for someone to come up with statistics per shot and statistics per shot for athletes who started with 19 hits and/or who are in with a podium chance, curious to see whether or not there really is a lower average for the last shot(s) - also compared with the other standing shots, since that's harder than prone anyway. Chances are there's not as much of a difference as people think there is, but last-shot misses stay in one's memory way easier