RobtheAggie

Was this a short individual? The men had a good top three grouping. Looks like Claude and Guigonnat missed one or two more shots. It is good to see Anais Bescond with a good performane. I love talking about actual races!

So thoughts after watching the Swedish races: 1. Estonia women might surprise some people this season. They have been getting better each season, and they looked good. 2. Stina Nilsson will have a learning curve, but I think that she will do fine. 3. I would love a few of those lesser-known Swedish women on the US team. I am sure that some of them have a relative in the US! I love the fact that Switzerland won the 2025 bid.

I think that with Stina Nilsson in the race, a few more people may tune in than normal. I will watch it later that night, I will be at my cross country team's national championship during the race.

I wonder if they realize that some people might really want to watch the races.

Swedish coach talking about Stina Nilsson. IBU Congress agenda has been announced from 13-15 November has been announced. The major item that has been omitted is that the Russian Biathlon Union’s membership status is not currently scheduled to be discussed. Other items included - 1. A vote for the 2024 and 2025 World Championships hosts will be among the main items on the agenda at the Congress. Nové Město na Moravě in the Czech Republic is the only candidate for the 2024 event and is set to be rubber-stamped as the host at the Congress. Lenzerheide in Switzerland and Minsk-Raubichi in Belarus are vying for the right to host the 2025 World Championships. 2. A report from the External Review Commission, established by IBU President Olle Dahlin to investigate allegations from the past. 3. Annual reports from the IBU’s Vetting Panel and the Biathlon Integrity Unit Board, as well as financial forecast and updated budget proposals. 4. Seat on the IBU's ruling Executive Board is up for grabs at the Congress after Poland's Dagmara Gerasimuk stood down. Gerasimuk relinquished her role on the Executive Board after becoming the IBU's development director.

Just for fun - https://www.biathlonworld.com/news/detail/20-days-to-go-can-you-guess

A little more about the Canadian trials here. The best quote of the article - “Obviously, with no crowd, which will be weird for Europe but for us Canadians that’s a pretty normal at-home experience, so we have that advantage,” said Beaudry. “We’re not like the French team, who usually have a spectators and their summer roller ski races.”

Canada had their 2nd day of trials for the World Cup team. Results are here.

Significant news today: Oberhof will not have any spectators. Antholtz will not have any spectators. The race is Sjusjöen has been cancelled. In the excitement that a race actually happens, a local race in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory actually happened! I wonder if the first races in Finland and Austria will follow the lead of Germany and Italy.

This article is specifically about the US, but it does talk about many of the COVID protocols that are in place for the upcoming IBU season. "The IBU will announce any changes to the third-trimester schedule by the end of November." "...the IBU has asked their other calendared venues to be prepared in case events need to be relocated." Former Russian Biathlon President Alexander Kravtsov is under house arrest due to his involvement in an embezzlement case. He is not to have any communication with anyone outside a very small group of lawyers and close family members. Here is an interesting piece that is obviously run through google translator, but does shed some light on this season. I wonder if those teams who did get a high altitude camp this summer/fall will be more successful this year and at the Olympics.

Czech biathlete Jessica Jislová is in quarantine and will not join the team in Sweden until later. Here is the Czech team that is making the trip: Women: Markéta Davidová Lucie Charvátová Eva Puskarčíková Jessica Jislová Tereza Vinklárková Tereza Voborníková Klára Polednová Petra Suchá Men: Michal Krčmář Ondřej Moravec Jakub Štvrtecký Adam Václavík Tomáš Krupčík Milan Žemlička Vítězslav Hornig Mikuláš Karlík Tomáš Mikyska Jonas Marecek

Some more random news: 1. Latvia - The team as to have a training camp in Italy, but that was changed to Sweden. 2. Sebastian Samuelsson spoke out on the way the IBU has handled the schedule and how is had questions about the way FIS has handled theirs.

A few random news and notes: 1. The US training camp scheduled for Austria has been moved to Finland. 2. Loginov who has been training on his own will join the Russian team on 8 November. "Karim Khalili is expected to join Loginov at the final part of the team’s training camp on November 8, while Eliseev is due to continue training alone until the World Cup season begins on November 27 in Finland." 3. Tandervold had a terrible Rollerski event in Voss in September, has spoken out about what happened. How bad was it? She had a 40% hit rate!

Nice little teaser from the good people at Biathlon Live

I agree. The one thing that it does though is push back her potential start until January due to the changes in the IBU Cup schedule. I assume that there would be some events in Norway, Sweden or Finland that she could ski in as well.

Stina Nilsson will not be on the initial WC team.

A really good article in the New York Times about Ustyugov. It is very rare for biathlon to get into such a major newspaper in the US. Ukrainian former junior world champion Julia Zhuravokova has announced that she is execrating a baby. From this article, it looks like she is still planning on racing this season. Is seems that after a successful IBU Cup season last year, she would have been pushing for WC spots this year.

#Legend could easily apply to both biathletes. It is interesting that OEB would get one more which brings his total up to 14 total (8 gold), while this does not change the total number of medals for Fourcade it does bring him up to 6 Gold. Both amazing biathletes.

2010 readjusted medals: Men's Mass Start 1. Martin Fourcade - France 2. Pavol Hurajt - Slovakia 3. Christoph Sumann - Austria Men's Relay 1. Norway 2. Austria 3. Sweden 2014 Readjusted medals Men's Relay 1. Germany 2. Austria 3. Norway Ole Einar Bjorndalen now gets another Olympic medal out of this.

Ustyugov's appeal was denied and is stripped of his 2010 and 2014 medals. Ustyuov won mass start gold and relay bronze at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. He also won gold in the men’s 4x7.5 kilometers relay event at Sochi 2014. The British Biathlon Team hired two new coaches. Iris Pessey is the new Junior Coach, Martin Watkins is the new BBU Development Coach.

That is a lot of people in a very small space. It is expected to be all alpine resorts or will the regular chairlifts be open. We could see a substantial surge of people involved in Nordic Skiing.

The Canmore area expects a 20% increase in nordic skiing and biathlon participation this winter. I have heard similar things from other areas here in the US. Nordic skiing feels safer than many other activities in a COVID world. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a world wide trend, or a localized one.

The first one is only 3 min long, but it is painful. It is from the 2012 Winter Olympics, and they really think that they are funny.

CAS appeal for Ustyugov and Sleptsova is delayed due to COVID. This is possible the most cringe-worthy biathlon thing I have ever heard. I guess they think they are funny. It is dated, but a representation of what fans of biathlon face in the US and Canada. While this is a really good interview with an 50ish biathlete in the US about starting the sport, and all of the positives. What a difference in the two.

The US has announced a 12 person roster for an on the snow camp in Austria that will start in early November. Women's Team Susan Dunklee (Barton, Vt.) Clare Egan (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) Joanne Reid (Grand Junction, Colo.) Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, Wis.) Chloe Levins (Rutland, Vt.) Maddie Phaneuf (Old Forge, N.Y.) Men's Team Leif Nordgren (Hinesburg, Vt.) Sean Doherty (Center Conway, N.H.) Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis.) Jake Brown (Saint Paul, Minn.) Max Durtschi (Ketchum, Idaho) Vaclev Cervenka (Grand Rapids, Minn.) It is nice to see Phanuf back in the group. She has had a very public fight with mental illness due in part to getting sick at the 2018 Olympics and not being able to race. It will be interesting to see who gets the 4th spot for the women's team for the relay. Do they go with Levins who is the projected future, or with Irwin or Phaneuf? The Men's team have two solid biathletes, then it is wide open.