RobtheAggie

My fault, it came off the Swiss Olympic Bid out of the potential hosts for 2025 World Championships.

I have wondered with Kaisa retired, does Raubichi replace Kontiolahti as a regular stop on the World Cup. Who knows.

What is interesting though now, the Olympics have at least swung towards a more sustainable model, which Sion and Valais would support more, at least in theory. Sorry for the diversion into Olympic politics. I would love to see the bids. I wonder if Nova Mesto has written into its bid that if they win 2024, they pull out of 2025? I would assume so.

I agree, it is a little odd to see people make almost no noise. I am really looking to Nova Mesto again. That place is loud. My heart says Switzerland, the financials say Minsk. Just my gusses.

In the 1970s-1990s there were lots of Swiss cities that bid for the Winter Olympics. 1928 - St Moritz - Host 1948 - St Mortiz - Host 1960 - St Mortiz - 4th of 4 cities 1976 - Sion - 2nd of 4 cities (Interlaken and Bern also submitted bids to the Swiss Olympic Committee) 2002 - Sion - 3rd of 4 cities 2006 - Sion - 2nd of 2 cities I think that the people of Sion and the canton of Valais are simply tired of being overlooked. I know that they are always seen as a choice that could step up if something happened to another site. Kind of like that girl/boy that you have been friends with forever and have failed to notice that they have become quite a catch, but you always have your eye on someone else. Each of the Sion bids, had the sliding sports in St.Moritz.

So this is what is know upcoming for the World Championships: 2021 - Pokluka, Slovenia 2022 - Beijing, China (Olympic Winter Games) 2023 - Oberhof, Germany 2024 - Looks like Nova Mesto, Czech Republic 2025 - Looks like either Minsk or Lenzerheide Minsk has hosted the World Championships in 1974 (chronicled in the great book about Soviet Biathlon Everyone to Skis), 1982 and 1990. It was the go to spot in the USSR. Switzerland hosted the 2nd Women's World Championship in Egg, near Einsiedein. They have hosted IBU Cup/IBU Junior Cup events multiple times in the past, including a success from Youth/Junior World Championships this past year. Minsk has hosted quite a bit of IBU Cup/European Championships in recent years. They are also on the IBU World Cup circuit in 2022. So I would not be surprised that a they will be rewarded with the World Champs 2025. It would also be a nod towards Russian fans. I personally would love to see Switzerland get it, but if I were a betting man, Mink is awarded it.

Not a surprise but Summer Biathlon World Championships is cancelled IBU Congress rescheduled to 13-15 November 2020 in Prague. Summer Biathlon World Championships in 2021 in Nove Mesto na Morave World Championship bids: 2024: Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic 2025: Lenzerheide, Switzerland; Minsk-Raubichi, Belarus; Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic

Here is another one, I like the quote from Khovantsev: : "Between 2002 and 2014, you could count clean [Russian] biathletes on the fingers of one hand." Ouch, that is pretty all encompassing. Now is this surprising, no.

But for Russia, even that admission is a big one.

Russian officials have finally admitted that doping happened.

That is my guess to. There used to be a website that would show the funniest things that Google Translate would come up with. It was a lot like awkwardfamilyphotos, people would submit the things that were really funny, I am not sure what happened. I think as the technology has improved, the mistakes are not as massive as they once were. The article make me wonder some if she was really serious, or was this an effort to draw more attention to herself. No idea. I

According to this article, Wierer was looking at retirement prior to Covid19. She was too tired. But the forced rest has changed her mind and she will return.

IBU Congress info sent out. Two interesting things that I found the invitation talks about 2024 and 2025 World Championships. Also the minutes from the last conference are interesting to peruse. Links are here.

It looks like Ukraine is going to spend a decent amount of money [2.6 million] to build a new biathlon training center in Yaremche at the Ski Resort of Bukovel.

I wonder if these multi-sport games are going to see an decrease in the amount of cities that want to bid for them. On the major scale, the Olympics are already seeing this, is the same thing happening on the more regional or single issue (Jeux De La Francophonie, Islamic Solidarity, etc) games?

Tero Seppälä has been left off the Finnish national team's training group.

Teja Gregorian has had her results scrubbed from the 2010 Winter Olympics for doping.

Does Special Observed mean IBU Cup? It is interesting to see Bormolini, Sanfillippo and Gontier all replaced by much younger athletes.

One small note - Ukraine saw their Biathlon budget slashed this upcoming season. Also, the big news is that according to this article: "– I WILL PERFORM UNTIL 2026, AND THEN FINISH MY CAREER. I THINK THESE YEARS WILL PASS QUICKLY. MY MOTIVATION IS GETTING STRONGER AND STRONGER EVERY DAY. I THINK THAT THE OLYMPICS IN ITALY IN 2026 WILL BE AMAZING. THERE IS NO QUESTION OF LEAVING EARLIER. 33 YEARS IS THE RIGHT TIME TO END YOUR CAREER. I DO NOT PLAN TO PERFORM UNTIL THE AGE OF 40 AS BJOERNDALEN, ”BO QUOTES TV2." I am not sure why it is all in caps, but that gives two more Olympic cycles (including this one). Could he win 6 more large crystal globes?

Here is some explanation for the lengthy list of Russian athletes on their team. Also, it chronicles what happened to Babikov last year. Also that Yurlova-Percht has considered retirement.

The Martin Fourcade Nordic Festival has been cancelled as France is preventing any athletic events until at least September.

Russia has announced their 24 potential athletes: Men: Dmitry Malyshko, Ilnaz Mukhamedzyanov, Peter Pashchenko, Alex Petrov, Alexander Povarnitsyn, Nikita Porshnev, Yevgeniy Sidorov, Alexey Slepov, Kirill Streltsov, Simon Achilov, Basil Tomshin, Karim Khalili, Yuri Shopin. Women: Tatyana Akimova Anastasia Barkovskaya, Valeria Vasnetsov, Daria Virolainen, Tamara Voronina, Natalia Gerbulov, Ekaterina Glazyrina, Anastasia Egorova, Irina Kazakevich, Elizabeth Caplin, Uliana Kaisheva, Larisa Kuklina, Svetlana Mironova, Ekaterina Moshkova, Anna Nikulina, Eugenia Pavlova, Anastasia Porshnev, Kristina Reztsova, RESEDA sibgatullina, Victoria Slivko, Old Irina, Anastasia Khaliullina, Pauline Chevnina, Ekaterina Yurlova-Part.

Interesting list of people who have retired since the end of the season. There is a decent amount of turnover. List one List two The Swiss will miss Dolder and the US without a Dreissigacker will be interesting. That is a long time family name in biathlon in the US.

What about this place for your your collection - https://ussa.edu/about/robert-block-library/

A few notes from the weekend: Someone put up a can you name the biathlon venues - the challenge is the spelling is in French so maybe they will be spelled slightly different but worth the 10 min to see how well you can do. Speaking of France, apparently the IBU sent the large crystal globe to Fourcade by mistake. USA Biathlon names all of their teams for the upcoming season: - No real surprises on any of the selections for the A teams. National Team A Team Women Susan Dunklee (Barton, Vt.), A1 Clare Egan (Cape Elizabeth, Maine), A2 Joanne Reid (Grand Junction, Colo.), A3 Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, Wis.), A3 Men Leif Nordgren (Hinesburg, Vt.), A1 Sean Doherty (Center Conway, N.H.), A2 Jake Brown (Saint Paul, Minn.), A3 Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis.), A3 B Team Women Maddie Phaneuf (Old Forge, N.Y.) Kelsey Dickinson (Winthrop, Wash.) Hallie Grossman (South Burlington, Vt.) Men Max Durtschi (Ketchum, Idaho) Travis Cooper (Kenai, Alaska) X Team Women Chloe Levins (Rutland, Vt.) Men Zane Fields (Woodstock, Vt.) Luke Brown (Bozeman, Mont.) Junior National Team Vasek Cervenka (Grand Rapids, Minn./ National Guard) Sam Stertz (Grand Rapids, Minn./ Mt. Itasca) Bjorn Westervelt (Stowe, Vt./ Craftsbury) Lars Hammernes Leopold (Lillehammer, Norway/ Asker Ski Club) Garrett Beckrich (Grand Rapids, Minn./ Mt. Itasca) Maxime Germain (Anchorage, Alaska/ Anchorage Biathlon Club) Helen Wilson (Eagle River, Alaska/Anchorage Biathlon Club/UAA)