RobtheAggie

I was wondering the same thing. Are the slots simply gone, or will someone else get them? Who knows.

Youth Olympic teams that have been announced as of October: United States Women Kaisa Bosek – Alexandria, Minn. (Age 16) Maja Lapkass – Anchorage, Alaska (Age 16) Lexie Madigan – Truckee, Calif (Age 17) Men Etienne Bordes – Tahoe City, Calif. (Age 16) Van Ledger – Lake Placid, N.Y. (Age16) Cale Woods – Bozeman, Mont. (Age 16) New Zealand Men Campbell Wright - Lake Hawea (Age 17)

Bo responds, sort of to this announcement. Boe believes Fourcade is a rejuvenated force and he is excited to do battle with him once more. "From what he showed this summer, his physique, his attitudes, I think he's ready to go back to battle." Boe told TV2. “After a not very positive season, he's probably driven by new feelings. " He will probably want to show everyone that he can beat me again. " “It will be good for the public, the TV, a little less for us because we hate to lose both, I hope we will have this beautiful duel.” Boe also confirmed that he will probably miss one or two meets early in 2020 as he prepares to become a father for the first time. "For me it's very important to be present when our child is born, these are moments I do not want to miss. "I am convinced to come back even stronger, being father will probably give me extra motivation for the future." That should open the door as well if he does miss say the German meets.

So, this is a very interesting article about improvements in International sports organizations. "It should be noted in all fairness that the IBU following criminal investigations and exchange of the top leadership in the spring of 2018, has embarked on a reform process that was not yet completed by the time of the SGO benchmarking." I hope these numbers improve. I wonder why the societal responsibility is so low?

Should we have a lower-level thread as well? It could include Norwegian races, NorAm Cup, National Championships, etc? Also there normally is a Youth thread correct?

Yeah, the real thread!!! Just under 2 months left prior to the season.

Interesting article about the Norwegians who are helping China get ready for the Winter Olympics.

It is funny that we are talking about Fourcade like he is an also-ran. Yes by his amazing standards it was a bad season. But look what he did do. 12th in Overall points standings 11th in Sprint points standings 10th in Pursuit standings 12th in Individual standings 3 wins 2 2nd 1 3rd 5 4th As a fan of US Biathlon, this would be awesome to have a US biathlete doing this well. The key is that it is Martin Fourcade we are talking about. If this season does not go well for him, by his standards, I can see him exiting as one of the most accomplished biathletes ever. If JTB continues to develop, which is crazy to think that he can still get better, the gap might be too much for Fourcade to want to compete for 2nd place. He is learning what so many people though of when he was at his prime.

So the newly announce Premier event of the season, the first event that is not the first round of the World Cup, but is, will be split hosted by Östersund and Kontiolahti. I am not sure what these events will look like, or if they will accrue World Cup points. They start in 2020.

Fourcade announces that this could be his last season. He will assess how things are in April 2020 to determine if he tries for the 2022 Olympics.

I also like that Samuelsson has been pretty direct about this. It is interesting to see the difference from a few years ago. Many people criticized Lowel Bailey and others for calling for Russian athletes to be suspended. Now there are much fewer protests.

She will be missed. Here is an article about it. Sebastian Samuelsson has had some very strong words about what should happen to Russian athletes. “New data on the manipulation of doping samples in the Moscow laboratory leave no other choice. Russian sport should be radically cleared. RUSADA must be disqualified as soon as possible. The Russian team should be denied access to international competitions.” “Even the head of WADA, Craig Reedy, admitted that Russia got off too easily. I believe that WADA violated its own rules by restoring RUSADA.” Former Austrian biathlete Wolfgang Perne has died. He was the first Austrian Olympic medalist in Biathlon, but was later found to dope.

Nice little article about Chloe Levins. Quite impressive. Also, the Korean Olympic Committee has announced its plans for PyeongChang. Pretty ambitious. They are bidding for the next Youth Olympic Games - 2024 Also, they are contemplating a combined bid for 2032 (summer) and 2034 (winter) with North Korea. The Nordic and Biathlon areas will be the same courses and the Olympics. They are also going to try and get FIS Nordic races, and IBU races. As I mentioned, I would love an IBU Cup swing of Nagano, PyeongChang, Beijing, and then Almaty. That would be really neat.

Youth Olympic Games 2020 Schedule is out Biathlon Saturday, January 11 10:30 - 12:05 Women’s Individual Competition 10km 13:30 - 15:15 Men’s Individual Competition 12.5km Sunday, January 12 10:30 - 11:40 Single Mixed Relay Tuesday, January 14 10:30 - 11:55 Women’s Sprint 6km 13:30 - 15:00 Men’s Sprint7.5km Wednesday, January 15 10:30 - 12:35 Mixed Relay

I was wondering how someone could fail three tests and finally get banned. Missed makes so much more sense.

So today there is quite an assortment of random things to mention: Mount Van Hoevenberg at Lake Placid, NY is in the news again. There is an extensive renovation taking place at the 1980 Olympic Facility for the upcoming World University Games. The Biathlon complex has undergone quite a bit of work this summer and will continue into next year. There have been some challenges to what is going on by environmental groups. But this one is different. Apparently the New York State Police have been using the Biathlon range for their annual firearms training. Some neighbors say that it was semi-automatic firearms that were used. Not sure how one could use a semi-automatic weapon on a Biathlon range, it would destroy the targets. Speaking of environmental issues, Maddie Phaneuf, who by the way has a very interesting story about battling depression sparked by getting sick at the Olympic Games, spoke recently at the University of New Hampshire about how climate change is affecting biathlon. Miriam Neureuthe (nee Gössner) had been trying to compete in only nordic skiing, but has finally announced her retirement from competitive sports. She never recovered from the cycling accident, and could not make it past the domestic team for Germany in Nordic skiing. Although a little old, here is a book review of Everyone to Skis: skiing in Russia and the rise of Soviet biathlon. I have read it and it is a pretty good read. It also give some insight into the culture where the use of illegal drugs would have been possible. Margarita Vasileva has been suspended by the IBU for failing 3 doping tests over the past 12 months. Odd that it takes three failures to get suspended. She is suspended for 18 months.

So Craftsbury, VT is building a new 15 point firing range. Which is good to see. They are also paving trails for rollerskiing. One thing this does beg the question of is what is the cost 15 vs 30 slots? I know it would not be double. Just curious. I can not wait for snow!

2021 World Championships "Officially" awarded to Slovenia. One thing that I did not know: "It will not be the largest world championships by the number of spectators, but it will be certainly be remembered, as the venue stands in the middle of the Triglav National Park," said Tomaž Šušteršič, the secretary general of the organizing committee. I had no idea that Pokljuka was in a National Park.

I would have also thought they would have thrown a ton of money at either Wolfgang Pickler or Siegfried Mazet, I guess that is what I was talking about. I will be very interested to see how these two work as coaches. With almost no coaching experience, that is a lot of pressure of over 1 billion people. No idea about Torgersen with the IBU Cup team.

In the, we should have seen this coming department ... China has hired two very famous former biathletes to be their men's and women's coaches in the run-up to the 2022 Olympic Games. Ole Einar Bjørndalen will coach the men and his wife Darya Domracheva will coach the women. Also, some nice pictures here. My favorites: and this one.

I am sorry that I missed this earlier in the week. Condolences to the friends and family of triple Olympic Champion Halvard Hanevold who died. You can find a few of his exploits on Youtube.

Men's Mass Start for the Martin Fourcade Nordic Festival Women's Mass Start for the Martin Fourcade Nordic Festival Very nice write-up at the IBU website. Anncey is a very pretty place if you have never been there. Worth the trip. Also, Russia will not be reinstated as a full member of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) at the organisation's Extraordinary Congress next month.

I saw this, but decided not to post it. I wonder how they will perform on the larger stage. Lowell Bailey and Tim Burke, if given enough time will help out a lot. I saw something today about the overall decline of youth in the US involved in HS sports. On a document found here, there are only 9,959 doing Nordic Skiing in HS. Now I know the level in HS is suspect, and the the more elite skiers often skip HS and do club only, but to understand that puts it on par with Dance. More info on page 10, it gives a breakdown on HS and participants by state.

Although late, Darya Domracheva of Belarus has been awarded the women's pursuit title from the 2014/2015. Ekaterina Glazyrina's results were disqualified.

I wonder if the IBU is mad that the Martin Fourcade event and Blink get a better line-up than the IBU summer Championships?