RobtheAggie

I also saw that this is upcoming as well

European Youth Olympic Games - in  Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Olympic host city Sarajevo & East Sarajevo.

9 to 16 February 2019

I would assume the better athletes will attend the two IBU Junior/Youth events in Sweden and Norway during the Winter University Games, but the European Youth Olympic Games has had some pretty successful people compete.

What age groups normally attend?   Is it college students only?  

Looks like Biathlon will have the following events:

4 March

Individual 

20k

15k

6 March

Sprint

7 March

Pursuit

9 March

Single Mixed Relay

10 March

Mass Start

I agree that Dougherty and his generation are still a few years away from making a real impact on the World Cup.  With the retirement of Lowell Bailey and Tim Burke, Dougherty has been thrust to the head of the US team.  

This is what makes youth/junior Worlds so much fun.  As much as I would love to see Ukaleq Astri Slettemark make a major impact on the Womens biathlon world, it will still be about 5 years before we can see what she will really become.  It does make for a great story.

If youth/junior success was a clear marker of World Cup success, Sean Dougherty should already be challenging for the overall crystal globe.  I have no idea of the statistic, but it would be interesting to see what % of Youth/Junior WC medalists ever make it to the podium at the World Cup Events, let alone the World Championships.

Not sure what happened with Mongolia.  They have 10+3 before they were presumably lapped.  Their first shooter shot 5+0 and 1+0, how does that work?

Just like in 2016 when a bunch of teams did not go to Canmore and Presque Isle, We had some unexpected winners.  With the lead that JT Boe has, I would be very surprised to see him go.  With Fourcade announcing that he will not go, that would make the top 3 not coming if JT Boe decided to not attend.  On the women's side, I would be very surprised to see Laura Dahlmeier competing due to health issues.  

Norway 0+3

Germany 0+3

France 0+6

Top 5 leaving the last shoot

Norway

Germany

France

Poland

Slovenia

Norway has almost a 20 sec lead over Germnay.  France is about 1 min behind Germany.

Finish 

Germany

Slovenia

Italy

After 6th shooting

Germany  0+5

Kazakhstan  0+3

Italy  0+5

Slovenia 1+9 

Ukraine 0+4

2-4 are all together.

48 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

I am not sure whether i should consider youth or junior results more "important". What do you guys think (which results would you put more emphasis on if you had to choose)?

On the one hand junior results are probably more likely to translate, but on the other hand youth results are more important long term and there is always the possibility that some of the best juniors are already good enough to compete in the world cup and therefore don't compete here, making the junior results less "valuable".

Great question.  I see a similar thing with soccer.  U 17 World Cup is a better representation than the U20 World Cup.  By the U20s, there are many players that are already on their National Teams.  They do not compete in the U20s.  The Youth see a similar situation.  Now the Jr's are also more prone to really good days, and really bad days.  One of the challenges that Jr's face is how to make the bad days not that bad.  Or in other words, how to minimize the damage when things are not going right.  This takes time and experience. 

2nd Exchange

Germany

Kazakhstan

Italy

Norway

Slovenia

Top 8 teams all within 1:15. 

Youth Men 3x7.5 running right now.

After 1st exchange, 14 teams within 1:15.  Top 5:

Ukraine

Norway

Germany

Kazakhstan

USA

Love the pictures, thanks.

Greetings all.  Glad to have finally found an active forum that discusses biathlon.  It is hard to find that here in the USA, especially in the South where I live.  I look forward to learning a lot from you guys and sharing my opinion.

Greetings All, first post.

Quick question for all of you.  I am wondering about those who are confirmed that are not going to Canmore or Soldier Hollow.  I think that I have seen that Russia, Belarus and Sweden have said that they are not attending, as well as Martin Foucade.  Are there others that have made the announcement?  Thanks.