RobtheAggie

Well, frick. One random Austrian away from a perfect prediction 

What a world championships for Felix Leitner btw.

Epic championships from Roeiseland 
 
Although it's sad that Poland missed the medals, you can't deny that Oeberg was the most deserving of a medal form the athletes that have not taken any yet.

IBU announces a 4 year extension of broadcast rights.

well, she's one of the most promising juniors of her age groups...
 
at the recent junior worlds in Switzerland she was 2nd in the Individual race and 3rd in both the Sprint and the Pursuit events...
 
I think she has a bright future ahead of her...hope she's not gonna waste her undoubted talent...

Third PB in as many races for Milena Todorova (17th). She's gonna qualify for the mass start now?
 
It feels like she's scored more points in the last three races then the entire Bulgarian female team since Dafovska's retirement
 
A new low for Synnoeve Solemdal. She finished only 13 secs. ahead of Amanda Lightfoot with the same numbers of misses.

Still think that the 4th shoot in the Individual is the single hardest test in biathlon.  In fact, the 20th shot when you are at 19/19.

I am extremely happy that I managed to fight my way towards two free days to follow the women's and men's individual races live from the comfort of my own home 
 
If the shooting goes well, we can expect some more good results from the Lithuanian team 

What further proof that biathlon is doing well do you need? 

And France and Norway get a Lithuanian to compensate?

Ooooooooor, we could do the original gender relays with 4 women or 4 men, but every single team gets a Norwegian man with the best skis to start at any (1-5th) leg that they see fit and you would draw your Norwegian from the pool just like you draw a bib number in the sprint. 

Yeah in in cross-country skiing the big teams have 50 freaking pairs of skis per athlete and a whole science team of wax technicians behind them. I know it ain't gonna happen, but some sort of cap on the equipment budget would be nice.

Athletes not needing/having their personal rifle would actually be something I'm in favour of. It's such a huge obstacle for smaller nations to even have a decent rifle.

I think I know that fairly well by now  
 
And I get and agree with your point about the pursuits, but it seems like they're adding more and more. IBU Cup gets changed into some sort of testing grounds and even from there qualifying for World Cups is being made harder. It's the only way to qualify though..

They cannot remove pursuits and such, because you needn't forget that IBU cup is not only a qualification competition, but it is also the gateway for younger, less experienced athletes from larger nations such as Norway, Germany, France etc. that would be sent off to the World Cup level, get a 35th place in the sprint and would have 0 pursuit competition experience compared to athletes that have long been on the tour.
 
For example, Lithuanians ALWAYS go backwards in every single pursuit that they participate. Why? Mostly because we never qualify to them, so pacing problems, shooting problems, all of that really can be seen in a technical race such as the pursuit. And most especially that's the only HEAD to HEAD practice if you can't qualify to the mass start and in relays, the second leg from smaller nations is usually already out of it, so you're on the shooting range with two other people at best.
 
Another point is that you can't overcrowd IBU cup with individuals either, because athletes from smaller nations would just die on the course. People lose 7 minutes in the sprint, seeing yourself 22 minutes behind in 104th place would not really inspire you to compete further. 

Me reading this thread:

 
I wonder how we came from everybody was in favour of having more Individuals, to some saying "your generation has destroyed all traditions in winter sports" or "your generation's greatest contribution was doped athletes"? 
 
The internet is indeed a fascinating place...

And no, get those mass start 60's out of the IBU Cup, thank you. And take the pursuits with you out of the IBU Cup. Sprints and individuals as much as possible there, since it's a qualifying level and one can't qualify through pursuits or mass start 60's or supersprint 85's or whatnot.

What a fiesta 
 
My two cents: if anyone removes the individual races from the programme, I'm coming after them with a weapon. 
 
Leave your super sprints and mass starts 60 for the IBU cup, thank you.

Biathlon is a complete niche sport in USA. You used to be right up there in nordic combined too and it's like Steamboat Spring has fallen off the Earth or something now. The rise of freestyle skiing has killed all the traditional winter skiing sports in USA IMO.

In a time trial over a hundred athletes can start.  In a mass start, 60 maximum.  So they’d be getting rid of all the minor countries.

This is the same BS excuse they used to get rid of time trial races in cross country. Now even 10km is a damn mass start there. Totally pathetic.
 
It's 21st century, you got big TV screens in the stadium where you can follow the live results PLUS everyone has a damn smartphone these days where you can follow the live results. IBU's live timing page is a work of art where you can check everything instantly. Don't sell me "people are confused" crap because it's a complete nonsense. It's not 1979 anymore.

Only one standing miss  Too bad the first one was a miss, but very happy she ended biathlon with four hits!

Yeah I m pretty impressed with the girls as well.really excited to see how the sprint preformances go for Vytautas and Karolis particulary. 

Why, exactly? Lotte Lie has a Belgian mother and the others are as Belgian as terrible roads, road signs placed 500 meters after you actually needed them and cyclocross  

Bit of an understatement, apparently every single shot was dead center, which is rather rare (especially in competition) and so the coach had no choice but to make a photo he said  (the magnets can't be put on top of one another, which is why it had to be shown like this)