Werloc

Sweden is very strict with their team this year. They gave Hogberg and Andersson one chance this year even though they have been breezing through the ibu cup this season. I still think that Hogberg would be a better bet than Nilsson and perhaps Magnusson as well.

We often forget how many outside factors actually impact the athletes that we see on TV, one of the biggest factors why it is difficult to see a stable progression from junior-to-senior is the unexpected thing that we call life. Some athletes don't have good training conditions (especially in smaller Biathlon nations, it is easier to win with talent when you are younger, but senior level is all about infrastructure) Some athletes are full time government supported athletes, other athletes support themselves or their families with additional jobs, leaving them with less energy or less frequent training Some great athletes are stopped by multiple injuries, they miss seasons of training etc. Some athletes lose motivation, we have to remember that we're talking about young indecisive people. I am 24 and I still sometimes have no idea what I am doing and here we are talking about 20-22 year olds at university. Training staff - some training staff can bring the best out of their athletes, some just have a reputation of not producing the best from their athletes. Best example: Sweden under Pichler and how atrociously bad Sweden was without Pichler. And these are only some of the factors, there are a lot more, because every single journey is different and every single problem affects every individual in different ways.

She was on her way towards good results, but she missed an entire season, I assume to injury? Edit: as for showing talent, it is a positive thing for most athletes, but quite detrimental to some. When you easily beat everyone around your age and are immediately thrust into senior environment with 70th-80th places, some people are motivated through it and some people don't work hard enough and quit.

Well, that's a problem that every sport has. My friend is extremely cynical towards results in younger categories, because a massive amount of athletes drop out after they finish school or after they finish university, because that's when you have to get a job and have to support yourself and many people don't see sports as a reliable way to support yourself.

Well, if we're looking at this situation that straightforwardly, then it means that every single junior world champion still needs to beat the other 12-20 junior world champions from earlier years as well to get their hands on that overall crystal globe At this very moment, it is Wierer beating: Davidova Oeberg Vasnetcova Zhurakov Pavlova Frolina Bankes Zuk Dahlmeier and Johannes is destroying: Kuehn Eder Leitner Desthieux Hofer Loginov Slesingr Pettersen Roesch Doherty Claude Latypov Surprisingly enough, there is only one athlete in this junior world champion list that actually has an overall crystal globe and I guess that should be a nice tell how much impact that title does have to your success. It all depends on the character and on the training. Makarainen was a horrible junior, but she had character.

Yup, that is felt even more in our team, when we don't even have enough athletes to fill the three cups, not even the 3 starter positions for the women's world cup... Every single one of our successful juniors have not really made an impact in senior biathlon, sadly.

Oh my goodness... This is priceless. Will she attend the 60th annual potato pancake festival in 2022?

So, since we sparked the discussion, I thought I would look this up for funsies: How many junior category medalists we actually lost in Biathlon since 2009/10 season 2010 Yann Guigonnet (France) - individual gold (quit in 2015) Michael Galassi (Italy) - individual silver (quit in 2013) Tom Barth (Germany) - individual bronze, sprint bronze (quit in 2013) Reka Forika (Romania) - individual gold (quit in 2016) Leslie Mercier (France) - individual bronze) (quit in 2011) Evgeny Petrov (Russia) - sprint gold, pursuit bronze (quit in 2011) Manuel Muller (Germany) - sprint silver, pursuit gold (quit in 2011) Sophie Boilley (France) - sprint silver, pursuit gold (quit in 2015) Vladimir Alenishko (Russia) - pursuit silver (quit in 2014) Nastassia Kalina (Russia) - pursuit silver (quit in 2015) 2011 Aleksandra Alikina (Russia) - sprint silver, pursuit silver (quit in 2013) Tom Barth (Germany) - sprint gold, pursuit bronze (quit in 2013) Ludwig Ehrhart (France) - sprint bronze, pursuit silver (quit in 2012) Nikolay Yakushov (Russia) - individual bronze (quit in 2012) Florie Vigneron (France) - individual bronze (quit in 2011) 2012 Elena Badanina (Russia) - individual bronze (quit in 2013) Kurtis Wenzel (Canada) - individual gold (quit in 2013) Marius Hol (Norway) - individual silver (quit in 2012) Elena Ankudinova (Russia) - sprint gold (quit in 2015) 2013 Dino Butkovic (Croatia) - individual silver (quit in 2014) 2014 Jarle Gjoerven (Norway) - pursuit silver (quit in 2014) Dany Chavoutier (France) - individual bronze (quit in 2014) 2015 Aleksandr Dediukhin (Russia) - individual silver, sprint gold (quit in 2015) Vemund Gurigard (Norway) - individual bronze, sprint silver (quit in 2015) Lena Arnaud (France) - sprint gold (quit in 2018) 2016 Susanna Kurzthaler (Austria) - individual gold (quit in 2016) Andrea Baretto (Italy) - individual silver (quit in 2017) 2017 Nikita Lobastov (Russia) - individual bronze (quit in 2018) Kirill Streltsov (Russia) - sprint silver (quit in 2018) 2018 Sturla Laegreid (Norway) - individual silver (quit in 2018) Sverre Aspenes (Norway) - sprint bronze, pursuit gold (quit in 2018) A lot of these cases, the juniors dropped the sport mostly after the junior championships, some of them trying a couple of IBU races. A lot of Russians and Norwegians, I think some might have quit since it's very hard making the team and most of others left the sport, because it was their hobby and they did not want that as a career after university. Lastly, a lot of them are medalists from the individual race. Sidenote: Tom Barth looked like he had a lot of potential.

Especially with the fact that not every single winner is destined for crystal globes, but when you see someone special, you just know. For example, Laura Dahlmeier's relay performance demonstrated that she is a winner and that she will be big.

Well, you cannot expect immediate success from junior level. Especially if you're Norwegian, French, Russian, German etc. when it takes you years & years to even get on board on the world cup team. There's also the phenomenon where in some years, the biathletes are not as strong, so it's easier to win. I have been looking back at a lot of statistics, following how many Youth & Junior biathletes actually end up achieving success and what is interesting, is that it's usually the hard-working athletes that just don't quit that end up making it further with a lot of those prior winners simply ending their sports careers for different opportunities in life or other reasons. In the case of Doherty, barely any biathletes from his age group have started in the world cup. Emillien Jacquelin comes to mind. Felix Leitner from Austria is slowly moving up the ranks. Pettersen going through the Norwegian ranks, Ponsiluoma sneaking a surprise podium for Sweden in the world cup. After that, there are some that are starting in the world cup from small teams and a few that are stuck at ibu cup level. Looking at the stats of this generation, Doherty still needs a couple of years to produce his best results.

This comment feels so familiar... Even if we have athletes that are talented in youth & junior level, we are always left behind in the senior level

Well, not the most successful race for our boys. Linas missed a bit too much and Nikita still needs to put in a lot of work with the ski speed. Other than that, this still looks like one of the most successful Youth & Junior championships for us with the worst performance of 41st place up to now.

Well, everyone that knows me on the forum probably knows that I love stats and I love going back in time, so this time I was considering who is still active in the world cup from the previous winners that haven't won a race in a while and how long it's been since their success. I think that is fairly interesting, so let's start with the women: Anna Frolina - - 2008/09 - Antholz - Pursuit (1) Magdalena Gwizdon - - 2012/13 - Sochi - Sprint (2) Selina Gasparin - - 2013/14 - Hochfilzen - Sprint (2) Synnoeve Solemdal - - 2013/14 - Hochfilzen - Pursuit (2) Anais Bescond - - 2013/14 - Antholz - Sprint (1) Katharina Innerhofer - - 2013/14 - Pokljuka - Sprint (1) Veronika Vitkova - - 2014/15 - Oberhof - Sprint (1) Valj Semerenko - - 2014/15 - Kontiolahti - Mass Start (2) Franziska Hildebrand - - 2015/16 - Rupholding - Sprint (2) Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht - - 2015/16 - Antholz - Pursuit (2) Olena Pidrushina - - 2015/16 - Canmore - Sprint (2) Anais Chevalier - - 2016/17 - Nove Mesto - Pursuit (1) Nadine Horchler - - 2016/17 - Antholz - Mass Start (1) Denise Herrmann - - 2017/18 - Ostersund - Pursuit (2) Justine Braisaz - - 2017/18 - Annecy - Mass Start (1) Tiril Eckhoff - - 2017/18 - Antholz - Sprint (5) Vanessa Hinz - - 2017/18 - Kontiolahti - Mass Start (1) Well, you can mostly see a pattern that the athletes won only once or twice in their career, a lot of the wins came from Antholz and not a single (last recorded) win came from the individual. As for the men: Michal Slesingr - - 2007/08 - Oslo - Mass Start (1) Dominik Landertinger - - 2009/10 - Khantiy-Mansiysk - Mass Start (2) Fredrik Lindstrom - - 2011/12 - Antholz - Sprint (1) Evgeniy Garanichev - - 2011/12 - Oslo - Sprint (1) Dmitry Malyshko - - 2012/13 - Oberhof - Pursuit (2) Ondrej Moravec - - 2012/13 - Oslo - Mass Start (1) Lukas Hofer - - 2013/14 - Antholz - Sprint (1) Jakov Fak - - 2014/15 - Khantiy-Mansiysk - Mass Start (8) Simon Eder - - 2015/16 - Rupholding - Pursuit (3) Erik Lesser - - 2015/16 - Rupholding - Mass Start (2) Dominik Windisch - - 2015/16 - Canmore - Mass Start (1) Anton Babikov - - 2016/17 - Ostersund - Pursuit (1) Benedikt Doll - - 2016/17 - Hochfilzen - Sprint (1) Simon Schempp - - 2016/17 - Hochfilzen - Mass Start (12) Arnd Peiffer - - 2016/17 - Kontiolahti - Pursuit (8) Tarjei Boe - - 2017/18 - Ostersund - Sprint (9) Julian Eberhardt - - 2017/18 - Kontiolahti - Mass Start (4) Henrik L'abee-Lund - - 2017/18 - Oslo - Sprint (1) Fairly evident that German hopes and dreams are destroyed by Johannes and Martin. Quite a few multi-winners like Tarjei, Arnd, Julian, Jakov, Simon with a year or more since last win. Some surprises for me: Bescond, Vitkova, Doll only on a single win. Lastly, it's been a very long time since Landertinger last had a win.

You're just jealous that the Italian flag is not blue and Lukas and Dominik are not winning world cups

named the other possible candidates.

aaaaaaand it's not Johannes for a change we go up to four different winners.

The Dahlmeier effect. German girls raise their game. This time it was Hinz

Well, could have been amazing with some better shooting, but a pretty respectable showing for our boys. Tomorrow an opportunity to medal with Linas Banys, wonder if he'll use it.

Well, could have been a lot of worse, but sad for a missed opportunity.

Yeah, but ours do that on the regular.

I'm scared to comment, he is one of those factors that can miss 4 out of nowhere in the middle of a good race

M.Faster might be faster, but that didn't stop him from missing 4 in the prone

One of my favourite events is under way!

Nice voice from France, although he is definitely struggling to control it at times, so I don't think this is going to challenge for the top spots in the final.

Oh my goodness, this is perfect I hope you told her that it wouldn't be weird if she had a picture of a potato at school. That's like taking away kids pictures from parents' wallets...