Werloc

Well, he's going to start in World Cup after the New Year, since the French have that rule that if you win an IBU cup, they owe you a WC start.

Luise Kummer is alive for the first time in three years

Simon Fourcade is an interesting case, but I think his problems are mainly psychological and his younger brother's legendary run might have damaged his confidence, performance and pride.

Well, it takes some time to get back into shooting form, especially when you weren't a very solid shot to begin with. Plus the skiing is a bit different from cc as well and we can see that with Herrmann or Aymonier when they both struggle to produce good ski speeds when they've shown they're capable of being top 5 on track and matching Makarainen.

Woah, a very good run for Rastic and Serbia Chinese men's team also improving pretty quickly. Lastly, nice to see Romanov shooting clean again and beating our other two biathletes The only reason why Romanov is in IBU is pretty much that Banys wants to race in the junior cup

Nice to know that I'm not the only one spending extra time on Totallympics destroying lights after every refresh

Well, would you look at that. There's a 16 yo Andorran on the start list tomorrow

Well, Kaukėnas only has one chance. World Championships, Individual race, 0+0+0+0. He seems to have interest in peaking for WCH and Olympics only.

Are you assuming that getting lapped before the 3rd exchange is not fun?????????

The saddest thing is that I'm missing 90% of biathlon due to work and I watched our relay getting lapped on my phone at a recording studio. You are not going to entice me with darts

One interesting note. In the 2017-18 Biathlon World Cup season, there were 17 nations on the medal table at the end of the season. Pokljuka and Hochfilzen is over and we have 13 nations on the medal table already. From the 2017-18 season we're still missing Belarus (that scored 11 podium spots mostly due to great performances from Domracheva and Nadezhda Skardino whom are both retired), Slovenia, Latvia, Canada, United States and Kazakhstan. And for the 2018-19 season we already have Poland and Switzerland on the medal table from the new nations. Now, Belarus has a realistic chance with Kryuko, Slovenia with Fak, Latvia with Rastorgujevs, Canada (well, perhaps), United States might do it with Dunklee and that would already be more nations on the medal table at the end of the year. Thoughts if any other nation could spring a miracle? Like someone from the East, or perhaps Belgium?

Kinda disappointed that our guys are that slow. It's not surprising for Karol and I know that Tomas is not in shape, but can't wrap my head around the fact that Vytautas is looking rather slow himself.

Okay, starting to believe in that pursuit a little bit less

Pursuit is probably there, points are probably not

Well, that was a heartwarming surprise. Now I need to hope he will have enough ski speed to stay in top 40 with this performance.

It seems that after 8 competitive world cup seasons, getting points for the first time ever might give you a bit confidence Let's just hope he doesn't get too excited before the standing shooting.

Excuse me, would someone care to explain to me what the fuck is going on?

This whole Biathlon thing is starting to feel like TISC when we scramble to find new representation

Yeah, it's a bit disappointing, because it's unlikely to change since Europe is the centre for all of this, so the new representation from other continents can come only from those that can economically handle it. A good example is Asia with South Korea, China, Japan and Kazakhstan. It is hard to imagine another country that could join in on the winter sport action. Philippines? Thailand? India? Well, India tried a few times, would be nice if they continued trying, but I guess it's not easy to motivate yourself losing 10 minutes on the snow

I was talking about new representation. I know Brazil is in it and there's Chile + Argentina from time to time, but I'd like them getting a bit more invested.

Interesting how Norway and Sweden are not in this one... United States, Bulgaria missing out too. On the other side, it's nice to see Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Croatia, Moldova, Macedonia, Serbia trying to improve themselves. There's a lot of space to follow the example of Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia. As for the disappointment section, Denmark and Iceland would come to mind, you'd think they would like to get involved in a sport like this. Would be interesting to see some new Asian representation and South America, but that's a tough ask.

Honestly, I can't express how happy I am. I have this looming feeling that biathlon is dying a bit, so any new nation to join in on the game makes me extremely excited.

It's actually weird to think how Dahlmeier was such a talented prospect that she got to skip the IBU cup step all-together. I still remember when she was up and coming in the WCH and many questioned Germany putting her in responsible relay positions. She had nerves of steel.

Is it weird that I don't tend to feel overly hyped for the championships in 25m pools? Perhaps I'm also a bit spoiled with Rapšys consistent good results as well... On the other hand, this victory is mighty impressive, especially since he doesn't really swim competitive 400m outside Lithuania. I assume he might stop with the backstroke all-together and just work with 200/400 free.

With me working and the other people doing god knows what, there was no one to jinx Paulina today