Werloc

Weirdest thing that I can't really explain happened in the Lithuanian Swimming Championships. In the evening session, there was a 100m Breaststroke Lithuanian Record Swim between Andrius Šidlauskas and Giedrius Titenis. They already had a 100m Breaststroke final yesterday that was normal, but I guess this was an extra race to give Titenis a shot at an Olympic quota? I don't know the legality behind this, but both swimmers finished in 59.83 and 59.92 respectively and that is an Olympic qualifying time. Andrius Šidlauskas already had his quota, as for Giedrius Titenis, I don't know if this sort of things counts, but he did it by 0.01s

Well, this was an interesting development. She had already publicly said that she will end her career, missed those tests on purpose, because she didn't bother to inform the testing agency of her current residency. Then, funnily enough, there were some rumours that she had actually started to train and was thinking about coming back, but she was unavailable for three tests by then and was suspended. I think it's because she was hit with success at a very early age, Lithuanians treated her like an absolute star, but then she stopped winning golds and those same people harrassed her through social media and wrote comments everywhere that she got fat and that's why she's slow and incapable of ever achieving anything again. Every story has multiple sides.

Not even in the top 70 of course times, that's so dreadful. Vytautas posted regular top 30 times, whilst Karol had 40-45ish

We're so unbelievably useless in Hochfilzen every single year. I'm so sad we have two stages here, because somehow all of our athletes are just super slow. Perhaps it has to do something with recovery, but I don't know. 0+1 shooting and 0+0 shooting shouldn't leave you struggling for top 60, they're good enough athletes to be in the top 40 with this shooting.

Finland picked to start late too, Norway didn't want to go too late this time so they placed themselves in the middle and France took that as opportunity to run all of their team through in the first 30. That's definitely going to be a dynamic and somewhat strategic race.

I see what you mean, but it's 4 races, all with abyssmal shooting, not even cracking top 80. Right now he's probably one of the worst performers at World Cup and a nation like Sweden could definitely give another boy a chance. Also, it never stopped them when dealing with Hogberg, so why be nice now?

I'm honestly surprised that Stefansson is still on the team whilst missing 4, 5 and 7 targets in three different sprints, finishing 86th at best. You'd think Sweden has someone better to offer right now. In the Lithuanian camp, Linas Banys has been replaced by Maksim Fomin, I wonder if he's going to run better in Hochfilzen than Kontiolahti.

You know it's a trainwreck when Tomas Kaukėnas and Linas Banys were the best legs in today's relay What a hero that official dude that sabbotaged Johannes, because he saw the future that Samuelsson would have rifle problems, so he made it all even.

If it's a head to head race, we become absolute animals and can't hit for days. All and every best performance is either a sprint or an individual race, despite the Tomas Kaukėnas Olympic miracle from 17 to 13, I'm not certain if we ever gained places in a pursuit race. Yeah, we have gained places from like 56th position to 49, but nobody outside points has ever gotten into a top 40 and no one inside top 30 has probably stayed inside top 40. It also explains why Lithuania can have a 85-90% hitrate the first week in Kontiolahti, but then a relay happens and low and behold, penalty loops and all that good shit.

my personal favourite was: "Who do you think is going to do well from the later starters?" "I would keep my eyes on Bjoerntegaard in number 25" Bjoerntegaard: DNS

At this point, why do we even bother starting in pursuits We'd find ourselves outside top 40 even if they let us start together with Dale.

None, unless you entice them with a deal of 1 million dollars each. We currently have two active women and you're seeing them. Our only two still active juniors that are around 18 year old if not younger are even slower than Jesipionok. Next year we're definitely losing our two starting quotas and after Olympic year, Kočergina is probably going to be out. So we won't have a women's team at all and we'll probably lose the 4 men quotas as well, because we won't be able to field a mixed relay in a year or two.

I know a couple of Lithuanians that would be broke by now

Herrmann's skiing is not as good as it used to be. You'd expect her to try and pick up Chevalier, but she couldn't even outski Elvira.

Hanna is so dead inside and out

Damn, that's a brilliant save from Persson. It must've been stressful.

I'll edit her in when I see it

Also, I just randomly thought of a theory why the French women's relay were successful in Kontiolahti and why they won't repeat their successful performance with Simon. Back in Kontiolahti, Anais Chevalier-Bouchet was unstoppable, because she absolutely absorbed all of her teammates' power. Anais Bescond Chloe Chevalier Justine Braisaz-Bouchet Coincidence? I think not! Look how seamlessly it's spelt out above

I was thinking that it would be interesting to see how many World Cup winners are actually still racing to this day, so let's go: Women: 20 Name / Amount of wins / Last win Tiril Eckhoff (14) 2020/21 Dorothea Wierer (12) 2020/21 Denise Herrmann (7) 2019/20 Marte Olsbu Roeiseland (6) 2019/20 Hanna Oeberg (6) 2020/21 Selina Gasparin (2) 2013/14 Valj Semerenko (2) 2014/15 Olena Pidhrushna (2) 2015/16 Mari Eder (2) 2016/17 Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (2) 2019/20 Lisa Vittozzi (2) 2018/19 Anna Frolina (1) 2008/09 Katharina Innerhofer (1) 2013/14 Anais Bescond (1) 2013/14 Anais Chevalier-Bouchet (1) 2016/17 Vanessa Hinz (1) 2017/18 Marketa Davidova (1) 2018/19 Franziska Preuss (1) 2018/19 Yuliia Dzhima (1) 2018/19 Julia Simon (1) 2019/20 Dzinara Alimbekava (1) 2020/21 For half of them, it would only be a second win and we're probably going to see more new winners as the season goes on Men: Johannes Thingnes Boe (48) 2020/21 Tarjei Boe (10) 2020/21 Arnd Peiffer (10) 2018/19 Jakov Fak (8) 2014/15 Julian Eberhard (4) 2016/17 Simon Eder (3) 2015/16 Quentin Fillon Maillet (3) 2019/20 Erik Lesser (2) 2015/16 Benedikt Doll (2) 2019/20 Domink Windisch (2) 2018/19 Alexander Loginov (2) 2019/20 Evgeniy Garanichev (1) 2011/12 Ondrej Moravec (1) 2012/13 Lukas Hofer (1) 2013/14 Anton Babikov (1) 2016/17 Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen (1) 2018/19 Dmytro Pidruchnyi (1) 2018/19 Emilien Jacquelin (1) 2019/20 Sturla Holm Laegreid (1) 2020/21 Sebastian Samuelsson (1) 2020/21 Johannes Dale (1) 2020/21 Simon Schempp (12) 2016/17 (not certain if we'll see him in the World Cup) There's 21 men, but if Fourcade didn't quit and Johannes was on his peak form, we would probably still be at 18. Still, it's very crazy to think how much biathlon changed over the years. We were so used to having legends that have won everything there is, but nowadays with earlier retirements and much more difficult competition, athletes don't even get to 20 wins. Johannes right now the only active biathlete that is close to the numbers that Bjoerndalen or Martin had. I think this is going to be a season where we'll see a lot of new breakthroughs and new names trying to get their second, third, fourth wins and more. If I'd guess who would be the first lady to get to 20 wins, I'd probably bet on Hannah Oeberg, she seems to enjoy biathlon so much that I believe she might stay for a long time. As for the next great amongst men, I honestly have no clue on whom I'd bet, Maillet is strong, but already 28, so he won't build high numbers.

The fact that Hammerschmidt that hasn't recovered after an injury is easily the third best German must be really alarming

I don't know if I'd classify them as interesting changes, moreso I'd say logical changes. Persson was never that behind in skill from Brorsson, so it is cool that she got the chance and we can only assume that Swedish coaching staff valued Skottheim's starting leg so they didn't replace her even if Brorsson ran a better sprint today. For France, Julia Simon was very strong last season and after today's sprint it seems that she is yet again capable to put in a strong performance. It's just that the French team is such a wildcard everytime, you never know what's going to happen with the shooting. Lastly for Germany, this is probably the saddest year for German women biathlon. The fact that Schneider hasn't landed in a top 80 this season, Hinz is absolutely irrelevant so far too, yet they're not replaced by German B team, because there's really no strong, suitable replacements, it's not that surprising that Hettich gets put in the relay after a good sprint. The depth of athletes is really screwed for Germany right now and I have no idea what happened. Early retirements on the women's field hit Germany so hard.

Sadly, we are slow as fuck today. Can't believe Vytautas 0+1 and he is not even going to get a single point, 50 seconds behind of athletes that he was even with less than 5 days ago. And then when he's fast, you're almost sure he'll miss 2 or 3 Tomas Kaukėnas and Linas Banys is an absolute disaster. if you're not quick, try to aim at least 50% hitrate is not to be tolerated.

Yes, little by little she is getting better.

Small rundown of start list changes again: 109 women on the startlist tomorrow, that's a record for this season Bulgaria: Zdravkova out, Stoyanova in Canada: Sepandj out, Moser in Croatia joins the World Cup with Nika Blazenic Czech Republic: Vobornikova out, Tepla in Estonia: Gaim out, Lethla in Finland: Laari out, Lehtonen in Greenland joins the World cup with Ukaleq Slettemark Italy: as mentioned here, Gontier is out, whilst Carrara is in Kazakhstan: Kolomiyets out, Kondratyeva in South Korea: Kim out, Mun in Latvia: Sabule out, Bulina in and Bendika has recovered from Covid, so she is in too Moldova: Stremous out, Ghilenko in Poland: Hojnisz out, Piton in "Romania" joins the World Cup with Tolmacheva and Chirkova Russia: Goreeva out, Kuklina in Slovakia: Machyniakova and Smerciakova out, Fialkova sisters in Ukraine: Pidrushina out, Vita Semerenko in 108 men on the startlist, there's more women again Belarus: Lazouski out, Labastau in Bulgaria: Todev out, Gerdzhikov in Estonia: Siimer out, Raenkel in Finland: Harjula out, Ranta in France: Lombardot joins Germany: Fratzscher out, Horn in Kazakhstan: Sirik out, Beletskiy in Latvia: Matjuhins out, Mise was training with Kaukėnas and Bendika, so he is starting off the season tomorrow Lithuania: You've seen Kaukėnas in the relay, but it's his first individual start tomorrow, which means Fomin is out Romania: last race they did not start, this time Puchianu is registered instead of Buta and Oskin stays Russia: Pashchenko and Suchilov out, first start of the season for Khalili and the seasoned Garanichev Switzerland keeps on playing the switcheroo between Hartweg and Stalder Slovakia: Baloga out, Bartko in

Nation Captains SWEDEN Hanna Oeberg SWEDEN Sebastian Samuelsson Nation Women NORWAY Marte Olsbu Roeiseland GERMANY Maren Hammerschmidt AUSTRIA Lisa Theresa Hauser BELARUS Dzinara Alimbekava Nation Men ITALY Lukas Hofer FRANCE Emilien Jacquelin LITHUANIA Vytautas Strolia NORWAY Tarjei Boe