What's new this season?
The new season in the Biathlon World Cup will be slightly different from the previous one. Firstly, all nine stages and the World Cup will be held only in Europe. There will be no tedious trips to North America, and the time has not yet come to test Beijing's readiness for the Winter Olympics in 2022.
Biathlon races will traditionally begin in Ostersund in Sweden at the end of November, and then will be held in Hochfilzen, Austria and Annecy, France. After the New Year, German stages will take place in Oberhof and Ruhpolding, and then biathletes will go not to Anterselva, but to Slovenian Pokljuka. Athletes will come to Italy in mid-February for the World Cup. The season closes with three stages in the Czech Nove Mesto, Finnish Kontiolahti and the Norwegian Holmenkollen.
Secondly, the competition program has changed. A total of 68 races are planned again this season, but the emphasis will be shifted from purely male and female competitions to mixed ones. The number of mixed relay races and single mixes will increase to four due to sprint and pursuit races - the number of such races will decrease from ten and eight to nine and six, respectively. At the same time, more regular relay races and mass starts are planned. Only the number of individual races remains the same.
The new program should increase competition in the dispute for the Big Crystal Globe. Those who performed well in the sprint will already be less likely to repeat their result in the pursuit. But at the same time, the separation of the best biathletes from the second echelon will increase due to an extra mass start. In the Nations Cup, even more points will be played than before, so the intrigue in the competition between the countries will also increase.
Who will be the favorite?
Last season biathlon lovers remembered the incredible dominance of Johannes Boe. He finally removed Martin Fourcade from the throne, whose series of seven victories in the overall World Cup standings came to an end. The triumph of Boe Jr. was phenomenal - he beat the closest opponent by at least 400 points. Only once the Norwegian finished outside the top ten, he had 16 personal victories, and for 11 races in a row he did not fall below second place. Even Fourcade did not perform like that in his best years.
But in the new season, Boe will not be easy to confirm the title of the best biathlete on the planet. His preparation was overshadowed by the injury, and the Norwegian did not have time to get the perfect shape after it. This is confirmed by the results of the test starts - neither at the training sessions of his team, nor at the international training camp in Shushen, Be was not the best. At the same time, the same Fourcade was much faster than the 26-year-old Norwegian on the track. Even if you do not take into account the pre-season races, Beu still does not count a large number of points - he plans to skip the January stages due to the birth of a child.
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Posted by Johannes Thingnes Bø⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️ (@johannesbo) Nov 17, 2019 at 9:13 am PST
This situation should take advantage of Martin Fourcade. Last season for him turned out to be crumpled - the former World Cup winner had only the first two stages successful, after which the Frenchman never climbed the podium, although he finished nine in the first six in personal races. Fourcade also failed at the World Cup - because of him, the French team was left without medals in the relay. After that, the biathlete even said that he was close to ending his career.
For truly strong athletes, such failures should only be tempered, so that Fourcade's return to its former level will become one of the most anticipated events of the new season. Competition within the team should help him - while the great Frenchman struggled with his problems, Kanten Fillon Maye and Simon Detieu managed to get into the first four of the last World Cup.
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Publication by Martin Fourcade (@martinfourcade) Oct 7, 2019 at 10:53 am PDT
Among the favorites is the Russian Alexander Loginov. However, too many unpleasant events happened to him during the offseason - he did not have time to die out of the scandal with the contract with the Russian Biathlon Union, as the leader of the team fell ill and missed the test starts in Tyumen. In late November, Loginov continued to treat inflamed ligaments, but he did not forget about training. The athlete himself assured that by the first stage of the World Cup he will be in service.
Ready to return to its former position, German Simon Schempp. He missed almost the entire last season for medical reasons, but at the German summer championship he was a cut above all his compatriots. Shempp was always strong enough to win medals in personal races, but he was not enough for this luck. True, in Shushen the German was not as fast as he would have liked.
Among the biathletes who can win medals at certain stages, but are unlikely to compete for the Big Crystal Globe, also include the German Arnd Peiffer, his compatriot Benedict Doll, the Norwegian Tarja Be and the Austrian Julian Eberhard. It’s not worth it to go about the Italians Dominica Vindiche and Lucas Hofer - the home world championship may affect their preparation for this season.
Who should I pay attention to?
It is difficult to predict what new names the upcoming biathlon season will open, but there is one bright contender for this. Norwegian Johannes Dale last year was tenth in the sprint at the stage in the United States, when he was only 21 years old. Since then, the coaches no longer trusted him, but in the offseason he became the best among the many applicants for getting into the main team. To be in the company of the Bö brothers and a few other biathlon stars from Norway is already an achievement that obliges a lot.
Swede Sebastian Samuelsson is known to many biathlon enthusiasts, especially from Russia, for his outstanding statements about doping. But at the same time, he is one of the rising stars of biathlon, from which one should expect a breakthrough. His collection already has the gold and silver of the Pyeongchang Olympic Games, but his catch in the World Cup is one bronze of the Oberhof Sprint. Samuelsson is now 22 years old, and to reach a new level is a great age.
High expectations may be associated with Nikita Porshnev. A year ago, he quickly broke into the Russian national team and became the bronze medalist of the relay world championship, and also won the individual Universiade race in Krasnoyarsk. I did not have time to prove myself in the cup battles, but now Porshnev will have such a chance, especially since he won one of the races at the test starts in Tyumen, and lost only Dmitry Malyshko on points. For a 23-year-old biathlete, this is a good springboard.
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Publication by Nikita Porshnev (@ porshnev.nikita) Nov 15, 2019 at 7:51 am PST
Who ended his career?
Last season was the last for a number of famous biathletes who will now watch the races only as spectators. Martin Fourcade will no longer go to the start with his brother Simon - now the 2009 world champion is the coach of the French junior team, although he recently helped his team win medals in relay races.
Henrik L'Abe-Lunn decided that at the age of 33 he was no longer able to fight for a place in the Norwegian national team, although last season he was not the worst in it - in the World Cup he showed the fifth result among the Norwegians and the 19th among the rest athletes. But the world champion still did not reach the age of Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who, incidentally, would come to the World Cup as a coach of the Chinese team.
It was time to complete a career for two Olympic champions. 30-year-old Swede Fredrik Lindström said goodbye to the biathlon during the home World Cup, and a few weeks earlier, Michael Rösch held his last race, who at the end of his career represented Belgium instead of his native France.