Athletes retiring at the end of the 25/26 season:

Hi Biathletes, cool sport, gotta question about some odd ball gear that y'all might know. I acquired an AA Biathlon rifle, and wondering if the S410 10 shot mags fit this thing too. So far answers I've found are yes it does, not it doesn't, yes it doesn't, and no it does... Anyone here ever use the rifle and tried the s410 mags in it?

I have looked at the top 28 females by number of race wins (12 or more), and sorted them into six different categories based on the type of races they most often win. Most of them have won all four, but they are grouped according to the TWO types where they have the highest win percentage. The exact number of wins is less important than the percentage, considering the difference in number of races run. Some of these athletes were also active when there were only individuals and sprints, which makes looking at only race wins even more deceptive.

The categorization fit rather well with our perception of these athletes, but for some athletes it becomes more unclear. So, where wins don't appear to make sense given the athlete's skiing or shooting, I also look at podium results and even top 10s to get a more nuanced picture.

In addition to these 28, I have also included (more casually) a number of current and past athletes who are memorable or interesting in some way. For them, podiums and top 10 results are often used over wins, as they generally don't have enough wins to be statistically reliable. The most prolific race winners tend to have a fairly even distribution of podiums, or even more wins than seconds or thirds. Those with a lower number of wins, on the other hand, tend to have a lower podium-to-win ratio, making the inclusion of podiums necessary.

I have only looked at women here. The men's races are much more strongly unbalanced towards skiing over shooting, as explained below. I might make a separate post for the men, though, but I will have to look carefully at the statistics to see if I find the results meaningful.

What I have done is trying to classify each race type by skiing vs. shooting, individual start vs. head-to-head and short vs. long, and then compared an athletes win % for each type with their career statistics in skiing in shooting. This way we can group different athletes together in categories based on their performance, and see if it makes sense.

To find out which races are more "skiing" or "shooting". I have estimated the cost of a miss in seconds per kilometer of racing. This is based on a flat assumption of a 25 second penalty loop for women and 22 seconds for men. Also assuming 9/10 in a sprint and 18/20 in the other races, we get the following table of how much each miss cost in the tracks:

SPRINT

Women - 3,33 s/km (25s/7,5 km)

Men - 2,2 s/km (22s/10 km)

MASS START

Women - 4 s/km (50s/12,5 km)

Men - 2,93 s/km (44s/15 km)

PURSUIT

Women - 5 s/km (50s/10 km)

Men - 3,52 s/km (44s/12,5 km)

INDIVIDUAL

Women - 8 s/km (120s/15 km)

Men - 6 s/km (120s/20 km)

So, the sprint is the most skiing-intensive, followed by the mass start. Then the pursuit starts to weigh over more towards the shooting side. You can easily visualize this with how the shooting stages and penalties in mass starts and pursuits are exactly the same, but the mass start is 500 meters longer every lap for stronger skiers to make up for misses, or to simply outski equal shooters.

The difference in % is also larger between mass starts and pursuits (25%) than between sprints and mass starts (20%), further separating the "skiing" and "shooting" events into two pairs. The individual is a clear outlier on the shooting side. Extremely so for the women, considering that the men's SHORT individual is the same length as the women's full individual, but with only a 45 second penalty for a miss. A 45 second penalty for a miss in a regular women's individual would put the relative penalty at 6 seconds per kilometer - same as the men's, but still clearly favouring shooting.

You can also see from the men's numbers how much more strongly all races except the individual weigh over towards skiing. The pursuit, which we can consider shooting-heavy for women, is almost as skiing-heavy for men as the SPRINT is for women! This is why it is much harder to make a comprehensive list like this for the men. They all have to be strong skiers.

The GOATs:

Name	Active	Wins	IN	Win %	SP	Win %	PU	Win %	MS	Win %	Ski rank	Skiing (1-28)	Shoot %	Shoot (1-28)
*Magdalena Forsberg	1994–2002	42	7	18,9	13	20,6	19	48,7	3	21,4	4	5	87,2	5
Darya Domracheva	2006–2018	34	4	14,8	9	9,0	11	15,1	10	22,2	4	6	82,6	17
Magdalena Neuner	2006-2018	34	1	6,3	18	30,0	7	15,2	8	27,6	2	2	78,2	25
*Uschi Disl	1989-2006	30	9	12,2	12	9,2	7	10,3	2	6,7	2	1	78,0	27
Tiril Eckhoff	2011-2022	29	1	3,8	14	15,4	11	16,2	3	7,9	6	11	80,0	23
Tora Berger	2001-2014	28	5	15,6	7	6,9	9	11,4	7	15,6	14	25	84,7	12
Kaisa Mäkäräinen	2005-2020	27	2	4,4	8	5,7	13	12,4	4	5,9	3	4	81,5	19
*Andrea Henkel	1995-2014	22	4	7,4	5	3,5	8	6,8	5	7,9	10	18	85,3	10
Laura Dahlmeier	2013-2019	22	3	21,4	4	9,1	11	28,9	4	14,3	9	16	90,6	2
*Liv Grete Skjelbreid	1993-2006	22	1	2,8	10	12,7	8	15,1	3	16,7	3	3	76,9	28
*Olena Zubrilova	1992-2006	21	3	6,5	6	6,1	8	11,8	4	13,3	13,5	24	84,1	14
Kati Wilhelm	2000-2010	21	1	3,4	11	11,6	6	7,8	3	7,0	5	8	82,5	18
Sandrine Bailly	2000-2010	20	1	3,1	9	10,0	9	13,0	1	2,5	7	12	80,3	22
Julia Simon	2017-	19	3	11,1	3	4,0	7	12,3	6	15,0	11	20	83,1	16
Marte Olsbu Røiseland	2012-2023	19	0	0,0	8	10,1	9	14,8	2	6,1	11	21	84,9	11
Anastasiya Kuzmina	2006-	18	0	0,0	10	11,0	5	7,0	3	8,3	7	14	78,8	24
Gabriela Soukalová	2009-2017	17	2	11,1	7	13,0	4	9,5	4	17,4	8	15	87,0	6
Dorothea Wierer	2009-2026	17	7	16,3	4	3,0	2	2,0	4	6,8	18	27	85,8	7
Hanna Öberg	2016-	15	4	13,8	6	7,8	1	1,6	4	10,5	11	19	84,1	15
Martina Beck	2000-2010	15	3	9,1	4	4,3	6	8,5	2	5,0	18	26	88,5	4
Lou Jeanmonnot	2021-	15	2	12,5	3	8,6	8	24,2	2	9,5	9	17	91,2	1
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet	2014-	14	3	8,8	5	5,3	1	1,4	5	10,4	5	9	78,1	26
Elvira Öberg	2019-	14	1	5,0	3	5,2	5	10,9	5	16,7	7	13	84,5	13
Helena Ekholm	2005-2012	13	4	17,4	2	3,3	3	6,7	4	13,3	12	23	90,0	3
Denise Herrmann-Wick	2016-2023	13	2	12,5	7	12,1	4	8,7	0	0,0	4	7	81,0	20
Olga Zaitseva	2000-2014	13	2	7,1	5	5,5	4	5,8	2	4,9	12	22	85,6	8
Anna Carin Zidek	2002-2011	12	2	6,9	6	7,5	2	3,2	2	6,7	5	10	80,6	21
Lisa Vittozzi	2014-	12	3	9,7	2	2,2	6	8,8	1	2,5	19	28	85,3	9

*These were active before the introduction of the pursuit (96/97) and/or mass start (98/99). This might skew their number or race wins towards the individual and sprint, but not the win %, which is the most important thing here.

The skiing is based on median ski rank, with average ski rank used as tiebreakers when necessary. I find median to be more reliable than average, as even the best skiiers often have terrible days due to waxing, illness or other, that upset and skew the average more than the median. Many of them also have very modest skiing early in their careers, where bad ski ranks in the early 20s make the averages seem much worse than their actual skiing was when they were competing for wins.

There is no ski rank information available before the 01/02 season, so this is either omitted if it only affects a few seasons, or estimated based on difference in shooting % and win % before or after the skiing information becomes available.

So, below are the six different categories based on all possible combinations of any two race types. I will first list the main 28 athletes, followed by the additional ones.

INDIVIDUAL + PURSUIT (shooting preference)

Except the extreme outlier Disl, everyone in this group is a top 10 shooter but below median skier (among these 28 athletes), as excepted from the two most shooting-heavy disciplines.

Uschi Disl

Wins: 30 (9,9%)

Individual: 9 (12,2%)

Sprint: 12 (9,2%)

Pursuit: 7 (10,3%)

Mass start: 2 (6,7%)

Median ski rank: 2

Rank (1-28): 1

Shooting %: 78,0

Rank (1-28): 27

Disl's placement in this group is probably the one that makes the least sense, seing as she is the highest ranked skier and the second lowest ranked shooter among all 28. Winning nine individuals is crazy for someone with a 78% career hit rate. One problem with the statistics is that she is also the oldest athlete here, and more than half her races are before the ski rank data is available. I think she was probably a little slower during the earlier years, because she had a higher shooting percentage then, but almost the exact same average and median race rank.

Looking at her race result, though, it can be said that she often mixes high and low. The low shooting average comes from many bad competitions with atrocious shooting, but she also have many with 90% or better. Athletes like that can win shooting-heavy race types, unlike athletes who more evenly shoot 80% every competition. Most of her individual wins was with 95% shooting, which is good enough for a top skier. It's just curious that she wasn't more efficient in sprints, compared to pursuits.

If we look one step further, and also include podiums, she starts to look more like a universalist. She has almost the exact same podium % across all disciplines, meaning her (skiing-heavy) sprints and mass starts are better than suggested from the wins alone.

But it's still only when we fine-tune to top 10 results that Disl's rankings beging to make sense in light of her statistics. Here we see a preference for PU+MS, which point to a head-to-head preference, and she also has the lowest top 10 percentage in the individual. Still, she is an outlier, because everything about her statistics says that she should be in the SP+MS category.

Laura Dahlmeier

Wins: 22 (17,7%)

Individual: 3 (21,4%)

Sprint: 4 (9,1%)

Pursuit: 11 (28,9%)

Mass start: 4 (14,3%)

Median ski rank: 9

Rank (1-28): 16

Shooting %: 90,6

Rank (1-28): 2

Clearly favouring shooting over skiing, and head-to-head over individual start. Like Jeanmonnot and Vittozzi, fully half of her wins are in pursuits.

Martina Beck

Wins: 15 (6,3%)

Individual: 3 (9,1%)

Sprint: 4 (4,3%)

Pursuit: 6 (8,5%)

Mass start: 2 (5,0%)

Median ski rank: 18

Rank (1-28): 26

Shooting %: 88,5

Rank (1-28): 4

Very clear and logical placement in this group.

Lou Jeanmonnot

Wins: 15 (14,3%)

Individual: 2 (12,5%)

Sprint: 3 (8,6%)

Pursuit: 8 (24,2%)

Mass start: 2 (9,5%)

Median ski rank: 9

Rank (1-28): 17

Shooting %: 91,2

Rank (1-28): 1

Has the lowest number of races among the 28, and quite notably so, which makes the accuracy of the numbers the least certain. She is expected to improve in ski rank (dragged down by her first two seasons) and possibly drop some in shooting from the current outlier.

Olga Zaitseva

Wins: 13 (5,7%)

Individual: 2 (7,1%)

Sprint: 5 (5,5%)

Pursuit: 4 (5,8%)

Mass start: 2 (4,9%)

Median ski rank: 12

Rank (1-28): 22

Shooting %: 85,6

Rank (1-28): 8

Probably the athlete closest to a true universalist among all 28, going by race results.

Lisa Vittozzi

Wins: 12 (5,2%)

Individual: 3 (9,7%)

Sprint: 2 (2,2%)

Pursuit: 6 (8,8%)

Mass start: 1 (2,5%)

Median ski rank: 19

Rank (1-28): 28

Shooting %: 85,3

Rank (1-28): 9

The lowest ranked skiier among the 28, but her shooting is clearly better than what the career average suggests. This number is skewed by the disastrous three-year slump she had a few seasons ago. Her median season (87,4%) is much higher than the career average, and would make her shooting the fourth best rather than the ninth.

Also:

Valentina Semerenko (2 wins, 11 podiums)

Has a low hit rate (83,5%) for someone in this group, but also a very large number of races with 100%, which explains why she favours these two races. She was simply very uneven in the shooting, which drags down the average. Her skiing is even more modest, which explains why she had less success in sprints and mass starts, where the occasional 100% may not be enough.

Vanessa Voigt (5 podiums)

No surprises here for perhaps the best shooter (92,3% is a whole percent better than Jeanmonnot), although her top 10 ratings also suggest a liking for mass starts.

Ella Halvarsson (2 podiums)

86,9% shooting is well above average, which fits with her best results being in these two races, especially the individual.

Camille Bened (2 podiums)

Again, no surprises with 92,0% shooting (though a very low number of races). Clear preference for these two disciplines, with a podium in each and also the two highest top 10 percentages.

Lora Hristova (1 podium)

86,7% shooting and slow skiing makes it clear enough. Clearly favours the individual, with a minor blip in the pursuit. She has no top 10 finishes in the other disciplines, and misses half of the pursuits because of slow sprints.

SPRINT + MASS START (skiing preference)

This should have the opposite distribution to IN+PU, but it's not actually as clear as expected, although 2 out 3 do prefer skiing over shooting. Both of them are also clear sprint specialists with more than half of their total wins in this discipline. There are relatively few athletes in this group, which might upset the perception somewhat.

Magdalena Neuner

Wins: 34 (22,5%)

Individual: 1 (6,3%)

Sprint: 18 (30,0%)

Pursuit: 7 (15,2%)

Mass start: 8 (27,6%)

Median ski rank: 2

Rank (1-28): 2

Shooting %: 78,2

Rank (1-28): 25

With Disl and Skjelbreid, The clearest example of a skier-over-shooter. More sprint wins than anyone else, but only one individual win.

Anastasiya Kuzmina

Wins: 18 (7,9%)

Individual: 0 (0%)

Sprint: 10 (11,0%)

Pursuit: 5 (7,0%)

Mass start: 3 (8,3%)

Median ski rank: 7

Rank (1-28): 14

Shooting %: 78,8

Rank (1-28): 24

No surprises here either, a much stronger skier than shooter. Like Neuner, more than half her wins are in sprints. Her median ski rank is currently worsening during her comeback. During her "main" career stretch, she would be ranked number 12 out of these 28, directly after Tiril Eckhoff.

Gabriela Soukalová

Wins: 17 (12,4%)

Individual: 2 (11,1%)

Sprint: 7 (13,0%)

Pursuit: 4 (9,5%)

Mass start: 4 (17,4)

Median ski rank: 8

Rank (1-28): 15

Shooting %: 87,0

Rank (1-28): 6

This is as big a mystery as Disl in the "opposite" category. Her preference for the "skiing" disciplines doesn't really make sense, considering she is clearly a stronger shooter than skier. Her profile clearly suggests that she won more sprints and mass starts than she "should" have, perhaps by circumstance. She has the third lowest number of races among the whole group, which might skew the numbers.

If we also look at podiums, it makes more sense. Her podium % in individuals and pursuits are higher than in sprints, which is what we expect from a stronger shooter. Her mass start mastery is equally pronounced when including podiums, though, which is hard to explain. It might be a preference for longer races.

Also:

Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold (5 wins, 24 podiums)

Fairly universal, actually. Highest podium rate in sprints and mass starts (strong skiing), but almost the same in individual and pursuits. Her top 10 results point towards the mass start as her favourite race, with an equal distribution among the other types.

Miriam Gössner (3 wins, 10 podiums)

The original Lampic (69,2% career shooting), no surprises with her placement in this category. Also has some pursuit success, which are likely spillovers from obscenely fast sprints (her fastest races are outrageous, although she also had many slower ones). Not a single top 10 finish in the individual discipline in 16 attempts.

Magdalena Gwizdon (2 wins, 6 podiums)

The most prolific female biathlete, trailing only OEB and Simon Eder in number of starts. 79,2% hit rate conforms with her clear preference for these two race types. Both wins in sprint.

Mari Eder (2 wins, 3 podiums)

Her only wins is a sprint/pursuit double. The pursuit win is also her ONLY top 10 pursuit finish in 75 attempts, so we can call it a statistical anomaly. Otherwise, she clearly weighs over to the sprint followed by the mass start, as expected from 74,6% shooting.

Anna Magnusson (1 win, 7 podiums)

I don't think of her primarily as a skiier, but she has a slightly higher podium rate in the mass start than the pursuit, and her top 10 % also points towards sprints and mass starts.

Océane Michelon (1 win, 6 podiums)

Clear mass start preference, followed by sprint, which is in line with her strong skiing. However, her shooting is also better (84,9%) than the median for the top 28 athletes (84,1%), and her top 10 % is slightly better in both individual and pursuit than in sprint.

Selina Grotian (1 win, 2 podiums)

Doesn't belong convincingly in this group, which is only based on the mass start win and sprint podium. In the top 10s she is equally good in pursuits. Her stats also points towards better shooting (82,9%) than skiing, so her placement in this group is probably a statistical anomaly because of the low number of races.

Anamarija Lampic (2 podiums)

One podium in each, and a total of nine top 10s in only these two race types. I think we know why. Career hit rate: 63,5%. Median ski rank: 1. Actually better in mass starts than sprints, which may be her background as a cross-country sprinter with strong head-to-head familiarity.

Milena Todorova (2 podiums)

Also one podium in each, which is reinforced by overwhelming preference in top 10 % in these two race types. This is expected from solid skiing and only 80,7% shooting.

Sophie Chauveau (2 podiums)

Both podiums in sprint. Again, clearly leaning towards these two races in top 10s, and her 79,4% shooting and strong skiing fits perfectly with this.

Julia Tannheimer (0 podiums)

She is fast and shoots below average (80,8%). Her mass start is better than her sprint, which together with her pursuit being clearly better than her individual, points towards a head-to-head preference.

INDIVIDUAL + SPRINT (individual start preference)

The two biggest polar opposites, with the individual having the most skiing but the least relative importance, and vice versa. You would except the athletes here to be even in skiing and shooting, but both of them are notably better skiers.

Denise Herrmann-Wick

Wins: 13 (8,9%)

Individual: 2 (12,5%)

Sprint: 7 (12,1%)

Pursuit: 4 (8,7%)

Mass start: 0 (0%)

Median ski rank: 4

Rank (1-28): 7

Shooting %: 81,0

Rank (1-28): 20

Not entirely clear why someone with such a clear skiing advantage has the individual as the best discipline. It might simply be a strong preference for individual starts, combined with a tolerance for long races. She has almost 5% worse shooting in relays than in solo races, which might also support this theory.

Anna Carin Zidek

Wins: 12 (6,0%)

Individual: 2 (6,9%)

Sprint: 6 (7,5%)

Pursuit: 2 (3,2%)

Mass start: 2 (6,7%)

Median ski rank: 5

Rank (1-28): 10

Shooting %: 80,6

Rank (1-28): 21

Has a very notable mix of good and bad shooting results, which leads to being able to win the most disparate race types (as well as having many terrible races dragging down the shooting average). Her mass start is almost as good as her individual, though, which would place her in the more logical and skiing-heavy SP+MS group. She is closed to be called a universalist.

Also:

Marketa Davidova (4 wins, 12 podiums)

Overwhelming preference for the individual, with an equally clear sprint as second best, and only a single podium in each of the other types. Relatively weak shooting (81,6%) for someone who favours the individual, but she is also someone who often mixes very good shooting results with bad days on the range.

Florence Baverel (1 win, 14 podiums)

Podium % favour these two disciplines, although the top 10 ratios are stronger in pursuits and mass starts than in sprints. The single win is a sprint, though. She can be considered fairly universal.

PURSUIT + MASS START (head-to-head preference)

The same total length as IN+SP, but these two races are much closer in "style" to each other. The preference of shooting or skiing is not immediately clear here. 3 out of 7 are skiing-first, two are shooting-first, two are about even.

Magdalena Forsberg

Wins: 42 (27,5%)

Individual: 7 (18,9%)

Sprint: 13 (20,6%)

Pursuit: 19 (48,7%)

Mass start: 3 (21,4%)

Median ski rank: 4

Rank (1-28): 5

Shooting %: 87,2

Rank (1-28): 5

Hard to believe that the individual is actually her lowest ranked race (though higher than sprints in podium %). That said, she is very evenly matched in everything except the pursuit outlier. There is only ski rank data available for her last season, so her actual skiing relative to others here is a bit sketchy to assess. We can, however, make an educated guess from the fact that both her shooting and race rank were slightly better in her last season than during the rest of her career. This suggests that the skiing was roughly equal before and after the data becomes available, and the improvement in rank came from the improvement in shooting.

Darya Domracheva

Wins: 34 (13,9%)

Individual: 4 (14,8%)

Sprint: 9 (9,0%)

Pursuit: 11 (15,1%)

Mass start: 10 (22,2%)

Median ski rank: 4

Rank (1-28): 6

Shooting %: 82,6

Rank (1-28): 17

Her individual rating is almost as good as her pursuit, and with the mass start being the highest she is skewed towards longer races. But she is also an athlete that has many shooting results well above (and well below) her average, which makes her capable of winning shooting-heavy races.

Kaisa Mäkäräinen

Wins: 27 (7,5%)

Individual: 2 (4,4%)

Sprint: 8 (5,7%)

Pursuit: 13 (12,4%)

Mass start: 4 (5,9%)

Median ski rank: 3

Rank (1-28): 4

Shooting %: 81,5

Rank (1-28): 19

Her shooting is relatively weak, which puts her pursuit mastery in the head-to-head camp rather than the shooting camp, especially since her number of sprint wins are relatively few. When looking at podiums, she does however have a higher % in sprints than in mass starts, which could also place her in the SP+PU group.

She has a notably large discrepancy between her average and median ski ranks, which can be explained by a long career that didn't take off until around age 28. She was relatively slow when she was younger, but when she got fast, she was pretty much the fastest all the time. That's why her median is so low (a long row of top result in the latter half of her career) compared to her average (many weak early career ski ranks).

Liv Grete Skjelbreid

Wins: 22 (11,8%)

Individual: 1 (2,8%)

Sprint: 10 (12,7%)

Pursuit: 8 (15,1%)

Mass start: 3 (16,7%)

Median ski rank: 3

Rank (1-28): 3

Shooting %: 76,9

Rank (1-28): 28

Also strong in sprint and weak in individual, conforming with being the weakest shooter but one of the top 5 skiers here. her higher number of sprint than pursuit wins is skewed by being active before the pursuit existed.

Olena Zubrilova

Wins: 21 (8,6%)

Individual: 3 (6,5%)

Sprint: 6 (6,1%)

Pursuit: 8 (11,8%)

Mass start: 4 (13,3%)

Median ski rank: 13,5

Rank (1-28): 24

Shooting %: 84,1

Rank (1-28): 14

She also started racing before pursuits and mass starts. Better shooter (84,1 is the exact median) but weaker skier than Skjelbreid, which also shows in better individual but worse sprint results.

Julia Simon

Wins: 19 (9,5%)

Individual: 3 (11,1%)

Sprint: 3 (4,0%)

Pursuit: 7 (12,3%)

Mass start: 6 (15,0%)

Median ski rank: 11

Rank (1-28): 20

Shooting %: 83,1

Rank (1-28): 16

Simon's career can be split in two halves. Before 22/23, she was an above-average skier and 80%-shooter (which explains why her career average is much lower than what we see in current competitions). Since then, her skiing has only mildly improved, whereas the shooting has improved drastically. All her individual wins are from the last two seasons.

Elvira Öberg

Wins: 14 (9,1%)

Individual: 1 (5,0%)

Sprint: 3 (5,2%)

Pursuit: 5 (10,9%)

Mass start: 5 (16,7%)

Median ski rank: 7

Rank (1-28): 13

Shooting %: 84,5

Rank (1-28): 13

No surprise here. Elvira often states in interviews that she is less inspired in individual starts than head-to-head. Despite being thought of as primarily a skier, she is ranked 13 (slightly better than median) in both skiing and shooting among this group. Amusingly, she is actually ranked 13 in almost everything (average ski rank, median ski rank, shooting % AND win %)

That said, her ski rank average and median is dropping every season. Just removing her two first seasons (aged 20 and 21) brings her skiing equal to Kati Wilhelm and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (though Justine might also continue to lower her ski rank average/median).

Also:

Corinne Niogret (8 wins, 37 podiums)

Solid shooting (83,8%), but hard to assess skiing. Ski ranks are missing from her earlier career, where she also have all the best results. Later ski ranks are actually pretty bad, so it can be asumed she was much faster when she also had success. Sprint is her weakest discipline though, so she was probably about average in skiing. All in all, fairly universal with a small head-to-head edge.

Marie Dorin Habert (7 wins, 28 podiums)

Actually lower win % in pursuits and mass starts, but with a CLEARLY higher podium and top 10 % in these races.

Franziska Preuss (6 wins, 31 podiums)

Her placement in this group is not entirely clear. The only standout race for her is the mass start, with the highest win and podium %. Of the others, she has the highest win % and lowest podium % for pursuits, and vice versa for individuals, so she could be in any of the mass start groups, really. However, her top 10 percentage is notably higher for pursuits than for individuals and sprints, which is used as the decider here. That said, she also has a significantly worse shooting percentage in relays, so the H2H preference is tenuous at best.

Maren Kirkeeide (2 wins, 8 podiums)

Wins in sprint and mass start, in line with her strong skiing, but a higher podium % in pursuits than sprints, which also points to a head-to-head preference. Her top 10 ratios point more towards a SP+PU preference, so we'll have to wait for a bigger race selection to see if she swings more towards sprints or mass starts as time goes on. She simply does not have enough races to provide reliable stats just yet, although the signs are there.

Lena Häcki-Gross (2 wins, 7 podiums)

With a career hit rate of 78,5%, her individual win is surprising, but as we all remember, it was an inspirational run in her strongest season, although certainly a statistical outlier. Her podium rate suggests a strong preference for the pursuit and mass start, with a notably stronger pursuit than sprint, which for a modest shooter can only be explained by preferring head-to-head.

Dzinara Alimbekava (1 win, 6 podiums)

Won a sprint, but all other podiums are pursuits and mass starts. And she has the highest top 10 % in individuals, so she can be considered fairly universalist.

Paulina Batovska Fialkova (11 podiums)

Very clear preference for mass starts and pursuits, with four podiums in each. Curiously better in individuals than sprints for an 80,3% shooter.

Jeanne Richard (1 podium)

Very strong preference for these two race types when looking at top 5 and 10 finishes.

Anna Gandler (0 podiums)

Although she has no podiums, her top 10s point towards a head-to-head preference.

SPRINT + PURSUIT (short race preference/sprint spillover)

I would say that this group is slightly leaning over to skiing over shooting, in particular it might favour athletes who prefer shorter races at high intensity. 3 of 4 here are notably better skiers than shooters. Also, because the pursuit is based on the sprint, weaker shooters can still survive a pursuit if the sprint result was good enough.

Tiril Eckhoff

Wins: 29 (13,0%)

Individual: 1 (3,8%)

Sprint: 14 (15,4%)

Pursuit: 11 (16,2%)

Mass start: 3 (7,9%)

Median ski rank: 6

Rank (1-28): 11

Shooting %: 80,0

Rank (1-28): 23

No one who has seen the 2020/21 season can wonder about her placement in this group. She had the second highest number of wins in a season ever (and 45% of all her total wins), but not a single one that wasn't a sprint or pursuit. Also solid in the mass start, with three Olympic medals in a row.

Kati Wilhelm

Wins: 21 (8,6%)

Individual: 1 (3,4%)

Sprint: 11 (11,6%)

Pursuit: 6 (7,8%)

Mass start: 3 (7,0%)

Median ski rank: 5

Rank (1-28): 8

Shooting %: 82,5

Rank (1-28): 18

Almost as good in mass starts as in pursuits, which supports her skiing preference. The pursuits, of course, can often be won from the position of a strong sprint, and her shooting is not that bad.

Sandrine Bailly

Wins: 20 (8,7%)

Individual: 1 (3,1%)

Sprint: 9 (10,0%)

Pursuit: 9 (13,0%)

Mass start: 1 (2,5%)

Median ski rank: 7

Rank (1-28): 12

Shooting %: 80,3

Rank (1-28): 22

Stronger in pursuits than sprints, which is a little strange considering her relatively weak shooting, and that her mass start results doesn't suggest a preference for head-to-head.

Marte Olsbu Røiseland

Wins: 19 (9,6%)

Individual: 0 (0%)

Sprint: 8 (10,1%)

Pursuit: 9 (14,8%)

Mass start: 2 (6,1%)

Median ski rank: 11

Rank (1-28): 21

Shooting %: 84,9

Rank (1-28): 11

Weakest skier and best shooter of this group, although like Mäkäräinen, she was also a late bloomer who become much faster (and a better shooter) in the last half of her career. With a better first half, her skiing would be closer to the median. With her strong shooting in the last half of her career, it is strange that she never won an individual.

Also:

Galina Koukleva (9 wins, 20 podiums)

Very clearly favouring sprints followed by pursuits, then mass starts, and individuals not at all (a profile very similar to Eckhoff's). The 74,6% hit rate tells us that the pursuits are primarily survived from strong sprints.

Katrin Apel (4 wins, 18 podiums)

Like Koukleva, pretty much an eariler Tiril Eckhoff in all stats and race results. Better skiing than shooting, with a sprint specialization that spills over to pursuits, and clearly better mass starts than individuals.

Suvi Minkkinen (1 win, 10 podiums)

Has only won the sprint, but with a clear pursuit preference in podiums, as expected from her strong shooting. With a good sprint, she is very likely to do even better in the pursuit. Her top ten percentages are the highest for pursuits and mass starts, also pointing towards a preference for head-to-head. Surprisingly modest results in the individual, suggesting a dislike of longer races (her best ski ranks are in sprints and pursuits), which is also supported by often having among the worst ski ranks in mass starts.

Hanna Sola (1 win, 6 podiums)

Only has podiums in these disciplines. Highest top 10 % in mass starts, but with too few of them run to be statistically reliable.

INDIVIDUAL + MASS START (long race preference/X factor)

The individual is the strongest outlier among the four race types, which skews this category towards shooting over skiing. Indeed, 5 out of 6 here are better shooters than skiers.

That said, this is the race combination that makes the least sense, yet there are surprisingly many who are in this group. One race is individual start, the other is head-to-head, and the difference between shooting and skiing is strong. The individual is exactly twice as penalizing for a missed target as the mass start. By comparison, the pursuit is only 50% more penalizing than the sprint, AND it has the additional connection of being based on the sprint.

The best explanation I can find for this is that these are the two longest races, which may be what these athletes prefer. It may also be that it's simply likelier to hit it right in a mass start, because of the low number of athletes involved. Then again, the opposition is also the best in mass starts, so who knows.

There is, however, another interesting observation, which is the same as what might explain Uschi Disl's placement in the shooting heaviest category. This is that these athletes have a wide span of shooting results. They don't shoot their average, but can shoot both well below and well above. This means that while they can have many disastrous competitons on the range, they are also fully capable of hitting all 20.

Tora Berger

Wins: 28 (10,9%)

Individual: 5 (15,6%)

Sprint: 7 (6,9%)

Pursuit: 9 (11,4%)

Mass start: 7 (15,6%)

Median ski rank: 14

Rank (1-28): 25

Shooting %: 84,7

Rank (1-28): 12

If we include podiums, she appears to be a universalist with a head-to-head preference.

Andrea Henkel

Wins: 22 (5,8%)

Individual: 4 (7,4%)

Sprint: 5 (3,5%)

Pursuit: 8 (6,8%)

Mass start: 5 (7,9%)

Median ski rank: 10

Rank (1-28): 18

Shooting %: 85,3

Rank (1-28): 10

Close to a universalist. Pursuits over sprints conforms with stronger shooting than skiing, same as Berger.

Dorothea Wierer

Wins: 17 (5,1%)

Individual: 7 (16,3%)

Sprint: 4 (3,0%)

Pursuit: 2 (2,0%)

Mass start: 4 (6,8%)

Median ski rank: 18

Rank (1-28): 27

Shooting %: 85,8

Rank (1-28): 7

The second lowest ranked skier in the field, but with a tolerance for longer races. Surprisingly weak in pursuits for a strong shooter, but her mass start is also the weakest compared to her individual of everyone in this group, suggesting a preference for individual starts. That said, her podium % is actually the highest for pursuits, with a very low win-to-podium ratio (similar to Hanna Öberg).

Hanna Öberg

Wins: 15 (7,3%)

Individual: 4 (13,8%)

Sprint: 6 (7,8%)

Pursuit: 1 (1,6%)

Mass start: 4 (10,5%)

Median ski rank: 11

Rank (1-28): 19

Shooting %: 84,1

Rank (1-28): 15

Exact median in shooting. She is also getting faster late in her career (her skiing the last 5 seasons is very similar to Elvira's career average and median, and half of her sprint wins came in the last season), so she can be expected to end her career close to the median in skiing. Her strength in the individual, especially at the highest level (3 of 4 wins are at championships), conforms with her high variability - the ability to hit all targets mixed with terrible results.

Justine Braisaz-Bouchet

Wins: 14 (5,7%)

Individual: 3 (8,8%)

Sprint: 5 (5,3%)

Pursuit: 1 (1,4%)

Mass start: 5 (10,4%)

Median ski rank: 5

Rank (1-28): 9

Shooting %: 78,1

Rank (1-28): 26

The only one in this group who favours skiing over shooting, but as anyone who has watched biathlon in the 2020s can attest, she can go on absolute inspiration runs and hit everything. Comparing her to other veteran athletes in the sub-80% range, she clearly has a higher number of 95/100% races, which for a strong skier is almost certainly enough to be a victory canditate.

Helena Ekholm

Wins: 13 (8,2%)

Individual: 4 (17,4%)

Sprint: 2 (3,3%)

Pursuit: 3 (6,7%)

Mass start: 4 (13,3%)

Median ski rank: 12

Rank (1-28): 23

Shooting %: 90,0

Rank (1-28): 3

Like Wierer, a clear preference for shooting. However, she is also leaning over more strongly towards a head-to-head preference than Wierer, though not as strongly as Berger.

Also:

Linda Grubben (8 wins, 22 podiums)

Almost as good in pursuits, which points to a head-to-head preference. Her above-median shooting (85,2%) and mediocre skiing conforms with a notable dislike of sprints, although this is also the shortest distance.

Simone Hauswald (7 wins, 18 podiums)

Actually SP+MS if going by wins (which fits with a modest 81,0% career hit rate), but with a higher podium and top 10 rate in the individual.

Lisa Theresa Hauser (6 wins, 13 podiums)

Pretty clear preference for these two races. She has the lowest number of race wins among women for someone who has completed a career grand slam, which she did when she won the Östersund pursuit last season (incidentally, Vittozzi and both Öbergs also completed their grand slams last season).

Janina Hettich-Walz (2 podiums)

Very clearly favouring these two races, with one podium in each and much higher top 10 percentages. Dislikes pursuits the most.

Tereza Vobornikova (2 podiums)

The mass start is the only clear standout discipline for her. The second best is the individual, as to be expected from her strong shooting (87,6%), but the pursuit is also strong if we look at positions outside the top 10.

Monika Hojnisz-Starega (2 podiums)

Podiums in these disciplines and also clear top 10 preferences here. Generally better shooting (84,8%) than skiing, which conforms with sprint being her weakest race.

Mona Brorsson (2 podiums)

Her best top 10 % is surprisingly in the mass start, although her podiums are in the individual and sprint. Also a good shooter (86,7%).

Amy Baserga (1 podium)

Very clearly a better shooter (87,0%) than skiier, and has her only podium in the individual, but the mass start is the standout discipline in top 10 %.

HARD TO CLASSIFY:

Anais Chevalier-Bouchet (1 win, 23 podiums)

I must say that she is legitimately impossible to classify. She has an absolutely dreadful win-to-podium ratio. Her only win is a pursuit, but that is also where she has the lowest top 10 %. Her top 10 % is by far the best in mass start, but she has a clearly higher podium ratio in all the others.

Anais Bescond (1 win, 14 podiums)

I would say a universalist. Wins say sprint, podiums say individual + pursuit (which makes little sense with 82,3% hit rate), top 10s say individual + mass start.

Yuliia Dzhima (1 win, 8 podiums)

Has a win and half her podiums in the individual, as expected from strong 87,2% shooting. However, her sprint is stronger than her pursuit, which points towards a preference for individual starts, which is further confused by her mass start having the lowest ratio of podiums and top 5s, but the highest ratio of top 10s. So, not very clear outside of the individual.

Linn Gestblom (5 podiums)

Pretty much equal in sprint, individual and mass start. Best podiums in individual and sprint, but even higher top 10 % in pursuits and mass starts. Also, the relay GOAT is hardly averse to head-to-head. Overall, hard to tell.

Karoline Knotten (4 podiums)

All her podiums are in sprints, but it doesn't make much sense considering that she is a stronger shooter (87,2%) than skier. Her top 10 percentages are very evenly distributed across all types, with no clear preference.

EPILOGUE

One thing you might notice here is that the three smallest groups are the ones that include the sprint. It might be because with only two shootings, this is the discipline that is the easist one to "survive" and have a good day in, and therefore often invites winners from outside of the "inner circle" of multi-race winners. In short, people with a low number of race wins, often have those wins in sprint. Same with stray podiums. The individual comes second in number of "new" winners/podiums. The other two types are clearly behind, partly because they're dependent on success in other races.

Upcoming seasons

The 2026/27 season has one additional sprint and mass start, but two fewer pursuits. The individuals stay the same. So how does this change the prospects?

Winners

Kuzmina, although she is done winning races. Justine Braisaz-Bouchet and Hanna Öberg (when she returns). They all like sprints and mass starts, and dislike pursuits. Also Michelon and Vobornikova.

Losers

Vittozi and Jeanmonnot with strong pursuit preference (both have at least half of their wins in this discipline). Probably also Simon and Elvira. The loss of two pursuits might be worse for them than the extra mass start and sprint. No one among these four has won more than three sprints. Also Minkkinen and Voigt, who gravitate towards pursuits because of their strong shooting.

No clear preference

Going by the last season only - Magnusson, Bened, Kirkeeide.

I'm not sure what to think of this change personally. Although the mass start is the best race, I also love pursuits. Sprints are the most "routine" feeling race that I think sparks the least excitement in general. That said, a pursuit can sometimes be busted from the start if the "wrong" person wins the sprint (Hi, peak Tiril!). I guess more sprints over pursuits evens out the field a bit with regards to how people who miss out the top 60, also miss out on the chance for pursuit points. But this may be counteracted by the extra mass start. I would suggest that instead of 15+15 (top 15 world cup and top 15 of the week) for all mass starts, perhaps do 10+20 for some of them, to open up the mass starts to more potentials. Hard to say.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this! Give me your thoughts and speculations.

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Full schedule: https://www.city-biathlon.com/schedule

• 17:25 Final – Women (Live on ZDF)
• 18:10 Final – Men (Live im ZDF)

Watch on 2DF: https://www.zdf.de/ or https://www.biathlonworld.com/watchlive or https://eurovisionsport.com/en/explore/sports/biathlon (you need to log in)

Website: https://www.city-biathlon.com/

I don't know if the broadcast can be viewed outside of Germany.

Men
Sturla Holm Lægreid, Norway
Eric Perrot, France
Jakov Fak, Croatian-Slovenian
Martin Ponsiluoma, Sweden
Viteslav Hornig, Czechia
Justus Strelow, Germany
Philipp Nawrath, Germany
Lukas Hofer, Italy
Vitalii Mandzyn, Ukraine

Kvinner
Lotte Lie, Belgium
Anna Magnusson, Sweden
Lisa Vittozzi, Italy
Vanessa Voigt, Germany
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, France
Anna Gandler, Austria
Tereza Vobornikova, Czechia
Janina Hettig-Walz, Germany
Regina Ermits, Estonia
Lora Hristova, Bulgaria

IBU: The possibility of Russia's return to the World Cup is ruled out. They refer to their own regulations that do not allow for neutral athletes. "The IBU board has considered that athletes from these nations do not yet meet the requirements to lift the ban. Therefore, the question will not be considered at the upcoming IBU congress. (...) The board has no plans to admit either Russian or Belarusian athletes", says Norway's IBU board member Tore Bøygard to NRK.

The IBU shows that it is possible to maintain the stand that they have been extremely clear about since the invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. However, Russia has appealed the decision to CAS - the international court of arbitration for sport. The appeal was submitted in December 2025, but CAS has yet to decide on the issue.

Title pretty much sums up my question.

Are there any scopes for the range that are not a fortune that will work well with zero'ing and checking shots at the 50 meter range?

I hoping to stay under $500 but I'm not even sure that is possible.

Thanks all!

Edit to add: Just saw this one. "Vanguard Endeavor HD 82A". Anyone have any experience with it?

This last weekend I participated in my first and second biathlon races ever.

A little background: I'm mid-50's living in the USA and grew up Nordic skiing/cycling/running and racing in all of those sports starting at age 14 in northern New England and have continued to compete in those sports my whole life.

I also grew up hunting and shooting with .22's since I was a kid and have been in the military for the last 31 years so I am no stranger to rifles and weapons and shooting but I had never shot competitively.

I had always wanted to try biathlon since I was a kid and saw it on TV at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

I finally bought a biathlon rifle from Lost Nation in Vermont this spring (awesome place and awesome experience) and this was the first race on the schedule within 5 hours for me since acquiring my rifle.

Saturday's race was a mass start sprint at the multi-Olympian's Curt Schreiner and Deb Nordyke's place in Hadley, NY, the Saratoga Biathlon Club, of which I am a member. Ten people competed and it was a BLAST. Unbelievably everything I had thought it would be.

So hard but so so much fun. We all ran a 1.5 K loop and then came into the range and fired 5 prone shots. We had to run a short penality loop for every missed shot and then another 1.5 K loop and then into the range for the standing shoot, then penalty laps and the final loop.

First impressions: MAN, it is SOOOOOO HARD to shoot with a heart rate in the 170's! I actually managed to hit 3 out of 5 on the prone but on the standing I missed every shot! So I learned that I shot a 2-5 (because you list how many you miss on each shooting stage--I had not known this), 30%. Uhhg. My overall heart rate for the race was an average of 171 and a max of 182 using a chest strap and it took me 22:37 for the race, distance 2.44 miles total with penalties. I have not hit those HR numbers in years!

I've watched tons of the 25/26 WC races now while riding my bike trainer in the basement and, of course, the pro's make it look so easy but I had no idea just HOW GOOD they are! It was soooo much harder than I imagined that it would be.

But, just an insanely great day.

Then on Sunday we did a reverse pursuit where the last place finsher from Saturday started first and we set off in pursuit by how much we'd beat them the day before. Really fun format. But the race course was way hillier and although it was only a 1.2 K loop, we did it 5 times with two prone and two standing. I shot horribly in prone but my standing was surprisingly a little better. I did learn to pace myself better from Saturday but still only shot 30% overall with a 4-4-3-3. Brother, it is soooo hard! HR was 165 ave and 179 max for 3.97 miles total in 38:33.

So, conclusions: Even though I knew it was going to be hard to shoot during the race, I had NO CONCEPT of just how hard it was going to be, not even close! Curt and Deb (Saratoga Biathlon Club owners) are just the most humble and amazing people (with 4 Olympics between them in their careers) and the whole NY Biathlon community was so incredible and welcoming and encouraging. They welcomed me in and were so nice and incredibly helpful and kind. And lastly I am soooo hooked! This is the greatest sport and I cannot wait to get better and keep trying to improve! I'll be doing my third race on this upcoming Sunday in Craftsbury, VT. Cannot wait to give it a go again!

Sorry for the long post, Run/Bike/Ski Fast and Shoot Straight!

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August 5th

11:45 Lysebotn Opp/Cross-country rollerskiing 7,5 km women uphill climb. (Results)

15:00 Lysebotn Opp/Cross-country rollerskiing 7,5 km men uphill climb. (Results)

Summary broadcast on NRK at 22:15.

August 6th

18:45 BLINK CLASSICS 50 km at Ålgård. (NRK) (Results: men / women)

August 7th

15:55 Biathlon shooting duels for women and men. (NRK) (Results)

17:10 Biathlon Supersprint qualification for women and men.

18:25 Cross-country rollerskiing 10 km mass start women.

18:55 Cross-country rollerskiing 15 km mass start men.

19:35 Cross-country and biathlon finals for women and men. (NRK)

Results: Cross-country mass start (Men / Women)

Results: biathlon supersprint (Men / Women)

August 8th

16:00 Biathlon mass starts quarterfinals for women and men.

17:45 Cross-country rollerskiing mass start quarterfinals and semifinals in sprint for women and men.

19:20 Biathlon mass starts semifinals for women and men.

20:00 Cross-country sprint finals for women and men.

20:25 Biathlon mass start finals for women and men.

All events on August 8th are, as I understand it, broadcasted on NRK in one broadcast at 19:30.

Results: Cross-country mass start (Men / Women)

Results: biathlon mass starts (Men / Women)

Extra info

The schedule is subject to change. You can find it on Blink's website.

Cross-country rollerskiing and biathlon competitions can be watched on NRKTv. Some events may be broadcasted during the evening, but take place during the day. For example: Lysebotn Opp/Uphill. Some broadcasts are overlapping, meaning they switch focus between cross-country heats and biathlon.

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Holy shizzle. Hopefully no one got hurt, at this point it looks like everyone is safe but the level and amount of damage to infrastructure is unclear.

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Hi Everyone!

I have a bit of an unusual question. Would anyone be interested in joining a Minecraft Biathlon Racing Community? I think there has been one or two posts about this community here over the past years. However, after around over 12 months of inactivity, we are trying to revive the project.

We plan to start a summer season from 31st July all the way through till the end of August and so far we have around 30 people signed up, but we're trying to aim higher so there would be more fun and competition in the community to make it more interesting, that's why I'm writing here about this!

The community has been mainly filled with people from eastern Europe (mainly Russia, Belarus and Ukraine). However, the international community has been expanding and we now have a revamped discord server where communication is easier now especially for people who don't communicate using Cyrillic (like myself!) as everything there is now bilingual. So everyone is welcome!

If you see this post a bit later, you sign up at any point during the season and we can put you in a team and explain everything to you at any time! If this seems like something that would interest you (or maybe you know someone that would like this type of thing), please let an Admin know on discord you want to register as we may not check the registration forms as much now, so this way would be more reliable! Also, for the game itself, you don't need the paid version of Minecraft or any mods, you just need to join the right version with the resource pack. Below I have provided some information which can be of use if you'd like to learn more about this!

Server IP
Main: 37.27.166.69:25839
Additional (if Main doesn't work): mbar.povezlopovezlo.ru
Version: 1.13.2
Resource Pack: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UZvcDbNF4m_GRWV2z-K6ualx2yjbjmYe/view

Here is also the discord invite link & google docs information with the scheduling, results etc.:

Discord: https://discord.gg/twpsErAZ4

Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j6mvXkvJ84ij6teCt6Eu9iXn8iGCqLs3ECQaEj09vxc/edit?gid=1076597683#gid=1076597683

If you have any questions, you can ask them here, or private message me on discord (my name is bxrtek there) if you prefer that, or join the discord and use the Q&A section! I will be happy to answer anything!

Edit to clarify question: I know that I have to re-zero with new ammo, and I'd zero before the race anyways, I'm curious what changes to expect with going from a lower quality ammo to a higher quality ammo. Thanks! (End of edit)

I'm getting ready for my first ever race weekend in three weeks where I'll be trail running a loop x five and with four shooting stages. Around 6 k total distance.

I have been training with CCI SV rounds (the "cheapest" that my biathlon friend said to use in training) and have shoot close to 700 rounds in my new rifle over the past two months and I get decent groupings.

I have a brick of RWS Target ammo, which is supposedly a step up from the CCI, and he said to use it for competetions.

I sighted my rifle in with the CCI and can group with rounds grouping within an inch when shooting on a block.

I am curious as to how much you often have to re-zero with a different type of ammo.

Is it usually just a few clicks up/down and right/left or is it really large changes, all things being equal on an indoor range with climate control (I know that wind, humidity, heat/cold can make changes in between days even with the same ammo).

Thanks in advance for any helpful information from your experience.

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Galina Kukleva, the 1998 Olympic biathlon champion, has died at the age of 53. The press service of the Russian Biathlon Union announced the news on Tuesday, July 14. The cause of the athlete's death was not disclosed. Kukleva passed away overnight between July 13 and 14. The organization acknowledged her contribution to the development of the sport, not only in the Tyumen region but across the entire country.

source: reddit won't let me post the link but it's all over russian media

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Yle (Finnish Public Broadcasting Service) reports about the IBU statement to the Reuters from Thursday. Below is a rough translation of the Yle article.

The International Biathlon Union has noted the new IOC (International Olympic Committee) recommendations according the Russian participation in sports, but is not going to change its own policy. The head of the Union, Olle Dahlin, told to Yle already in June that the Union is not going to change its mind about the ban of the Russians and Belarussians. The next IBU Congress, in which matters like participation rights are decided, takes place in September, but the decision makers of the IBU have repeatedly stated that the Russians will only return to international biathlon when the war ends.

The head of the IOC, Kirsty Coventry, denied that different sports would have different participation policies. However, the IBU will now follow the example of the World Athletics and will continue to exclude the Russian athletes from its' events.

---

As a side note: as mentioned in the linked article, Yle inteviewed Olle Dahlin in June when he travelled to Ukraine to hand the silver medals of the 2011 WCH men's relay to the Ukrainian team. Back then, the IOC had not yet made the official decision regarding the Russian participation, but Dahlin was already sure what was going to happen. In that interview he stated:

We have a congress decision about the ban from 2022. Since then nothing has changed, and therefore I do not see a reason to change our stance.

He also does not rule out the possibility that the IBU might protest somehow if the IOC does not respect the IBU's decision to exclude the Russians and Belarussians in case the war continues during the 2030 Winter Olympics. Dahlin did not specify, however, what the protest would mean in practice. Olle Dahlin:

The IOC has thus far respected the independent decisions of the international federations. We are allowed to disagree on matters. We are anyway going to act as an independent federation, so it [potential protest of some sort] is possible.

The latter article can be found (in Finnish) from here: https://yle.fi/a/74-20233636

Edit: Fixed mistakes and finally managed to flip the ski speed axis. Women and men.

TL;DR: I made graphs showing world cup biathletes by ski speed, shooting accuracy, shooting speed and best medal achieved. Here is the one for women. And for men.

Motivation

I wanted to persuade a friend of mine to start following biathlon (in return for me watching the Tour de France with her) and was explaining that there are different ways to succeed in biathlon, or rather, different "types" of successful biathletes. We have slower but accurate shooters, fast skiers who use their speed to compensate for weaker shooting, fast and accurate shooters who can get away with skiing a little slower, etc. This then escalated into me spending a full day making these graphs, in order to illustrate this with Facts and Science. It all got a bit out of hand really.

The data

All data are from biathlonstats.com. I only included athletes who participated in more than half of races, mostly to exclude people with very accurate shooting but only from one or two races (but also to reduce the amount of data I had to type into spreadsheets).

• Shooting accuracy: Average across prone and standing.
• Ski speed: Average seconds behind the fastest skiier. Lower = faster.
• Shooting speed: Shown via bubble size. Smaller bubble = faster shooter. Note: I had difficulties in ggplot making the bubbles equivalent sizes for men and women. I've done my best to make them roughly the same, but they cannot be compared directly.

Why best medal?

I spent a while thinking about what was the best way to quantify who counts as a "great" biathlete. World cup points/ranking have the disadvantage that athletes who participate in fewer races automatically have fewer points, leading to people like Doro and Franzi artificially "underperforming". In the end, I chose best medal for a couple of reasons. It groups athletes into two main categories, making it easy to see who "succeeded" last season (by this measure), whilst still allowing for a bit of differentiation via the colour of the bubble/medal type. And whilst there are many ways to quantify biathlon success, for this graph I was less interested in the details of season performance than what makes someone a "great" biathlete, for which being capable of winning a world cup medal seems a fair proxy. (This is not to say that the other athletes aren't incredibly talented and successful – they obviously are).

This measure also makes both surprise podiums (like Lora Hristova's Olympic bronze), as well as consistently strong biathletes who nevertheless never made the podium (like Oscar Lombardot and Vanessa Voigt) easily visible, which I thought was cool.

Anything else stand out to you guys? Also very open to suggestions from other data viz nerds for improving the informativity/readability of the graphs.