Just over a month after hosting the International Ski Federation (FIS) Cross Country World Cup, the Canmore Nordic Centre is pulling out all the stops and showcasing its brand-new biathlon facility as the host of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup Finals from Thursday, March 14 to Sunday, March 17.

The world-class venue amid Canada’s Rocky Mountains is no stranger to World Cup nordic and mountain bike events. It hosted 2016 and 2019 IBU World Cups and, as recently as last year, eight IBU Cup events in advance of the 2024 Biathlon World Cup Finals.

Two years ago, Alberta’s provincial government granted the Canmore Nordic Centre $17.5 million to upgrade and enhance its biathlon building, stadium, snowmaking, and range. According to Ken Davies, the Canmore IBU World Cup event chair, they broke ground in May 2022 and have nearly completed the project as of this March.

“It’s huge,” he said. “We sort of stirred the pot initially seven years ago to get them to reinvest in the nordic centre, and the Alberta government followed through, so credit to them.”

In 2017, the Canmore Nordic Centre requested improvements to its biathlon facility, which hadn’t been updated since 1986, when it was built for the 1988 Olympics. The biathlon stadium needed to be widened to meet IBU regulations and continue to host World Cups. The nordic centre also wanted to replace its undersized timing building and wax facilities, expand its snowmaking, and modernize its shooting range.

Just three days before the start of the IBU World Cup Finals, the Canmore Nordic Centre is ready to show the world its fresh new look. According to Davies, the father of Olympic biathlete Macx Davies and a Canmore World Cup organizer since 2005, the biathlon course has been “turned upside down.”

“When you come in and shoot, we now do a 180-degree turn in the stadium so the spectators can see the athletes for longer,” he explained. “We used a lot of the same course, but how we start and finish is completely different.”

Situated between 1,425 and 1,550 meters (4,675 and 5,085 feet) above sea level, the Canmore Nordic Centre is one of Canada’s highest cross-country ski areas, and it has a deceivingly challenging World Cup course.

“The trails are so well maintained, and they’re wider, so they look like highways, [but] they’re sort of sneaky hard,” Davies said. “People forget we’re at 1,400 meters of elevation. … We’re as tough as most places, and the racers all realize that when they come here.”

According to Rosanna Crawford, a three-time Olympic biathlete based in Canmore, the approach to the range has changed. On each lap, racers must climb up to the stadium before shooting.

“I’m curious to see how the athletes will like it,” said Crawford, who lives in Canmore with her husband, Brendan Green, also a Canadian Olympic biathlete. “Before, you had a somewhat easier range entry, but now, especially for the men’s sprint, they’re going to climb right up into the range, so I think they’ll be pretty gassed.”

On the range, she said changing conditions can cause the wind flags to change immediately.

“It’s a tricky range. The wind can really rip through there,” she said. “So I’ll be curious to see how the athletes handle that.”

While Crawford has never watched a Biathlon World Cup in person since retiring from racing in 2019, she is excited to spectate with Green and her family this weekend. (Crawford is the younger sister of Olympic cross-country skier Chandra Crawford.)

“Seeing it in person is going to be special because we are huge biathlon fans. We don’t miss a race, and we try to stay off social media until we can get home and watch the races on Eurovision,” Rosanna explained.

“Brendan retired in Canmore [in 2019], so it was really special having his family there in the crowd,” she added. My cousin made some funny signs, like those face ones, so my whole family had my face on a stick that they were holding up. … Canmore’s just so special. I’m looking forward to being a number-one sports fan during the races.”

When she’s not at the races hanging out in the Rocky Mountain Club and grandstands, she can tune in while working as a dental hygienist in town.

“In my dental office, there’s a TV, and I’m able to stream from my computer,” she explained. “Luckily, I had some ski fans in my chair [during Canmore’s Cross-Country World Cup], and they would tell me when to look because you can’t clean teeth and watch TV at the same time.”

With more than 240 athletes from 25 countries, the Biathlon World Cup Finals are expected to draw 3,000 to 5,000 spectators for the Thursday and Friday events and up to 10,000 on the weekend days. Additionally, more than 50 million viewers are expected to watch remotely via Eurosport.  According to Davies, Canmore sold out of VIP and grandstand tickets within 36 hours, 70 percent of which were purchased by Europeans.

General admission to the races is free and doesn’t require a ticket. In addition to the indoor Rocky Mountain Club VIP zone and bleacher (grandstand) seating, the venue can accommodate 10,000 non-paying spectators.

Spectators are encouraged to use the courtesy shuttles between downtown and the venue, or take the scenic route by foot and enjoy an Art Walk in the Woods along the way. The Canmore Nordic Centre is 3.5 k west of Canmore, about a 30- to 40-minute walk from downtown. Crawford recommended bringing YakTrax or traction cleats for walking, just in case.

In late February, a snowstorm brought about a foot of fresh snow to Canmore, which made everything look wintery again after an up-and-down winter. Davies said the biathlon loops have been ready since early December, and with expanded snowmaking, the Canmore Nordic Centre can open at least 10 kilometers of trails in mid-October.

“We had a weird winter,” he said of the 2023/24 season thus far. “We had a really hot spot in January, but we also had a really cold spot. So there has been natural snow since November, but [the February storm] helped. .… It didn’t help me with organizing the event as far as digging everything out, but it helped what it looks like. It’s a winter wonderland right now.”

This week, the forecast in Canmore called for sunny weather with daytime temperatures between 5 and 10 degrees Celsius (mid to high 40s Fahrenheit). During the last two IBU World Cups in Canmore, which were held in February of 2016 and 2019, many races were either shortened or canceled due to frigid temperatures.

According to Davies, average temperatures for early March are a pleasant 3 degrees during the day and -5 at night. After the races, 12 Crystal Globes will be awarded to the top-ranked athletes in each discipline for their season-long performances. The competitions include sprints, pursuits, and mass starts over four days, and other spectator activities are being offered in town and at the venue, including an indigenous kickoff party on Thursday night.

“Like Soldier Hollow, we have the benefit of not being in Europe. We have the benefit of being at a high enough elevation. We have winter, and we have snow,” Davies said of Canmore’s attraction. “We’re in the mountains, and it’s pretty easy to get an audience to watch races in that environment. The skiers love it. We have 70 kilometers of non-race trails that are groomed and ready to go. It’s all part of the same facility.”

BIATHLON WORLD CUP FINALS SCHEDULE

(All times MST)

Thursday, March 14

10:40: Women’s 7.5 k sprint (10:40 a.m.)

Friday, March 15

10:40: Men’s 10 k sprint

Saturday, March 16

11:10: Women’s 10 k pursuit

15:10: Men’s 12.5 k pursuit

Sunday, March 17

11:10: Women’s 10 k mass start

15:20: Men’s 15 k mass start

Rosanna’s Favorite Canmore Hot Spots 

• Best Lunch: Crazy Weed
• Best Coffee: Bike Cafe
• Best Shopping: “There are so many cute little stores that you can wander around and really experience the mountain life.”

More recommendations

On Saturday and Sunday, racing continued on the IBU World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria. Some story lines remained familiar, some reflect the national diversity of the biathlon circuit and that on any given day, a historically non-dominant team can excel. 

Saturday featured a women’s 4 x 6-kilometer relay and the men’s 12.5 k pursuit.

Norway’s team of Karoline Offigstad Knotten, Ingrid Landmark Tandervold, Tiril Eckhoff, and Marte Olsbu Roeiseland won the relay in 1:10:04.7 with one penalty and using seven spares. Kristina Reztsova, Larisa Kuklina, Svetlana Mironova, Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht of Russia finished 8.2 seconds back for second place. Russia had no penalties after using five spares. Switzerland’s Elisa Gasparin, Selina Gasparin, Alta Gasparin, and Lena Haecki took the final podium spot (+1:04.1; 1+9). 

For North America, Canada came through with a fifth place overall (+1:09.3). Sarah Beaudry, Megan Bankes, Nadia Moser, and Emma Lunder shot penalty free after using seven spares. According to Biathlon Stats and Facts, this is the Canadian women’s best relay result since the 1994/1995 season. 

The U.S. team of Joanne Reid, Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, and Emily Dreissigacker placed eighth overall (+1:37.0 0+6). 

Women’s 4 x 6 k relay results

That same day, Johannes Thingnes Bø, Norway’s dominant biathlete on the men’s side, won the 12.5 k pursuit in 31:27.0 while shooting clean. Russia’s Alexander Loginov, who also shot clean, took second (+33.5). Emilien Jacquelin was third (+40.5; 0+0+0+0). 

For the U.S., Sean Doherty placed 49th (+5:12.6; 1+2+2+1), and Leif Nordgren 53rd (+6:17.2; 1+2+2+2). No Canadian men qualified for the pursuit. 

Men’s 12.5 k pursuit results 

Sunday

Race festivities on Sunday included the men’s 4 x 7.5 relay and the women’s 10 k pursuit. 

We’ll get to the podium spots shortly, but again Canada came through with a near podium performance in the relay. Jules Burnotte, Scott Gow, Aidan Millar, and Christian Gow had no penalties while using six spares to place fourth (+1:28.7). That matches a World Cup best fourth place, earned back in 1991. (Canada earned bronze in the men’s relay at the 2016 World Championships in Oslo, Norway.) 

Johannes Dale, Erlend Øvereng Bjøntegaard, Tarjei Bø, and Johannes Thingnes Bø of Norway won the event in 1:14:44.2. The foursome had a single penalty and used seven spares. Germany’s Philipp Horn, Johannes Kuehn, Arnd Peiffer, and Benedikt Doll were second (+19.5; 0+4). France was third with Antonin Guigonnat, Emilien Jacquelin, Fabien Claude, and Quentin Fillon Maillet. They finished 51.9 seconds back with a single penalty and using eight spares.

The U.S. team of Sean Doherty, Alex Howe, Leif Nordgren, and Travis Cooper were 18th (+5:33.5: 3+9). 

Men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay results

The women’s 10 k pursuit was won by Norwegian Tiril Eckhoff in 29:14.6. Eckhoff shot clean on her way to the win. It was her first career World Cup pursuit victory. Sweden’s Hanna Hannah Öberg was second (+25.8; 0+1+1+0). Ingrid Landmark Tandervold, also of Norway, was third (+39.7; 0+0+1+0).  

Lunder, the only North American to qualify, placed 37th (+3:09.0; 1+0+1+1).

Women’s 10 k pursuit results

Last week, Biathlon Canada announced Justin Wadsworth as the Head Coach for the 2019-2020 season. In April, 2019, Wadsworth took on a temporary role as the team’s summer coach. That fill-in-the-gap stint will extend through this season’s racing. Wadsworth joins Canadian biathlon at a challenging time, with limited funding and after the retirement of many top athletes.

“My job is really just for the national team — we have 12 athletes and I would say that is my mandate to get those athletes working at their personal best and a world leading direction.”  — Justin Wadsworth

Biathlon combines shooting accurately, skiing fast, and finding mental strength. Wadsworth has his focus on the ski speed. Pavel Lantsov, who joined the program part way through the 2018-2019 training season, will continue as shooting coach. Roddy Ward leads the development effort.

Wadsworth will make two trips to Europe during the season. As his wife’s career involves extensive travel, he has to manage his time away from the kids. Wadsworth took a five week summer break from coaching to get some quality family time. He has agreed to travel for the first IBU World Cup first period from November 17th to December 8th and then again for World Championships that will include a February pre-camp.

So how does a life-long cross country skier become not just a biathlon coach, but a national team head biathlon coach?

“That is a fine question because about six months ago I had no plan to coach anything let alone biathlon,” Wadsworth told FasterSkier on the phone last week from a Park City training camp. After originally agreeing to three months, he started work with the athletes on training and ski technique.

“Those three months kind of flew by and I had a lot of fun with the team.”

The 2019-2020 team is younger than in the recent past, with Emma Lunder, Scott Gow, and Christian Gow showing the most success in the last season.

“My main philosophy with training,” Wadsworth said of his focus with the young biathlon team, “is really just consistency. We don’t need to do the real radical things to get the extra one percent at the end of the day going into the season. We need consistent training with good technique and staying injury free and being healthy and that is going to bring this team the biggest rewards for this next coming year or two.”

Wadsworth ran the Canadian cross country team during the best funded period of its history, thanks to Vancouver 2010 and solid racing results. During his own racing career, he had a front row seat to watch the Canadian cross country team rebuild after Nagano 1998. While the latter has more obvious relevance in the current state of Canadian biathlon, he showed an ability to use money well [link to Canadian ski truck] when it was available. As he immerses himself in Biathlon Canada’s rebuild, he’s facing a stark reality when it comes to funding.

“I have never seen a team with a budget as small as this. Our athletes right now at this camp in Park City are paying for everything. No funding.”

Who is Justin Wadsworth?

Wadsworth spent five years as the Canadian National Cross Country head coach and is often thought of as one of the most outspoken Canadian officials on the topic of doping in sport. 

He presided over some of Canadian skiing’s ‘golden era’, including the arrival of Alex Harvey on the world stage, Devon Kershaw’s second overall in the 2012 World Cup, and Canada’s first World Championship gold. None were Wadsworth’s personal highlight, however.

“I would say the whole team during that 2012 season, where every member, male or female, of our national team, had a top three result on World Cup. That to me was the highlight. It was amazing. We had Perianne [Jones], we had Dasha [Gaiazova], we had Chandra [Crawford], we had all the guys. Everyone had been on the podium. A few podiums, like the girls, were double-podium with Peri and Chandra, or Chandra and Dasha in the sprint. The team energy was amazing. We went through the whole season and everyone was so focused and having so much fun. Really just a really strong team. Everyone thinks back to the guys, but before Christmas that year, Chandra, I think, was fourth on the overall sprint World Cup going into the Tour de Ski, and we had other great results. Lenny [Valjas] later that year had a podium in distance. Everything was just firing on all cylinders. That to me is what I remember. To me as a coach that felt the best and was kind of the highlight. Not just for the results, but the whole team really worked together hard, and everyone was accountable to everybody else. When that all clicked, and everybody got on the podium that year, it was really special.”

There is more to Wadsworth than coaching, as older ski fans may remember. He was a pivotal member of the U.S. Ski Team (USST). He competed at the most recent U.S. World Cup, producing the top American result with 8th in the 30-kilometer at Salt Lake City in 2001. 

In 2002, he was sick at the start of his home Olympics before recovering to be part of the 5th place men’s relay (the best U.S. result ever, matched by the women in PyeyongChang 2018). He quarantined himself from his then-girlfriend to help her remain healthy and have the best chance at her own Olympic dreams. 

On a call with FasterSkier shortly before the announcement of his new title, Wadsworth doubled down on the difficulty and importance of being a team player.

“Those are words that come out of my mouth with our current team here. If anyone gets sick, you have to pony up early on. Don’t be afraid about it. It’s one of the hardest things to say, ‘I might be getting sick’, early enough to prevent the whole team from getting sick.”

Wadsworth passed that test in 2002. He did, however, start his target event, the 30 k mass start freestyle.

“I should have not started, but I felt it was my best chance at a great result, and I started even though I was sick,” Wadsworth confirmed in an email about that DNF. “I wish someone had helped me to not start….”

When Wadsworth talks to athletes about trusting the process, they know that he has both lived it as an athlete and lead it as a coach. Wadsworth didn’t reach the top instantly himself, missing Albertville 1992 before qualifying for Lillehammer 1994, five years after his first World Cup start.

“Oh, I raced [a U.S. World Cup] one other time in 89 right here, down the road from where I am right now [Park City]. It was a Salt Lake World Cup, but it was held at a place called Mountain Dell. I think it was Bjørn Daehlie’s first ever World Cup, or first ever World Cup win.”

(FIS records are a bit sketchy that far back, but it was Daehlie’s first win.)

You might think Wadsworth’s strong opinions on cheating in sport come from being at Beckie Scott’s side through years of her very public challenges, but he does have first hand experience with dopers. When asked about his 2001 World Cup race, he said “I think [Johan] Mühlegg might have been ahead of me, but I always take him out [of the results].” 

In that 2001 30 k, Mühlegg won as a Spanish athlete, having left the German team over a dispute about his personal doctor. Mühlegg would be banned after failing a doping test at the 2002 Olympics. The second place finisher, Christian Hoffman of Austria, was implicated in a different Olympic blood doping scandal in 2002, but wouldn’t be banned until 2009 after he was caught at Torino 2006. 

If you take out the known cheaters, the upgrade to 6th place would give Wadsworth one of the best U.S. World Cup men’s results in history. By extension, Hoffmann wouldn’t have out-sprinted the U.S. closer Carl Swenson for fourth place at the 2002 SLC relay.

Wadsworth’s wide ranging experience as an athlete and coach leaves him with diverse tools to help Canada’s national biathlon team rise up.

Three-time Olympian and one of Canada’s most successful national team cross country ski coaches, Justin Wadsworth, has been named Biathlon Canada National Team Head Coach through to the end of the 2019-2020 season. Wadsworth, who was named interim head coach in April of this year, is excited to continue working with the team.

“Since April, our plan has been centred around consistent, quality training. The team has responded extremely well and have bought into the plan,” Wadsworth said. “Almost all athletes have broken personal records throughout the training season.”

Integrating into a new coaching and support team has been seamless for Wadsworth, “It has been a pleasure learning from Pavel Lantsov – he is an extremely committed and knowledgeable coach and the athletes respect him so much. Andrew Chisholm has also stepped in to support both Pavel and I on the trail and in the range and he is continually looking for new improvements. In addition, our Support Team lead, Jess Kryski has gone above and beyond in monitoring the health and wellness of our athletes with her team.”

“With a number of new athletes on the team this season, we have all worked really hard on creating a positive team culture, which is crucial when the World Cup team will be competing in Europe for over 120 days.”

Justin will split his time this season between attending World Cups and World Championships in Europe and working with athletes from afar in Canmore.

“This is a new approach to the season. In the past, we have had our head coach attending all competitions,” Heather Ambery, Biathlon Canada General Manager stated. “We are confident in our new plan.”

Pavel Lantsov, Senior National Team Coach and shooting specialist, and a team of Biathlon Canada world-class ski technicians will lead the World Cup team throughout the season. Justin will fly in and out of the daily competition environment at specific and strategic moments.

The World Cup and IBU Cup teams for the first Trimester (December) will be decided at Trials during the first week of November in Canmore.

The third and final day of Biathlon Canada’s selection trials concluded on Friday in Canmore, Alberta. The “trials” serve as a method to fill roster spots for athletes representing Canada on the IBU World Cup, IBU Cup, and IBU Junior Cup for the first travel period to Europe.

Prior to the selection trials, only Rosanna Crawford and Scott Gow had prequalified for the IBU World Cup.

Friday’s race was billed as a modified relay. There was in fact no relay, it was an individual start race described as athletes having “3 spares per clip with penalty loops for further missed targets, as per a relay format.”

With no penalty lap due to limited snow, women were penalized 22 seconds per miss, the men 24 seconds.  The women raced a total of 6-kilometers, while the men skied 7.5 k, which are the traditional distances for each respective relay leg in biathlon.

Nadia Moser racing for Biathlon Yukon won the women’s race in 19.57.5 minutes while cleaning prone and missing one shot standing. Emily Dickson (Team R.A.D.) placed second (+6.0) while shooting clean. Sarah Beaudry finished in third (+7.3) while also shooting clean in prone and standing.

Senior National team member Christian Gow won the men’s race in 18:58.3 minutes after cleaning both his shooting stages. Brother Scott Gow, also a national team member, finished second (+8.9) with no misses on the range. Third place was taken by national team athlete Nathan Smith who crossed the line in 19:32 minutes. He missed two shots in prone and none standing. Smith won the second day’s sprint during selection trials.

Biathlon Canada is expected to announce its teams for European based racing on Monday, Nov. 11th.

Results

Thursday in Canmore, Alberta day two of Biathlon Canada’s selection trials featured a sprint, with the men racing a total of 10-kilometers, the women 7.5 k.

Nathan Smith of Canada’s Senior National team placed first for the men in a time of 24:02.7 minutes. Smith missed one shot prone and cleaned standing. Christian Gow,  winner of the trial’s Tuesday sprint, placed a close second (+4.2). Gow missed a single shot shooting prone and shot clean during his standing stage. Aidan Millar (Team R.A.D.) skied to third (+35.7) after missing two shots — one each in prone and standing.

With limited snow, the course is absent a penalty lap — male athletes were penalized 22 seconds per miss.

Megan Tandy, also part of Canada’s Senior National Team, won the women’s sprint in 21:17.5 minutes after cleaning her prone stage and missing one shot standing. Tandy placed second in Tuesday’s sprint.

Teammate Rosanna Crawford improved on Tuesday’s result, when she placed third, to take second (+5.7). Nadia Moser skiing for Biathlon Yukon, finished third (+21.2). Moser missed one shot in both prone and standing.

The women were penalized 22 seconds for each missed shot.

The selection trials will help determine Canada’s teams on the IBU World Cup, Ibu Cup and IBU Junior Cup for the first race period beginning the end of November. To date, only Scott Gow and Crawford pre-qualified for the 2018/2019 IBU World Cup.

Results

(Press release)

Biathlon Canada is pleased to announce Heather Ambery as our new General Manager. Heather will join the Biathlon Canada team starting mid-August 2018.

Heather comes to Biathlon Canada from the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), where she was Program Manager, National Sport Federation Services. During her time at the COC, she helped manage the National Sport Federation Enhancement Initiative, which is a program designed to enhance business functions and build capacity in Canada’s National Sport Federations. Heather was also a member of the mission staff for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

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“I am thrilled and honoured to be joining the Biathlon Canada team during such an exciting time for the organization,” says Ambery. “I look forward to collaborating with the Canadian biathlon community as we continue growing the sport at the grassroots level, succeeding on the international stage, and striving to be an exemplary sport federation.”

Heather’s background also includes experience working in major events and at the local level. She was the Competitions Manager at the Ottawa venue for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015TM and played an integral role on the operations team at one of Canada’s largest soccer clubs, West Ottawa Soccer Club.

Biathlon Canada’s team is looking forward to building our sport under Heather’s leadership.

With the 2017/2018 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding North American biathletes on the international circuit.

***

Rosanna Crawford, Biathlon Canada

Rosanna Crawford had been close to the podium before, coming into this season. Fourth place. Fifth place.

But then she had a disastrous 2017 season that left her in tears after World Championships, wondering what had gone wrong. After that, she lost her brother, as the Crawford family endured heart-rending tragedy.

All of that might have stopped some people, but not Crawford. In Ruhpolding, Germany, she finally scored that podium – in a race so tough it’s only held a few times a season, the 15 k individual. She shot a perfect 20-for-20 to take third place, 21.2 seconds behind Dorothea Wierer of Italy.

“There’s just so many lessons you learn over the years, and trying to bring it all together and to have it pay off on one day is exactly what we’re all hunting for out there,” Crawford said after her podium.

Later that weekend she again shot 20-for-20, this time in the mass start. She left the range the final time in first place, but was passed by three other women on the final loop and had to settle for fourth.

“I was really surprised to leave the range in 1st, these are the 30 best women in the world,” Crawford wrote in an email after the mass start. “I would have love to hold onto a podium, but was pretty dead on my last loop… I was pretty disappointed when I crossed the line in fourth, but as time went by I got more and more happy. To have hit another 20/20 is fantastic, especially in the high pressure situation of a Mass Start. With that race I went 50/50 in Ruhpolding!”

It was an up-and-down season for Crawford, who finished no better than 39th in the first period of World Cup racing and was sent down to the second-tier IBU Cup. But she excelled there, and then came the races in Ruhpolding.

From there she headed to the Olympics – her third – and had a poor sprint race, finishing 53rd with three penalties. It was devastating, but she came back and climbed all the way up to 19th in the pursuit, the biggest improvement in the whole field.

“I had some really good chats with my sister Chandra,” Crawford said after the Olympic pursuit. “She’s a huge motivator for me and my biggest cheerleader now. She really just talked some sense into me to not be so down on myself after the sprint, so that was really helpful.”

Immediately after the Olympics, Crawford finished 12th in the sprint and 11th in the mass start in Kontiolahti, Finland, before finishing the season off in Oslo. She has still not announced whether she will continue competing next year, or retire.

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But crossing the finish line in third in Ruhpolding was an unforgettable highlight, either way.

“[Teammates] Julia [Ransom], Emma [Lunder] and Sarah [Beaudry], they kind of pushed past the IBU guys, which I don’t think they were allowed to do, but Canada’s not on the podium every day so they let them sneak by to give me a hug so that was really special,” Crawford told FasterSkier. “I’ve been with these girls the past couple years now and so to be able to celebrate with them is amazing. Their results have been so inspiring for me … [My coach Roddy Ward] also jumped the fence, which I don’t think was allowed, so that was nice to be able to see him as well.”

Tim Burke, US Biathlon 

While Crawford was finally hitting that career mark, U.S. Biathlon’s Tim Burke was getting his mojo back. After a frustrating few seasons, Burke rallied for the 2018 Olympics, his fourth.

Along the way, he amassed some strong results: tenth in the sprint in Annecy, fourth in the sprint in Oberhof. The Oberhof sprint was his best result since 2013.

It came on a course with a personal connection, as his wife, Andrea (Henkel) Burke, had her home training base in Oberhof.

“I have spent a lot of time training here over the last eight years,” Burke laughed. “It’s Andrea’s home town and I feel like the fans out there today were really behind me from the start, because of Andrea. So be able to have the best performance of my season and my best performance in a long time here was for sure special.”

Burke didn’t set a best-ever U.S. mark for himself at the Olympics, with a top finish of 17th in the pursuit. Like Crawford, he made the best of things after a disappointing Olympic sprint, in his case having finished 47th in the opening competition.

“I was disappointed in the result not the performance,” he said of the sprint, after improving in the pursuit. “I felt like I executed well. I felt like I hit my cues on the course and on the range, and it just didn’t happen yesterday. The game plan going into today, there was nothing new. Stick to the things that have been working well for me in the World Cup, and that’s what I did.”

In PyeongChang, he contributed to a U.S. men’s relay team which finished sixth, tying the best ever team result at an Olympic Games.

A few weeks later, in his final race before retiring, he went out and did some solid biathlon, helping the team to seventh in the World Cup relay in Oslo.

Burke’s career has had many individual highs – six podiums including a World Championships silver medal in 2013, and a brief stint in the overall World Cup leader’s bib – but this season, it was his team efforts that were some of the best.

“The Olympic relay, we were very happy with,” he said in Oslo. “The sixth place there [in PyeongChang, South Korea], we were right there. That was a great race for us, but this is solid as well… I’ve been here a long, long time, and an top eight today is very different than a top eight when I came on the World Cup 14 years ago. It’s so close now. There’s so many good teams. So it’s a solid result.”

Honorable Mention: Susan Dunklee, US Biathlon

Burke’s teammate Susan Dunklee saved the best for last this season, hitting the podium for the first time since winning silver in the mass start at last year’s World Championships.

It was a tough start to the season for Dunklee, who tried to implement a new shooting strategy and saw it backfire, as she had a string of results no better than 53rd in the opening two weekends of racing.

But then she had a solid weekend in Annecy, France, finishing tenth in the sprint and sixth in the pursuit. A lifeline.

“After Thursday, I was just feeling relief, to be honest,” she said after the Annecy pursuit. “It’s so huge to get a top ten and then get a flower ceremony today.”

Two months later, Dunklee had an athlete’s worst nightmare and got sick at the beginning of the Olympics, racing the opening sprint anyway but then finishing 66th and missing the pursuit. In the 15 k individual she placed 19th, and she led the women’s relay at one point.

“I often start feeling stronger and stronger as the season goes on, and this season it took a little longer,” Dunklee explained. “I had a lot of sickness, and some frustrating shooting days early in the season that made it hard for me to keep going.”

After the Games, she finished 36th in the sprint in Kontiolahti despite still getting over (another) illness, then came to Oslo and placed fourth in the sprint and third in the pursuit, in a podium that only appeared thanks to clean shooting in the final stage where others faltered.

“It doesn’t really matter what everybody else is doing, you just have to try to put the best race you can,” she said of landing on the podium despite two penalties. “Sometimes you have a perfect race and five other people do too, and then you are sixth. But some days you don’t have a perfect race and you end up third.”

Like Crawford, Dunklee hasn’t announced whether she will keep racing next season. If not, her last World Cup memory will be sharing the podium with Anastasiya Kuzmina and Darya Domracheva. Not bad.

Honorable Mention: Scott Gow, Biathlon Canada

Canada’s Scott Gow just keeps improving, and this season was no exception. Early on he had two career-best performances: 16th in the sprints in both Östersund and Annecy.

But the biggest career-best also came on the biggest stage. At the Olympics, Gow shot 19-for-20 in the 20 k individual to finish 14th, the best performance by any North American in PyeongChang.

He had started the Games with 61st in the sprint – maybe the worst place to finish, just one spot (in his case one tenth of a second) out of the pursuit.

Gow re-tooled and started focusing on the 20 k.

“When it’s this calm, relatively as calm, everyone can shoot well,” he said after that race. “So that puts a little extra pressure and emphasis on myself to shoot well. So going into today I knew that would be have to the focus, to hit targets, because even if my skiing is a little off I can make up for it with a really good shooting. And that was what was going through my head the last few days preparing for this.”

Plan achieved, mission accomplished. Except that one shot.

“I was very happy with it,” Gow said, noting that even a career-best at the Olympics wasn’t perfect. “A little disappointed to miss that one standing shot, especially when everything was going quite well in the range. Skiing was pretty good, and so overall I am very happy.”

With the 2018 Olympics come and gone, many of biathlon’s athletes are calling it quits. Here’s a roundup of who you won’t see on the World Cup next season – and who’s still on the fence about their future.

USA

2017 Word Champion Lowell Bailey has long planned to retire after the 2018 season, and now that time has come. His first World Junior Championships was in 1999 and he got his first World Cup start in 2002. He raced 2003 World Championships before taking a break to go to the University of Vermont, before returning and competing in the 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018 Olympics. His eighth-place finish in the 20 k individual at the 2014 Games are the best ever by an American biathlete. Bailey is the Executive Director of the Crosscut Mountain Sports Center in Bozeman.

“I told myself this morning that I just wanted to go out on a high note,” he told FasterSkier in Oslo after leading off a U.S. relay team that finished seventh, in his last World Cup race. “I wanted to go out with a good result. And, I’m really happy to have shot clean in standing, clean from the clip in my last stage as a World Cup biathlete. That feels good. I’ll always remember that — that I went out with a clean stage.”

Longtime teammate and 2013 World Championships silver medalist Tim Burke will also retire. Burke has six World Cup podiums to his name including that silver medal, and led the World Cup partway through the 2009-2010 season. Burke started racing internationally at 2000 Junior World Championships, and made his first senior World Championships in 2004. Like Bailey, he is a four-time Olympian.

“It’s weird, I don’t honestly I don’t know if it’s truly hit me,” he said after the Oslo relay. “It might take weeks… I think it’s going to take a long time for all to settle in and for me to really reflect back on my career. Yeah, it’s a lot of emotion.” Burke says that his post-biathlon plans are not yet certain.

Also retiring is Russell Currier, an off-and-on member of the national team and the Maine Winter Sports Center (now the Outdoor Sports Institute). Currier had two sixth-place World Cup results in 2012, and is a four-time World Championships team member. Since his World Cup debut in 2009, he has contributed to many U.S. relay efforts. He also competed at the 2014 Olympics, with a top finish of 49th, and was a member of the 2018 Olympic team though he did get any starts in PyeongChang.

“USBA nationals will be officially be the last race of my biathlon career,” Currier wrote in an email to FasterSkier this week.

The women’s team likely won’t see three retirements, and will thus have some more stability than the men’s crew, but there is more uncertainty regarding the women’s roster. Clare Egan wrote in an email this week that she was “Undecided!” about whether to continue racing. And in Oslo, after finishing third in the pursuit which was her last World Cup of the season, Susan Dunklee said the wasn’t sure if she would keep competing. “Ask me again in a month,” she said.

Canada

Julia Ransom retired in Oslo, as the 25-year-old is planning a career in dentistry and has many years of school ahead of her. “It’s just a good time for my partner and I to kind of move on,” she said after crossing the line in her final World Cup, the pursuit, hand in hand with teammate Rosanna Crawford.. “And it does feel right. It feels right.”

Ransom scored two top-ten finishes at 2014 World Juniors, and made her first senior World Championships team in 2015. This season she had two top-ten World Cup finishes, and went to the Olympics in PyeongChang, where she finished 28th in the pursuit.

She is the only one from the Canadian team who is definitely retiring, but quite a few of her teammates are on the fence and there could be huge turnover on the team depending on what they decide. That includes Rosanna Crawford and Brendan Green, even though Crawford finally bagged her first World Cup podium this season.

“We’re not 100% sure yet,” Green said after the relay in Oslo. “Both Rosanna and I will sit on it a little bit over the spring. We will reevaluate a little bit and see what other opportunities arise. I think we both still love to race and train, and if we continue down that path I know we will still be motivated. But as of right now I’m not sure.”

2015 World Championships silver medalist Nathan Smith – who was also, along with Green, Christian Gow, and Scott Gow, part of a bronze-medal relay at 2016 World Championships – is also unsure. He missed most of the 2016-2017 season with health issues and though he returned to the World Cup and the Olympics this year, did not perform up to his own expectations. 

“I’m kind of waiting to see what happens with Biathlon Canada,” Smith wrote in an email this week. “I think some very difficult years are coming for the organization, unfortunately. That will play a big part in my, and I’m sure many other athletes’, decisions. Of course, I’m also not looking to have a continuation of the health problems over the last two seasons, which made competing at the highest level really difficult. So I will be keeping a close eye on how my body is reacting to training. If it’s still not coming around that would certainly not encourage me to continue either.”

2010, 2014, and 2018 Olympian Megan Tandy also struggled with health issues this winter, and is likewise not sure what her future holds.

“Originally it was my intention to retire after this season, however it was literally my worst season ever!” she wrote in an email. “I was sick more in the past 6 months than in the past two years. Anyways,  I have taken some time since the Olympics to followup about my health and to consider options for next season. I want to race a final season – one where I feel good and can put up a good fight (not necessarily results dependant, I just want to leave this sector of my life feeling like I gave it all I got), but a lot of things will need to fall into place for that to be realistic: sponsor support, coaching opportunities during the training season, and my health of course.”

Poland

Weronika Nowakowska is calling it a career. The 31-year-old picked up two World Cup podiums in the 2015 season before taking a break from competition to give birth to twins. She made a successful return this season and represented Poland in PyeongChang, with a top finish of 21st in the individual. She also had sixth- and fourth-place finishes on the World Cup this year and contributed to four different top-eight relay efforts, including one at the Olympics.

“I leave happy, fulfilled and cheerful,” she wrote on her Facebook page, according to a translation. “I was not outstanding, but so far no Polish biathlete has done better”

France

Back in Oslo, French star Marie Dorin Habert ended her career. Dorin Habert – then simply Marie Dorin – competed in her first senior World Championships in PyeongChang in 2009, where she had a top individual finish of 18th and was part of the bronze-medal relay team. Fast forward and she had racked up a sprint bronze at the 2010 Olympics, seven World Cup wins, ten more World Championships relay medals, and four individual gold, one silver, and one bronze medal at World Championships, four of which were from the 2016 edition where she did not finish a single race without a medal.

She found herself back in PyeongChang for the 2018 Olympics, where, despite a frustrating season until then, she was fourth in the sprint, bronze in the women’s relay, and gold in the mixed relay.

“It’s so nice to end this way, to share it with all of the team, and the beautiful sun, and all the French people,” Dorin Habert said after winning the women’s relay in Oslo along with her teammates. “It’s a wonderful day for me. I would like to thank a lot, well, everyone, for being there in the biathlon family. I’m really happy to have this career, and I’m really happy for everything.”

Jean Guillaume Beatrix he told is also retiring. Beatrix was a World Junior Champion in 2009, before going on to be a five-time World Championships team member and a 2014 Olympic bronze medalist in the pursuit. He was part of three silver- and one bronze-medal winning men’s relay teams at World Championships. But this season, he did not perform well enough to make a very competitive French team for the 2018 Olympics. His retirement was “a decision precipitated by my results”, L’Equipe, according to a translation.

Czech

Jaroslav Soukup, the bronze medalist in the sprint at 2012 World Championships, where he was also part of the silver-medal mixed relay team, is retiring. Later in 2012, he suffered a horrendous accident while biking, including open fractures in his arm and neck and back injuries. By 2014, he made it back and won the same medals at the Olympics that he had at World Championships two years before: bronze in the sprint and silver in the mixed relay. Soukup qualified for the 2018 Olympics but only competed in the relay, which finished seventh. He had one World Cup top-30 this season.

Norway

Hilde Fenne, a staple of the Norwegian women’s team, retired after the last race of the season in Tyumen, Russia. Fenne never found breakout success as an individual; she had three top-15 finishes in her career. But she was an integral part of the women’s team and contributed to numerous World Cup relay podiums, as well as the gold-medal winning women’s relay at 2013 World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.

In that final race, her teammates wrote her name on their cheeks. “She has been a very important piece for me,” teammate Synnøve Solemdal told NRK, almost in tears. “We have stayed in a lot of hotel rooms together. I’m going to miss her very much.”

On the men’s side, there is uncertainty as to whether some veterans will stick with racing or not. One is Ole Einar Bjørndalen, who was left off Norway’s Olympic team, who for the first time since 1992 this season. And yet, the 44-year-old has not stated that he will retire, and some who know him are speculating that he may try to stick it out one more year and go out with better results than he saw this season.

Also with no stated plans is Emil Hegle Svendsen. Bjørndalen is the winningest athlete in World Cup history; Svendsen is number four. He won the World Cup overall title in 2010, and is a four-time Olympian. He won gold in the individual in 2010 and in the mass start in 2014, after which he suffered a total collapse anchoring the Norwegian men’s relay. In the past seasons he has been off and on, and he has only won two races since then. But this season he showed flashes of brilliance, and he was third in the mass start at the 2018 Olympics as well as anchoring the silver medal men’s relay and mixed relays.

“What Emil has done is absolutely fantastic,” teammate Tarjei Bø – who won the overall World Cup the year after Svendsen – told NRK two weeks ago. “He has won everything, and in addition done it several times, and he has come back again and again after being down. He has had a fantastic career and I hope he continues.”

Finland

She just won the overall World Cup crystal globe, but Kaisa Makarainen is not sure whether she will continue racing. In several previous years she had already discussed potentially retiring, but now she is reportedly waiting to think it over more as well as to discuss with the new team staff. U.S. Biathlon Women’s Coach Jonne Kahkonen, himself a Finn, was just announced as the new Head Coach for Finland.

Germany

Florian Graf, an athlete who finished as high as fourth on the World Cup in 2013 but has more recently been racing on the IBU Cup, is calling it quits at age 29.

Several other top athletes are suspected to be considering retiring, but there hasn’t been much on the record discussion by them. Stay tuned.

OSLO, Norway — In some ways, Sunday’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer men’s relay was very special for the U.S. biathlon team.

Two stalwart members – World Championships gold medalist Lowell Bailey and silver medalist Tim Burke – were retiring. It would be the last race of their long international careers.

In other ways, though, the team wanted it to just be a normal race. Their goal was to put together a good relay and a good result.

“Nothing’s changed in terms of, it’s about getting the best result we can,” Bailey said after leading off the relay and tagging teammate Sean Doherty in seventh place, having used just one spare rounds. “At the end of the day, that’s what we all want, and I couldn’t be happier if that’s how my career ended.”

After Bailey’s relay leg, the team moved around quite a bit within the top 10, but by the race’s end, they came back to seventh place, 2:01.5 behind Norway, who took a blowout win over Austria (+50.3) and Russia (+56.9).

All the American men had good skiing, with their relay legs ranked fourth (Bailey), eighth (Doherty), sixth (Burke), and eighth (Leif Nordgren) for ski times, respectively. Together, they used eight spare rounds – far more than the winning Norwegian team’s three, but similar to many other teams in the middle of the field.

“That’s solid,” Burke said. “See how tight it is up front, besides Norway with the big lead? Other than that, it’s really close. We’re in the mix. You always want more, but it’s a solid result … the Olympic relay, we were very happy with. The sixth place there [in PyeongChang, South Korea], we were right there. That was a great race for us, but this is solid as well.”

Even though the U.S. had started in bib 24, in the very back of the mass start, Bailey had been able to find his way through the crowded pack and move up to seventh place. He then used a spare round in prone, dropping to 12th, but with clean standing and his good skiing, moved the U.S. back into contention.

“It didn’t seem it, but it took a lot of mental energy and focus to execute a good race,” Bailey said. “I told myself this morning that I just wanted to go out on a high note. I wanted to go out with a good result. And, I’m really happy to have shot clean in standing, clean from the clip in my last stage as a World Cup biathlete. That feels good. I’ll always remember that — that I went out with a clean stage.”

After Bailey, Doherty used two spare rounds and moved up to sixth place.

“I had a little ride there for the first lap, which was nice, and got into a good rhythm,” he said. “I had one spare [in each stage] … no harm there. It’s not ideal because it would have been really good to try to get contact with that kind of pack of four or five guys that were kind of together ahead, but we’re still right in it.”

Burke had clean shooting in prone to stay in sixth place, but used two spare rounds in standing and dropped to 10th, where he stayed until he tagged off.

Given his emotions, however, he was more than happy with just two spare rounds.

“I was more nervous for this race than nearly any other race in my career,” he admitted. “I was like, pull it together, because the other guys are counting on you today. So I tried to approach it like any other race, but honestly, it was a challenge to keep bringing myself back into the race mentally. I’m was happy to have stayed out of the penalty loop.”

Nordgren anchored the team and despite using all three spare rounds in standing, he moved up to eighth place when he left the range and passed another racer on the trails to bring the team home in seventh.

“I’ve been here a long, long time, and an top eight today is very different than a top eight when I came on the World Cup 14 years ago,” the 36-year-old Burke said, looking back over his career. “It’s so close now. There’s so many good teams. So it’s a solid result.”

The fact that he and Bailey, also 36, were here competing is a result of many changed plans over the last decade. The two initially planned to retire after the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy.

“The original goal was 2006 or bust,” Bailey said. “You know, like make the Olympic team, be an Olympian and move on. I’m so glad I didn’t follow through with that, because, you know, it’s a great feeling and accomplishment to make an Olympic team, but biathlon is so much more than that.”

“… It’s a great feeling and accomplishment to make an Olympic team, but biathlon is so much more than that.” — Lowell Bailey, US Biathlon

Both retiring athletes plan to stay involved with biathlon in one way or another. Bailey is a board member at the Crosscut Mountain Sports Center in Bozeman, Montana.

“I wouldn’t even say goodbye, because I intend to still be in contact with everyone and I really want to see US Biathlon move forward in the next four to ten years,” Bailey said. “I think the future is bright, and we have some great athletes that still have a lot to contribute on the World Cup. But then also, there’s new athletes out there right now that will come onto the World Cup stage. The future definitely is bright.

“I can honestly say biathlon has made my life so much better,” he continued. “So I feel very fortunate to have been introduced to the sport so many years ago. And it’s taken me on a wild roller coaster ride.”

Burke is not sure of his plans moving forward, but won’t be saying goodbye to biathlon permanently either.

“Nothing’s set in stone yet,” he said. “I really want to take a few months to myself right now. You know, I’ve been married for three years; I’ve never spent any anniversary with Andrea. We just built a new house last year. I haven’t really spent any time in it. I’ve missed all my nieces and nephews’ birthdays for the last eight years. I’m so excited to have more time with my family and friends, and try and make up for some lost time there.

“But I will absolutely stay in biathlon in one way or another,” he continued. “I’d like to think I’ve learned a lot in the 14 years I’ve been on the World Cup. Done some things right. Made a ton of mistakes. I would love to be able to share those experiences with the next generation coming up.”

Burke said that while he had been a wreck and barely able to focus on his race in Saturday’s pursuit, with the prospect of his last World Cups weighing on him, at the same time he wasn’t fully processing that his career was over.

“It’s weird. I don’t honestly I don’t know if it’s truly hit me,” he said. “It might take weeks. It’ll probably be May 1 when my body’s telling me, ‘OK, time to get back into training routine. Time to open up the training log. All right, what’s the plan?’ I think it’s going to take a long time for all to settle in and for me to really reflect back on my career. Yeah, it’s a lot of emotion.”

Even for those not retiring, it was a memorable day.

“It is special, for sure,” Doherty said. “It’s an honor to race with these guys and to have raced with them for the few years that I have. It has been great.”

As the sun shone, the team and a staff drank champagne and then stood out in the middle of the stadium soaking it all in.

“You know, it’s such a beautiful venue and a great place to compete,” Bailey said of Holmenkollen. “It’s about the history, and the course obviously is spectacular. But, you know there’s a little bit of luck involved in World Cups, and you can have really bad weather and you can have good weather, and this is the best weather we’ve had the whole year. I feel kind of blessed to be able to experience my last World Cup in these conditions, with the sun out and everyone smiling. I’ve never really thought about it or pictured it, but if I have, this is what it would look like.”

The Canadian team of Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Brendan Green, and Macx Davies finished 16th (+5:42.4) with 10 spare rounds.

“I’ve been kind of out of gas since like I got pretty sick after the Olympics, and I just haven’t been able to build my shape back,” Christian Gow said. “It’s been an arduous couple race weekends — even if the shooting’s good, I’m physically just exhausted. So, it’s disappointing to feel that way. … After the [Olympic] peak, you need to rebuild a bit, and I wasn’t able to do any of that because I had to take a week off or something like that [due to illness]. So, yeah, I’d rather be strong at the Olympics and then not as strong at the end of the year, but it doesn’t make it easier in the moment.”

Results

OSLO, Norway—Eight World Cup weekends, a swing by Open European Championships, two weeks at the Olympics, and it all came down to this: Susan Dunklee’s last international race of the season was also her first podium of the season, and she’s heading back to the United States with a third-place finish in the 10 k pursuit.

“I’m super happy,” Dunklee said. “I often start feeling stronger and stronger as the season goes on, and this season it took a little longer. I had a lot of sickness, and some frustrating shooting days early in the season that made it hard for me to keep going. I’m really happy right now.”

The World Cup concludes next weekend in Tyumen, Russia, but the Americans are among other teams (including Canada, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine) who are boycotting the event because Russia is not currently compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code.

Dunklee finished fourth in the 7.5 k sprint here at Holmenkollen on Thursday, and started today’s pursuit 35.7 seconds behind sprint winner Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia.

She missed a shot in the first prone stage, and then another in the first standing stage. But Dunklee was never out of the top ten, bouncing around from fifth to tenth. Not a single woman in the field cleaned all 20 targets.

The race for first came down to Kuzmina and Darya Domracheva of Belarus. Both women cleaned their final stage, while Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand and Laura Dahlmeier ahead of them each missed two and fell out of contention. Kuzmina hit the trails with a 1.5-second advantage.

Domracheva caught up to her, and then pulled away on the Hellnerbacken climb coming back to the stadium. She claimed a 9.2 second win by the finish line.

Dunklee came into the final shooting in ninth place. But aside from Kuzmina and Domracheva, all those in front of her missed shots.

She left in third place, but with Fuyuko Tachizaki of Japan hot on her tails.

“She was chasing me and I heard that from the coaches right away as I was leaving the stadium,” Dunklee said. “She is a strong skier, but I was hoping I would have enough strength on that last hill to be able to take her if needed. So I was trying to put a gap on her but it was like, if she catches me, there’s a Plan B.”

Dunklee accumulated about a two-second gap on Tachizaki around the first part of the loop, but just as in the race for first, the decisive move came on the Hellnerbacken.

“I didn’t know who else was back there, and I just hammered up that back hill hoped to keep her and whoever else away,” Dunklee explained.

It worked, and she came into the stadium with a comfortable lead of 8.1 seconds, third place seemingly secured. Dunklee continued hammering up the steep hill behind the shooting range before dropping into the stadium, where she – and the other top finishers, none of them Norwegian – were met with deafening cheers by the crowd in the grandstand.

“I love this crowd,” Dunklee said. “It was great, you know they are always are happy to cheer on their own, but they also cheer on some of the underdogs. That’s kind of neat.

It wasn’t the only support she had out on course, either. None of the other American women qualified for the pursuit. That was disappointing for the team, but meant that they were out in force cheering Dunklee towards the Americans’ first podium of the World Cup season.

“My teammates were out on the course, other girls, Clare [Egan], Em [Dreissigacker], and JoJo [Reid], and Alex [Howe], and that meant the world to me. I saw them multiple times through the loop. All our staff was out there. It was really cool.”

It hadn’t been a perfect shooting race from Dunklee, but as Domracheva and Kuzmina also showed, it’s the last shooting that counts.

“I don’t think that many people had a perfect race out there today,” Dunklee said. ”It’s crazy some days — I mean, it doesn’t really matter what everybody else is doing, you just have to try to put the best race you can. Because sometimes you have a perfect race and five other people do too, and then you are sixth. But some days you don’t have a perfect race and you end up third.”

As Dunklee alluded to, the beginning of her season was marred with disastrous shooting performances. But the last several weeks have seen better shooting, and two penalties was a good tally in the field today.

“I spent awhile this summer with a crazy plan of preparing myself for wind, because I knew that [the Olympics in] Korea could be windy,” Dunklee said. “I was playing with shading, which is a sort of advanced skill that I haven’t done much until this year. And that’s fine in itself, but what it did was it took my focus off the really good speed shooting, which I had going for me last year and worked really well.”

Partway through the season, Dunklee decided to abandon the shading project and go back to basics. Finally, it is starting to pay off.

“I realized half way through this winter that I can’t really keep both at the same time. at least not right now — it might take me a few more years to get there,” she said. “And so right before the Olympics, about two weeks before we went, I kind of switched to my old style. But it takes a while to get the feel for it again. But it was finally back.”

She also was sick several times throughout the winter, including before and during the Olympics, and then after the Olympics when the World Cup moved to Finland. But today her ski speed was back, too; her last loop was the 13th-fastest in the field.

“I feel a lot better than I did yesterday,” Dunklee said. “During the relay I felt kind of flat. But yeah, I often get to my strongest right as the season finishes, that is pretty typical. I think the biggest thing was that I had a cold or some sort of sickness for three or four weeks, through January/February, and that took a lot out of me. I’m finally getting healthy again.”

Dunklee is not sure whether she will keep competing for another season, saying to ask again in a month.

But whether it was the last race of her career or just the last one of the year, Oslo is a special place for her.

“My first podium was here in Oslo, and I believe Darya was ahead of me on the podium on that day too,” Dunklee said. “So it’ s a little bit déjà vu.”

Canada’s Julia Ransom and Rosanna Crawford crossed the finish line together, +4:52.4, after collecting four and five penalties, respectively.

“It was fun that Julia and I — I guess we were disappointed that we both were bad, but it led us to being able to cross the finish line together,” Crawford said. “So that was nice. Celebrate that team.”

Teammate Emma Lunder was lapped and did not finish.

After the finish, the Canadians celebrated Ransom’s retirement with champagne, along with the French women who were celebrating the retirement of Marie Dorin Habert.

Dorin Habert is also not going to Tyumen next weekend, and the Canadians were the first team to announce a boycott of the event.

“I’m disappointed that the IBU has taken away our chance to compete at World Cup Finals, because [IBU President] Besseberg and the IBU have decided not to stand up for clean sport,” Crawford said.

Results

OSLO, Norway—Julia Ransom had been mulling over retirement from elite sport for at least two years.

That’s even though the Canadian is just 25 years old. She collected two top-ten results this year, in the 15 k individual in Östersund, Sweden, and the 7.5 k sprint in Oberhof, Germany.

“I definitely played with the idea for the last year or two — to end with the Olympics,” she explained after today’s pursuit in Oslo. “I’d say going into this year, I had the idea that I’ll retire unless I felt very strongly. This was a reassessment point I guess. I was just going to sit with the idea of retiring for the last couple of months, and if it felt right then I’d do it.”

As the season wore on, Ransom decided that it was the right time to go. So the pursuit was her last international competition.

“It’s just a good time for my partner and I to kind of move on,” she said. “And it does feel right. It feels right.”

In the pursuit, Ransom had four penalties and finished 51st. It wasn’t a great race, but she was still happy.

“I’ve had better pursuits, but it was — I just had fun the whole time,” she said. “I was smiling, I had my friends on the track, I had the girls around me. It was just awesome. I had a lot of fun.”

Among other notable retirements is French star Marie Dorin Habert. As she crossed the finish line in 20th place, her teammates – France had put five women in the pursuit – mobbed her, and then showered her with champagne.

When Ransom crossed the finish line together with teammate Rosanna Crawford, her teammates had also prepared some champagne.

The French and Canadian teams are very close, and the two celebrations merged into one. Neither Dorin Habert nor the Canadians will compete next weekend in Tyumen, Russia, and there were lots of teary but laughing hugs.

“Oh gosh, we’ll be friends forever,” Ransom said of the teammates who will keep competing next year without her. “We’ll always be tight. I’ve know them since I was really little, and they’re my best buddies.”

Dorin Habert and Ransom had both chosen a favorite place to have their last races.

“I can’t complain — it’s my favorite place in the world,” Ransom said.

Crawford isn’t sure yet whether she will retire or not, but said that she would most likely be racing next season.

“It almost would be nice to just retire now so I don’t have to go through all the sadness that Julia did,” Crawford said. “But there is probably a pretty high chance I’ll do one more year.”

Ransom is headed back to school, so she already has her post-biathlon career planned.

“I am enrolled at UBC Okanagan for sciences,” she said. “So that’s going to be something. And my goal is to go into dentistry. Or medicine, I‘m still going back and forth. But that’s that. I‘m going to move to Penticton, going back to my hometown…. have got approximately eight to twelve years of school ahead of me.”

The first thing she’ll do this spring? Something on the list of activities that was discouraged while she was an athlete, to avoid injuries.

“I think the first thing I’m going to do is go downhill biking,” she laughed. “Really doing the things I wasn’t allowed to.”

— Harald Zimmer contributed

FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals (Falun, Sweden): 10/15 k freestyle pursuits

Men’s report

In the last women’s race of the World Cup season, U.S. Ski Team members Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen made it one they’ll remember for a long, long time as Diggins raced to second in the 10-kilometer freestyle pursuit and Bjornsen outlasted two Norwegians for third. The two finished the World Cup Finals mini tour in second and third, respectively, behind Norway’s Marit Bjørgen who won it in 24:18.9 minutes.

Bjørgen started with a 36-second cushion to her Norwegian teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg in second. Diggins started third, 41 seconds back, just ahead of Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski in fourth (+43.0), based on their cumulative performances over the last two days of the mini tour (skate sprint and 10 k classic mass start).

While Østberg, Diggins and Pärmäkoski formed a chase pack, Diggins dropped them in pursuit of Bjørgen on the first lap. The American continued to push the pace throughout the three-lap race, coming within 16.7 seconds of Bjørgen at the finish.

Meanwhile, during the pursuit, a chase group of five, which included Bjornsen, caught Østberg and Pärmäkoski. The group of seven dwindled to three on the last two climbs, where Bjornsen and Norway’s Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen and Ragnhild Haga broke away in a race for third.

The three were even entering the finishing stretch, where Bjornsen then beat them in a final 100-meter push to the line. Bjornsen claimed third (+1:11.5) for her fourth podium of the season and first in a distance skate race. Haga followed in fourth (+1:12.0) and Jacobsen fifth (+1:12.8), while Pärmäkoski placed sixth (+1:16.2), Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla seventh (+1:17.9), Østberg eighth (+1:19.0), Sweden’s Jonna Sundling ninth (+1:30.5) and Ebba Andersson 10th (+1:44.7).

Bjornsen now has five-career individual World Cup podiums to her name, and this is the first in a skate race longer than 5 k.

Diggins clocked the fastest time of day in 23:54.4, while Haga was second-fastest (+10.7) after starting the race in 17th. Bjørgen’s time ranked third, Jacobsen was fourth-fastest and Bjornsen fifth-fastest.

Diggins’s performance elevated her to second in the Overall World Cup standings, just 40 points behind Norway’s Heidi Weng (who placed 18th in the pursuit) in first for the second-straight year. Østberg slipped to third overall, 22 points behind Diggins. In the Distance World Cup, Weng took the title by 63 points over Østberg in second, while Diggins was another 32 points back in third.

Bjornsen ended up sixth in the Overall World Cup and 10th in the distance standings.

Also for the U.S., Caitlin Patterson raced from 46th at the start to 35th (+3:58.4) with the 22nd-fastest time of day, Sophie Caldwell placed 36th (+4:00.7), Kikkan Randall finished her last World Cup race in 43rd (+4:33.3) with the 29th-fastest time, Rosie Frankowski placed 46th (+4:41.3), Liz Stephen 50th (+4:57.2) in her final World Cup race, Kaitlynn Miller 56th (+6:13.8), and Ida Sargent 57th (+7:06.4).

For Canada, Cendrine Browne picked off 10 places to finish 39th (+4:14.4) with 27th-fastest time of day, Emily Nishikawa finished 48th (+4:43.7), Dahria Beatty 54th (+6:04.3), and Zina Kocher 60th (+9:28.4).

In the men’s 15 k freestyle pursuit that followed, Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov started 38 seconds clear of Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in second, and Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson and Italy’s Federico Pellegrino headed out together another second later in third and fourth, respectively.

Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby started the race in seventh (+53.0), and Switzerland’s Dario Cologna followed in ninth (+56.0), while Canada’s Alex Harvey started 1:16 back in 18th.

While Bolshunov skied the entire race on his own and won the weekend mini tour in 35:03.3, a number of racers battled for second, with Sundby moving into second in the chase pack, ahead of seven others, less than 2 k in. Several skiers found themselves at the front of that group, including Cologna, Halfvarsson, and even Harvey (with Harvey leading the chase at 9.3 k), while the time gap to Bolshunov grew.

With about 2 k to go, the group was down to six. Harvey attempted an attack, but Cologna matched him. Then, on one of the course’s final climbs, Cologna made his move to get a slight gap, but lost his balance slightly on the downhill, allowing Harvey to catch back up.

With one last uphill to go, Harvey was in the driver’s seat in second, Cologna in third and Sundby in fourth. That order held to the finish, with Harvey claiming second, 47.1 seconds behind Bolshunov, Cologna placing third (+47.5) and Sundby fourth (+48.7). Just behind them, Russia’s Maxim Vylegzhanin crossed in fifth (+50.3), ahead of Norway’s Hans Christer Holund in sixth (+51.7), Halfvarsson in seventh (+54.1), and Norway’s Sjur Røthe in eighth (+54.9). Nearly 10 seconds later, Norway’s Niklas Dyrhaug outlunged two Russians for ninth (+1:04.1): Denis Spitsov in 10th (+1:04.2) and Andrey Larkov in 11th (+1:04.3).

Harvey, who finished the season in fourth in both the Overall and Distance World Cup standings, won the time of day in 34:34.3. Holund had the second-fastest course time, 1 second off Harvey’s time, after starting the race in 22nd.

Harvey’s Canadian teammate Devon Kershaw tallied his fifth-straight distance top 30 in 28th (+2:21.9), after starting 27th, and Graeme Killick finished 56th (+4:33). Julien Locke did not start.

For the U.S., Erik Bjornsen clocked the 22nd-fastest time en route to 38th (+3:10.4), after he started 51st. Simi Hamilton improved 10 places to finish 49th (+4:07.8), Scott Patterson and Paddy Caldwell worked together to move up from 72nd and 73rd, respectively, to 58th (+4:41.5) and 59th (+4:41.6), respectively, at the finish. Kevin Bolger placed 60th (+4:43.5) and David Norris 64th (+5:09.8).

While Klæbo slipped from second to 25th in the pursuit (+1:45.8), the Norwegian still won his first Overall World Cup by 119 points over Cologna in second. Sundby placed third, 29 points out of second and 82 points ahead of Harvey.

Cologna claimed the Distance World Cup Crystal Globe by 41 points over Sundby, and Holund reached the Distance World Cup podium in third, 58 points out of second and just 5 points ahead of Harvey in third. France’s Maurice Manificat had been third heading into the final day of racing, but finished the pursuit in 26th (+2:11.9) and dropped to fifth in the final distance rankings.

Results: 

Women: Pursuit | Time of day | Final Overall World Cup rankings | Final Distance World Cup rankings

Men: Pursuit | Time of day | Final Overall World Cup rankings | Finals Distance World Cup rankings

***

IBU World Cup (Oslo, Norway): Women’s pursuit + men’s relay

Women’s pursuit report | Julia Ransom retires 

Men’s relay report

In her last race of the season, Susan Dunklee returned to the podium. The American started fourth in Sunday’s 10-kilometer pursuit at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Oslo, then made her way into third by the final shooting stage. Dunklee shot 18-for-20 (1+0+1+0) and finished 29.5 seconds behind the winner, Darya Domracheva of Belarus, who missed two targets as well (1+0+1+0) and finished first in 30:37.4. Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina started the race in first (ahead of Domracheva in second) and ended up second (+9.2) with four penalties (0+2+2+0).

Canada’s Julia Ransom and Rosanna Crawford finished together in 51st and 52nd, respectively, both 4:52.4 out of first. Ransom had four penalties (0+1+1+2) while Crawford missed five (1+3+1+0). Emma Lunder did not finish.

In the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay on Sunday, Norway’s team of Lars Helge Birkeland, Henrik L’Abee-Lund, Tarjei Bø, and Johannes Thingnes Bø used just three spare rounds to clean eight shooting stages and took the win in 1:13:13.7 hours. Austria finished 50.3 seconds back in second place, with Dominik Landertinger, Felix Leitner, Simon Eder, and Julian Eberhard, with a total of five spares. Russia’s Maxim Tsvetkov, Anton Babikov, Dmitry Malyshko, and Anton Shipulin raced to third (+56.9) with just four total spares.

The U.S. men placed seventh (+2:01.5) with eighth spares, after Lowell Bailey put the team in seventh on the first leg. Sean Doherty skied them up to sixth on the second leg, Tim Burke slipped to 10th on the third leg, and Leif Nordgren posted the seventh-fastest anchor leg to put them in seventh at the finish.

Canada placed 16th (+5:42.4) with Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Brendan Green, and Macx Davies. The team had been in 19th at the final exchange, but Davies skied them up to 16th with the 14th-fastest anchor leg. In all, they used 10 spares.

Results: Women’s pursuit | Men’s relay

OSLO, Norway — Henrik L’Abée-Lund took his first World Cup win on Thursday, on home turf in Norway no less.

As the kilometers and shooting stages ticked by, it looked possible that L’Abée-Lund would do it again, or at least come close. After two prone stages, one standing stage, one penalty lap, and 7.5 kilometers of skiing, L’Abée-Lund hit the trails together with the man who is always a pre-race favorite: Martin Fourcade of France.

Over the next 2.5 kilometers, Fourcade skied faster, but wasn’t able to put too much of a gap on the Norwegian. Fourcade came into the range with a 4.5-second lead and hit his first target before L’Abée-Lund started shooting.

Fourcade kept right on going, hitting all five targets for a score of 18/20 on the day, and cruised to victory.

When asked at the post-race press conference whether the win was easy, Fourcade replied, “It wasn’t, because the fight on the beginning was really tight. I had a lot of pressure on the standing shooting. So I must say I’m really satisfied about the win today. I heard it’s my 10th win in Holmenkollen and I’m the most-awarded biathlete in Holmenkollen. It’s probably my favorite place on the World Cup. I’m really happy I did that.”

L’Abée-Lund missed two and fell out of podium contention.

In his absence, Johannes Thingnes Bø – the more favored Norwegian – also missed a shot on the final stage. Italy’s Lukas Hofer cleaned and went past him into second, and that was the podium at the finish.

It was Fourcade’s seventh win in a season where he has never been off the podium in a World Cup race (although he was twice off the podium at the Olympics), and he now has a 49-point lead over Bø in the World Cup Total Score standings with three individual races to go.

“It’s really nice fight,” Fourcade said in a press conference. “I must say, I’m surprised [to say it], but I like it. Johannes is an amazing opponent. No matter what happens in Tyumen, I know that I will thank him for the fight we had. Even if he wins the World Cup, I don’t want that, but I will thank him. I really appreciate the good fight, the fair fight we had, and the good biathlon show we made for people.”

“I think I have maybe 10-percent chance to win this,” Bø said of the overall World Cup title. “So it’s not a big chance, but you know, many things can happen. I know for sure that Martin will probably on the podium every race next weekend. And then there is no chance for me to win the globe. So then I have to just do my best and then we see, but it has been a good season no matter what happens, and it’s a big step in my career.

Hofer finished 18.1 seconds back in second place with one penalty, and Bø 32.5 seconds back reached the podium despite four missed shots.

“I went out [from the last shooting stage] and my trainer told me, ‘It’s only a small gap, only four seconds,’ ” Hofer said, although he actually led Bø by nearly 15 seconds at that point. “I think they told me this so that I keep pushing on the last loop. I tried to keep some energy for the last 600 meters a the end. When I saw Johannes and that I had a bigger gap to him, I was really happy.”

“I knew that Hofer is one of the strongest guys on the last laps,” Bø said. “But I was feeling really good today, so I was thinking there was a chance [to catch him]. We had really good material and skis. And I had good shape today, but in the end of the last lap, I saw there was no chance. So then it was just to look behind and secure the third place. “

Fourth place went to Russia’s Maxim Tsvetkov (+42.7), who cleaned the whole race and moved up from bib 28. L’Abée-Lund finished fifth (+45.2).

US Biathlon’s Sean Doherty started the day in bib 14, and cleaned all his prone targets to stay in contention for a top 10. He missed a shot in each standing stage but still finished 17th on the day (+1:34.2), tying his second-best result of the season.

“I’m really happy with today,” Doherty said. “I really had a goal in mind to stay in my own lane, on the range there. Skiing with these top guys, the pace is really high, so stay focused on my [shooting], and I did that well. I’m happy with how I shot and how I executed this race. I obviously left two in standing there, but those were just my mistake … Standing is usually stronger for me, but I was kind of pushing the limit, which you have to do if you’re still trying to make up some time on the range. So I was just a little hasty at times, and that’s just kind of my nature.”

Doherty had the 23rd-fastest course time on the day.

“It’s been a pretty lousy season in a lot of ways,” he said. “There were some good moments before Christmas, and it’s good to finish on a really strong note with Finland and with these races here. So I’m really happy about that – it’s nice for the body to be picking up. But it’s a little bit of a bummer that we are not going to Russia, because I’m starting to ski better, and really feeling like I’m in good form for some more racing.”

Teammate Lowell Bailey started in 42nd and had two missed targets to move up to 28th (+2:07.2), thanks to the 19th-fastest course time of the day. For both him and Tim Burke, who finished 47th (+4:12.6) with four penalties, it was the last individual World Cup starts for long careers, as the U.S. is boycotting next weekend’s World Cup stage in Tyumen, Russia.

Leif Nordgren finished 40th (+3:07.5) with four penalties, three of which came in the second prone stage. He had the 27th-fastest course time.

“It was a really good race except for one stage,” Nordgren said. “That second prone stage set me back quite a bit. But I was really happy with my skiing today. [Ski speed] came just a couple weeks late after the Olympics unfortunately. I definitely feel a lot stronger now, and it’s too bad it’s the end of the season. But it’s nice to end on a high note. You don’t have to be pissed off all spring.”

For Canada, Scott Gow finished 51st (+4:59.7) and younger brother Christian Gow 54th (+5:07.4) with five and two penalties, respectively.

Results

OSLO, Norway — In the last relay of French star Marie Dorin Habert’s career, she turned in a crucial performance to bring her team to the front. Anaïs Bescond extended the gap and France took the win in the women’s 4 x 6-kilometer relay here at Holmenkollen by 14.4 seconds over Germany.

Was she nervous going into the last team event she will ever race?

“I wasn’t really nervous,” Dorin Habert, 31, said in a press conference. “I think it’s a special thing to know that there is no more starts and no more relays for me, so I just wanted to fight and struggle hard like every relay. I think I did my best today.”

Dorin Habert won two gold medals, in the individual and the pursuit, here at World Championships two years ago. So Oslo is a special place.

“It’s so nice to end this way, to share it with all of the team, and the beautiful sun, and all the French people,” Dorin Habert said. “It’s a wonderful day for me. I would like to thank a lot, well, everyone, for being there in the biathlon family. I’m really happy to have this career, and I’m really happy for everything.

The Italian duo of Lisa Vittozzi and Dorothea Wierer put their team in first place at the halfway point, and it was their teammate Nicole Gontier whom Dorin Habert passed to pull France into first. Gontier stuck with her, and Italy was only 2.2 seconds back at the last exchange.

The German anchor, Laura Dahlmeier, charged past Italian skier Federica Sanfilippo. She was unable to catch Bescond, but Germany finished second with seven spare rounds to six by the French, and Italy placed third with eight spare rounds (+33.2).

Norway placed fourth with a penalty loop and 10 spares (+1:26.5), Switzerland fifth with eight spare rounds (+1:54.2), and Sweden sixth with a remarkable three spare rounds (+2:27.2).

The Canadian team skied an even race, with Sarah Beaudry leading off in 12th, Julia Ransom tagging in 14th, Emma Lunder in 15th, and then Rosanna Crawford bringing the team up to 11th.

“I love coming from behind and chasing girls down, and I just looked at it as practice for tomorrow,” said Crawford, who will start Sunday’s pursuit in bib 38. “I was within somewhat contact with the other women around me, so that was nice. People to chase, people to ski with.”

It wasn’t the result the team knew they were capable of, with 11 spare rounds. But it has been a long season.

“Of course everyone is tired, every team is tired,” Crawford said. “But our fast isn’t as fast as the fastest, so our slow is, well, a lot slower. I felt so good through Finland, and I really thought the ski speed was going to hold, but then it wasn’t there in the sprint. And also, today was slightly better, but not what I had last weekend. It’s so frustrating to be up and down.”

The U.S. team started off with a tough leg by Clare Egan, who used all of her spare rounds in both prone and standing and had two penalty laps. She tagged off at the first exchange in 21st and last place.

“This is I think the worst race of my career,” she said after the finish. “I’m really embarrassed. It is the worst possible thing to do it in a relay. I hate letting everyone down. It’s a really terrible feeling.”

Her teammates, though, were more circumspect.

“I never, ever, want to hear a teammate apologizing for tagging off far back like that,” said Susan Dunklee, who took the tag from Egan. “The only thing they can apologize for is if they didn’t try. And Clare was out there and trying her best. So I have nothing but respect for that.

“What I yelled at Clare, when she was at the top corner and I was warming up, I yelled, ‘We love you and we think you’re awesome!’ ” Dunklee continued. “She was in last place, and we still do love her. You just have to know that your teammates have all been there, they have all done the same thing in the relay, and they know exactly how you feel. Usually, there’s a piece of our relay that we can look at and get really excited about, so we will do that today.”

For Egan, though, it was a race that just came apart. The team started with bib 22, one of the last in the field, but she move up 10 places to 12th by the first shooting.

Then, spare rounds and penalty laps.

“I’ve never had a penalty loop in prone, in the World Cup [in a relay], but to do that in the first stage and immediately be like a minute behind everyone – no, I didn’t lose hope,” Egan said. “I knew that anything can happen in the standing. And I actually, I didn’t come into the range last. I had passed one person. But, you know, with another [penalty lap] in standing, I was just trying to get as fast as I could to the finish because … I just hoped that my teammates all would get a chance to do the race. If we get lapped then we get pulled. That’s it.”

She also lost part of a pole early on in the race, and the replacement process did not go smoothly.

“I just had to get a new one, but then the new one was shorter than my own pole,” Egan explained. “So when I went by a coach I meant to switch out the shorter pole for a spare that was the right height, and I gave him my own pole. So then I finished the race and I was like, ‘What the heck? I still have this stupid pole.’ ”

As the relay continued, Dunklee had the seventh-fastest second leg time, and Reid the eighth-fastest third leg time; by the third exchange, the U.S. was in 17th place.

“The shooting didn’t feel really sharp today,” said Dunklee, who used three spare rounds in total. “I don’t know what the times were but I don’t think they were very fast. I just felt sluggish and, a little out of it, really.”

Reid used only one spare round, a performance she was excited about.

“It’s always easier to start from behind and work your way up because there’s no pressure,” she said. “Whereas if you come into the range in first and have to shoot on point one, and everyone is staring at you, that’s really hard. Today was low-pressure shooting.”

Emily Dreissigacker anchored the team, and used four spare rounds to move up to 15th. She caught the team from Kazakhstan and held off a challenge from Korea in a three-way sprint finish, chasing Austria who finished jut 2.1 seconds ahead.

“I don’t know when the last time I actually had to sprint for the finish was, but it was great!” she said.

China and Slovenia were disqualified, and Bulgaria and Lithuania were lapped. But despite being the last team on the first leg, the U.S. women avoided that fate by a large margin.

“I definitely went out hard,” Dreissigacker said. “I knew we were sort of in the danger zone for getting lapped, but actually, the skiing felt really good the first two laps. I kind of died at the end, so I was glad I was able to come through at the finish.”

“I think we’ve all been through some ups and downs this season and struggling with that,” Dunklee said of Egan’s relay leg. “It’s important to remember that biathlon isn’t everything. There’s other stuff going on in our daily lives that is meaningful to us. It’s important to never lose sight of that.”

Results

Susan Dunklee had been looking for something all season, a sort of spark. And while the U.S. biathlete hadn’t necessarily found it on Thursday, she had still pulled off fourth place in the women’s 7.5-kilometer pursuit at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Oslo, Norway.

“I feel like right now I’m relying on good habits to carry me through the rest of the season,” Dunklee, 32, of US Biathlon, said in a phone interview on Thursday. “Normally you need more than just that, you need that spark.”

The spark had fueled her to a silver medal in the mass start at last year’s IBU World Championships. It had helped her reach the podium in four individual World Cup races of her career, twice in second place and twice in third place. Thursday marked her third time placing fourth in a World Cup, and it was her best result of the 2017/2018 season after she finished sixth in a December pursuit in Annecy, France.

Last year in Oslo, Dunklee placed seventh in the sprint. They year before, she finished eighth in the 2016 Oslo World Championships sprint at the Holmenkollen biathlon venue.

On Thursday, she shot clean (hitting all 10 of her targets) and finished 35.7 seconds behind the winner, Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina, and 6.5 seconds out of third, which went to Ukraine’s Yuliia Dzhima.

The race was Dunklee’s last World Cup sprint of the season, since US Biathlon (along with several other teams) is boycotting next week’s final World Cup in Tyumen, Russia.

“I feel like that spark has been missing a little bit so I was really surprised to be able to put this one together,” she said. “But maybe there was too much spark, maybe I wanted things too much and now I’m finally kind of letting go a little bit and that’s what I needed to do all along.”

A two-time Olympian who raced at five World Championships, Dunklee has been competing internationally in biathlon for the last nine years after a relatively late start in the sport. The daughter of Stan Dunklee, a two-time Olympic cross-country skier, she started skiing at age 2 but didn’t learn to shoot until age 22 when she joined US Biathlon’s development program after graduating from Dartmouth College.

And despite currently being the veteran member of the US Biathlon women’s team, Dunklee said she still gains a great deal from her younger teammates. Clare Egan, 30, who switched from cross-country ski racing to biathlon five years ago, raced to a career-best 13th in last week’s sprint in Kontiolahti, Finland.

“I was definitely inspired by Clare’s race last week,” Dunklee said. “I’ve never seen her so composed and confident out mixing it up with the top ladies in the field and that got me excited for the team. … I often feed off of other people performing well.”

US Biathlon had another breakthrough on Thursday when Sean Doherty finished 14th in the men’s 10 k sprint later in the afternoon in Oslo. It was his season best as well and just one place short of tying his career-best individual World Cup result of 13th (which he achieved in a sprint during the 2015/2016 season in Presque Isle, Maine).

“Sean just had his best result of the season today, so the whole team’s kind of rounding into form just in time,” Dunklee said of the season’s end.

Kuzmina, who won the women’s race in 21:31.8 minutes with one prone penalty (1+0), started the sprint a minute and a half behind Dunklee, who headed out of the gate in bib 10. Despite cleaning both stages, Dunklee knew she was in second on her final loop after hearing about the kind of race Kuzmina was having. The Slovakian posted the fastest overall course time to overcome her early penalty and beat Belarusian Darya Domracheva, who shot clean, by 8.9 seconds. Dzhima also shot 10-for-10 (as did the rest of the top-seven women) and finished 29.2 seconds off Kuzmina’s winning time.

While Dunklee initially finished first and was bumped to second by Kuzmina just under a minute later, she knew there were plenty of later starters capable of strong performances that could bump her off the podium. Considering that, Dunklee, who skied the 18th-fastest course time and had the 14th-fastest range time, said she was “very happy” to finish in the top six and earn flower-ceremony recognition.

Asked how she felt about the last races of the season, Dunklee said she was trying not to overthink it.

“I’m not looking at it like this is the last sprint, I’m looking at it like, well, just one more,” she said. “I’m going to try to put everything I can into doing the best I can this weekend because there’s nothing else to save it for.”

While Dunklee will start Sunday’s 10 k pursuit 36 seconds back in fourth based on her sprint result, her three teammates missed the sprint top 60 required to qualify for the pursuit. Egan finished 68th (+2:44.8) with three penalties (1+2), Joanne Reid was 75th (+3:02.2) with three misses (1+2) and Emily Dreissigacker placed 83rd (+3:24.8) with three penalties (2+1) as well.

Meanwhile, three Canadian women qualified for the pursuit. Rosanna Crawford placed 38th (+1:51.8) with one standing penalty (0+1), Julia Ransom was 46th (+2:10.1) with one miss (0+1) and Emma Lunder in 57th (+2:28.2) with one penalty (0+1) as well. Also for Canada, Sarah Beaudry finished 84th (+3:30.7) with three penalties (1+2).

In the men’s sprint that followed, Doherty was one of nine in the top 14 that shot clean, and he finished 47.1 seconds out of first. Norway’s Henrik L’Abée-Lund won the race with perfect shooting for his first World Cup win with a time of 26:10.3.

Four years ago, Doherty made his World Cup debut in Oslo, where he finished 82nd in the sprint. He explained in an email that he has fond memories of the venue.

“The skiing on and off the race course is fantastic and it’s always a special atmosphere,” wrote Doherty, now 22.

He started in the middle of the field in bib 53 and kept himself competitive with the race leaders with flawless shooting and the 33rd-ranked course time. His overall range and shooting times ranked 24th and 26th fastest, respectively.

Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø, who started 30 seconds behind him in bib 54, went on to finish second, 6.1 seconds behind L’Abée-Lund. Bø led throughout the race even after skiing a penalty lap after his standing stage (0+1), but lost time to his teammate, L’Abée-Lund, on the last loop.

“That’s what you hate, being in the lead after the last shooting and not in the lead in the finish,” Bø told German broadcaster ARD after in an English interview. “It’s not the best feeling, but I fought with what I had, just wasn’t enough.”

“He was a great marker for me to chase,” Doherty said of Bø. “After cleaning heading out onto the [last] loop I knew I was having a good one.

“I felt strong skiing today, which in turn helps your confidence on the range,” Doherty continued. “As for the good shooting I have been working on some good things in the days leading up to today and I was able to execute my race plan on the range as I wanted. Which I am very happy about.”

He was pleased to put together a complete race in the last sprint of the season, especially considering how it sets him up for Saturday’s 12.5 k pursuit.

“It feels good to end the season on some good momentum and it is fun to be towards the top of a extremely competitive field,” Doherty said. “Now I am just looking forward to the possibilities of the pursuit.”

In the pursuit, L’Abée-Lund will start six seconds ahead of Bø in second and seven seconds ahead of France’s Martin Fourcade in third. Fourcade placed third on Thursday, 6.9 seconds back, after shooting clean but falling and breaking a pole on a downhill.

“I just tried to push one more time in the downhill to get more speed and I pushed aside my ski, I fell, I broke my pole, and I lost seconds for the victory today,” Fourcade told ARD in English. “It’s a good place close to Johannes [for the pursuit], but today wasn’t my time.”

Austria’s Julian Eberhard, who placed fourth, just 0.2 second behind Fourcade, will start the pursuit at the same time as Fourcade.

With one race to go, Fourcade leads the overall World Cup Total Score standings by 37 points over Bø in second.

“It will be tough, it will be almost impossible,” Bø said of beating him. “Today I was ahead but I have to beat him in every race and actually make more points [than him].”

A total of four American men qualified for Saturday’s pursuit, with Lowell Bailey finishing 42nd (+1:41.1) with two penalties (0+2)), Leif Nordgren 43rd (+1:43.3) with one miss (0+1) and Tim Burke 57th (+2:12.8) with four penalties (2+2). In his second World Cup start, Alex Howe finished 89th (+3:39.5) with four misses (3+1).

For Canada, the Gow brothers qualified for the pursuit, with Scott Gow placing 49th (+2:02.1) with one penalty (0+1) and Christian finishing 56th (+2:12.3) with clean shooting. Brendan Green finished 71st (+2:31.3) with two penalties (1+1) and Macx Davies was 96th (+4:27.2) with four penalties (2+2).

In the women’s World Cup Total Score, Kuzmina leads by just six points over Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen.

“There is no special secret,” Kuzmina said of her five World Cup wins and Olympic gold (in the mass start) this winter. “It’s hard work before the season, good work together with my team, great support from my family and that is all.”

Born in Russia and the sister of Russian biathlete Anton Shipulin, she said she’s looking forward to the Tyumen World Cup.

“Tyumen is my home, where I was born, and I am really really excited for the time there and to see my family,” she said.

Racing in Oslo continues with the women’s relay and men’s pursuit on Saturday, followed by the women’s pursuit and men’s relay on Sunday.

Sprint results: Women | Men

IBU World Cup (Oslo, Norway): Women’s and men’s sprints

Full report

In her last International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup sprint of the season, Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) raced to a season-best fourth place in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint on Thursday at Holmenkollen in Oslo. Dunklee shot clean and finished 35.7 seconds behind Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina, who had a single prone miss (1+0) but skied the fastest course time to win in 21:31.8 minutes.

Darya Domracheva of Belarus finished 8.9 seconds back for second place with perfect 10-for-10 shooting. The rest of the top-seven finishers also shot clean, with Ukraine’s Yulia Dzhima placing third, 29.2 seconds out of first and 6.5 seconds ahead of Dunklee.

Rosanna Crawford led Canada in 38th (+1:51.8) with one penalty (0+1), and two of her teammates also qualified for Sunday’s pursuit by finishing in the top 60: Julia Ransom in 46th (+2:10.1; one penalty) and Emma Lunder in 57th (+2:28.2; one penalty). Sarah Beaudry finished 84th (+3:30.7; three penalties).

Four Americans competed, with Clare Egan finishing 68th (+2:44.8; three penalties), Joanne Reid 75th (+3:02.2; three penalties) and Emily Dreissigacker 83rd (+3:24.8; three penalties).

In the men’s 10 k sprint that followed, Sean Doherty (US Biathlon) raced to his best result of the season as well, and was one place away from tying his career best, placing 14th with clean shooting.

Doherty finished 47.1 seconds off the winning time set by Norway’s Henrik L’Abée-Lund, who notched his first World Cup win in 26:10.3. He also shot clean, while his teammate Johannes Thingnes Bø missed one in his standing stage to come 6.1 seconds short of winning at the finish. Bø finished second, while France’s Martin Fourcade placed third (+6.9) after shooting clean but falling on a downhill and losing valuable time.

Doherty posted the 24th-fastest overall range time, 26th-fastest shooting time and 33rd-ranked course time. The 22-year-old New Hampshire native was one of nine men in the top 14 that shot clean. His individual World Cup career best is 13th, which he notched during the 2015/2016 season in a sprint in Presque Isle, Maine. His 14th place on Thursday bested his 17th-place finishes in a sprint and a pursuit earlier this season.

Four out of five of the American men competing qualified for Saturday’s pursuit, with Lowell Bailey finishing 42nd (+1:41.1; two penalties), Leif Nordgren 43rd (+1:43.3; one penalty) and Tim Burke 57th (+2:12.8; four penalties). In his second World Cup start, Alex Howe finished 89th (+3:39.5; one penalty).

Canada’s Scott Gow and Christian Gow qualified for the pursuit, with Scott placing 49th in the sprint (+2:02.1; one penalty) and Christian finishing 56th (+2:12.3) with clean shooting. Brendan Green finished 71st (+2:31.3; two penalties) and Macx Davies was 96th (+4:27.2; four penalties).

Results: Women | Men

IBU World Cup (Kontiolahti, Finland): Women’s 7.5 k sprint

Darya Domracheva of Belarus raced to her third World Cup victory of the season on Friday, and American Clare Egan tallied a career best in 13th, just behind Canada’s Rosanna Crawford in 12th in the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup women’s 7.5 k sprint in Kontiolahti.

Domracheva started 16th and shot a perfect 5-for-5 in prone, then missed one in her standing bout, but skied to first with the fastest overall course time. Her position in the leader’s chair looked secure until Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand, who started 49th, shot clean in both stages and headed out on her last loop with a 17.6-second lead on Domracheva’s time. But Hildebrand couldn’t match Domracheva’s pace and finished 0.5 seconds short of the winning time of 20:56.8 at the finish.

“I really like to compete here in Kontiolahti,” Domracheva said, according to an IBU press release. She won two gold medals there at 2005 Youth/Junior World Championships and went on to win her first two World Cup races there in 2010.

“This is a tough track, always very difficult but it always a good chance to take some seconds if you are in good shape,” she said. “I have some good memories from here…”

“I am very proud of myself,” Hildebrand said of her race, according to the IBU. “Dasha made a really strong last loop and I tried to do it as well. It was very close but I am happy to be second … I had to concentrate and have the confidence that I could shoot clean today.”

Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi started 24th and came within 5.5 seconds of Domracheva’s time, after missing one standing target (0+1), to place third, 5 seconds behind Hildebrand.

Vittozzi achieved her first career podium in Kontiolahti last year.

“This is an amazing place for me,” she told the IBU. “I like this track so much and feel in good shape. I tried to do my best in the shooting range and finally I did it.”

Ukraine’s Yuliia Dzhima shot clean but was 11.7 seconds short of the podium in fourth place (+17.2), Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier followed in fifth (+19.4; one penalty), Veronika Vitkova of the Czech Republic placed sixth (+21.0; no penalties), Ukraine’s Vita Semerenko was seventh (+21.0; no penalties), France’s Marie Dorin Habert eighth (+32.0; no penalties), Germany’s Maren Hammerschmidt ninth (+33.9; one penalty), Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen 10th (+34.4; two penalties), and Belarus’s second woman in the top 11, Nadezhda Skardino 11th (+35.3; no penalties).

Crawford led Canada in 12th (+46.5) with a single prone penalty (1+0) for her best sprint result since the 2014/2015 season. Also this season, Crawford raced to a career-best third place in a 15 k individual and fourth in a 12.5 k mass start.

“It was a little bit windy and some fresh snow made for a soft track, but I had amazing skis from our techs and was feeling good skiing,” Crawford wrote in an email. “I’m really happy with how I executed my race today, I really tried to channel my inner Jessie Diggins and never stop fighting! The hills are steep and long here, something I usually struggle with, but I tried to push them mentally aside and focus on what I am good at, there are a lot of flat sections where my two skate one skate is really strong, and on the big up hills I just tried to stick with whoever was around me.

“I had a lot of fun out there tonight, something I didn’t think I would ever say about this race course!” she continued. “… I am really happy to have some good ski speed in a spring finally!”

Egan, of the U.S., achieved her best World Cup result in 13th (+46.9) with a single standing miss (0+1) and the 14th-fastest overall course time. Her previous best was 16th in a sprint four year ago.

After the Olympics, Egan explained in an email that she rented an apartment in Helsinki and spent the first part of the off-week spending some alone time and doing “some serious R&R. I don’t think I realized how chaotic the Olympics were until I had peace and quiet for the first time in 3 weeks,” she wrote.

“After a week of mostly easy skiing on my own I was really antsy to race today,” Egan added. “I also felt motivated coming off my season-best performance in the women’s relay in Pyeongchang. My individual results have been really mediocre this year so I was looking to take the momentum and confidence from the relay and carry that into today’s race.”

During Friday’s sprint, she noticed her skis were running really well.

“I can say without any doubt that we had the fastest skis today and that played a big role in my ski time,” Egan wrote. “I had a personal best ski time (rank) by at least 10 places today.”

After starting one bib and 30 seconds behind Domracheva, Egan knew she was having a good race when she could see the eventual winner for most of the first loop.

“Our skis were so fast that I honestly had to adjust my technique to account for the extra glide– exceptional!” she added. “On my last loop, I realized I was still ahead of Laura Dahlmeier, who started :30 seconds behind me, and I fought super hard to hold her off all the way to the finish line!

“I was shocked to have a career best with one miss,” Egan concluded. “But I had a major PR on my ski time rank, and this is biathlon! I’m very, very happy to have a great result, but happier about the performance behind the result.”

With their results on Friday, both Egan and Crawford earned starts in Sunday’s 12.5 k mass start, according to a provisional start list.

“I’ll have another opportunity tomorrow in the mixed relay and Sunday in the mass start, which is only the second of my career,” Egan wrote.

“I was pretty disappointed to not qualify for the mass start at the Olympics,” Crawford wrote. “My bad sprint had many far-reaching consequences. So I am glad I get another chance to go out there and fight with the best!”

Also for the U.S., Susan Dunklee finished 36th (+1:27.0) with three penalties (1+2), Emily Dreissigacker was 62nd (+2:15.7) with two misses (2+0), and Joanne Reid was 74th (+2:38.7) with two misses (0+2) as well.

Canada’s Emma Lunder finished 43rd (+1:48.0) with one miss (1+0), Julia Ransom was 58th (+2:07.9) with two penalties (1+1), and Sarah Beaudry finished 66th (+2:20.3) with two misses (1+1) as well.

This year’s Kontiolahti World Cup does not include a pursuit race. The single mixed relay and mixed relay are set for Saturday, followed by men’s and women’s mass starts on Sunday.

Results

On the first day of NCAA Skiing Championships at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, Dartmouth College freshman Katharine Ogden and University of Utah senior Martin Bergström were crowned champions in the women’s 5-kilometer and men’s 10 k classic races, respectively.

Ogden won the women’s individual-start race by a whopping 46.9 seconds, finishing in 14:47.2 minutes to become Dartmouth’s first female cross-country skier to win an NCAA title, according to a Dartmouth press release. Anne Siri Lervik of the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) placed second and Hailey Swirbul, of the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) and a two-time individual medalist at this year’s Junior World Championships, placed third (+51.0).

“There isn’t much more to say about Katharine’s performance today other than she absolutely crushed it!” said Dartmouth Director of Skiing and Women’s Nordic Head Coach Cami Thompson Graves, according to the Dartmouth press release. “It was such a treat to watch her perform so well.”

CU, this year’s NCAA Championships host, had three women in the top 11 with last year’s classic champion Petra Hyncicova placing sixth and Christina Rolandsen finishing 11th.

The CU Buffs took the lead in the team standings on Thursday by nine points over the University of Denver (DU). Utah is currently 41 points back in third, Dartmouth moved up to fourth, and the University of Vermont, which led after Wednesday’s Day 1 alpine races, slipped to fifth.

In the men’s race, Bergström, who won both races at last year’s NCAA Championships, posted an 8.5-second victory over CU’s Petter Reistad with a winning time of 27:37.1. Dag Frode Trollebø of DU placed third (+14.7) ahead of his DU teammate Eivind Kvaale in fourth (+38.9). On his 22nd birthday, Ian Torchia, of Northern Michigan University and the U.S. Ski Team Development Team, was the top American finisher in fifth (+46.2).

Alpine slalom races will take place on Friday, while NCAA Championships will conclude with 15/20 k freestyle mass starts on Saturday.

Results: Women | Men

Team results (through Day 2 of 4)

***

IBU World Cup (Kontiolahti, Finland): Men’s 10 k sprint

First, a little geography lesson. Kontiolahti, Finland, is only about 100 kilometers from the Russian  border, so most of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup (and World Championships) events held there attract a mostly Russian crowd.

And here’s a little more background: Russia’s Anton Shipulin showed up for Thursday’s IBU World Cup in Kontiolahti raring to go after having been barred from last month’s Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

So Shipulin hadn’t raced since Jan. 21 in Antholz, Italy. The International Olympic Committee’s decision to ban him from the 2018 Games went public on Jan. 23.

Back in action in Kontiolahti, in front of Russian fans, Shipulin delivered a 5.8-second win in the men’s 10-kilometer sprint, shooting clean and finishing in 23:51.6.  It was the 31 year old’s third non-relay podium of the season and first World Cup win of 2017/2018, and he did so on a relatively moderate evening by Kontiolahti standards (at -6 degrees Celsius, or 21 Fahrenheit) with a “stiff breeze” on the range, according to an IBU press release.

“I felt very good on the tracks and shooting and today it was enough to win,” Shipulin told the IBU. “I am very happy about this … all of the Russian fans gave me a lot of support on the tracks.”

Latvia’s Andrejs Rastorgujevs tied his career best in second place, after shooting a perfect 10-for-10 as well. He acknowledged his mom and women in general after the race.

“This is very important for my team,” Rastorgujevs told the IBU. “I would also like to congratulate all of the ladies and especially my mom on International Women’s Day.”

France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet also shot clean to place third (+17.3) for his third non-relay World Cup podium of the season.

Fillon Maillet was one of the earliest starters in bib 6 yet held off Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø, the 30th starter, by 1.7 seconds for the last spot on the podium. Bø had been a race leader after cleaning prone but missed two standing targets (0+2) to slip out of contention and into fourth at the finish (+19.0).

Germany’s Olympic sprint champion, Arnd Peiffer placed fifth (+27.4) with one miss (0+1), and France’s Simon Desthieux finished sixth (+28.3) with one prone penalty (1+0), and Germany took seventh and eighth with Erik Lesser (+30.6; one penalty) and Simon Schempp (+32.0; two penalties), respectively. Italy had two in the top 10 with Lukas Hofer in ninth (+35.2; one penalty) and Dominik Windisch in 10th (+38.3; one penalty).

Lowell Bailey of the U.S. posted his best sprint result of the season in 16th (+48.4) after cleaning prone and missing one standing target (0+1). After starting 22nd, he recorded the 13th- and 14th-fastest overall shooting and range times, respectively, and 23rd-ranked course time.

After the Olympics, Bailey returned home to Lake Placid, N.Y., for a brief training block. Despite a hefty amount of travel over the last week and a half, he explained in an email that he felt good in his first race back.

“I felt better than I have for most of the season.  Sometimes that can happen.  I guess that’s the part of the unpredictability of biathlon,” Bailey wrote of Thursday’s race. “The conditions were great today; hard tracks and calm winds on the range.  There was a bit of wind, but compared to the three weeks in South Korea, it seemed pretty tame.

“Shooting felt solid today,” he added. “That missed shot in standing was sooo close, but not close enough!”

Overall, Bailey stated that he was happy with his performance and looking forward to the rest of the races in Kontiolahti.

His teammate Leif Nordgren finished just one place behind him in 17th (+49.9) for his best result in three years. A later starter in bib 55, Nordgren also cleaned prone and missed one standing (0+1) with the fifth-fastest shooting time and seventh-fastest range time. Overall, his course time ranked 28th out of 100 finishers. Nordgren’s individual career best on the World Cup is 16th in a sprint in February 2015. He has finished 17th three times; the last time was in a pursuit in March 2015.

Brendan Green shot clean to lead the Canadian team in 34th (+1:29.5). American Sean Doherty followed in 35th (+1:29.7) with three penalties (1+2), and Tim Burke placed 38th (+1:36.1) for the U.S., also with three misses (1+2).

In his World Cup debut, American Alex Howe finished 68th (+2:23.1) with two misses (1+1).

Canada’s Christian Gow finished 79th (+2:47.4) with two penalties (1+1), and Scott Gow was 86th (+3:01.7) with three misses (1+2).

This year’s Kontiolahti World Cup does not include a pursuit race. The women’s 7.5 k sprint is scheduled for Friday at 11:45 a.m. EST in Kontiolahti, and the single mixed relay and mixed relay will follow on Saturday. Racing in Kontiolahti will conclude with men’s and women’s mass starts.

Results