The Penalty Loop Podcast: Recent Episodes
Penalty Loop
Well, almost immediately after recording our May round up, the Italian and USA teams made their roster announcements. This was supposed to just be a little recording inserted into the prior episode but...you know us. We ended up discussing:
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Italian roster and coach announcements
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Brief Czechia discussion
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USA roster and coach announcements
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World Cup discussions
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Art projects
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Moving to Canada
It has simply been too long. We got together for a little chat about what's new in our lives and in the biathlon world including:
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Coaching carousel
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Roster announcements
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The Canadian exodus
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RJ thinks somebody isn't completely retired yet
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And honestly, quite a lot of just chatting
After a short break we are back to take one last look back at a very fun 2025-2026 Biathlon Season
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We go week by week sharing our memories and surprises. But it was such an amazing season we barely scratched the surface!
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Looking ahead to next season and dreaming about a wild Overall race
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Quick thoughts on a handful of athletes
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Jordan gets prematurely upset about the makeup of the 2026-2027 schedule
And more!
It's part 2 of our memories from our weekend at the Oslo-Holmenkollen races and festivities. In part 2 we have:
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Julia Simon with a thoughtful discussion of the Pursuit sprint with Hanna Oeberg as well as her place in biathlon history
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We try to cheer up Suvi Minkkinen after another remarkably successful season
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Check ins with our friends Nik Hartweg, Anna Gandler, and Campbell Wright
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Chats with North Americans Deedra Irwin, Margie Freed, Pascale Paradis, and Adam Runnalls
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A Polish check in with Kamila Zuk and Tobias Torgersen
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Johanna Taliharm recaps a trying but successful season
And more!
It's hard to believe that the glorious weekend in Oslo was already 1 week ago. But the memories are still fresh. Today we chatted mostly about the memories and a little about the racing. Included are:
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An amazing moment discussing Sturla's success with Tiril Eckhoff
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Saying goodbye to the Austrian powers Lisa Hauser and Simon Eder
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A fun moment with Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold
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Nice long chat with Denmark's rising star Anne de Besche
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Sibling laughter (a true highlight!!) with Hanna and Elvira Oeberg
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The memory of a lifetime with Lou Jeanmonnot
And more
Mentioned in the show, what Jordan wrote about Lou Jeanmonnot: https://penaltyloop.com/2026/03/24/our-beloved-champion/
Part 2 will come shortly!
Well we made it happen! RJ mid transit to Norway and Jordan still in Florida so we apologize for any poor audio quality! We tried to keep it brief because of RJ's time constraints so we weren't able to cover everything or go as deep as we would like but we did cover:
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Otepaa's weather challenges
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Sterling Sturla who continues his torrid streak
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Lou and Eric cruising to the Overall titles
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The wild and exciting Mixed Relays with some amazing results!
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Brief look at some globe races
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Jacquelin has the ultimate Jacquelin weekend
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Shout outs
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Sandra Flunger is on the move...where to?
And more!
It was the busiest week of the biathlon season with the World Cup in Kontiolahti, the IBU Cup concluding in Lake Placid, and the Youth/Junior World Championships finishing up in Arber. We had a lot to discuss tonight including:
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Sturla Holm Laegreid is competing like Sturla Holm Laegreid again
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Eric Perrot is no slouch though!
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Lou Jeanmonnot looks exhausted physically and mentally
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Long discussion on the state of Swedish biathlon and the extension of Johannes Lukas
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Fun relay finishes including Czechia, Poland and USA
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Emilien Jacquelin is, as always, Emilien Jacquelin. This week the good and the bad
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Interesting Mass Starts and important moments in them
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Just a tiny bit on the IBU Cup and Youth/Junior World Cup
And so much more!
Jordan and RJ reconvened multiple times over several days to catch up on all of the latest in the biathlon world including:
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Opening with recent news including: Tommaso Giacomel health updates, Retirements, Coaching changes
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One more look back at the 2026 Olympic Games. What surprised us in our reassessment?
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Preview of the Third Trimester and what we think might happen including looking at a few Globe races
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Checking in on the Junior Worlds
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Gro Randby's interesting season
The final race at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games is yet another thrilling one.
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We say goodbye to two absolute legends: Dorothea Wierer and Franziska Preuss
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Oceane Michelon wins another medal and many more hearts with a brilliant gold
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Julia Simon digs deep to find the strength to chase down silver
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Tereza Vobornikova wins a beautiful bronze medal
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Anna Magnusson comes up just short once again for Sweden
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We celebrate some other high achievers including Anna Andexer and Anne de Besche
And More!
Last race of the men for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics and it was another special (and history making!) one
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Johannes Dale-Skjevdal gives us all the feels with his first career 20/20 and the gold
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Quentin Fillon Maillet another fantastic skiing day brings him his 1st career bronze and moves him to 2nd in career Olympic medals
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Sturla Holm Laegreid ties for the most medals in a single Olympic Games with another silver
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Hard luck for Philipp Horn who came so close!
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Very tough scenes for Tommaso Giacomel
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The Swedish men end their Games quietly
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Jacquelin is once again Jacquelin
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Campbell Wright has some fun at the end
And more!
The French women are inevitable, and so is another post-race recap from Jordan and RJ. This was one for the underdogs and we had a lot to celebrate including:
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The Polish women with a magnificent 6th place the best ever for the Polish women at the Olympics
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Celebrating Baiba Bendika, the Belgian women, and the Bulgarian relay
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The French with another early penalty loop come back for the gold sparking an emotional celebration
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The Swedes continue their strong second week with a silver medal
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Norway's Juni Arneklevi substitution pays off with the bronze medal
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Another tough race for the Germans
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Czechia a very strong 5th
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RJ shares his hard work on the Antholz "athletes perspective animation" (link below)
And more!
You can find RJ's animation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN1nwOXN70k
This was the type of Olympic relay you dream of. The drama wasn't decided until the very end with plenty of fun stories along the way!
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The French men finally have their Relay gold medal. Presented by none other than national hero Martin Fourcade
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The Norwegians have a solid day in silver position. But what happened to Johan-Olav Botn?
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The Swedish men pleased with their bronze medal
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Germany finishes a solid 4th
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United States sets their best ever Olympic Men's Relay mark in 5th. Is Campbell ready for his Olympic moment in the Mass Start?
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Finland continues to perform well
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Shout out to the Canadians
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A LONG preview of the Women's Relay tomorrow
And more!
WHAT A DAY! It's the middle weekend of the Olympics which means Pursuit day! The Men's and Women's Pursuits delivered us an emotional day including:
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Lisa Vittozzi's gorgeous gold medal
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Suvi's emotional run to the bronze
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Emilien Jacquelin racing to bronze in his own unique fashion
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Martin Ponsiluoma changes the Swedish narrative
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Maren Kirkeeide and Sturla Holm Laegreid have a double silver day for Norway
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Polish women and Finnish men with big days
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Dorothea Wierer doesn't give in
And more!
A little later (because someone...RJ...overslept) we chatted about an action packed Women's Sprint including:
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Maren Kirkeeide's amazing closing ability
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Oceane Michelon's smile filled silver medal
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Lou Jeanmonnot keeps piling up medals
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Bulgaria is a biathlon nation now
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Great day for Latvia and Denmark!!!
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Top biathlon cheerleader Ingrid Tandrevold with a solid day!
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Rough day and Olympics for Sweden
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Looking ahead to the Pursuit races tomorrow!
And more!
Another day and another thrilling race at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics! As has become our custom we got on right after the end of the podium ceremony to discuss:
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Emilien Jacquelin's heartbreaking 4th place
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Quentin Fillon Maillet inscribing himself in biathlon history with his 7th Olympic medal
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Vetle Christiansen's silver medal
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Sturla Holm Laegreid takes home his 2nd bronze of these Games
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Zachary Connelly and the Canadians with an excellent race
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Finnish biathlon continues to show out
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Swedish men continues to struggle
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A solid day for the Swiss
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Rihards Lozbers makes everybody take notice
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A look ahead for the Women's Sprint tomorrow!
And more!
The Women's Individual at the 2026 Milan Cortino Winter Olympics was absolute joyful chaos. We got together immediately after the conclusion of the podium ceremony to recap all of the action including:
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A brief detour to Sturla Holm Laegreid's bizarre interview
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Julia Simon's greatness
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Lou Jeanmonnot's beautiful biathlon
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Lora Hristova's unbelievable surprise podium
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Heartbreak for several including Vanessa Voigt, Camille Bened, and Lotte Lie
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Many great races from some surprising candidates including Lea Meier, Tereza Vinklarkova
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Great day for North American biathlon with Pascale Paradis and Margie Freed
And more!
What an absolutely emotional day. There were tears from many athletes today for...a lot of reasons. We had a ton to chat about including:
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Johan-Olav Botn's sports movie moment
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Eric Perrot continues to display magnificent maturity
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Sturla Holm Laegreid wins his non-relay medal during what has proven to be an unexpectedly emotional week
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The Finnish men with a major day
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Philipp Nawrath with a great start to the Games
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Swedes missing something
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Quentin Fillon Maillet with amazing speed
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Italy with a solid day
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Many great performances
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A look ahead to the Men's Sprint and Women's Individual
And more!
One race in and already the action from Antholz has been absolutely sensational! A little later than normal (the rest of our Olympic recaps should be up within 1-2 hours) we got together to discuss:
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French biathlon dominance
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Italians get it done with silver
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Germans hit their checkmarks for bronze
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Maren Kirkeeide with a growth moment...but the rest of the team looked good?
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Poor Sebastian Samuelsson
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Kudos to Canada
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We also discussed really good performances that didn't quite land on the podium!
Andmore
Somehow the 2nd trimester of the 2025-2026 season has already come to a close. There were some athletes missing from Nove Mesto but that didn't take anything away from the action! We had a bunch to discuss including:
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The absolutely pristine weekend for the French team specifically the maturity of Eric Perrot
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Swiss women coming on strong
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American biathlon continues it's terrific season
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Who is this Ingrid Tandrevold?!?
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The Lukas Hofer renaissance
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Even more adoration for the French team this weekend and trying to select their Olympic starters
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Preuss saying goodbye?
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Leo Pfund introduces himself to the World Cup stage
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The magnificent crowd in Nove Mesto
And more!
Ruhpolding started with an amazing Women's Relay on Wednesday and then gave us one amazing race after another. Frankly it was so amazing that it completely exhausted poor RJ so you'll unfortunately have to listen to a LOT of Jordan today. We soldiered on though and we covered almost everything including:
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That amazing Women's Relay
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Trying to figure out the remaining Olympic questions including the Norwegian and Swedish women
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A fun battle of attrition in the Men's Relay and the Estonian men break through!
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Great week for the Canadian women
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The Swedes and their amazing second trimester continues
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Dale-Skjevdal's emotional Pursuit win
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Tommaso Giacomel's big boy Sprint
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Sad Suvi but she goes to Nove Mesto still in second
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Queen Lou in total control
And of course much more!
The biathlon family reconvened in Oberhof after a difficult holiday break. There was something cathartic about the racing starting again. After sharing our thoughts and condolences for Sivert Bakken's passing and his family/friends we dove into the racing including:
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Tommaso Giacomel's emotional week and the outstanding showing he put forward this week
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The absolutely bonkers men's relay
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The women's relay crushed by the French women
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Elvira Öberg new strategy leading to immediate success
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A very successful weekend for the Swedish squad
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Overview of the status of the Overall races and making looking ahead
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Looking at some great individual performances from several athletes including Martin Uldal, Regina Ermits, Lukas Hofer, Vanessa Voigt etc
And more!
US Biathlon, and Wisconsin's own, Deedra Irwin joins us from Oberhof to talk about her classically American journey into biathlon all the way up to her greatest successes. This was so much fun and I hope you enjoy it too, especially:
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Discussing small town Wisconsin and how important and great it is!
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Finding biathlon later in her career than her European counterparts
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Early success and memories of her American biathlon best finish at the 2022 Winter Olympics
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Her best buddy Joanne Reid and their special relationship
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The great vibes, and more importantly great racing, coming out of US Biathlon right now
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Support and evolution of US Biathlon
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Her relationship with her rifle
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Breakdown of the upcoming Packers-Bears showdown!
And more!
RJ may be in Mexico but we won't let a little tropical vacation get in the way of a great week of biathlon! After a raucous week in le Grand Bornand we had a lot to chat about including:
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This was Lou's weekend from start to finish
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Justus' heartbreak but encouraging signs for Germany
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Maren's incredible power
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Good 1st trimester performances from USA and Canada especially Campbell Wright and Deedra Irwin
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An endlessly entertaining Norwegian men's team and how their Olympic roster is shaping up
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Can Botn continue this high level? And can Perrot and Giacomel challenge?
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Celebrating Camille Bened and pondering the French women's team and their Olympic roster
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A week of strong finishes from Eder, Burkhalter, Passler, and Ermits
And more!
Another fun weekend of biathlon racing is completed and RJ and Jordan are back to discuss it all! On today's recap:
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Starting with our complicated feelings seeing Julia Simon racing again
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Nice weekends for our home federations of Canada and the USA!
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Celebrating Anna Magnusson with her biggest fan
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The cream of the crop rising on the men's side with Perrot and Giacomel trading wins
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Lisa Vittozzi and her incredible shooting display in the Pursuit
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A little Norway discussion including Maren Kirkeeide, Karoline Knotten, Sturla Holm Laegreid and Vetle Christiansen
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The tricky corner in Hochfilzen claims several more athletes
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Camille Bened keeps on rolling with 2 more finishes in the Flowers and a great relay leg
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Anticipating French women lineup changes
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Shout outs to a diverse weekend of good finishes including Estonia, Slovakia, Finland etc
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IBU Cup corner
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Looking ahead to Annecy
And a ton more athletes discussed in there as well!
After a fun week in Östersund full of fan favorite performances we already have so much to talk about! In this episode we discuss:
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The incredible women's Pursuit contested with our some of our personal favorite athletes
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Suvi Minkkinen with a career weekend takes Yellow
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Lisa Hauser looks better than she has in several years
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Dorothea Wierer is ready for an Olympic capstone to her career
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What to make of the preseason favorites easing their way into the season and a few athletes quietly flying under the radar
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Norwegian men are still dominant even without the Boe brothers
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Swedish women...how do they balance their talent?
And more!
World Cup Biathlon is back and so are the weekly recaps! In this case we saw so much fun in the first two days of the season that we couldn't wait to start this next week. We had to start right away! It was a fantastic couple of days so we had a lot to discuss including:
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Our favorite things including great races from our offseason guests!
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Campbell Wright and the spunky Americans
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Nice opening for the Canadians
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Lou is Lou which is scary for everybody
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Tandrevold and the shooting scaries
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Relay change over excitement
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Gandler, Davidova, and Suvi all showing good things
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Czechia with a phenomenal opening weekend
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Sebbe and Ponsi making their traditional late relay charge
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Italian excitement and Germany up and down
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Analyzing Norway's premier
And more!
A week later than intended (solely due to Jordan's very slow editing) our interview with Polish Women's Head Coach Tobias Torgersen is up! This was recorded the week before the season began so it does not cover anything that happened in the first two days of racing in Östersund. But there is still tons of good stuff in this conversation including:
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Review of Geilo races and assessment of team form
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The process of picking rosters
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Leadership within the team
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Summer camps including Blink and Antholz
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International Cooperation
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Coaching from the bike
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A lengthy discussion on coaching shooting/practice
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Moments of pride and moments of fun
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And more!
We did it! The 2025-2026 biathlon season starts this week! We got together for our first regular weekly episode of the season to get ourselves ready for all of the excitement. We covered:
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Discussing how an Olympic season differs from a regular season
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Discussed the events of the selection races in Idre Fjall, Geilo, Bessans, and Ruhpolding and how they affected team selections for the major squads
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How key athletes looked in these races including: Hanna Oeberg's resurgence, the Swedish boys, Eric Perrot, Dorothea Wierer, Ingrid Tandrevold, Isak Frey, Vetle Christiansen, Camille Bened, Simon Eder, Franziska Preuss and many many more
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Sorting out our thoughts on the chaos inside the French team
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Brief looks at rosters and our thoughts including the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and Latvia
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As always you can be assured that there is a ton more in there too!
Karoline Knotten graciously joined us last week from her training in Livigno before the races took place in Geilo. It was a very friendly visit and we can't wait to have her on again soon! For now we covered:
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Charting her own course outside the national training roster this summer
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Updates on her personal fitness
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Goals for 2025-2026
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Finding joy and training with new friends
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Learning from competitors and personal role models
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Loop One experience
And a ton more!
Nik Hartweg joins the podcast once again for his first recorded episode with us in two seasons. There has been a LOT that has happened with Nik and biathlon in that period so we had a lot to discuss including:
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Prep, current form, and plans for the 2025-2026 seasons
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Goals and checkpoints for this season leading to the 2026 Olympics
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Memories of the Lenzerheide Worlds and 2022 Olympics
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Avoiding illness
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Surfing
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How he uses data during training
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Loop One as a spectator on site and the new targets that were used
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Swiss team success and explosion
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And a TON more!
The most entertaining man in biathlon - Campbell Wright - returns for another preseason chat! As always he was an absolute blast as we covered a lot in a relatively short period including:
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Loop One - his thoughts on the event and would he do it again?
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Updates on summer training and how he's feeling with now less than 1 month until the 2025-2026 season
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Racing tactics in Pursuits and Mass Starts
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His dream chase pack in a big race
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How high can the US men's team reach this season?
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What it's like being one of the most recognized and cheered biathletes
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And more!
Justus Strelow joins us again for another wonderful interview! He was coming to us from the team's Martello altitude camp and graciously gave us plenty of time to discuss a bunch of fun topics including:
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Being a dad!
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The new coaching staff and what the feeling in the team is as the 2025-2026 season nears
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Team dynamics and fun with the German men
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The narrow gap between top 20's and top 5's
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Preparations for Antholz and favorite venues/ranges
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And more!
2025 City Biathlon Champion Lotte Lie comes back for another interview! It's her 3rd interview with us and we had a LOT to catch up on including:
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Her City Biathlon experience and the winning moment!
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Beating her buddy Karoline Knotten
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Summer training schedule and updates. Do the upcoming Olympics change the training plans?
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Belgium's continued biathlon growth and success
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And more!
We are honored to be joined by reigning IBU Cup champion Camille Bened for a wonderful interview. Our graceful guest was kind enough to chat with us about anything and everything including:
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Her IBU Cup winning 2024-2025 season and experiences on the World Cup
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Overcoming injuries from fall 2 seasons ago
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Goals for 2025-2026 season and what she needs to do to accomplish them
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Her home life and her tiny hometown in France
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So much more!
We continue checking in with Team Canada with our first interview with up and coming talent Pascale Paradis! This was a true joy as we discussed:
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Her journey in biathlon including her first big success at the 2018 Youth Worlds
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Choosing her college career at University of Alaska vs IBU Cup
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Her first season on the World Cup and what Emma Lunder meant to her and the team
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Prep for the Olympic season
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And a TON more!
Logan Pletz is back for more rifle talk! But before that we have a lot more to discuss:
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In the intro: Ziggy Mazet announces his departure from Norwegian team after this season + Blink Festival action and Lisa Vittozzi's return!
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Logan talks about his 2024-2025 season and what he learned from it
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His summer training and dodging cows
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Olympic hopes and what his aims for this season
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Update on the rifle project including the launch of Project LP rifle biathlon rifle manufacturing, updates on rifle design, and everything he's learned about rifles in the last year!
Find Logan's rifle company website here: https://projectlp.ca/
Jordan's piece on Laura's Dahlemier: https://penaltyloop.com/2025/07/30/the-comet/
Ukaleq and Sondre Slettemark joined us for a delightful conversation about Team Greenland! We discussed A LOT but maybe the most enjoyable aspect of the time we spent together was seeing them interact as brother and sister. In this interview we discussed:
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Reflections on the Lenzerheide Worlds and looking ahead to Antholz 2026
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Their unique skills
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What it takes to be a great shooter like Ukaleq
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Sibling dynamics and racing together
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Common waxing and the impact of waxxing
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Sustainability, global warming, and summer biathlon growth
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And more!
We were delighted to be rejoined by recently retired Biathlon Canada star Emma Lunder to catch up on her life since retirement and much more. We covered quite a bit in this friendly conversation including:
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How she came to her decision to retire and enjoying her last weeks on the World Cup
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Her reflections on her years with the Canadian National Team
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Looking ahead to the future of Canadian biathlon
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How she's enjoyed her retirement
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Being a role model for young athletes
In part 2 of our excellent discussion with Canadian national team head coach Andrew Chisholm we touch on:
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Changes he and Co-Head Coach Helene Jorgensen are making to the management of the team
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Their coaching and training philosophies
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Covering more race day responsibilities
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What does success look like for Biathlon Canada in the 2025-2026 season?
Finally! We are interviewing one of the head coaches of the Canadian National Team. It should have happened long ago but we are happy to be joined by Andrew Chisholm for a 2 part interview. In part 1 we discuss:
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Andrew's journey to this position
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The daily responsibilities of a head coach
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Olympic prep and team logistics
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Deeeeeeeeeeeep dive into waxing
Part 2 of our interview with Matthias Ahrens. In this section we discuss:
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Climate Change
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What his athletes can learn from the current World Cup athletes
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Changes in shooting techniques
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The challenge and opportunities with the German women's depth
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The best venue on the World Cup
Our dear friend Matthias Ahrens rejoins us for a wide ranging conversation! We discuss his move from Canada and the Biathlon Alberta Training Center back to his home in Germany where he now works training members of the German Youth/Junior teams. In part 1 we focus extensively on the differences between the two systems (North America vs. Europe primarily) and his adjustments back home.
Just a quick round up of the latest news from the world of biathlon including:
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Coaching change for the Czech women and Austrian teams
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Laegreid changing ski brands
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Roster announcements from many teams including Norway, France, Sweden, and Germany
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General chit chat
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Trivia time for RJ
Apologies for Jordan's audio. He sounds like he's recording with a tin can. It was a last minute decision to record and he was at work without his mic!
It's been one month since the thrilling conclusion to the 2024-2025 biathlon season in Oslo so it's the perfect time to catch up on all of the biathlon news of April 2025. We also discuss a couple of projects that we are working on right now and preview a few others. Let's have some fun!
It's our final look back at the 2024-2025 season. We take a look at the big stories, our favorite stories, some athletes that had magnificent seasons, some athletes that had relatively disappointing seasons. 24-25 was one of my favorite full seasons in awhile. Take one last look back with us!
We return to the hallowed grounds of Holmenkollen for one last visit before the offseason. We return once again to our brightest memories as well as things that we failed to mention in our first recap. This time we included our interviews:
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Lou Jeanmonnot after the Mass Start
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Franziska Preuss after the Mass Start
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JT Boe after the Sprint
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Isak Frey after the Pursuit
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Sturla Holm Laegreid after both Sprint and the Pursuit
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Sebbe Samuelsson after the Pursuit
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Suvi Minkkinen after the Mass Start
We are back, the jet lag has worn off, and we're ready to chat....and chat...and chat! In this episode we ended up just sharing our memories from the weekend. Very little actual race or biathlon discussion. This is so much about just our time on the ground and how much fun we had. Included:
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Our memories from the Women's Mass Start
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Remembering the times we spent with athletes during the races
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HUGE thank you to Tobias Torgersen
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So many more memories!
Pokljuka was one heck of a ride. We had surprise performances galore and amazing Slovenian performances. This week we discussed:
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Jakov Fak and Anamarija Lampic
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Johannes Thingnes Boe's weekend and the state of the Men's Overall
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Lou Jeanmonnot and Franziska Preuss separated by just 20 pts
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The amazing young athletes in biathlon
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A few athletes closing strong including Julia Simon, QFM, Hanna Oeberg, and Martin Ponsiluoma
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A few predictions on the discipline globes
And More
The final trimester of the 2024-2025 season kicked off in Nove Mesto this week. It was a warm but exciting week of racing!
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We started the episode with a discussion of things that happened between Worlds and Nove Mesto including the German coaching change and the Latvian team incident
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There were several fresh winners this week including Jacquelin, Tandrevold, and Samuelsson
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The Overall Globe races tightened significantly and we discussed how we expect them to play out
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We discussed some very good racing from several now regular top 10 finishes including Giacomel, Hartweg, Suvi, and Campbell
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The tight race for the top 10 in the Women's Nations Cup for the 5 starting bibs
And so much more!
Whew! The athletes are surely exhausted after a grueling nearly 2 weeks in Lenzerheide and so too are the viewers! What a feast of biathlon we've had! In this episode we discuss:
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Overall take aways from these Worlds and a jump around of thoughts about the Worlds in general
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The specific races from the Individuals through the Mass Starts
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JT Boe's status as champion
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The medal distributions
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The schedule release for the 26-27 through 29-30 seasons
And more!
Week 1 of the 2025 World Championships is complete and it was PACKED with excitement. With just a day off before the races return we had to quickly discuss the biggest moments before we get more drama! This includes:
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Campbell Wright!!!
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JT Boe makes history with two individual gold medals
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Franziska Preuss continues to shine
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Justine Braisaz-Bouchet's smile returns
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The love of the biathlon family
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Suvi Minkkinen's run continues
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The ups and downs of the French men and women thus far
And more!
The 2024-2025 World Championships are here!!! We do a full review of the IBU Cup races in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna before we dive into everything we're thinking about as the World Championships approach. This episode we discuss:
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The continued dominance of the Norwegian men and the French women on the IBU Cup
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Paul Schommer!!
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Our 3 magical wishes for the World Championshps
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Does the long gap benefit or help anybody in particular?
-
What to expect from JT Boe returning from a break with his family?
-
Does anybody have "momentum?"
-
Will Sweden surprise?
-
Our many hopes for these 2 weeks
And more!
Initially recorded shortly after the European Championship concluded, but released late due to our schedules, it is still important to chat about! In this episode we covered the hot topics coming from Val Martel including:
-
Baiba Bendika's glorious Championships!
-
Out impressions of the Val Martel venue
-
The Norwegian men and the French women
-
Anna-Karin Heijdenberg earns her World Championship spot
-
The Canadian and American performances
-
Italians perform well at home!
And More!
Sadly another trimester of World Cup biathlon has come to an end, but there was just so much to talk about this week both on and off the course!
-
We led off with the Norwegian European Cup roster announcement
-
This was connected to the surprising yet not surprising Tarjei Boe retirement announcement
-
We discussed the incredible Women's Overall Race and who can win!
-
The French men win their 4th straight men's relay!
-
Sturla Holm Laegreid grabs the Yellow bib...can JT Boe rebound?
-
And a TON more
It's been another amazing week of biathlon as we hit the midpoint of the season. From off the course news to some truly amazing racing, Ruhpolding certainly kept us on our toes. This week we discuss:
-
JT Boe's surprise retirement announcement
-
The top women all racing like champions
-
Thoughts on the Swedes: Hanna Oeberg, Martin Ponsiluoma, and Samuelsson...trending up?
-
Switzerland on the upswing including Niklas Hartweg looking very very good
-
The "under the radar" athletes and nations keep performing!
-
Giacomel's incredible Mass Start win
-
Doro heading to a peak at Worlds?
And as usual a ton more!
What a week it was! Oberhof was an absolutely jam packed weekend that showed us all of the emotions. Get ready because this is a LONG episode because we have a lot of thoughts about:
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Weather and it's effects this week
-
Suvi Minkkinen and Julia Simon...the highs and the lows of biathlon in 2 days
-
Finland's glorious week
-
Elvira Oeberg's determination
-
Lou Jeanmonnot looking like Lou Jeanmonnot
-
Can Laegreid challenge JT Boe for the Overall?
And an so so so much more!
Let's get ready for the 2nd trimester! We just had a few things to catch up on before the racing starts again including:
-
Quick Schalke biathlon review
-
Update on RJ's analysis of the new start positions and its effect on racing
-
Roster updates including Chloe Chevalier's retirement, Paula Botet, Sophie Chauveau, Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen
-
Checking in on state of the Overall Globe race
After a week of amazing racing in le Grand Bornand there is just one thing left to do...talk about it. A lot! This is looong episode but there is a lot to discuss including:
-
Leading off with Tandrevold's health update
-
Golden Girl Franziska Preuss
-
Grotian and Voigt round out the German weekend
-
Martin Uldal and Tarjei Boe "surprise" wins
-
JT Boe takes control of the Men's Overall
-
More underdogs competing
-
What happened to Jeanmonnot?
And more!
A little later than normal, and a little under the weather, we discussed all of the action from the winter wonderland of Hochfilzen including:
-
Franziska Preuss vs. Lou Jeanmonnot all season? Who says no?
-
Underdog nations continue being competitive
-
JT Boe is back on top
-
The Jacquelin Pursuit fall
-
Laegreid lurking
And more!
The first competitions of the biathlon season are in the books! It's time to get together and chat about all of the amazing action from Kontiolahti and a little news/speculation as welli! This includes:
-
A week of underdogs, fan favorites, and fun stories!
-
A trip to the doctor's office to discuss the Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold heart situation
-
The great weeks by the Swedish and French women, and the French men!
-
Elvira's rocket legs
-
Franziska Preuss reclaiming her place near the top of the sport?
-
Suvi Minkkinen!
-
More!
We just couldn't wait for a full week of competition to end before we had to start talking biathlon again! We got together, initially on Sunday, but then again on Monday to discuss all of the relay action and the Men's Short Individual including:
-
Julia Simon's injury and what we know as of recording time
-
The Soerum Mixed Relay sprint and the Fabien Claude/Sturla Holm Laegreid relay battle giving us relay drama
-
Initial impressions of the women including rocket ship Elvira, very strong Tandrevold, and surprisingly solid Wierer
-
Ella Halvarsson and Jesper Nelin surprising us early
-
Short Individual immediate impressions
-
IBU Cup brief check in
-
And much more!
Just barely before the season starts we reconvened to discuss the recent racing in Sjusojoen and Idre Fjaell and discuss the upcoming season! A few of the highlights:
-
Over view of the selection races
-
Discussing the Norwegian depth
-
Overview of the rosters and any surprises that we saw
-
Discussing the current state of Canadian biathlon
-
A few predictions!
While battling illness at the final training camp in Finland, American/New Zealand biathlete Campbell Wright joined us for our final preseason interview! Campbell is a hilarious interview and we had an immensely good time. Of course we discussed his unique journey into biathlon from New Zealand, his transfer to the American team, his successes along the way, and where the journey is headed this season!
This week on the pod Czechia biathlete Jakub Stvrtecky joins us! He was so gracious to share his time from training camp in Finland to share his story! This week we discussed:
-
His story coming up alongside his teammates in Czechia biathlon
-
His summer of training and how he feels coming into the 2024-2025 season
-
Shooting prone vs. standing
-
How already having over 100 World Cup races at his young age impacts his biathlon
-
Czechia team nickname lesson and uniform designs
In our latest interview in the leadup to the 2024-2025 biathlon season, Hanna Kebinger returns! Always a fun interview this episode involves more laughing than we have done in a bit! It includes:
-
Discussion on her unfortunate 23-24 season
-
Dealing with health struggles, both physical and mental
-
Her road to recovery this summer including finding joy again
-
Year 2 under Sverre Røiseland's leadership
-
The importance of dogs and belly rubs
-
Travels in Venice
Jacques Jefferies graciously and bravely battled through a sinus infection and a bloody nose to join us for an interview! Jacques is a really valuable mind for the biathlon community as he has a very good grasp of the big issues biathlon will be grappling with in the coming years. As Jacques battled through we discussed:
-
His young biathlon career and his plans for the 2024-2025 season including an update on his summer training
-
The experience of establishing a position on the national team in such a crowded and competitive biathlon federation
-
His thoughts on the future of summer biathlon and what the biathlon calendar may look like in the future
-
Professional athlete mental health awareness and his program MindsMelt
-
And so much more!
Please check out his personal website https://jacquesjeff.substack.com/
As the 2024-2025 season rapidly approaches Polish Women's Head Coach Tobias Torgersen joined us from team training camp in Lenzerheide! In this interview we discuss:
-
Thoughts on Lenzerheide and particularly the potential trickiness on the range
-
Coaching anxiety as the season approaches
-
What led to the Polish women having a surge in the 2023-2024 season
-
How he coaches his team
-
Summer progress and looking ahead towards 2024-2025!
Justus Strelow, coming off of a very exciting City Biathlon race in Dresden, joined us from the German training camp in the French Alps for a wonderful interview. He as an amazing guest and gave us tremendous insight into:
-
His intro into biathlon and his journey to the top level of the sport
-
His lifelong affinity for shooting and how fast and how accurate can biathletes get?
-
The one missed shot that sticks with him from last season
-
The current status of his training and goals for the upcoming season
-
How he met his the love of his life and the secret to the best mattress for a couple.
The first of our preseason interviews is here and it's Regina Ermits! This was a joy! With Regina we discussed:
-
Regina vs. Kalev in the battle of the Ermits
-
How is she so good at standing shooting?
-
A new training regimen and "finding her voice" leading to 7 of the 9 best finishes of her career in 2023-2024
-
Her amazing 2024 Nove Mesto Worlds
-
And more!
The IBU has floated changes to how start bibs are allocated for Sprint and Individual races and it's generating some great conversation. We do our best to lay out what the changes would be as well as the perspectives of various athletes, coaches, and media members. We also share our own thoughts. Then we talk about the phenomenal Czechia summer national championships event and the different directions roller biathlon could go. Thank you go Jacques Jefferies for the social media conversation. We hit a few other news pieces before getting into the Italian, German, Czech, and Finnish national championships.
It's a touch late but we needed to catch up about the first half of the summer biathlon racing. We primarily focused on the recently completed 2024 Summer Worlds in Otepää but also briefly discussed Blink, as well as the Swedish, Belgian, and US Summer biathlon National Championships. Tune in soon for interviews and discussions on Martin Fourcade Festival and more national championships!
It is truly a quiet time in the world of biathlon but we still found a few things to chat about including:
-
It's wedding season!
-
RJ's EXTENSIVE breakdown of Emilien Jacquelin's shooting which is now published: https://biathlonanalytics.com/would-changing-high-risk-high-reward-strategy-pay-off-for-emilien-jacquelin/
-
A preview of Jordan's Ultimate Biathlon Timeline which will be up very soon.
-
Biathlon story time: Have You Ever Heard of Kari Swenson?
This one is for the rifle nerds out there! We had on Logan Pletz and after a short discussion on his background in biathlon it turned into a deep deep deeeeeeeeep dive on rifle construction, particularly with 3D printing. Logan was so generous sharing his adventures in rifle construction including the not so successful trials. Even if you're not a rifle nerd, any biathlon fan is really going to have fun with this one! Then we close with a short bit about what next season is going to look like for Canadian biathlon. Enjoy!
We were so fortunate to be joined by the author of one of the truly unique stories in biathlon: Tara Geraghty-Moats. Sure, you might know that she was once a Nordic Combiner, but what else do you know about her journey? We discuss her start in Nordic sports at a very young age and the winding path that has brought her here to the IBU Biathlon World Cup.
We also learn about how passionate she is about truly improving the experience of athletes including her work for Nordic Combined. We have a truly enlightening and gratifying discussion about healthcare for athletes and recovery from injury and illness.
We discuss her ability to strategize for her races and how that has impacted her ability to race her best on the biggest stages.
If you love biathlon and the biathlon family you're going to love this.
Surprise! We are back after just 1 week! This was actually a surprise for us as well as we didn't know we were recording it until we started. Today we discuss:
-
RJ's recent deep dive on if any national wax teams or ski brands were particularly successful in this most recent season
-
Coaching carousel including the Ricco Gross update, the Swiss coaching restructure, and a few other changes
-
The Italian team set their roster
-
Congratulations to Sebbe Samuelsson!
It's time to catch up on all of the biathlon news from May 2024 including:
-
Dorothea Wierer continues through 2026 Olympics
-
Stina Nilsson back to XC skiing
-
Discussion of Rico Gross going to the Bulgarian team (this was recorded just hours before it was announced that he's not going to the Bulgarian team)
-
Czech team coaching changes
-
Early reactions to team announcements from a few nations including Germany, Canada, Austria, and USA
-
Summer biathlon schedule for North America announced
It's time to talk more biathlon! Let be honest it's always time to talk more biathlon. We reconvened to discuss:
-
French, Swiss, Swedish, and Norwegian national championships
-
A little bit of biathlon news
-
Was there a connection between ski brand and ski speed this season
-
Jordan's connection with Tarjei Boe
-
A preview/overview of some breakthroughs this season
It's time to recap the 2023-2024 Biathlon World Cup season! Here in part 2 we discuss the women including:
-
Lou Jeanmonnot announcing herself as a contender now and in the future
-
Lisa Vittozzi finishing off one of the most remarkable career comebacks in biathlon history
-
Lena Haecki-Gross in year 10 of her career becomes the best Swiss woman in biathlon history
-
Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold just misses out on the Globe
-
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet and Julia Simon are in it for the long haul
-
What happened to Hanna and Elvira this season?
-
And much more!
It's our 100th Episode! We recap our journey of where we started and everything that has happened over the last 100 episodes. A big THANK YOU! To everybody who has listened and joined us along the way!
We also cover 2 pieces of big news:
1) Christian Gow, Biathlon Canada mainstay, announced his retirement
2) Tarjei Boe is back! Please check out my very personal thoughts on this here: https://penaltyloop.com/2024/04/08/tarjei-boe-my-living-memory/
It's time to recap the 2023-2024 Biathlon World Cup season! We broke our recap up in 2 parts rather than giving you one massive nearly 3 hour podcast. Here in part 1 we discuss the men including:
-
JT Boe's 5th Overall title was better than you may have thought
-
Some young men showing off including Eric Perrot, Tommaso Giacomel, and Campbell Wright
-
Tarjei Boe completes the 2nd best season of his illustrious career
-
Emilien Jacquelin finds himself
-
Sturla Holm Laegreid with the year's most "interesting" season
-
The German men were...actually good?
-
Where is QFM heading
-
And much more!
We head back to Canmore for one more episode! This time around we do our normal discussion about the racing but this time we have interviews! We discuss:
-
Exhausted athletes
-
JT Boe winning the Globe in style
-
Anna Gandler continues to shine
-
The French and Italians close out the season very strong
-
Lisa Vittozzi and Lou Jeanmonnot giving us a preview of next season?
-
Late season redemption for Hanna Oeberg and Marketa Davidova
-
And More!
In part 1 of our recap of the conclusion of the World Cup biathlon season in Canmore we have story time with RJ! He shares the tales of his weekend mixing and mingling with fans, athletes and coaches and gives us the sense of what it was like on the ground as the greatest biathletes in the world converged on Canada. In this episode we hear:
-
His day by day and race by race memories
-
Hear about some of the athletes that he was able to interview (interviews will be included in part 2).
This episode is far more about the general feel of the weekend and less discussion and analysis of the racing. But it was an absolutely joy to record so I hope you give it a listen!
Biathlon returns to North America and the racing was absolutely electric. It absolutely left us breathless so we had to wait and record a little later so we can recover! This week we discussed:
-
The epic Men's Pursuit race including JT Boe and the Emilien Jacquelin experience
-
The Lou Jeanmonnot weekend and what would have to happen for her to win the Overall
-
US Biathlon on an upswing
-
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet appreciation
-
Eric Perrot is the now of French men's biathlon
-
Overview of the Women's Overall race especially focused on can Tandrevold hang on by her fingernails?
-
And more!
It was a rainy and fairly gross weekend in Oslo, but it was another thrilling weekend of racing! This week on the pod we discussed all of the action including:
-
The really exciting state of the Overall races with it being completely undecided with 2 weekends to go
-
Did Tandrevold fix her shooting and is she now the prohibitive favorite? If not her who is the top challenger?
-
Will Tarjei Boe topple his brother?
-
Christiansen's epic chase down of Sebastian Samuelsson
-
Finland makes a podium!
-
A HUGE thank you to all of the fans braving the weather
-
And more!
Anna Gandler was so kind to grace us with her time this week! We covered many fun topics with the up and coming Austrian biathlete including:
-
Her spectacular 2024 World Championships in Nove Mesto by every aspect of racing.
-
Getting a new rifle this season and learning to adapt to it.
-
A delicious discussion on German/Austrian snacks
-
Running a successful social media account as an athlete
-
Discussing new ski technology
-
What movies do she and Emilien watch when they have time off?
-
Which woman on the biathlon World Cup is secretly jacked!
-
And much more fun!
After a thrilling conclusion to the 2023-2024 Biathlon World Championships in Nove Mesto our heads were absolutely spinning. As we covered the first half of the events on part 1, after covering some big picture take aways we tried to focus on the races and stories from the 2nd half starting with the Individual races. Some of the items discussed included:
-
JT Boe is still the boss
-
Julia Simon's lightning shooting gives her a super power
-
The Germans had a much better 2nd half of Worlds
-
More diversity with Latvia, USA, Poland, and Estonia showing well
-
What happened with Tandrevold and the Norwegian women
-
So so so much more!
The Nove Mesto World Championships are here and we couldn't be more excited. There were already so many stories and things to discussed so this is an absolutely jam packed episode including:
-
Waxing once again taking center stage
-
Julia Simon is absolutely unbeatable right now
-
Sturla Holm Laegreid's emotional gold medal
-
JT Boe's comeback in the Pursuit
-
Baiba Bendika!!!!!
-
Franziska Preuss and the German ski situation
-
Belgium, Poland, Chauveau, Vittozzi, Christiansen, and so so so much more!
Come take a lap with us on our most unusual (and hopefully fun!) episode to date.
-
We start out by discussing the actual racing that occurred this week on the IBU Cup and Junior Cup including Johan-Olav Botn, Simon Kaiser, and the dominant Austrians on the Juniors level.
-
We discuss the sad news of the Trevor Kiers retirement
-
We do some preview work on the impending World Championships in Nove Mesto with some really intriguing stats and trends.
-
In between all of this we do some "interviews" with people from around the world and get their "thoughts" on biathlon!
This is quite a strange journey so we hope you enjoy it!
During what was supposed to be a bit of a quiet time in biathlon there was simply too much news! We dusted off the mics and got together to discuss the really important news of the week including:
-
The heartbreaking and infuriating story of Joanne Reid's sexual abuse and harassment by a member of the US Biathlon wax tech team
-
The Youth Olympic Games and some great Canadian performances
-
A new ski/binding technology from Madshus and how it might change the game
-
An exciting European Championships including the introduction of some new exciting talent to a wider audience
-
More discussions about Madshus!
-
Minor predictions for Worlds
Shortly following the completion of the racing in Antholz we got together to chat about all of the action from the week including:
-
Lena Haecki-Gross getting her first win!
-
Julia Simon is coming on really strong
-
But don't lose sight of Lou Jeanmonnot!
-
Johannes Dale-Skjevdal's insane last lap in the Mass Start
-
A bit of Norwegian men's team discussion including JT Boe looking more like JT Boe, Christiansen looking really great, and Laegreid looking...lost?
-
The state of the Overall Globe races
-
Some special shout outs to some really good weekends including Baiba Bendika, Otto Invenius, Adam Runnalls and more!
We went on a discussion about who the Norwegians should start in the World Champs races. Turns out we were wrong! Based on new rules from last season they can start all 6 in the Sprint and the Individual and 5 in the Mass Start
After one of the thrilling complete weekends of biathlon racing in the last several years we of course put together our longest podcast of the season. There was just so much to talk about! Breaking from what has become our normal back and forth we decided to go race by race to make sure we didn't miss any of the big moments incuding:
-
Simon vs. Elvira in the Women's Relay
-
The chaotic 3rd leg of the Men's Relay and Jordan's rant about it
-
Tandrevold's perfect race in the Women's Sprint
-
Christiansen getting "sweet revenge" in the Men's Sprint
-
Lisa Vittozzi emerging late in the Women's Pursuit
-
A 5 man final lap and Johannes Dale-Skjvedal's punishing sprint in the Men's Pursuit
-
Plus plenty more including the Canadian women setting personal bests, Campbell Wright soaring to new highs in the Stars and Stripes, Julia Tannheimer's debut, Giacomel's podium, Jacquelin's return, Mona Brorsson, JT Boe and more!
This was without a doubt the most full pod we've down outside of World Championships or the Olympics!
It's 2024 and Biathlon is back! We reconvene to discuss all the action from Oberhof including:
-
The new Eurovision site
-
Weather and climate affecting biathlon
-
Even more success for the Norwegian men including Stroemsheim's victorious weekend and Laegreid is back
-
Doll gets another win!
-
The resplendent and dominant French women
-
The wild women's Pursuit race
-
The toils of Hanna Oeberg
-
And more!
Recorded the night before racing started in Lenzerheide, Polish Women's Head Coach Tobias Torgersen very generously granted us far more time than we had any right to expect or a fantastic interview. In this discussion we touched on:
-
Coach Torgersen's personal history including growing up a fan of cross country and biathlon racing
-
We discuss his coaching career as he quickly moved up the ranks including his time with the Chinese biathlon federation.
-
We get into the successes he's seen over the last two seasons including Kamila Zuk last season, and Anna Maka, Joanna Jakiela, and Natalia Sidorowicz
-
Finally we do a little discussion on biathlon at large in the 2023-2024 season.
Merry Christmas! We got together just before the holiday weekend to share our thoughts on the first trimester and all of the action from Oestersund, Hochfilzen, and Lenzerheide! We discussed many many things including:
-
Did wax affect the racing so far this season?
-
Our favorite moments of the season (so far!)
-
Our thoughts on some of the top men/women of the season
-
Athletes who look to have taken a step forward
-
Athletes who look to have taken a step back
-
Norwegian men and the fight for the World Cup bibs
-
How the Simon Fourcade coaching is going for the French men
-
RJ's analysis of xc women who have made the switch to biathlon
-
My proposal for a new silly event
-
And more
The World Cup makes the first ever visit to Lenzerheide and we are here to break it all down! In this episode we discuss
-
The amazing Justine Braisaz-Bouchet weekend
-
JT Boe is back on top
-
Emilien Jacquelin is Emilien Jacquelin
-
Norwegian men had some adventures with the rifle and RJ gives a breakdown of the rules issues at play and exactly what happened
-
We finish up with some rapid fire thoughts on some athletes with bright weekends including: Endre Stroemsheim, Deedra Irwin, Marketa Davidova and many many more
Another week of exciting racing down and another new podcast to recap it! We touch on a number or big things that happened in Hochfilzen including:
-
COVID is causing havoc
-
Lena Haecki-Gross' HUGE weekend
-
Tarjei Boe in yellow?!?
-
Is JT Boe all the way back?
-
Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold's growing into the Norwegian leader
-
Elvira Oeberg looks ready to contend again
-
Knotten, Gandler, Perrot, and more!
The first full week of biathlon is in the books so we reconvene to discuss the latest action! If you missed part 1 which came out late last week it covers the mixed relays, the individuals, and the women's relay.
In this show we talk about:
-
The freezing weather, wax, the skis and how it all affected the racing
-
The Sturla Holm Laegreid question and the dilemma facing the Norwegian men
-
Sebbe Samuelsson's big finish
-
Lou Jeanmonnot is here and for real!
-
Preuss and Voigt looking strong
-
Surprisingly strong Norwegian women
-
and more!
Jordan and RJ get together for a phrenetic recap of the first five events of the IBU World Cup season. This episode was recorded just after the Women's Relay in Oestersund but before the Men's Relay, so we discuss everything from season opening Single Mixed Relay through the Women's Relay on Wednesday. Fair warning, we were REALLY excited about this so we jump from topic to topic very quickly. Just like the athletes, we'll warm into the season!
Danish athlete, coach, and Danish TV2 national biathlon commentator Kristian Wulff joins to help us prepare for the upcoming season! We get right into the #1 issue of the upcoming season, waxing and how it will dramatically affect the racing. We also touch on a few of Kristian's other stories to watch, some under the radar athletes, and his predicted top 3.
Jordan and RJ then close out our season previews with some final thoughts and Jordan forces RJ to make 10 predictions for the upcoming season. Enjoy!
The biathlon season is finally here! This is part 1 of our 2 part season preview. We start out with a look back at some of the big stories of last year including JT Boe and QFM as well as the new generation of biathlon on the men's side and Julia Simon, Wierer and Vittozzi coming on strong, and Elvira Oeberg looking not quite like herself. Then we try to think of some major questions/storylines for some of the major teams this season:
-
Is the next generation of Norwegian women ready to lead?
-
Which of the exciting women's teams will see the most new blood?
Plus plenty more!
And don't miss part 2 in just 2 days!
In the conclusion to our fantastic talk with rising Swiss biathlon start Niklas Hartweg we hit a number of really great topics including
-
Listening to your body for training and competition
-
The new generation of Swiss biathletes and coaches changing the team
-
What it's like racing in Switzerland
-
The best snacks
-
Hartweg's plans for a Swiss kit
As the 2023-2024 season rapidly approaches we continued our efforts to interview some of the top new names in biathlon, this time with Niklas Hartweg. This episode starts right in the middle of a discussion between Nik and RJ about Hartweg's artistic side. It was going on before we started recording and because it was so interesting I just hit record to catch as much as possible. After that we hit several great topics including:
-
Nik's vacations
-
His friendly rivalry with Tommaso Giacomel
-
The amazing 2022-2023 Blue Bib race
-
How to learn to listen to your body
Part 2 coming soon!
There is only one way to describe Hanna Kebinger: Persistence. Join us for this fabulous conversation as we see how persistence truly has paid off for Hanna time and time again. We all cheered along with her as she made her triumphant breakthrough last spring but after this, you'll be even more of a fan. This was truly a delight!
Part 3 is the conclusion to our massive interview with Clare Egan. Here we get into the fun stuff like:
-
Why does Clare love pigs?
-
Did she wear a knit wool bra in Beijing?
-
Her personal Tour de France travels!
Part 2 of our awesome discussion with Clare Egan! In this section we get DEEEEEP into some big topics including:
1) Doping (5:35)
2) Relations with Russian and Belarussian federations/athletes (19:20)
3) Climate change (31:00)
4) Training for the big shot (57:00)
Part 3 coming later this week!
Baiba Bendika returns to tell us all about how her life has changed over the last 9 months or so!
We did it! Clare Egan, the most requested and recommended interview joined us for a HUGE 3 part interview. In part 1 we focus mostly on Clare's personal history. We talk about growing up in cross country skiing, creating the XC ski club at her university, and her auspicious intro into biathlon. Then we discuss her IBU career including some truly incredible high points. And we discuss her thoughts on her future...Netflix producer?
Before the interview though, Jordan and RJ catch up on summer vacation and more importantly summer biathlon!
More to come soon!
After Matthias went back to Germany in April to work with youth biathletes in Bayerwald (Bavarian forrest) we caught up with him. Unfortunately Jordan had to deal with a dog getting hit (the dog's recovering from a broken shoulder) so he was unable to make it.
Part 1 of this interview is largely about the comparison of the Canadian and German "biathlon systems" and how it is impacted by the nation's support, school, physical development, peer-pressure, infrastructure, and so much more.
We hope part 2 will be recorded in September (with Jordan!).
We caught up with former biathlete from the Canadian national team AND our first ever summer guest on the podcast, Scott Gow. We hear from him what keeps him busy these days, how he transitions from athlete to a "normal person". We get interrupted by another surprise former biathlete, we talk IBU and biathlon developments and there's more that you just don't want to miss!
We also talk about two projects Scott is currently involved in, for which you can find the links below.
Enjoy the episode! (and yes, episode 67 is still planned to happen at some point!)
Jordan & RJ
Rise Above: Training for Excellence https://riseaboveinc.ca/p/training-for-excellence
Nordic Ski Lab: https://nordicskilab.com/
Come celebrate Canada Day with us as we are joined for a delightful interview with Canadian star Emma Lunder! We hear all about her journey from small town Canada to the World Cup. Then we focus in on her amazing 22-23 breakout season and the secret that made it all possible. We also get to hear more about being in a relationship with a fellow World Cup athlete with all the details you want to know like “Where is the best World Cup stop for a date night?” And “Who is the better cook Emma or Christian.” We also touch on the wild biathlon baby boom that just keeps in giving us more joy! All in all it’s a great time and a wonderful way to kick off our summer interviews!
- You did not miss episode 67, it's still in the making!
The Return of the Penalty Loop Podcast! We're back and go over the news, both personal and biathlon, as a lot has happened since we last recorded.
We hope you enjoy hearing us again as much as it was to record again!
As we are still awaiting a Floridian family member increase, Jordan and I had a quick chat about things happening in the biathlon world, what we are working on, and what's coming in the summer.
In this week's episode we start off by talking a little biathlon news. Not a lot this week but we give a big THANK YOU to Biathlon23 for all of he work he has done the last 10 years and we wish him a restful year away from blogging. We also give some quick takes on the Norwegian 2023-2024 team announcement from this week. Then after teasing it for weeks, we FINALLY take a look at the Junior World Championships. We look at some athletes that we'll be keeping a close eye on the next few seasons. We finish up with an examination the u25 and try to tackle the question "Are they better now than they used to be?"
Please check out RJ's (@biathlonanalyt1) data. This will help out a lot when listening and you can definitely lose an hour or two getting into the numbers!
Juniors: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/rj7974/viz/YouthWorldChampionships2023/GENERAL
Blue Bibbers: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/rj7974/viz/BlueBibbersgettingbetter/AthletesandPoints
Read all about it! The new Penalty Loop Podcast Daily Paper!
We take a bit of a different spin on the 2022/23 season review but with some expected topics as well of course! Globe winners, the season in numbers, missing athletes, clean shooters, streak shooters, improving nations, up & coming athletes, lots of data, lots of fun!
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/rj7974
https://penaltyloop.com
In sadly our last weekend recap of the season we take a look back at an enormously eventful weekend of racing in Oslo! We discuss the enthusiastic retirement ceremonies, the wild finish to the Men's u25 Globe race, the successful last weekends of Herrmann-Wick, Roeiseland, and Chevalier-Bouchet, Hanna Oeberg closing strong, the great success of our Friends of the Pod this weekend and more! Don't worry, our 2022-2023 season recap is coming soon!
We got together immediately after the racing finished up in beautiful Oestersund to discuss another thrilling weekend of racing. Dorothea Wierer completed her best weekend in several season while the races on the men's side were wide open! We touch on the amazing young talent rising in the sport from Italy, France, Switzerland and more while the elder statesmen like Wierer and Roeiseland...and Eder?...continue to shine. We did briefly discuss a really fun week at the Junior Worlds where 15 nations made the podium! Finally we pick a few athletes we hope to see climb the podium in Oslo!
RJ's home range at the Canmore Nordic Centre hosted the final two IBU Cups of the season, and the Penalty Loop crew was there three days for track-side sounds, interviews, chats, pictures, videos, and sadly some mixed feelings about only being there for 50%. Luckily we had a good time catching up afterward, and fingers crossed both our families will be there next year.
We want to thank the following athletes, officials, and biathlon enthusiasts who came over to chat or were kind enough to be interviewed:
Shilo Rousseau - shilo_rousseauGillian Gowling - gilliangowlingZoe Pekos - zoe_pekosDanika Burke - danika.burke
Erdal, Karoline - karolineerdalEnodd, Jenny - jennyenodd
Chris Gomez Mateos - chris_gomez_mRaul Antonio Figueroa - thetacotales
Philip HornP - hoernle__
Emilien Claude - emilien_claudeAndreas Hechenberger - andihechei
Sophia - biathlon_yukon
Clare Egan - clareeganbiathlete
And a gig thanks to all volunteers, Canmore Biathlon, and Biathlon Canada for a fantastic event and preview of more to come next year!
PS: sorry about the loud wind sounds during some of the recordings. I tried to remove them but it would take away some of the speakers as well.
Another amazing week of biathlon and another week of amazing crowds! We take a look back at everything that happened in an eventful week of IBU World Cup biathlon including: Latvia and Baiba Bendika on the podium! COVID impacts, Jacquelin stepping away, JT Boe's record season, Tarjei Boe looking like Tarjei Boe, Roeiseland back and Tandrevold looking tremendous, and so much more!
With a week off between the World Championships and the 3rd Trimester we were so fortunate to get to spend some time chatting with Austrian up and coming biathlete Anna Gandler! We talked about the differences between Austria and Australia, growing up the daughter of an Olympic medalist, her rapid ascent to the World Cup, her Oberhof experience, goals for the rest of the season and summer, and of course, recent winner on the IBU Cup Emilien Claude. Come for the biathlon, stay for the gardening advice!
Another week of exciting biathlon in the Thuringer Wald with sun, rain, fog, wind, unexpected winners, expected winners, revivals, redemption, disappointments, elation, hares, amazing crowds, superstars and soon to be's, and everything that makes biathlon the best sport in the world!
Jordan and RJ catch up again after the second week of the World Championships come to an end.
As mentioned in the podcast, check out Michael Rosch on instagram. If you love biathlon and you want to have a laugh every now and then, he's a good one to follow @mikklroesch
The first few races of the 2023 Oberhof World Championships are in the books and we are here to take a look back! We discuss Denise Herrmann-Wick's magical win and the German racing in general, JT Boe's absolute dominance, Samuelsson and Sweden's up's and down's this Championships, IBU quota rules and many more men and women who have been having great Championships so far!
Jordan and RJ chat about the Podcast's one-year anniversary, general biathlon news, and analytics. Then we share some thoughts about the upcoming World Championships in Oberhof!
No World Cup biathlon race weekend to talk about, but that gave us the opportunity to have a great new guest on our show: Johanna Talihaerm from Estonia, reporting from Lenzerheide in Switzerland. We talked about her path into biathlon, life as an athlete (individual and team), dry-firing with only a stock, Bozeman (and Altius, see link below), sponsors (see link below), funding, adventure racing, Estonia, favourite tracks, as I always say, so much more.
Enjoy the episode!
https://www.instagram.com/johannataliharm/
SportspersonDon’t be mean, be above the average!📈3x Olympic biathlete🇪🇪Wild one❄️
https://honeypower.eu/
HoneyPower is Estonia's first 100% natural energy gel, and consists of Estonian raw materials and contains at least 50% honey, does not contain preservatives, and gives energy in the most natural way. Honeypower is suitable for top athletes and strong enthusiasts, but can also be used outside of sports, for quick energy.
http://www.altiusguns.com/
Altius Handcrafted Firearms is the only biathlon specialty shop in the world. Altius stocks a complete line of biathlon rifles, parts, accessories, and ammunition. We have the knowledge and experience to help you select the right gear, whether you're just starting out or are headed to a World Cup. Marc Sheppard, Altius proprietor, is the only Anschutz factory-trained service technician in the US with World Championships level competitive biathlon experience, and Altius is the only Anschutz Factory Authorized Biathlon Service Center in the US.
We start this week off as many people are this week, diving deeeeep into the greatness of JT Boe this year and his career comparing him with Fourcade and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. Then we discuss the action in Antholz including Wierer's emotional win, Elvira's continued growth, the stunning depth of the French women, and much more.
We hope you enjoy it!
Tweet Jordan @penaltyloop or insta @penaltylooppodcast, and RJ @biathlonanalyt1 or insta @biathlonanalytics
In episode 52 we review World Cup 5 as it took place in rainy Ruhpolding. Not a rank-by-rank race discussion, but rather things that stood out, general thoughts about the world of biathlon, data analysis and visualization, and streaks and clean shooting.
We hope you enjoy it!
Tweet Jordan @penaltyloop or insta @penaltylooppodcast, and RJ @biathlonanalyt1 or insta @biathlonanalytics
One of the dashboards we talked about is the Streaky Business dashboard on Tableau Public
Another great race weekend is in the books! We talk about the return of Roeiseland and QFM from last season, the Boe brothers, Elvira, the success of the Swiss team, rising young athletes, hit-and-miss with Jacquelin, and many other things from the world of biathlon. Enjoy!
We just wanted to take a few minutes to thank all listeners for your feedback, kind reviews and of course, for listening to us. And if you listen until the end, you may hear some 'unique' jodeling sounds... :o)
Just like that the first trimester of the IBU World Cup biathlon season is over! Jordan and RJ take a look back at the weekend of racing in Annecy including the icy conditions that disrupted the Pursuit races, the unpredictable nature of the women's World Cup right now, the triumphant win of Johannes Dale, Julia Simon proudly wearing yellow and the young French women rising to the top, and much much more. Also we led off with surprise guest, Kirby Gottschalk, Jordan's dad!
Just like that the first trimester of the IBU World Cup biathlon season is over! Jordan and RJ take a look back at the weekend of racing in Annecy including the icy conditions that disrupted the Pursuit races, the unpredictable nature of the women's World Cup right now, the triumphant win of Johannes Dale, Julia Simon proudly wearing yellow and the young French women rising to the top, and much much more. Also we led off with surprise guest, Kirby Gottschalk, Jordan's dad!
We checked in with Lotte Lie as she preps for week 3 on the IBU World Cup in Annecy-le Grand-Bornand! We chatted about her Christmas plans, her season so far, her shooting adventures in the Pursuit race, her mental preparation for each race, and more! Enjoy!
We checked in briefly with Baiba Bendika after she arrived in Annecy for World Cup 3! We chatted about her season so far, Covid, Lampic, JTB, the gym, nuts and many other things. Enjoy!
Please follow Baiba on Insta: bendikabaiba and Twitter: @biathleteLV
We are back to catch up on all of the action from Hochfilzen. We touch on all of the excitement that happened this weekend including: The Annamarija Lampic's wild debut on the IBU World Cup, JT Boe's continued dominance, Julia Simon rock solid start to the year, Tandrevold taking the leadership role for the Norwegian team. We look at some under the radar stories from the week and finish with the question of the week: Should QFM hit the panic button? This was a fun one!
Biathlon is back! We dive deep into the past week of biathlon racing in Kontiolahti and just a bit of the IBU Cup activity. First we do a quick recap of the races that we saw in Kontiolahti. Briefly talking about the racing we discuss what stood out including: Lisa Vittozzi, Emma Lunder, Lisa Hauser, JT Boe, Elvia Oeberg, Niklas Hartweg, and more. We discuss a handful of athletes showing breakout potential. We finish with a game where we decide if certain quick reactions to the first week of racing are True, Maybe True, or Ridiculous!
The new season is finally upon us! Jordan and RJ start with a brief recap of last season and the action that took place over the summer. Then we dive into a few preseason topics that have perked out interest. We do a little bit of a longer look at the Canadian and United States teams. RJ gives us a brief preview of the next edition of the IBU insider. Jordan then surprises RJ with some rapid fire questions. Finally we wrap up with our season predictions.
In the second part of our talk with Lotte, we talk about relays, Olympics, Analytics, partying, (social) media, laser rifles, ammunition, the biathlon family and end with a couple of random (but fun!) questions.
You can find more information about Lotte here:
https://lottelie.com/ https://www.instagram.com/lottislie/
We had the absolute pleasure to talk to one of Belgium's finest athletes: Lotte Lie! As more common lately, after her introduction the topics were all over the place, covering Team Maxim, her path into biathlon, rifles, Belgium, other sports, Belgium-Norway rivalry, Summer WC Ruhpolding, switching ski brands, last year's form and her shooting.
You can find more information about Lotte here:
https://lottelie.com/ https://www.instagram.com/lottislie/
We continue catching up with Kristian Wulff after his participation in the IBU Summer Biathlon World Championships in Ruhpolding, discussing relays, the Norwegian team, double-poling and classic skiing, the upcoming season, sponsoring, ammunition, and IBU's point scoring change.
Links to topics mentioned:
Where Kristian prints his T-shirts (and where you can buy them to support Ukaleq) https://skiskydning.tekstilrevolution.dk/
The aiming system Kristian uses https://mantisx.com/products/mantis-x10-elite
Tires company sponsor https://ovethi.dk/
Andrea Henkel's program Compete Like a Pro https://www.competelikeapro.com/
We are catching up with Kristian Wulff after his participation in the IBU Summer Biathlon World Championships in Ruhpolding. We discussed many things: T-shirts, his podcast with Ukaleq, dry firing, experiencing the World Championships, team Denmark, IBU's new measurements, competing like a pro - Danish style, and Sven Fischer.
Links to topics mentioned:
Where Kristian prints his T-shirts (and where you can buy them to support Ukaleq) https://skiskydning.tekstilrevolution.dk/
The aiming system Kristian uses https://mantisx.com/products/mantis-x10-elite
Tires company sponsor https://ovethi.dk/
Andrea Henkel's program Compete Like a Pro https://www.competelikeapro.com/
The second part of RJ interviewing Jordan contains more life stories, his favorite biathlon locations and athletes, possible new biathlon events, his dad, Lisa, biathlon in the USA and much more.
In the second part of our "Interviewing the host" series, RJ now talks to Jordan. In this episode we talk about the consequences of dumping flour from a car, history, how talking to different people keeps your job interesting, German roots, cars, his passion for biathlon, and how Josiah Bartlet brought him and his wife together.
Please enjoy the next hour as we talk with Andrea Henkel, a former German biathlete now living in the US, at her home in Lake Placid. Topics vary from dating at the IBU, summer biathlon, the popularity of biathlon in the US, dietary restrictions, using biathlon data for performance analysis and so much more! Oh, and don't forget to check out her new business: Compete like a pro (www.competelikeapro.com).
We hope you enjoyed the first part of this interview on Tuesday! In this second part of Jordan interviewing RJ we learn even more about his background, his passion for biathlon, analytics and other things, and life in general.
We hope you enjoyed and will enjoy, and we'll switch back to an amazing Olympic and World Champion on Tuesday (followed by two episodes of RJ interviewing Jordan in the week after).
As discussed and announced a number of times (by us and others) it is time to pause the interviews with biathletes and coaches who have achieved amazing things in the world of biathlon, and go with two people that haven't.... us. But it allows you to learn a bit more about the two hosts of this podcast; their background, passion for biathlon and other things, and life in general.
This is the first part of the interview with Jordan being the interviewer and RJ the interviewee. Part 2 will be posted on Thursday.
We hope you have fun listening, and next week we'll switch back to an amazing guest, followed by two episodes of RJ interviewing Jordan.
Cheers!
In this episode, Jordan was unable to make it, so you're stuck with RJ talking about biathlon data! Data nerds pay attention, this episode will be just up your alley! He goes into detail on where the data comes from, how he gets it and uses it, some tips and tricks for other users and the tool he uses for analysis and visualization. And a well deserved shout-out to RealBiathlon.com
Have fun!
Part two of our interview with Armin Auchentaller! We continue our discussion, going deeper into the popularity of biathlon in North America, the impact of the Olympics, starting age for shooting, training with other nations or combined teams, IBU point changes, analytics and a little about his daughter, Hannah.
More information for anyone who loves biathlon, especially those living in the US or Canada!
In this first part with US Biathlon head coach Armin Auchentaller, we talk about biathlon in the United States and North America, cultural differences with Europe, the future of biathlon, North American collaboration, summer biathlon and switching from XCskiing to biathlon and at what age.
This episode is full of information for anyone who loves biathlon, especially those living in the US or Canada!
We hope you liked part 1 and welcome to the second part of our interview with Ukaleq Slettemark! We discuss some of her favourites, the biathlon family, analytics, dogsledding, climate change, the future of biathlon and much more.
Cheers!
Part one of our interview with Ukaleq Slettemark covers a lot! We discussed her podcast, the Olympics, her summer plans, art and the typical questions about the life of a biathlete on the World Cup.
Part two will be posted next week!
Jordan & RJ
As we continue our interview with German biathlete Vanessa Hinz, we talk more about biathlon, her life as a biathlete in Germany/Europe, bibs, activities outside of biathlon and more of our questions.
We hope you will enjoy!
RJ & Jordan
In this second part of our interview with Canadian biathlete Jules Burnotte, we continued our conversation about Testival, life on the World Cup, Analytics and many more of our recurring questions.
We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
RJ & Jordan
In part one of our interview with German biathlete Vanessa Hinz, we went through the usual questions and talked about changing coaches, the IBU rule changes, life on the World Cup and Analytics.
Part 2 will follow in 2 weeks!
RJ & Jordan
In the first part of our interview with Canadian biathlete Jules Burnotte, we asked our usual questions and talked about the IBU rule changes, his career, his development path, his Olympic Games and finally about biathlon rifles.
Part 2 will follow in 2 weeks!
RJ & Jordan (who had Covid so was a little under the weather)
In this second part of our interview with Matthias Ahrens, we talk analytics, some more of our standard podcast questions and much more.
You can find more information about Matthias through the following links:
- https://biathlon.ca/biathlon-alberta-training-center/coaching-staff/
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335878529_Can_performance_in_biathlon_world_cup_be_predicted_by_performance_analysis_of_biathlon_IBU_cup
We hope you enjoy it!
Jordan and RJ discuss the rule changes the IBU just announced yesterday, and how they could impact the biathlon World Cup. They also have some thoughts on other changes that could be interesting for the future.
In this episode, we talked with Matthias Ahrens, former head coach of the Canadian Biathlon team, and currently coaching a new generation of Canadian biathletes at the Biathlon Alberta Training Centre. Part one covers his introduction, biathlon coaching and our usual questions.
You can find more information about Matthias through the following links:
- https://biathlon.ca/biathlon-alberta-training-center/coaching-staff/
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335878529_Can_performance_in_biathlon_world_cup_be_predicted_by_performance_analysis_of_biathlon_IBU_cup
We hope you enjoy it!
We had the absolute pleasure of chatting with Kristian Wulff from Denmark about biathlon in his home country, biathlon venues, broadcasting, analysis, the IBU family, team collaboration, athletes and much more. Please join us in this interesting conversation, and send your feedback to penaltylooppodcast@gmail.com or reach out to us on Twitter.
Follow Kristian's Studio .22 Podcast or reach out to him on Twitter.
This is our first of will hopefully be many interviews with Egil Gjelland. We covered a lot!
00:00 Intro to interview
5:43 Egil joins
19:00 https://skjelbreidpoiree.com/
25:00 Czech Women Training Camp update
39:20 Davidova?
43:55 Fun time
59:30 Future of biathlon. See https://vismaskiclassics.com for more info on what RJ and Egil are talking about
Just a little catchup on the biathlon news of May 2022 plus we check out the new W.E.I.S.E. stat from of course, our very own RJ Weise. You're definitely going to want to hear about about this!
Episode 2 of our off season program takes us Through the Eyes of: Baiba Bendika. Once again we set out to learn what life is like on for an athlete on the IBU World Cup. Along the way we learn a lot of really fun things like the meaning behind her tattoo, her recent favorite tv show, and why other athletes are jealous of her when they travel. You don't want to miss this one!
This week we are transitioning to our summer program and we start with our first episode of "Through the Eyes of" featuring Scott Gow! We cover a HUGE amount in this episode including, his background, the life of a biathlete on the World Cup, who is the most fun at parties, a deep discussion on analytics in biathlon, and more!
We got together this week to take a look back on the season 2021-2022 season in a bit of a unique way. We start by looking at some of the most improved athletes of the season. Then we look at some of our favorite races of the year. Then we briefly discuss some of the highs and lows of the season. We finish up with two part Stat of the Week to discuss some new tools RJ created to help us analyze the last several years of the World Cup racing and this season in particular!
We are back for another lengthy discussion on a week in the world of biathlon! We start off with a brief discussion on our joy of a return to Oslo before discussing in depth the races of the weekend. We hit the season ending version of the Power Rankings. Then we discuss an Under the Radar athlete from Norway who is making himself quite well known and an Up and Comer for Team Germany that will hopefully follow the same path. We dive DEEEEP into the Linn Persson/Elvira Oeberg Mass Start finish. And we finish up with a really interesting discussion on RJ's work with stats for Youth/Junior and IBU Cup athletes to help us identify up and comers. Please join us for a fun one!
It's time for another Penalty Loop Podcast as we review the racing from the past weekend in Otepaeae. We start off by going through the races and discussing the top athletes and other take aways from each race. We dive into this week's Penalty Loop Power Rankings including discussing several new additions and a new #1 on the women's side. We discuss two under the radar athletes including one VERY under the radar athlete and Karolina Knotten as well. Our Up and Comers this week are two young Ukranian women who made their World Cup debuts this week. And in the General Topic we hit on a number of topics including the final take aways from Otepaeae, the Athletes Committee, and more retirements. Come join us!
The Penalty Loop Podcast is back. We start with a wide ranging opening discussion about the world of biathlon before jumping into a look back at the week of racing in Kontiolahti. We follow that up with a discussion of this week's Penalty Loop Power Rankings. From there we move on to a discussion on an under the radar athlete, Jessica Jislova, and an up and comer, Stina Nilsson. We also do a little look at some of the best performers at the recently concluded Junior World Championships. We finish up with a discussion of some of the big topics in biathlon over the last week including 1) The Stina Nilsson hype, 2) The French DQ in the women's relay, and 3) Sadly more retirements
Returning to our normal format we take a look back at the recently completed Beijing Winter Olympics. We start by briefly covering the major stories from China including the dominance of Roeiseland, QFM, and JT Boe as well as some less well known stories. We then have our first NEW Power Rankings in the history of this podcast (32:00). Then we move on to our Under the Radar segment where we discuss a man who until recently was nowhere to be seen in biathlon, a young up and comer from a traditional biathlon nation, as well as an interesting potentially up and coming team with no biathlon tradition (42:00). In the General Topic we came the end of our discussion about the Olympic preparation plans of the major teams: Norway, Sweden, and France, and how it worked as well as Retirement Watch! Finally in our Stat of the Week RJ has done immense research comparing athletes performances at the Olympics vs. their performances in the first 2 trimesters of the season (1:17:25). Come join us on the Penalty Loop!
We came on the pod to recap the last race at these Olympic Games, the Men's Mass Start. We discuss an unbelievable classic JT Boe performance, a surprising and enjoyable silver for Martin Ponsiluoma, and an equally surprising bronze for Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen. We also discuss a few other athletes who performed well (Eder!) or not so well. Finally we discuss the overall performances of several athletes including JT Boe and QFM before wrapping up. More to come soon!
We hoped on the podcast between races to discuss the Women's Mass Start, the last women's race of these 2022 Winter Olympic Games. We marveled at Justine-Braisaz-Bouchet's win, felt warm feelings for Tiril Eckhoff's silver, and are just in awe of Marte Roeiseland's bronze. We discussed the brutal nature of competing in biathlon at any Olympics and especially these Olympics before turning our eyes to the men's race.
We got together immediately after the Women's 4x6km relay. I apologize off for my voice. I'm battling a little head cold. But it is nothing like the cold that the women were fighting today in China. We discuss the scary situation with Irene Cadurisch and Susan Dunklee. Then we jump into the race discussing Sweden's gold, Russia's silver, and Germany's bronze as well as a few other performances.
We were hoping for an exciting race and the Men's Relay race did not disappoint! We hoped on the podcast immediately following the race to do our best to discuss what was truly one of the wildest finishes to a race I can remember recently. I apologize for the break in the middle of the recording. Our call got cut off mid conversation and we had to reconnect.
We got together again right after the Men's Pursuit race finished up. We shared our thoughts on the domination of Quinton Fillon Maillet, the great races of Tarjei Boe, Latypov, and Hofer, as well as discussed the very challenging shooting conditions. We did have an update that Ingrid Tandrevold is doing well and shared that here as well before we looked ahead at the Mass Start and some under the radar relay teams.
We hopped on in the brief window between the Women's and the Men's Pursuit races to discuss all that happened in the first race of the day. We did touch on the scary situation with Ingrid Tandrevold. Since we recorded it does appear that she will be okay. Then we dove into the Pursuit race, the winners and who stood out to us. We also give a brief glance at the upcoming Men's Pursuit which by now is out of date!
We hoped on the pod at the end of a very exciting men's Sprint race! We discussed JT Boe's dominant performance, QFM's excellent race for silver, and Tarjei Boe's bronze which gave the Boe family a thrilling day. We also hit on a few other big take aways including Samuelsson's 5th place finish before giving a short preview of the Pursuit race.
We got together immediately after the women's Sprint race finished to share your rapid reactions on the race, the conditions, who is up/down, and a brief look ahead to the women's Pursuit.
Jordan Gottschalk and RJ Weise take a look back at the first few competitions of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. We start off with a dive into the first few races (3:20). We move on to the Power Rankings and a discussion of the favorites for the upcoming races this weekend (37:48). We take a look at an Under the Radar athlete in Yulia Dzhima and her chances in the remaining Olympic races (46:46) as well as some Up and Coming athletes (51:06). We hit our General Topics of the week including how different nations approached the season and the surprising Marketa Davidova news (58:38). We finish up with a deep dive on the confounding shooting of Lisa Vittozzi in the Stat of the Week (1:14:25).
It's another early morning here in North America but Jordan Gottschalk and RJ Weise discuss what went down during the men's Individual race. We of course discuss the performances of QFM, Anton Smolski, and JT Boe before diving into discussions including the Russians, the Germans and the Swedes. We finish up by starting an impromptu on how starting positions are chosen for sprint and individual races. Come join us on the Penalty Loop!
It's another early morning here in North America but Jordan Gottschalk and RJ Weise are here to share their immediate reactions to the very fun Women's Individual race. We'll of course celebrate Denise Herrmann, Anais Chevalier-Bouchet, and Marte Roeiseland but we'll share some important and less important take aways from the race. Come take a lap with us on the Penalty Loop!
We've finally made it! The Beijing Winter Olympics are here! Jordan and RJ jump on the podcast right after the Mixed Relay finished up to briefly discuss the wildly exciting first race.
Welcome to the Penalty Loop Podcast with Jordan Gottschalk and regular weekly guest RJ Weise. In this episode we'll start off by introducing ourselves and what you can expect from this podcast going forward. We'll move on to a brief overview of the IBU World Cup season to date (9:55), we'll check out the Power Rankings (31:00), an Under the Radar athlete or two (43:50) and some Up and Coming Biathletes (48:15). We then discuss our Topics of the Week (56:00) where we discuss what we know about the Olympic venue we'll be seeing over the next two weeks as well as a brief touch on wax prep. Finally we finish up with a discussion, the Stat of the Week (1:07:15) which this week is about how we measure and discuss ski speed.