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Biathlon Analytics

3D model of the Antholz Biathlon arena

With the Olympics in Italy, Antholz was chosen as the venue for the biathlon events. What set out as a simple idea turned into a crazy amount of “work” to create a 3D modelled environment of the venue that can be used for animations. Although not completely new to Blender, an incredible tool for 3D modelling, animation, and manny more things, turning the real world into a 3D modelled environment was a bit beyond my less than a year experience with the tool. But in the end I’m very happy with the final result. (sorry, I’m unable to embed for some… Read More »3D model of the Antholz Biathlon arena

One Track, Two Levels: Imagining the Future of Biathlon races.

For decades we have seen them. To accommodate growing numbers of golfers yet limited space, driving ranges have gone vertical. Adding one, or sometimes two, layers of hitting spots, the capacity doubles without increasing the footprint of the building. So why do we still only have 30 racers in the Mass Starts, and 60 in the Pursuit? The Mass Start 60 is being “tested” on the IBU Cup, and it’s great that the IBU is looking into opening this race up for more competitors. But the one part that makes the Mass Start so much fun to watch, and easy… Read More »One Track, Two Levels: Imagining the Future of Biathlon races.

Shooting Streak Dashboard Update

I updated the shooting streak dashboard with the 2023-2024 season data. 1 – Shooting time in seconds behind field average Highlights Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold had the longest streak of the season, with 106 prone shots in a row without a miss. The streak went from 12 December 2023 until 2 March 2024 spread over 13 races. During the streak she went clean on 19 consecutive prone shootings, and had 11 races in a row without a miss in prone. We also saw Justus Strelow‘s streak of 134 prone shots come to an end, and Dmitrii Shamaev had a streak of… Read More »Shooting Streak Dashboard Update

The ultimate review of the biathlon season for wax-amateurs.

Think of the men’s mass start in Antholz. Vetle Christiansen leaves the range after the final shooting with a large-enough lead to be confident he’s going to win. QFM is in second place, and he also should be confident about getting the silver. But Dale and Soerum put in a monster ski performance (or did they?) QFM’s on the other hand struggles with the wax and perhaps also his fitness. The ease with which the two Norwegians close in on the Frenchman, particularly on the downhill sections, is shockingly noticeable. In the snapshots below, Dale makes up an estimated 57m… Read More »The ultimate review of the biathlon season for wax-amateurs.

An innovative, modular system developed in collaboration with a Danish manufacturer: Biathlegon

For those not yet so professional biathletes that don’t have the time and money and connections to get a high-end custom setup for your rifle, but still want to experiment with standing-block options and height without the common trial and error method, the following will definitely be interesting for you. You should know, for context, that I have no hips basically, and short underarms. Even with two raiser blocks and a 3d printed standing block from biathlonstocks, when I do my natural alignment while I am in a comfortable standing position, I am aiming welll below the target. I tried… Read More »An innovative, modular system developed in collaboration with a Danish manufacturer: Biathlegon

A comprehensive analysis of The Sophomore Jinx in biathlon

As I have mentioned previously on the Penalty Loop Podcast (, S, G), I generally have lower expectations of any kind of athlete in their second season, especially when they had a strong rookie season. Despite some exceptions, when an athlete transitions from their rookie to their second season, things change. In the first season everything is exciting and new, and there isn’t too much expectation. And even if there is, being a rookie is an acceptable excuse if things don’t work out right away. After season one, the realization starts to kick in that this – in the end-… Read More »A comprehensive analysis of The Sophomore Jinx in biathlon

It’s Crystal, shaped like a Globe. The ultimate goal.

The Crystal Globes are handed out to biathletes who, at the end of the season, have scored the most points in all non-team events combined (Overall), and for each discipline (Sprint, Pursuit, Individual and Mass Start). This post analyses the Globes in the last 25 seasons based on a Trigger request by Kristen K. Globe Winners Over the last 25 seasons, from 1998/99 to 2022/23, we had 50 Overall Globe winners, split between women and men. The visual below shows that nine of those not only won the Overall Globe, but also the four Discipline Globes in that season. Tora… Read More »It’s Crystal, shaped like a Globe. The ultimate goal.

Where Biathlon Nations rank, based on individual race results in the last six seasons

I have to admit this post-season-break had me away from biathlon a little longer than anticipated ( I blame it all on Jordan’s family having a new member in their family!). The good part is that I’m again fully loaded for some new articles and triggers! I started a new project during the season and put it away until the season was over, and it started with the Trigger description: “We know that the Norwegians are a dominant force on the IBU World Cup, but when we look at the number of participants for each rank in the last six… Read More »Where Biathlon Nations rank, based on individual race results in the last six seasons

Trigger request – maintaining performance over a season

A couple of weeks ago, I received a Trigger request from Wyatt: “In general, are older athletes able to maintain performance over the course of a world cup season vs younger athletes who might burn out faster? Gut feel says yes, but what does the data say?” He checked off the boxes for all seasons, but to keep the data manageable I looked at the last three seasons only. And since we’re talking about form during the season, I only included athletes that participated in 17 races, roughly two thirds of all races, in a season. He imagined some kind… Read More »Trigger request – maintaining performance over a season

We have a new master of consistency! The longest* streaks in Biathlon

About a third into the season, I posted a dashboard with the current shooting streaks for Prone, Standing and Combined shooters at the World Cup level. Then, mid-January, Simon Eder got to an incredible 104: And later the dashboard even showed him at 114 before missing the first Prone shot of the second shooting in the pursuit race in Antholz: Fast forward to the end of the season. I update the dashboard with the latest data from Oslo to make a final version, and something doesn’t look right. More than one thing actually: Simon Eder is no longer the active… Read More »We have a new master of consistency! The longest* streaks in Biathlon