The post-Olympic season promised to be the most unfortunate in the history of domestic biathlon. Generational change is rarely painless. But the results of the starting races convinced the opposite: Russia can and can win without recognized leaders and favorites.
1. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (Norway)
The golden hat-trick of the slender Norwegian once again dispelled the myth that the stars perceive the post-Olympic season as ridiculous atavism. Nothing like this! Bjoerndalen in the first race showed his rivals who is the boss in the biathlon world. Rumor has it that the agility of Ole Einar is largely due to the long-standing desire to win the world championship in skiing. Realize his dream 33-year-old Bjoerndalen promises this season. But biathlon races will not become for the five-time Olympic champion just a stage of preparation for skiing competitions. The Norwegian is eager to take convincing revenge for the failure in Turin. He spent all three races in Ostersund with inspiration, causing fans to choke with delight. Only Björndalen in the modern biathlon can smear past targets as much as he wants, and compensate for his lack of luck by cheetah running on the track.
2. Irina Malgina (Russia)
It is not easy to wait in the age of 33 watching teenagers flaunt the bulk of medals and personal sponsorship contracts. Malgina took her to the first race of the season. After the final shooting, she was 11 seconds behind the Norwegian Liv-Kiersti Aikeland. But, having heard the team of trainers “Run!” And realizing the proximity of the first victory in her career, Irina rushed in pursuit and forgot about everything: cotton legs, a heavy rifle behind her back and boring drizzling rain. Malgina crossed the finish line first and forced the country to momentarily forget about the absence of Dust, Ishmuratova, Akhatova and Bogaliy-Titovets.
3. Dmitry Yaroshenko (Russia)
His fate is similar to the story of Irina Malgina. He looked for himself in the championships and stages of the European Cup, won secondary starts and was waiting for an invitation to the main team. After waiting, Yaroshenko hastened to justify the trust of the coaches and twice finished after Bjoerndalen: in the sprint and the pursuit. His success is also unique in that a biathlon native of the tiny town of Makarova (Sakhalin) came at age 11, and before that he played football.
4. Linda Grubben (Norway)
The captain of the Norwegian team Linda Thörhom got married in August and changed her surname. However, television captions still give out old data ... While biathlon broadcast directors get used to changes in Linda's personal life, the athlete slowly finds herself. The relative failures in the first races added anger to her, and in the pursuit race she climbed from sixth place (following the sprint) to first.
5. Magdalena Gwizdon (Poland)
Few noticed her thirteenth place in the individual race, attributing the sensational result to the historical unpredictability of the female biathlon. And how could it be otherwise ?! In the same race, the eight strongest hitherto missing stars from the sky, Canadian Zina Kocher and Chinese Yanchao Kon, made it… But the victory in the sprint made skeptics look at the Polish, whose best result until this season was getting into the top twenty in Turin. 26-year-old Gvizdon does everything fast - shoots and runs along the highway. In the sprint race, she did not leave behind anyone, but the owner of the Big Crystal Globe, Katie Wilhelm. In the pursuit race, Guizdon lost her lead and allowed herself to overtake the Norwegian Linda Grubben and the Swedish Anne-Karin Olofsson, but she did not remain without a medal. As did not remain without another portion of laudatory words addressed to him.
6. Michael Grice (Germany)
Three-time Olympic champion is in no hurry to demonstrate the entire combat arsenal: fantastic speed on the track and perfect shooting. Grice wisely, like many favorites, prepares for the February World Championships in Antholz, and then, by his own admission, is going to relax in the Himalayas. Relax is still far away, and it is too early to think about it. In Ostersund, a fast-footed German with rewards turned out to be sparse: two bronzes in an individual race and in a sprint. The last medal, however, was a pleasant surprise. Grice has never been known as a lover of short distances, preferring to destroy opponents in the classic biathlon disciplines.
7. Anna-Karin Olofsson (Sweden)
At home, the Olympic champion in the mass start was insanely nervous and an unfortunate miss in standing shooting. In the first two races at the final firing line, Olofsson three times left the target unclosed, which happens to her extremely rarely. Everyone saw the former invincible Swede in the pursuit, when only the desperate Linda Thierch prevented her from winning ... sorry, Grubben.
8. Rafael Poiret (France)
The heavy passage along the Rafa Poiret ski track caught the eye of everyone, without exception. The Frenchman, dejected by Olympic failures, made a bet on winning the world championship. However, this does not mean at all that the stages of the World Cup have become for him an empty formality. With every race, Poiret begins to resemble himself in better times. In the pursuit, he converted tenth in the sprint to third place.
9. Ekaterina Yuryeva (Russia)
Hitting the top ten according to SPORT Today, the 23-year-old biathlete from the Perm Territory owes her fifth place, incredibly high for a debutant, in the individual race. Before Ostersund, Katya Yuryeva shone in junior competitions, and only sophisticated specialists knew her. After a stable performance in Sweden by Yurieva and other young Russians - Anna Bulygina and Anastasia Shipulina - our team can seriously hope for medals in relay races.
10. Rico Gross (Germany)
The legend of the German biathlon, a four-time Olympic champion, even after the Olympics in Turin, said that this season was the last for him. He is not so fast on the track, but is still easily recognizable. The unfading Grandmaster gave the first reason for pride in the pursuit. Hitting the top six in the company of the young and the titled is an absolute success for the unfading veteran.