The Penalty Loop Biathlon Podcast

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: - Campbell Wright!!! - JT Boe makes history with two individual gold medals - Franziska Preuss continues to shine - Justine Braisaz-Bouchet's smile returns - The love of the biathlon...

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: - The continued dominance of the Norwegian men and the French women on the IBU Cup - Paul Schommer!! - Our 3 magical wishes for the World Championshps - Does the long gap benef...

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 Championshi...

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 4...

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 upsw...

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: - 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 Jeanmonn...

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 und...

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, a...

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 givi...

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 se...

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...

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 lead...

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...

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 prog...

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 s...

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 direct...

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. -...

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 ha...

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 a...

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 I...