With her sprint-pursuit double win in Oberhof, Marte Olsbu Roeiseland not only increased her lead in the BMW IBU World Cup Total Score standings but also got a notch closer to executing her unrevealed master plan. Ruhpolding is a key venue for its execution.

Marte needs a strong Ruhpolding week

Sure, the Olympic Winter Games only come around every four years, and Marte’s principal focus is Beijing 2022. “I will skip the Antholz-Anterselva week, which makes me sad,” she said after her sprint win in Oberhof. “It is my favourite venue, after all.” But her calm approach to every competition and the composed execution of her races without much fanfare on the tracks and on the shooting range hint that Olsbu Roeiseland plans to go for both Olympic glory - she has yet to win individual gold - and the Total Score title. She has won five times in the first five weeks of the season, as did Tiril Eckhoff on her way to the Total Score title in 2020/2021. Olsbu Roeiseland has 537 points after Oberhof, compared to 509 at the same stage last season, and a substantial margin of 88 points over Elvira Oeberg in second place. She will want to add more to that advantage in Ruhpolding.

How different are the dynamics on the men’s side! Emilien Jacquelin looked like a man who might finally survive one week in yellow. Then things went wrong in the snow-infused winds of the last shooting of the pursuit when Emilien missed three times and finished 14th. Quentin Fillon Maillet reclaimed the Yellow Bib from Jacquelin with his third consecutive pursuit win in 2021/2022, but the French leaders are still in a zone of great uncertainty. Fillon Maillet has 461 points, Jacquelin 449, Sebastian Samuelsson 425 and Tarjei Boe 401.

With the Swedes and Norwegians subordinating their World Cup plans to Beijing 2022, the advantage naturally tilts towards France. It is also the all-in approach that might get rewarded in the end. Fillon Maillet’s determination to complete the full schedule is admirable. But then Martin Fourcade did the same, and we know what dividends he reaped in the 2017/2018 season.

Why does it matter before the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing 2022?

Martin Fourcade traveled to Ruhpolding emboldened by his victorious week in Oberhof. His confidence grew exponentially in January 2018 as he started to match JT Boe’s speed on the skis, and thus the momentum reversed: now JT felt more pressure on the shooting range. Fourcade won the individual with one miss while JT came in third, also with one miss. JT won the mass start with one miss, but just 4.5 seconds ahead of Fourcade, who missed twice. Norway won the men's relay, France was second, Germany fourth, and Sweden sixth. The future Olympic champions relied on an almost perfect performance from every member, as well as a sub-par day from Norway, France, and Germany, to win. It didn't happen in Ruhpolding. Fourcade and JT, of course, confirmed their dominance in PyeongChang 2018 with three individual medals between them. On the women's side, Dorothea Wierer won the individual and Kaisa Makarainen the mass start. They hoped their form would continue to rise towards the Olympic Winter Games, but it wasn’t to be. Wierer's last chance for an Olympic medal will be Beijing 2022, as it is hard to imagine her pushing through four more years to Milano Cortina 2026. Laura Dahlmeier, biathlon’s dominant woman in Korea, was second in the mass start in Ruhpolding. She was also part of the winning German relay. Italy came in second, Sweden third, France ninth, and future Olympic champion Belarus 13th. 

About Ruhpolding

Ruhpolding’s Chiemgau Arena developed from a local ski club venue in the 1970s into the 15,000-person capacity biathlon stadium of today. Despite its size, the Chiemgau Arena is extremely intimate, with the grandstand just meters from the shooting range. A January staple on the BMW IBU World Cup circuit, the Chiemgau Arena reverberates with the cheers of the crowds and music during World Cup week each year. It is known as “the easiest shooting range” on the World Cup circuit, with the range set into a hillside, well-lit by afternoon sunshine with usually very light winds. The tracks go from lightly rolling to a couple of challenging climbs before the long downhill glide into the shooting range and finish line.

Photo: IBU; C. Manzoni; IBU archives