Sebastian Samuelsson never won an IBU YJWCH medal, but had two promising results, sixth in the sprint and fifth in the pursuit in 2016. That was enough for him to be selected at age 18 by Coach Wolfgang Pichler for Sweden’s “Team 2019,” a revamp of that nation’s national team. From that point, Samuelsson’s career took him to the BMW IBU World Cup with a season and a half of nice but unspectacular results. Thirteenth place in the 2016 Nove Mesto Sprint was his career best until the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Winter Games. There, fourth in the 20 km individual and fourteenth in the sprint morphed into an amazing Pursuit Silver medal for the 22-year-old. He then capped his first OWG as part of Sweden’s Gold medal Men’s relay team.
By the 2020/21 season, Samuelsson was a more mature athlete, ready for a breakthrough. “I trained more, but I was more professional outside of training about sleep, nutrition and those kind of things.” That led to his first-ever BMW IBU World Cup victory in the early-season Kontiolahti pursuit, after missing just a single shot. Four additional podiums followed, raising his career total to seven. The highlight of his season came at the IBU WCH in Pokljuka, where he won his first-ever individual IBU WCH medal, Pursuit Silver, also adding Mixed Relay and Single Mixed Bronze medals. Samuelsson capped his best-ever IBU WCH with a sterling anchor leg in the men’s relay, shooting clean to bring his team from fifth to the Silver medal spot.
This most successful season earned Samuelsson seventh place in the World Cup Total Score, his first ever Top 10 ranking.
Sebastian Samuelsson, an easy-going but focused and dedicated athlete lives in Oestersund enjoying a quiet life filled with good books and films when not training with teammates.
Time to vote for your athlete of the week - Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, Sebastian Samuelsson, the Ukrainian Men Relay and Hanna Oeberg are this week's nominees!
We've seen fantastic performances during the first stage of the BMW IBU World Cup - but only one name can prevail as your athlete of the week and you have chosen Lou Jeanmonnot.