Oslo-Holmenkollen: Top 5 moments

JT Boe put up another memorable show in Oslo-Holmenkollen, a fitting end to the best season ever in biathlon. Julia Simon triumphed in the women’s Total Score in a season that saw Denise Herrmann-Wick close her career with the Sprint Cup Score. Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen won two Discipline globes and already has a summer plan. Niklas Hartweg opened and closed the season with a second place, both times wearing the Blue bib as the best U25 athlete. Heavyweight retirements sealed up another unforgettable season.

The King of Biathlon

JT Boe won his fourth BMW IBU World Cup Total Score title in 2022023, which ties him with Raphael Poiree on the all-time list. He won all 8 Sprints, a record-breaking achievement. He achieved seven Sprint-Pursuit doubles, a record. With the Individual-Mass start double from Ruhpolding, the Doubles tally is even more impressive: eight. He did a Johannes Show before the last shot in the Pursuit. As The King of Biathlon, he also met the King of Norway.

Julia Simon triumphs

Julia Simon finished fourth in the Sprint and became the fourth French woman - after Anne Briand (1994/1995), Emmanuelle Claret (1995/1996), and Sandrine Bailly (2004/2005) to win the BMW IBU World Cup Total Score title. It was a career-defining season for Simon, who also won the Gold medal in the Pursuit at the BMW IBU World Championships Oberhof 2023 and the Pursuit and Mass start Cup Score titles.

Herrmann-Wick’s Hollywood ending

Denise Herrmann-Wick, the World champion from Oberhof 2023, won in the last Sprint of her illustrious career and clinched the Sprint Cup Score, second in her career, in front of her family and friends. It was all emotions in the end.

Blue bib goes to Oeberg and Hartweg

Posting that his batteries were dead before the Oslo-Holmenkollen week, Niklas Hartweg took three days off - something he usually doesn’t do - and rose to the occasion, shot 20/20 in the Pursuit (6th place) and Mass start (2nd place) and clinched U25 Cup Score, 16 points ahead of Tommaso Giacomel. Elvira Oeberg, whose high-flying form in Trimester 2 got abruptly halted by a nasty virus at the beginning of the BMW IBU World Championships Oberhof 2023, repeated her U25 Cup Score win from last winter.

A bonus: Vetle’s special Cup Score double

Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen used the only opening JT Boe gave to the rest of the field in 2022/2023 with his absence in Oestersund and took the Individual and Mass start Cup Score titles. It was a big trophies-payday for Christiansen, who already has a plan for the 2023 summer. Just click and listen.

Four retirees, 128 trophies, an Ocean of emotions

High-fliers Marte Olsbu Roeiseland, Tiril Eckhoff, Denise Herrmann-Wick, and Anais Chevalier-Bouchet called it a career in Oslo-Holmenkollen. They are among the most successful biathletes of the last decade: just check their career balance sheet:

2 BMW IBU World Cup Total Score titles;

58 BMW IBU World Cup wins (excluding Olympic Winter Games wins);

48 BMW IBU World Championships medals, including 7 individual Gold medals;

20 Olympic Winter Games medals, including 3 individual Gold medals.

In the end, the emotions overwhelmed besties Eckhoff and Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold. And everyone else.

Photo: IBU/ C. Manzoni; I. Stančik