Preview Oslo-Holmenkollen: Marte or Elvira?

The BMW IBU World Cup is returning to Oslo-Holmenkollen for the first time since the 2018/2019 season, where the home crowd saw JT Boe win a triple and confirm his first-ever Total Score title in grand style. In the last three competitions of 2021/2022, Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Elvira Oeberg will decide the best female athlete of the winter and have their name engraved next to Quentin Fillon Maillet as the BMW IBU World Cup Total Score winner for the season.

Elvira will keep Marte asking questions.

After Elvira Oeberg beat Marte Olsbu Roeiseland in the sprint (Oeberg was eighth, Olsbu Roeiseland 10th) and mass start (Oeberg won, Olsbu Roeiseland third) in Otepaeae, the Norwegian’s lead atop of the women’s Total Score standings shrunk from 97 to 82. That still leaves Olsbu Roeiseland in a comfortable position before the last sprint, pursuit, and mass start n in Norway. She needs to win 99 points out of 180 available - which translates to finishing eighth on average in Oslo competitions - to withstand Oeberg’s attempts to get the Crystal globe for herself. If anybody, then Elvira Oeberg has the talent, potential, and grit to go for seemingly impossible, win three times, and see how Marte responds. 

In the Sprint Cup Score, Marte has 48 points lead over Elvira and needs to finish 28th or higher to clinch it. The odds are this very much in her favour. In the Mass start Cup Score standings Dorothea Wierer has 123 points, Elvira Oeberg 120, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet 102 and Anais Chevalier-Bouchet 99. It will be an absolute cracker for the last women’s competition of the winter!

Fillon Maillet wants everything.

Despite just clinching his first-ever BMW IBU World Cup Total Score title, Quentin Fillon Maillet looked mildly disappointed after his second-place finish in the mass start of Otepaeae. The ultimate competitor in him wanted another win; such is his self-confidence in the season, which has already seen him win five medals at the Beijing 2022 games.  And Quentin Fillon Maillet was already looking to Oslo-Holmenkollen. As he has already secured the Pursuit Cup Score - and the Individual went to Tarjei Boe in Antholz-Anterselva - Fillon Maillet would like Sprint and Mass Start Globes to this year’s collection. He has 56 points more than Sebastian Samuelsson in the Sprint Cup Score.

In the mass start standings, Fillon Maillet is first with 142 points. Otepaeae’s winner Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen has 127 in the second place, Benedikt Doll 123 in the third, and Sivert Guttorm Bakken 122 in the fourth. A third-place finish in Oslo would secure Mass Start Globe for Quentin.

Preview Oslo-Holmenkollen - Winners 2018/2019

Oslo Preview - Most Wins Active & All Times

About Oslo-Holmenkollen

The Holmenkollen Ski Stadium, legendary in the Nordic sports world, is the only complex of its kind in a major capital city. Its distinctive jumping tower is now in its 19th incarnation and dates back to wooden skis and a stone jump ramp in 1892. It is traditionally the last stop on the BMW IBU World Cup circuit. Set on a hillside high above Oslo, the competitions attract families enjoying a late-winter outing along the tracks in the stadium, where they cheer for their beloved Norwegian stars. The stadium has the most scenic finish in biathlon, with the tracks climbing up behind a shatterproof glass wall above the shooting range and a fast downhill finish with a small bridge/jump before the last 100-meter dash right in front of the tribune.

Photo: IBU Archives