Stats of the week : Oslo-Holmenkollen

Julia Simon is entering the final week of the 2022/2023 season as the athlete who can win - and lose - the most. She is the BMW IBU Total Score leader and atop the Pursuit and Mass Start Cup Score standings, but none of the trophies is hers yet. There will be a titanic battle for the Women’s Sprint Cup Score title. And four Norwegian men will decide who takes the Mass Start Cup Score title.

Women’s Total Score

Julia Simon has 1003 points atop the BMW IBU World Cup Total Score standings, 144 more than on-fire Dorothea Wierer. Simon had been scoring 55 points per competition before the Grand Finale in Oslo-Holmenkollen, which equals 3rd to 4th place on average. Wierer’s calculation is simple: win all three contests in Oslo and wait for Simon to have a blunder. Knowing how Wierer masterfully clinched her back-to-back Total Score titles in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 on the last day of the season, drama is guaranteed. Lisa Vittozzi is 41 points behind Wierer. She, too, needs to win a lot, wait and see.

Women’s Sprint Cup Score

In the Sprint Cup Score standings, Denise Herrmann-Wick leads with 310 points, 14 ahead of Dorothea Wierer and 47 ahead of Elvira Oeberg. With Denise saying goodbye to the biathlon and Elvira's conditioning still in recovery, Wierer can sneak in and take the Cup.

Women’s Pursuit and Mass start Cup Score

Julia Simon has 373 points, and Elvira Oeberg has 350. It will all come down to their performance in the Sprint and Elvira’s energy levels. Her coach Johannes Lukas told ZDF that Elvira momentarily resembles a car going full speed in gear 3. Will Elvira’s body allow her to switch to gear 4?It is an all-French affair in the Mass start where Julia Simon has 79 points lead over Anais Chevalier-Bouchet, and 82 points lead over Lou Jeanmonnot. It looks like a done deal for Simon.

Mass start men

Absence in Oestersund (most probably) cost JT Boe the Individual and Mass star Cup Score titles. Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen felt - and performed - like the boss of the men’s field in JT’s absence, clinching the Individual Cup Score title and propelling himself in the commanding lead in the Mass stat Cup Score with a win in Sweden. Christiansen has 210 points, Johannes Dale 188, Sturla Holm Laegreid 163 and Johannes 150.

A debut you shouldn’t miss

Selina Grotian, the Golden Girl of the IBU Youth & Junior World Championships in Schuchinsk, Kazakhstan, will test the World cup vibe in Oslo. Now, Grotian is still 18 and officially a youth athlete, but have a look at her progress in the 2022/2023 season so far:

She won in the IBU Cup Sprint in Iderfjall in her first-ever IBU Cup week. She won the Pursuit in Lenzerheide in her first-ever IBU Open European Championships. She won four Gold medals in Kazakhstan. She finished 6th in the IBU Cup Total Score standings despite missing the last five competitions of the season in Canmore, Canada.