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Ski Speed comparison season-to-season

Posted on 2020-12-02 | by real biathlon

It’s probably no use to look at shooting percentages after only 30 shots at the beginning of a season, however, the ski speed at the first World Cup weekend might already tell us at least a little bit where the season is going and how the ski form for some of the top athletes might have changed over the summer.

If you can’t find a specific athlete, you can always look up complete World Cup statistics for the ongoing season here:

  • Ski speed: Men | Women
  • Shooting percentage: Men | Women
  • Shooting Times: Men | Women

Note: Only athletes with at least 15 races last season and 2 races this season are included in the two tables below. “Back from Top30 median” is the percentage back from each race’s top 30 median Course Time (arithmetic mean per season).


Men

Sergey Bocharnikov was the most improved overall; he skied 4.7% faster and lowered his average ski rank by 38.7. Maybe even more impressive though, Sebastian Samuelsson and Martin Ponsiluoma both improved by 3.7%, and did so on a much higher level. Surprise winner Sturla Holm Lægreid does not show up here, because he only appeared in 4 races last season, however, he did improve his speed by 1.7%

Johannes Thingnes Bø continued where he left off: he was not simply the fastest overall (over 1% ahead of the 2nd fastest, his brother Tarjei Bø), he also set the top Course Time in both races. One of the pre-season favorites, Quentin Fillon Maillet, shot great (96.7%), but did not have the best weekend skiing-wise (his average ski rank increased from 5.6 to 15.0). Dmytro Pidruchnyi struggled the most, he was 3.3% slower than last season.

Changes in Ski Speed compared to 2019–20 season

NoFamily NameGiven NameNationRacesSki Rank
(avg)
Changeback from
Top30 median
(in %)
Change
NoFamily NameGiven NameNationRacesSki Rank
(avg)
Changeback from
Top30 median
(in %)
Change
1BocharnikovSergeyBLR
210.5-38.7-0.99-4.67
2SamuelssonSebastianSWE
23.5-25.2-2.23-3.69
3PonsiluomaMartinSWE
24.5-22.6-2.16-3.67
4NelinJesperSWE
28.5-16.1-0.95-1.89
5FakJakovSLO
217.5-12.5+0.10-1.58
6MoravecOndrejCZE
231.5-8.2+1.45-1.37
7ChristiansenVetle SjaastadNOR
29.5-7.6-1.26-1.26
8BoeTarjeiNOR
23.0-5.0-2.48-1.15
9BauerKlemenSLO
236.0-10.2+2.17-1.10
10JacquelinEmilienFRA
26.5-5.2-1.41-0.92
11BoeJohannes ThingnesNOR
21.0-2.0-3.61-0.71
12ClaudeFlorentBEL
237.0-3.2+2.37-0.58
13ClaudeFabienFRA
212.5-2.5-0.44-0.48
14RastorgujevsAndrejsLAT
218.0+0.4+0.16-0.31
15LoginovAlexanderRUS
213.5-4.0-0.21-0.28
16HoferLukasITA
217.5+1.8-0.09-0.20
17DaleJohannesNOR
210.0+0.2-1.28-0.09
18PeifferArndGER
216.5+0.9-0.13-0.08
19IlievVladimirBUL
224.0+2.0+0.72+0.02
20KrcmarMichalCZE
232.0+4.8+1.51+0.02
21SeppalaTeroFIN
232.5+4.7+1.62+0.29
22EliseevMatveyRUS
235.5+7.9+2.39+0.31
23WegerBenjaminSUI
234.0+5.3+2.00+0.43
24LeitnerFelixAUT
230.0+6.5+1.36+0.47
25GuigonnatAntoninFRA
232.5+10.5+1.66+0.52
26BjoentegaardErlendNOR
216.5+6.4+0.08+0.97
27DesthieuxSimonFRA
221.0+8.7+0.40+1.04
28EderSimonAUT
245.0+9.5+3.60+1.35
29PrymaArtemUKR
243.0+14.6+3.13+1.48
30Fillon MailletQuentinFRA
215.0+9.4-0.30+1.76
31DollBenediktGER
225.0+15.1+0.92+1.92
32EberhardJulianAUT
229.5+18.4+1.38+2.09
33KuehnJohannesGER
223.5+16.8+0.79+2.14
34FemlingPeppeSWE
265.5+17.9+5.54+2.31
35PidruchnyiDmytroUKR
257.0+33.1+4.59+3.33

Women

Among regular starters, Elvira Öberg was by far the most improved, 3.7% faster than last season. Her sister Hanna Öberg also improved a lot; the Kontiolahti sprint was her first ever race setting the top ski time. Lisa Theresa Hauser and Franziska Preuß also got considerably faster, but their improvement might not have been as obvious, because both hit only 25 out of 30 targets (83.3%), some 3-5% below their shooting percentage from last winter.

Lena Häcki, Julia Simon and Monika Hojnisz-Staręga all struggled to get going, skiing at least 3% slower. Hojnisz-Staręga had a particularly bad season opening, her average ski rank was 46.5 higher than last season, 5.0% behind her ski speed from last winter. Alongside the Öberg sisters, Tiril Eckhoff was fastest overall (but only managed a 66.7% hit rate). Last year’s top skier, Denise Herrmann, was not at her peak speed yet (+1.2%), however, her career-high 86.7% hit rate looks promising.

Changes in Ski Speed compared to 2019–20 season

NoFamily NameGiven NameNationRacesSki Rank
(avg)
Changeback from
Top30 median
(in %)
Change
NoFamily NameGiven NameNationRacesSki Rank
(avg)
Changeback from
Top30 median
(in %)
Change
1OebergElviraSWE
23.5-22.0-2.07-3.68
2HauserLisa TheresaAUT
216.0-18.7+0.16-1.93
3OebergHannaSWE
23.5-10.6-2.02-1.63
4PreussFranziskaGER
212.0-10.2-0.26-0.92
5TalihaermJohannaEST
250.0-4.3+3.85-0.64
6TandrevoldIngrid LandmarkNOR
26.0-6.7-1.18-0.63
7BrorssonMonaSWE
222.5-5.3+0.65-0.62
8GasparinAitaSUI
247.0+3.8+3.34-0.11
9KryukoIrynaBLR
227.5-1.0+1.58-0.09
10LunderEmmaCAN
240.5+2.0+2.70-0.09
11CharvatovaLucieCZE
226.0+1.1+1.43-0.05
12DavidovaMarketaCZE
210.5-0.3-0.55+0.28
13Braisaz-BouchetJustineFRA
26.5+0.7-1.71+0.30
14BescondAnaisFRA
217.5+0.1+0.40+0.33
15EckhoffTirilNOR
24.0-1.5-2.15+0.35
16GasparinElisaSUI
261.5+11.3+4.42+0.64
17PerssonLinnSWE
226.5+3.9+1.50+0.69
18EderMariFIN
216.5+3.0+0.07+0.71
19RiederChristinaAUT
272.5+14.2+6.25+0.92
20SanfilippoFedericaITA
247.0+8.4+3.54+1.07
21InnerhoferKatharinaAUT
225.0+6.6+1.37+1.12
22PuskarcikovaEvaCZE
255.5+18.4+4.10+1.12
23HerrmannDeniseGER
26.5+3.9-1.85+1.18
24ZbylutKingaPOL
271.0+18.1+5.81+1.63
25OjaReginaEST
279.5+20.2+7.41+1.90
26ZukKamilaPOL
238.0+17.5+2.42+2.05
27WiererDorotheaITA
225.0+15.0+1.33+2.32
28HinzVanessaGER
250.5+27.4+3.62+2.58
29VittozziLisaITA
243.5+23.5+3.27+2.74
30KuklinaLarisaRUS
258.0+22.7+5.03+2.77
31SemerenkoVitaUKR
273.5+28.5+6.25+2.89
32HaeckiLenaSUI
245.5+28.6+3.35+3.17
33SimonJuliaFRA
247.5+33.0+3.28+3.38
34Hojnisz-StaregaMonikaPOL
263.5+46.5+4.87+5.01

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real biathlon

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Posted in Statistical analysis | Tagged 2020–21 season, ski speed, skiing

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5 comments

  • Estonian says:
    2020-12-02 at 20:39

    Are you sure you didn’t mix up Johanna and Tuuli from Estonian team?

    Reply
    • real biathlon says:
      2020-12-02 at 21:22

      I didn’t mix them up, but you are right of course improved a lot more than anyone on this list. She doesn’t appear in the table, because she only did 11 races last season. However, she would have easily topped it, her top30 ski speed was roughly 6% faster.

      You can check out her stats and her improvements here: Tuuli Tomingas

      Reply
      • pamgine says:
        2020-12-04 at 01:03

        First of all: fantastic site! Great job! (One suggestion for the season stats, allow filtering for age.)

        The big name missing from the women in this article is actually Dzinara Alimbekava. She’s rivalling Elvira in terms of improvement, I think.

        Reply
        • real biathlon says:
          2020-12-04 at 02:14

          Yes, Alimbekava is missing, but not by accident, because she only appeared in 9 races last winter.
          After today’s race she is roughly 7% faster. You can look up her stats here: Dzinara Alimbekava

          Filtering by age range might be an interesting idea, but maybe not so easy to implement. I’d have to think about that.

          Reply
  • Estonian says:
    2020-12-02 at 20:33

    Thanks for a quick response and all the analysis you do!

    Reply

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Recent Articles

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  • Historic biathlon results create expectations. But what about points?
  • What do you expect? Practical applications of the W.E.I.S.E.
  • Introducing W. E. I. S. E: the Win Expectancy Index based on Statistical Exploration, version 1

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