The Penalty Loop Biathlon Podcast

After a thrilling conclusion to the 2023-2024 Biathlon World Championships in Nove Mesto our heads were absolutely spinning. As we covered the first half of the events on part 1, after covering some big picture take aways we tried to focus on the races and stories from the 2nd half starting with the Individual races. Some of the items discussed included:
- JT Boe is still the boss
- Julia Simon's lightning shooting gives her a super power
- The Germans had a much better 2nd half of Worlds
- More diversity with Latvia, USA, Poland, and Estonia showing well
- What happened with Tandrevold and the Norwegian women
- So so so much more!

The Nove Mesto World Championships are here and we couldn't be more excited. There were already so many stories and things to discussed so this is an absolutely jam packed episode including:
- Waxing once again taking center stage
- Julia Simon is absolutely unbeatable right now
- Sturla Holm Laegreid's emotional gold medal
- JT Boe's comeback in the Pursuit
- Baiba Bendika!!!!!
- Franziska Preuss and the German ski situation
- Belgium, Poland, Chauveau, Vittozzi, Christiansen, and so so so much more!

Come take a lap with us on our most unusual (and hopefully fun!) episode to date. 
- We start out by discussing the actual racing that occurred this week on the IBU Cup and Junior Cup including Johan-Olav Botn, Simon Kaiser, and the dominant Austrians on the Juniors level.
- We discuss the sad news of the Trevor Kiers retirement
- We do some preview work on the impending World Championships in Nove Mesto with some really intriguing stats and trends. 
- In between all of this we do some "interviews" with people from around the world and get their "thoughts" on biathlon! 
This is quite a strange journey so we hope you enjoy it!

During what was supposed to be a bit of a quiet time in biathlon there was simply too much news! We dusted off the mics and got together to discuss the really important news of the week including:
- The heartbreaking and infuriating story of Joanne Reid's sexual abuse and harassment by a member of the US Biathlon wax tech team
- The Youth Olympic Games and some great Canadian performances
- A new ski/binding technology from Madshus and how it might change the game
- An exciting European Championships including the introduction of some new exciting talent to a wider audience
- More discussions about Madshus! 
- Minor predictions for Worlds

Shortly following the completion of the racing in Antholz we got together to chat about all of the action from the week including:
- Lena Haecki-Gross getting her first win!
- Julia Simon is coming on really strong
- But don't lose sight of Lou Jeanmonnot!
- Johannes Dale-Skjevdal's insane last lap in the Mass Start
- A bit of  Norwegian men's team discussion including JT Boe looking more like JT Boe, Christiansen looking really great, and Laegreid looking...lost?
- The state of the Overall Globe races
- Some special shout outs to some really good weekends including Baiba Bendika, Otto Invenius, Adam Runnalls and more!
**We went on a discussion about who the Norwegians should start in the World Champs races. Turns out we were wrong! Based on new rules from last season they can start all 6 in the Sprint and the Individual and 5 in the Mass Start**
 

After one of the thrilling complete weekends of biathlon racing in the last several years we of course put together our longest podcast of the season. There was just so much to talk about! Breaking from what has become our normal back and forth we decided to go race by race to make sure we didn't miss any of the big moments incuding:
- Simon vs. Elvira in the Women's Relay
- The chaotic 3rd leg of the Men's Relay and Jordan's rant about it
- Tandrevold's perfect race in the Women's Sprint
- Christiansen getting "sweet revenge" in the Men's Sprint
- Lisa Vittozzi emerging late in the Women's Pursuit 
- A 5 man final lap and Johannes Dale-Skjvedal's punishing sprint in the Men's Pursuit
- Plus plenty more including the Canadian women setting personal bests, Campbell Wright soaring to new highs in the Stars and Stripes, Julia Tannheimer's debut, Giacomel's podium, Jacquelin's return, Mona Brorsson, JT Boe and more! 
This was without a doubt the most full pod we've down outside of World Championships or the Olympics!

It's 2024 and Biathlon is back! We reconvene to discuss all the action from Oberhof including:
- The new Eurovision site
- Weather and climate affecting biathlon
- Even more success for the Norwegian men including Stroemsheim's victorious weekend and Laegreid is back
- Doll gets another win!
- The resplendent and dominant French women
- The wild women's Pursuit race
- The toils of Hanna Oeberg
- And more!

Recorded the night before racing started in Lenzerheide, Polish Women's Head Coach Tobias Torgersen very generously granted us far more time than we had any right to expect or a fantastic interview. In this discussion we touched on:
- Coach Torgersen's personal history including growing up a fan of cross country and biathlon racing
- We discuss his coaching career as he quickly moved up the ranks including his time with the Chinese biathlon federation. 
- We get into the successes he's seen over the last two seasons including Kamila Zuk last season, and Anna Maka, Joanna Jakiela, and Natalia Sidorowicz
- Finally we do a little discussion on biathlon at large in the 2023-2024 season.

Merry Christmas! We got together just before the holiday weekend to share our thoughts on the first trimester and all of the action from Oestersund, Hochfilzen, and Lenzerheide! We discussed many many things including:
- Did wax affect the racing so far this season?
- Our favorite moments of the season (so far!)
- Our thoughts on some of the top men/women of the season
- Athletes who look to have taken a step forward
- Athletes who look to have taken a step back
- Norwegian men and the fight for the World Cup bibs
- How the Simon Fourcade coaching is going for the French men
- RJ's analysis of xc women who have made the switch to biathlon
- My proposal for a new silly event
- And more

The World Cup makes the first ever visit to Lenzerheide and we are here to break it all down! In this episode we discuss
- The amazing Justine Braisaz-Bouchet weekend
- JT Boe is back on top
- Emilien Jacquelin is Emilien Jacquelin
- Norwegian men had some adventures with the rifle and RJ gives a breakdown of the rules issues at play and exactly what happened
- We finish up with some rapid fire thoughts on some athletes with bright weekends including: Endre Stroemsheim, Deedra Irwin, Marketa Davidova and many many more