Shooting Time over the last 14 years

Posted on 2015-12-27 | by

Here’s a closer look at Biathlon World Cup shooting times over the course of the last 14 seasons. The shooting time in biathlon is the time between stepping on and off the shooting mat.

The men’s median shooter needed 32.0 s in 2001–02, 14 years later in 2014–15 only 28.3 s (-3.6 s). If you look at the top 40’s average, the shooting time improved a little less (-3.3 s). In percent, the top 40’s median shooting time improved by an incredible 11.6% in 14 seasons. Interestingly, most of the major improvements happened with the lower ranked athletes; the top 10 are only 1.8s quicker, but the top 40’s slowest shooter was 5.1s slower in 2001–02 compared to last season.

Top 40	2001 –02	2002 –03	2003 –04	2004 –05	2005 –06	2006 –07	2007 –08	2008 –09	2009 –10	2010 –11	2011 –12	2012 –13	2013 –14	2014 –15	Diff.
Maximum	39.5	37.9	36.7	37.4	38.1	33.9	34.1	34.1	33.3	33.7	32.4	32.5	31.9	34.4	-5.1
1st quartile	33.9	33.3	33.3	34.4	32.7	31.4	32.1	31.7	30.6	30.4	30.0	30.0	29.8	30.2	-3.7
Median	32.0	31.7	32.0	32.4	30.8	29.8	30.4	30.3	29.8	29.3	28.9	28.8	28.8	28.3	-3.6
3rd quartile	29.6	30.3	30.7	30.7	29.9	28.6	28.6	28.9	28.5	28.0	27.1	27.2	27.8	27.5	-2.1
Minimum	26.3	26.1	26.9	28.3	25.0	25.8	24.0	24.9	22.7	24.0	24.6	24.5	23.2	23.3	-3.0
	2001 –02	2002 –03	2003 –04	2004 –05	2005 –06	2006 –07	2007 –08	2008 –09	2009 –10	2010 –11	2011 –12	2012 –13	2013 –14	2014 –15	Diff.
Top 10 avg	30.5	31.5	31.3	31.8	29.2	30.8	30.6	30.7	28.3	28.8	28.5	27.8	27.7	28.7	-1.8
Top 20 avg	30.9	31.5	31.6	32.2	30.3	30.0	29.9	30.3	28.9	28.9	28.5	28.2	28.4	28.1	-2.8
Top 40 avg	32.0	31.8	31.7	32.4	31.0	30.1	30.4	30.2	29.5	29.2	28.5	28.7	28.6	28.7	-3.3
Top 60 avg	32.4	32.2	32.3	33.0	31.5	30.8	30.5	30.7	30.1	29.7	29.2	29.3	28.8	29.1	-3.3

Diff.–difference between 2001–02 and 2014–15 seasons

On the women’s side, the shooting times improved across the board as well, although generally not by as much (median: -5.6%). The top 40’s median fell by 1.9 s (34.2 s → 32.3 s), the average by 2.7 s (34.8 s → 32.1 s). In 2014–15, the men’s median shooter was 4.0s faster than the women’s. Unlike the men, the women improved almost equally in all categories: the top 10 athletes are 2.4 s quicker, the top 60 athletes 2.9 s quicker than in 2001–02.

Top 40	2001 –02	2002 –03	2003 –04	2004 –05	2005 –06	2006 –07	2007 –08	2008 –09	2009 –10	2010 –11	2011 –12	2012 –13	2013 –14	2014 –15	Diff.
Maximum	40.5	41.4	44.0	41.6	38.9	38.6	39.8	42.7	38.8	39.2	39.5	38.8	34.9	38.0	-2.5
1st quartile	36.8	35.9	36.6	35.8	36.4	35.7	34.8	35.0	34.7	36.5	34.9	34.1	32.7	33.1	-3.6
Median	34.2	34.1	34.0	34.6	34.5	33.2	33.1	33.6	32.3	33.4	33.0	32.4	31.3	32.3	-1.9
3rd quartile	32.7	32.3	32.6	33.1	32.6	31.9	31.8	31.8	31.2	31.7	31.6	30.4	30.2	30.3	-2.4
Minimum	30.5	30.1	30.2	29.9	29.3	28.9	28.6	29.9	27.8	27.8	27.6	25.1	25.2	26.8	-3.7
	2001 –02	2002 –03	2003 –04	2004 –05	2005 –06	2006 –07	2007 –08	2008 –09	2009 –10	2010 –11	2011 –12	2012 –13	2013 –14	2014 –15	Diff.
Top 10 avg	34.7	32.7	34.4	35.2	33.7	32.5	33.1	33.4	33.0	33.0	31.8	32.2	31.7	32.3	-2.4
Top 20 avg	34.2	33.4	34.4	34.2	33.5	33.1	33.4	33.5	32.5	33.0	32.3	32.3	31.3	32.3	-1.9
Top 40 avg	34.8	34.5	34.7	34.7	34.3	33.7	33.4	33.9	32.8	33.9	33.3	32.5	31.3	32.1	-2.7
Top 60 avg	35.3	35.4	35.1	35.8	34.5	33.9	34.2	34.1	33.2	33.9	33.4	33.0	31.8	32.4	-2.9

Diff.–difference between 2001–02 and 2014–15 seasons

The gap between genders increased enormously in the last 14 years (for the top 40 from 2.2 s to 4.0 s). However, last season was somewhat of an outlier, the difference was a lot smaller in 2013–14. Ordinarily you wouldn’t expect such a huge gap, because physical strength is probably secondary for shooting pace. I’m not sure if the differences are mainly psychological (risk taking during shooting) or physiological (reaction time for example). The ski times are much closer on the men’s side, maybe gaining just a few second at the range is therefore considered more valuable in the men’s races?