I have been working on a new feature that allows to search the real biathlon database for all-time records, seasonal data/records or specific data subsets. You can search three separate categories: among all single races, aggregated seasonal data, and career statistics. I implemented a new web interface available in the Patreon section for more complex database searches that allows combined queries for multiple values/ranges.
Below are a few examples of possible queries:
Since 2001–02, there have been only 3 races in which an athlete topped all major stats (rank, ski rank, hit rate, shooting time): all these “perfect” races where done by Ole Einar Bjørndalen between 2001 and 2005. There hasn’t been a single race like this on the women’s side.
“Perfect” races, all time
1 | Bjoerndalen | Ole Einar | NOR | 2001-12-06 | WC | Hochfilzen | SP | 1 | 1 | 100 | 1 |
2 | Bjoerndalen | Ole Einar | NOR | 2004-12-11 | WC | Oslo Holmenkollen | SP | 1 | 1 | 100 | 1 |
3 | Bjoerndalen | Ole Einar | NOR | 2005-01-23 | WC | Antholz-Anterselva | PU | 1 | 1 | 100 | 1 |
4 | Bjoerndalen | Ole Einar | NOR | 2005-02-20 | WC | Pokljuka | MS | 1 | 2 | 100 | 2 |
5 | Eberhard | Julian | AUT | 2017-03-03 | WC | PyeongChang | SP | 1 | 2 | 100 | 1 |
Who was the fastest skier ever? That’s difficult to answer, because results will always differ depending on your criteria. But the list of the top female skiers (per season) in terms of percent back from top 10 median isn’t a bad benchmark.
Kaisa Mäkäräinen, Magdalena Neuner and Darya Domracheva had 3 seasons each skiing at least 1.6% faster than the top 10 median. Interestingly, all seasons are from at least 6 years ago. Either the depth of the women’s field has increased a lot in just a couple of years, or there aren’t as many all-time great skiers in today’s field.
Fastest skiers (top 10 median back) | Women’s seasons
1 | Makarainen | Kaisa | FIN | 25 | 1415 | NonTeam | 2015 | -2.638 | 2.4 | 23.01 |
2 | Neuner | Magdalena | GER | 25 | 0708 | NonTeam | 2008 | -2.502 | 1.32 | 22.255 |
3 | Domracheva | Darya | BLR | 26 | 1112 | NonTeam | 2012 | -2.454 | 2.346 | 22.385 |
4 | Domracheva | Darya | BLR | 25 | 1415 | NonTeam | 2015 | -2.064 | 2.125 | 22.852 |
5 | Zidek | Anna Carin | SWE | 23 | 0506 | NonTeam | 2006 | -1.999 | 2.435 | 21.226 |
6 | Domracheva | Darya | BLR | 24 | 1314 | NonTeam | 2014 | -1.89 | 1.917 | 22.472 |
7 | Neuner | Magdalena | GER | 25 | 1112 | NonTeam | 2012 | -1.82 | 2.72 | 22.261 |
8 | Neuner | Magdalena | GER | 21 | 1011 | NonTeam | 2011 | -1.774 | 1.952 | 22.14 |
9 | Makarainen | Kaisa | FIN | 26 | 1213 | NonTeam | 2013 | -1.736 | 2.692 | 22.404 |
10 | Makarainen | Kaisa | FIN | 26 | 1112 | NonTeam | 2012 | -1.735 | 2.615 | 22.211 |
11 | Goessner | Miriam | GER | 24 | 1213 | NonTeam | 2013 | -1.6 | 4.083 | 22.375 |
Below are the fastest female shooters – average of all career shooting times (at least 10 races). Unsurprisingly, that list is dominated by current athletes, as shooting speed have increased considerably over the last decade. Julia Simon tops this ranking with a average 25.5s shooting time in her 80 career races to date.
Fastest shooters (below 27 sec) | Women’s career data
1 | Simon | Julia | FRA | 2017 | 2021 | 80 | NonTeam | 25.478 | 77.857 | 80 |
2 | Cadurisch | Irene | SUI | 2012 | 2021 | 68 | NonTeam | 25.888 | 79.044 | 68 |
3 | Kummer | Luise | GER | 2014 | 2016 | 22 | NonTeam | 26.35 | 87.045 | 22 |
4 | Merkushyna | Anastasiya | UKR | 2015 | 2021 | 76 | NonTeam | 26.515 | 84.737 | 76 |
5 | Bankes | Megan | CAN | 2017 | 2021 | 43 | NonTeam | 26.629 | 74.39 | 43 |
6 | Wierer | Dorothea | ITA | 2009 | 2021 | 238 | NonTeam | 26.719 | 85.506 | 238 |
7 | Ghilenko | Alla | MDA | 2017 | 2021 | 36 | NonTeam | 26.824 | 79.545 | 36 |
8 | Poje | Urska | SLO | 2014 | 2020 | 36 | NonTeam | 26.868 | 84.583 | 36 |