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Biathlon is back!! (Sorta...). Loop One returned to Munich this weekend to announce that we are officially in the run up to the 2026-2027 season! RJ returned from Europe battling the flu but we got together to discuss the excitement of the weekend and the latest news! - 0:00 Intros and greetings - 5:42: US Biathlon Selection Races Part 1 - 10:34: Biathlon Canada governing body changes - 15:04: Loop One - Great Event but Limited by the Venue? - 25:27: Parabiathlon event at Loop One - 31:17: New rules on the range - 37:00: Martin Ponsiluoma's Double Victory and Amazing Summer - 41:09: Lisa Vittozzi & Julia Simon Duel on Sunday - 52:50: Norwegian Men's Depth and the Associated Challenges - 58:50: French send only half of the A Team...is that a problem? -

Finnish Head Coach Erik Torneus-Kulstad joined us from his home in far northern Norway for a wide ranging discussion including: - How he first got into biathlon...and how that led him to coaching? - His side quest into American football - What he learned from coaching in China with Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, Darya Domracheva, and Tobias Torgersen - What led him to take the Finland position - How he utilizes analytics in his coaching today - The Suvi Minkkinen breakthrough - His quick decision to return to Finland vs exploring other coaching options - His rivalry with Polish Coach Tobias Torgersen including a recent race

We were delighted to be joined by young and rising Canadian biathlete Pascale Paradis for a very fun conversation! In this interview we discussed: - The very high highs of the 2025-2026 biathlon season including her Olympic experience - The turbulence in the Canadian biathlon federation and the recent run of retirements  - What we in the biathlon family can do to help support the Canadian athletes - The changes in Pascale's offseason training program and her excitement over current fitness levels - Improving comfort with shooting and rifle tinkering vs stability  - What she's working on most this season: skiing transitions and hills - Her favorite athletes to race with on the course And a TON more

For our first interview in the lead up to the 2026-2027 we are joined by last season's Swiss breakthrough athletes Lea Meier. We had a delightful conversation discussing, as you might guess, many many things including: - Lea's decision to pursue biathlon as a career, her early Juniors successes, and rapid ascent to the World Cup level - Following in the footsteps of her biathlon idol Selina Gasparin...and her memorable first moment racing with Selina - Special moments in Canmore - Enjoying being Swiss, the mountains, the culture diversity, and the chocolate - Rifle tinkering and new design ideas  - The meaning behind Lea's shooting stars - Finding her shooting rhythm just in time for the Olympics - Living the Olympic dream and racing to the best of her abilities - Being open and living out loud on social media - Planning out the new season and adjusting to the schedule changes - Dreams for 26-27 And of course much more!

It's Labor Day here in North America and in lieu of our first interviews we did just a quick catch up and round up of the recent biathlon news including: - German National Championships including Janina Hettich-Walz and Philipp Horn great weeks! - What's up with Selina Grotian? - The Norwegian men raced in Otepaa and the art of racing in the rain - Quick check in's on the Estonian and Swiss championships - Best of wishes to Canadian Coach Andrew Chisholm and his partner!

In the midst of a surprisingly newsy biathlon summer we reconvened to catch up on all of the action. A brief run down: 2:45 Which biathlete would you bring back from retirement a la Aaron Donald 11:00 Emilien Jacquelin skipping the 26-27 biathlon season...does he ever come back? 20:25 Tereza Vobornikova is here to stay? And Anna Gandler looking very good! 30:20 Justus Strelow hangs on for the City Biathlon victory! 42:40 Austrian Federation upheaval 51:25 Quick breeze through national championship racing in Sweden, Austria, and Switzerland 1:01:00 Talking about adjusting to Canada and just chit chat

After a long break while Jordan and family moved to Canada, we are back with a lot to catch up on from Blink Festival to various biathlon news and discussions! - We open with a recap of Jordan's chaotic move to Canada - 16:00 The Oeberg Summer Excitement - 22:45 Swedish Championship Individual Highlights - 28:45 Brief Blink Festival Recap - 36:45 Einar Hedegart Discussion - 48:00 Oceane Michelon's Sterling Weekend - 51:45 Dominic Unterweger's Surprise Successes in Sandnes - 55:30 Polish Blink Festival Highlights - Finish with various odd and ends with a preview of upcoming biathlon happenings

Well, almost immediately after recording our May round up, the Italian and USA teams made their roster announcements. This was supposed to just be a little recording inserted into the prior episode but...you know us. We ended up discussing: - Italian roster and coach announcements - Brief Czechia discussion - USA roster and coach announcements - World Cup discussions - Art projects  - Moving to Canada

It has simply been too long. We got together for a little chat about what's new in our lives and in the biathlon world including: - Coaching carousel - Roster announcements  - The Canadian exodus - RJ thinks somebody isn't completely retired yet - And honestly, quite a lot of just chatting

After a short break we are back to take one last look back at a very fun 2025-2026 Biathlon Season - We go week by week sharing our memories and surprises. But it was such an amazing season we barely scratched the surface! - Looking ahead to next season and dreaming about a wild Overall race - Quick thoughts on a handful of athletes - Jordan gets prematurely upset about the makeup of the 2026-2027 schedule And more!

It's part 2 of our memories from our weekend at the Oslo-Holmenkollen races and festivities. In part 2 we have: - Julia Simon with a thoughtful discussion of the Pursuit sprint with Hanna Oeberg as well as her place in biathlon history - We try to cheer up Suvi Minkkinen after another remarkably successful season - Check ins with our friends Nik Hartweg, Anna Gandler, and Campbell Wright - Chats with North Americans Deedra Irwin, Margie Freed, Pascale Paradis, and Adam Runnalls - A Polish check in with Kamila Zuk and Tobias Torgersen - Johanna Taliharm recaps a trying but successful season And more!

It's hard to believe that the glorious weekend in Oslo was already 1 week ago. But the memories are still fresh. Today we chatted mostly about the memories and a little about the racing. Included are: - An amazing moment discussing Sturla's success with Tiril Eckhoff - Saying goodbye to the Austrian powers Lisa Hauser and Simon Eder - A fun moment with Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold - Nice long chat with Denmark's rising star Anne de Besche - Sibling laughter (a true highlight!!) with Hanna and Elvira Oeberg - The memory of a lifetime with Lou Jeanmonnot And more Mentioned in the show, what Jordan wrote about Lou Jeanmonnot: https://penaltyloop.com/2026/03/24/our-beloved-champion/ Part 2 will come shortly!

Well we made it happen! RJ mid transit to Norway and Jordan still in Florida so we apologize for any poor audio quality! We tried to keep it brief because of RJ's time constraints so we weren't able to cover everything or go as deep as we would like but we did cover: - Otepaa's weather challenges - Sterling Sturla who continues his torrid streak - Lou and Eric cruising to the Overall titles - The wild and exciting Mixed Relays with some amazing results! - Brief look at some globe races - Jacquelin has the ultimate Jacquelin weekend - Shout outs - Sandra Flunger is on the move...where to? And more!

It was the busiest week of the biathlon season with the World Cup in Kontiolahti, the IBU Cup concluding in Lake Placid, and the Youth/Junior World Championships finishing up in Arber. We had a lot to discuss tonight including: - Sturla Holm Laegreid is competing like Sturla Holm Laegreid again - Eric Perrot is no slouch though! - Lou Jeanmonnot looks exhausted physically and mentally - Long discussion on the state of Swedish biathlon and the extension of Johannes Lukas - Fun relay finishes including Czechia, Poland and USA - Emilien Jacquelin is, as always, Emilien Jacquelin. This week the good and the bad - Interesting Mass Starts and important moments in them - Just a tiny bit on the IBU Cup and Youth/Junior World Cup And so much more!

Jordan and RJ reconvened multiple times over several days to catch up on all of the latest in the biathlon world including: - Opening with recent news including: Tommaso Giacomel health updates, Retirements, Coaching changes - One more look back at the 2026 Olympic Games. What surprised us in our reassessment? - Preview of the Third Trimester and what we think might happen including looking at a few Globe races - Checking in on the Junior Worlds - Gro Randby's interesting season