The biathlon season closed out in Oslo, with the Crystal Globes being handed out to the season’s top performers. The top biathletes in each discipline — Sprint, Pursuit, Individual and Mass Start — receive a globe based on accumulated points for placings. The biggest prize is the Total Score (Big Crystal), which rewards consistent high performance across all the events.
French biathlete Lou Jeannmonnot took the Big Crystal for the women and Erik Perrot won men’s honors. This caps a stellar season for the French, who smoked the field in the Olympics for good measure.
Jeannmonnot, who also took the Sprint, Pursuit and Individual globes, endured a shooting slump after the Olympics, with a flurry of uncharacteristic misses that led to a sub-par performance in Kontiolahti, Finland. She acknowledged that she was shooting defensively — more concerned with “not missing” than with hitting the target. Anybody who shoots — or putts a golf ball or shoots baskets — understands this distinction; it always leads to problems.
Her accuracy in the prone was 96 percent early in the season and dipped to 93 percent. It was the standing shooting where the dip showed, dropping to 84-87 percent across a couple of races, which is below her usual standard, which has been above 88 percent.
Jeanmonnot was doubtless feeling pressure; she came up just short last year, falling in a turn in a critical race. Any case of nerves is bound to show up in the shooting.
She figured it out and got back into form for the final run in Oslo. With a strong lead in the standings, solid races made her untouchable.
Perrot has been uncannily steady and consistent throughout the whole season. He also secured the Individual, Mass Start and Pursuit globes. He had an 89 percent shooting accuracy.
Chagrined as I may be to acknowledge it after his ridiculous antics at the Olympics, Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid absolutely crushed the third trimester of the season. At this writing, he had won five straight events (seven counting relays), which is just extraordinary. Not podium. Gold. Five in a row. e beat out Perrot in the Pursuit in a dramatic photo-finish.
Shooting lights out — at one point he had one miss in 60 targets — and skiing like a beast.
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