The Penalty Loop Biathlon Podcast

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!