biathlon

Carl Johan Bergman, Picture taken from Österunds Kommuns homepage

Yes, we have some amazingly good biathlon athletes, Carl- Johan Bergman, Fredrik Lindberg, Björn Ferry and the successful Helena Ekholm. They all has won medals in the world championship in biathlon in Ruhpolding, Germany. Carl -Johan missed the birth of his first child by a few hours,  to be able to compete in the championship. Although he went home for a few days to celebrate the birth of the newborn. He came back to finish the championship that is not an easy thing but it's rather hardcore and I am impressed by him.

Helena Ekholm has decided that she will quit after this season ending her amazing career, I'm sorry to see her quit but everything has it's time and she will be deeply missed by her fans, me included. Helena has time after time shown what a great athlete she is, she has had her ups and downs as any athlete and she hasn't been afraid to show emotions both sad or happy ones. She has really been a good advocate for biathlon in Sweden and has carried the torch after Magdalena Forsberg and Anna Carin Zidek Olofsson successes that ignited the interest of the Swedish people. What about now? Well we don't have a natural heir, maybe Anna Marie Nilsson but she has a few steps to the absolute top but I hope she will rise to the challenge and take over the torch.

When it comes to the male team, they haven't brought a lot of top spots during the years, just now and then. The last time a male biathlon athlete won an individual medal in a world championship, I believe was 1974 and about a week ago Carl Johan Bergman won a bronze and then a silver medal ended the long wait for another medal. In todays fellow start Björn Ferry won a silver medal and Fredrik Lindberg won the bronze. It was amazing too see to Swedish guys give a performance like that, it was a excited finish of the race and I was standing up and jumping around. Yeah, I got carried away but that's just fun and no one saw me so hahaha.