Noname from Norway won a medal at the Biathlon World Cup. Who is Marit Skogan?

Noname from Norway won a medal at the Biathlon World Cup. Who is Marit Skogan?

Batraz Tomaev December 21, 2023, 08:30 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.

The girl miraculously broke into the team and immediately shot!

Before the start of the 2023/2024 season, the Norwegian women’s biathlon team lost two pillars of the team: Tiril Eckhoff and Marte Røiseland hung up their skis, not to the delight of the public. Of the experienced ones, only Ingrid Tandrevold remained on the team. But the Norwegian national team’s coaching staff always has a dark horse in reserve.

“I received the energy from heaven and ran”

The prankster of the Norwegian team was 25-year-old Marit Ishol Skogan. And she already managed to win her first personal prize at the World Cup.

In the pursuit race of the third stage in Lenzerheide, the Norwegian committed two penalties and finished third. Skogan was 1:13.6 off the lead. And on the last lap she didn’t let Franziska Preuss overtake her.

“I don’t know how I did it. I just had to hold on. I was almost sure that I would lose third place, since I had little strength left. I received energy from the sky and ran towards the goal. This is crazy”.

Live streams of World Cup races are available on Okko.

The key to success in the chase was sixth place in the sprint. Perfect shots and excellent speed allowed Skogan to declare himself publicly.

In addition, before the first personal prize there was a team success. In the winning relay of the second stage of the KM in Hochfilzen (Austria), Marit Ishol Skogan ran in the second stage: she maintained the speed and used only one additional cartridge. As a result, she the first gold at the highest level.

How the Norwegians won that relay:

Where did Skogan come from?

Marit Ishol Skogan – 25 years old. At that age, Ingrid Tandrevold, for example, was already a three-time world champion and eleven-time World Cup winner. The comparison is illustrative.

While the current leader of the Norwegian team won prize after prize, Skogan appeared in international competitions only a few times. And the greatest achievement for the athlete was silver in the women’s relay at the 2017 World Junior Championships in Brezno-Osrblje (Slovakia).

At a higher level, in the IBU Cup, the biathlete also competed only three times. It happened in January 2022, in the same Slovak town. Skogan did not shine there, showing 15th time in the sprint with a perfect shot.

Marit Ishol Skogan

Photo: Kevin Voigt/GettyImages

At national competitions, Marit, of course, shone more often. The athlete has victories in the Norwegian Youth Biathlon Cup 2017/2018, national summer and winter championships and medals in the National Cup.

At the opening of the current season, the biathlete did not win any medals. In Shushen she was 14th in the sprint and then eighth in the mass start. However, this did not stop the national team’s coaching staff from introducing her to the main team. Her debut was optimistic: she placed tenth in the individual category in Östersund.

It is clear that the coaches believe in Marit and give her opportunities that she gladly takes advantage of. Although, of course, her medal became a sensation for everyone. It is difficult to say whether this success was a one-time thing or whether Skogan still has many glorious careers ahead of him. We don’t know this mysterious girl enough.