With six straight podium finishes and the Total Score lead, Franziska Preuss is riding high heading into Oberhof’s famously tough conditions. Her 565 points from Trimester 1 are second only to Johannes Thingnes Boe’s 569, showcasing her consistency. No wonder German fans can’t wait to cheer on Preuss, fifth-ranked Vanessa Voigt, and rising star Selina Grotian, fresh off her Mass Start win in Annecy.

The women’s Mass Start in Annecy - Le Grand-Bornand brought double joy for Germany, with Selina Grotian taking first and the Total Score leader Franziska Preuss second place. It was the first German one-two finish since March 2020, when Denise Herrmann-Wick won in the Sprint in Kontiolahti and Preuss finished second. To make the German fans even more excited before the Oberhof week, second place in the Mass Start in France also marked Preuss’ sixth consecutive podium finish, a feat surpassed only by Magdalena Neuner, who strung together seven podiums in the 2009/2010 season and Laura Dahlmeier who finished on podium 10 times in a row in the 2016/2017 season.

Preuss has collected 565 points, 194 more than second-place Elvira Oeberg and 213 more than Lou Jeanmonnot in third in Trimester 1. Preuss’ consistent excellence in the first three weeks of 2024 was built on 99% accuracy in the prone shooting, missing just one shot. Preuss will be looking to upgrade her career-best second at Oberhof (in the Mass Start in the 2020/2021 season and the Sprint last winter) and will be confident given her form and the fact that Oberhof’s famous Birxsteig and other climbs suit her skiing technique. She will of course also lead the relay team and will be looking to drive her teammates to their second win of the season and their first in Oberhof since the 2020/2021 season.

Oeberg and Jeanmonnot have yet to score an individual podium in Oberhof, but Julia Simon and Braisaz-Bouchet hope to revive their Total Score dreams in Thuringia. Simon won two times in the World Cup in Oberhof and scored her first-ever gold medal at the BMW IBU World Championships by winning the Pursuit in the 2022/2023 season. Braisaz-Bouchet won in the Sprint and finished second in the Pursuit last season.

Johannes Thingnes Boe's victory in the Pursuit in Annecy - Le Grand-Bornand tied Martin Fourcade's 79 World Cup wins. Only Ole Einar Bjoerndalen has more, with 94. Additionally, Boe set a new record for victories in Le Grand Bornand with his ninth win in the French venue. Johannes has triumphed six times in Oberhof: three wins came at the BMW IBU World Championships 2023 when Johannes won all seven available medals, and Oberhof became Boeberhof for two weeks.

His leading challengers this winter, Sturla Holm Laegreid, Emilien Jacquelin, Eric Perrot, and Sebastian Samuelsson, have had varying levels of success in Oberhof. Laegreid won in the Pursuit in his breakthrough 2020/2021 season and has achieved eight further podiums. Jacquelin has two second-place finishes in the Sprint whilst Samuelsson beat Johannes in the Mass Start in that dramatic finale to the World Championships 2023, where he also added two bronze medals to his name. Perrot has no podiums (yet) in Oberhof, but if history doesn’t repeat, and instead rhymes, then Tarjei Boe might build on his Annecy - Le Grand Bornand Mass Start win and use his liking of Oberhof’s demanding course and often wet snow to his advantage: Tarjei has three wins and six further podiums in Oberhof.