Biathlon 2022 - 2023 Discussion Thread

[RobtheAggie 340]

Interesting article about how Biathlon seems to be getting the better youth skiers.

 

Daria Virolainen might move to the Finnish Team.  

[heywoodu 16,010]

18 hours ago, Monzanator said:

Word is Kazakhstan secretly approached Dzinara Alimbekava over a nationality change but she declined it. Her father comes from Kazakhstan and she was born there too.

That's a shame. I don't much care for most Russian or Belarussian biathletes (as in, I'm neutral towards them), but I do like Alimbekava.

[heywoodu 16,010]

1 hour ago, RobtheAggie said:

Interesting article about how Biathlon seems to be getting the better youth skiers.

 

Daria Virolainen might move to the Finnish Team.  

I thought Virolainen retired years ago  

[RobtheAggie 340]

11 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

I thought Virolainen retired years ago  

From what the article said, she recently (2021?) had her 3rd child.  She skied on the Russian Cup last winter, even before the Russian ban.  She is 33 years old, has lived in Finland and participated in the Finnish Summer Biathlon Championships and finished 2nd in one race.  Her Russian career was over, but it seems like she wants to extend her career.

[RobtheAggie 340]

The Finnish Biathlon Federation has made a statement on Virolainen.

From the President - 

" ACCORDING TO OUR FEDERATION, SHE IS NOT A FINNISH CITIZEN. THE ATHLETE DID NOT CONTACT OUR UNION. I KNOW SHE HAS BEEN LIVING IN FINLAND FOR A LONG TIME. ALL FINNISH CITIZENS CAN PARTICIPATE IN QUALIFYING COMPETITIONS. ANYONE CAN CONTACT US. THERE ARE STRICT SELECTION CRITERIA. LET’S RESPECT THE TRAINING PROCESS OF ATHLETES."

 

Sorry for the all Caps, that is what the quote was in.  This is kind of easy to see what they are doing here.  There might be legs to this rumor.

 

[hckošice 15,535]

Anastasiya Kuzmina, Paulína & Ivona Fialková and Jakub Borguľa  officially launched with the stored snow for the next season the new track in the biathlon center in Osrblie during today´s official opening.

 

The brand-new asphalt track and several other innovations and improvements at the stadium cost over a million euros and took almost 2 years to be done, however this 2.5-kilometer new track will host the World Summer Biathlon Championships next year. But the most important thing is that the new internationally approved track allows our biathletes to train and prepare in domestic conditions all year round and they will not have to travel abroad for training camps as mentioned Paja to the TV during interview.

 

 

 

[Monzanator 4,774]

Otepaa will host the 2027 Biathlon World Championships

[Federer91 3,028]

1 hour ago, Monzanator said:

Otepaa will host the 2027 Biathlon World Championships

I'm sure there is fine print somewhere saying "If they have snow" 

[RobtheAggie 340]

There is already a candidate for the 2028 World Champs.  Hochfilzen has announced their candidature.  It is widely speculated that Le Grand Bonnard will also bid.

[RobtheAggie 340]

The Biathlon Congress Handbook (agenda) is available here.  

 

One thing that I noticed here is who was not at the meeting.  The missing Federations were:

Full Members

Argentina

Armenia

Liechtenstein

Chinese Taipei 

Uzbekistan

 

Provisional Members

Andorra

Dominican Republic