Biathlon Discussion | Qualification to Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 Road to Milano Cortina 2026

[Bearas 581]

 women's team (ranked 20th) surpassed every  biathlete (ranked 21st) in yesterday's individual race and increased their lead agains KAZ by 100 points to 605 point lead overall. It's looking more likely that Lithuania for the first time will get to have 4 female biathletes at the Olympic Games! Only 8 starts left

[Bearas 581]

 pushes out  from 20th position in men's ranking after successful start today 

[Federer91 3,023]

IBU have announced the calendars up until 2029/30 season here.

 

Some interesting changes. 

 

- In 27 and 29 the opening round will be reduced to one weekend (instead of two) with the extra weekend being held around New Years.

 

This is a very nice change in my opinion, as i always appreciate more races around the holidays. Plus we can have an extra location, instead of one resort holding 2 weeks at the beginning. The only thing, which could have made it even better is if they squeezed this round between Christmas and New Year, but i'm sure the athletes would have made a fuss.

 

- Another change is Oberhof moving to the third trimester after being the opening January round for probably 30 years. This seems like a reasonable move, as we all know the troubles with Oberhof every season. 

 

- Of the other locations it's the usual in and out for Annecy, Lahti with Lenzerheide, Otepaa joining their mix of semi-regular slots.

 

- The tradition of returning to North America once every 5-6 years  is kept for 2029. But Asia is still non-existent for biathlon. And to think, when i started watching in 2002/03 for a couple of years China had a top tier women's team, with Japan having a nice presence as well. Seems eternity ago.

 

2026/27 season

Spoiler

 

2027/28 season

Spoiler

 

2028/29 season

Spoiler

 

2029/30 season

Spoiler

 

[phelps 8,282]

Oberhof (and sometimes Nove Mesto) in March...good luck for the grass biathlon cup! 

 

and Holmenkollen in February...I know they want to keep the world champs in that stint, but, man! I wonder how many troubles they will have in 2029 (unless climate change does really modify our Winter more than how it happens nowadays)

[NearPup 3,496]

Happy Canmore is getting at least one World Cup stop, though having only one swing outside of Europe over the course of five years seems a *little* low.

[Grassmarket 4,029]

Good news is that it's all on Discovery Plus.

[heywoodu 16,004]

Moving Oberhof to the third trimester is hilarious

 

And come on, no Asia at all (I know, nobody comes and watch when it is there, so ok), as good as no North America? Meh.

[phelps 8,282]

On 2/24/2025 at 1:58 PM, Grassmarket said:

Good news is that it's all on Discovery Plus.

also on the ARD streaming section (for those who live in Germany)

[Grassmarket 4,029]

36 minutes ago, phelps said:

also on the ARD streaming section (for those who live in Germany)

And the main channel of SVT Sweden.

Edited February 26 by Grassmarket

[Swewi 460]

Skidskyttekampen, a single mixed event at Stockholm Olympic stadium with big parts of the top athletes tonight 18.00 CET https://www.svtplay.se/skidskyttekampen