Two years have passed since the Biathlon World Championships in Austria. It is time to look at the medal table statistics and see what's changed?
In 2017, we saw 11 different nations on the podium, compared to the 10 in 2019. Nations that haven't continued with their medal success from 2017: Czech Republic, United States, Belarus and Finland. New nations that scored a medal: Sweden, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
The medal table in 2017 was topped by Germany with impressive 7 golds and 1 silver. This time Germany got second with one medal less, but only two of them gold.
The medal table in 2019 was won by Norway with 9 medals of which 5 were gold, compared to 2017 where they were 6th on the medal table with 4 medals, 0 of them gold. Another interesting development is that not a single one of them were from a relay, 3 silvers for JTB and a bronze for Bjoerndalen.
Biggest losses of the championships go to the Czech Republic that were in third place with four medals back in 2017, France that were in second place with seven medals this year finishing in 8th with four.
Whilst the biggest gains can be attributed to Norway that I've already mentioned, to Italy that won a massive 5 medals compared to 2017's bronze medal by Alexia Runggaldier in the individual and to the hosts Sweden that won three medals.
Countries that managed to repeat their performance were Ukraine that went from 1 medal to 2, Russia with 2 medals in 2017 took 3 in this edition and Austria went down a medal from 2 to 1.