Canmore is having a year. Just over a month after hosting the International Ski Federation (FIS) Cross Country World Cup, the Canmore Nordic Centre is pulling out all the stops and showcasing its brand-new biathlon facility as the host of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup Finals from Thursday, March 14 to Sunday, March 17. The world-class venue amid Canada’s Rocky Mountains is no stranger to World Cup nordic and mountain bike events. It...
Sara Studebaker-Hall, two-time Olympian and current U.S. Biathlon Director of Operations, became the first U.S. woman to earn her International Biathlon Union (IBU) technical delegate certification in 2022, one of only a handful of Americans to achieve that distinction. Fast-forward to the 2023 IBU World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria, Studebaker-Hall took part in her first biathlon World Cup as an IBU referee. “Hochfilzen is such a great venue – they have such an experienced organizing...
Kontiolahti Kickoff Today marked the beginning of the World Cup Biathlon season for the women. The women raced the 15-kilometer individual start format in Kontiolahti, Finland, skiing 5 laps on a 3-kilometer course. Missing from the start line were common pre-race favorites, Norwegian’s Marte Olsbu Roiseland and Tiril Eckoff, allowing other known stars to dominate the podium: Sweden’s Hanna Oeberg finished first, Norway’s Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold second, and Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi third. The U.S was...
This article is part of a series based on an interview with Lowell Bailey. Mr. Bailey represented the United States in biathlon in four Olympic games, 11 World Championships, and 15 World Cup seasons. He is currently Director of High Performance for U.S. Biathlon. His World Championship gold medal race is one of the most thrilling races ever. If you haven’t seen it, the race is available on YouTube and is a great watch. His...
This season’s cross-country and biathlon World Cup races promise to be some of the most exciting in recent years; however, this season also presents dramatic changes in how American fans will be able to—or unable to—watch races. The new season will be quite different from what we’ve come to expect in seasons past. NBC’s coverage is gone; it will be replaced by a combination of paid streaming services and accessing European coverage. Cross-Country There will...
For the first time ever, an American will preside over international governance of a nordic sport. On Tuesday, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced that longtime U.S. Biathlon President and CEO Max Cobb has been named the IBU Secretary General. Cobb will finish up his second term on the IBU Executive Board and leave his post as at U.S. biathlon at the end of September, then begin his new role overseeing international competition, governance, and...
The International Biathlon Union (IBU) remains committed to improving its online and mobile products according to a recent announcement. The IBU, along with the global app and web developer Vincit, claims the new products, “will allow fans to follow competitions in real-time, as well as provide a second-screen experience with user-friendly statistics and insights into competitions, personalized user experience, and top-notch content with images and video.” More on this in a bit. Live event streaming or...
With time to spare before the 2021-2022 race season, the International Biathlon Union clarified on Monday their fluoro wax policy. In a press release titled “IBU bans harmful fluor products from biathlon events,” the sport governing body banned the use of C8 fluorinated products. C8 compounds, also known as PFOAs, are eight chain fluorocarbons that have historically been used to enhance ski speed in certain conditions. The IBU’s stance brings it into compliance with current...
Sturla Holm Lægreid (NOR) crushed his competitors in the IBU biathlon World Cup opener on Saturday and earned his first World Cup victory. On Sunday, turbo junior Helene Fossesholm (NOR) posted the second-fastest time of the day in the 10-kilometer pursuit at the FIS Nordic World Cup opener. “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I never imagined I would win,” Lægreid said after his race, which took place in in Kontiolahti (FIN). The 23-year-old dominated the 20-kilometer individual competition,...
The International Biathlon Union announced on Wednesday that as part of their Covid-19 testing protocols, several teams had athletes test positive for the virus. Those positive tests were from Russian, Latvian, and Moldovan biathletes. The IBU stated it was the first of a series of PCR tests to be administered in Kontiolahti, Finland, the first stop of the IBU World Cup. In an email received Thursday morning, the IBU relayed news that athletes from France...
2023 World Juniors/U23 goes to Canada Recently, Canada was awarded the right to host the 2023 Nordic Junior/U23 World Championships. The hosting club is Black Tusk Nordic which runs much of its ski training out of Whistler Olympic Park in the Callaghan Valley. The venue hosted nordic events that included cross-country, jumping, nordic combined, and biathlon at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. “We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to bring this prestigious event for...
This morning the International Biathlon Union (IBU) and the International Ski Federation announced they were postponing their fluoro wax bans until the 2021-2022 season. The stated reason in the IBU press release was the following: “allow more time to test and refine the Fluorine Tracker device that is currently under development.” FIS also claimed the device was not ready for use on the World Cup: “Despite the accuracy of the device measurement technology, testing also...
The International Biathlon Union posted a press release Friday with the following key take aways. We will post the full press release below. “The IBU is planning to hold a full BMW IBU World Cup.” “The IBU Executive Board will meet on 26-27 September to take a decision on whether adjustments need to be made to the planned World Cup programme in the first trimester (November-December 2020).” “The World Championships Biathlon in Pokljuka (09-21 February...
Thirty two years old and wise as wise can be. Clare Egan brings a calm intellect to the sport of biathlon. Speaker of many languages and head of the International Biathlon Union’s athlete committee, Egan is respected by her peers for on-snow performances as well as her leadership in the IBU board room. We spoke to Egan earlier this month as she was training in Antholz, Italy with U.S. women’s head coach Armin Auchentaller. The...
The Biathlon Integrity Unit Comes Online: Earlier this month, the website biathlonintegrity.com came online. The site is the digital interface of the Biathlon Integrity Unit, an independent arm of the International Biathlon Union. Part of the Biathlon Integrity Unit’s mandate, according to the website, is to provide a mechanism to “investigate and prosecute violations” as they relate to “integrity related matters in Biathlon, including anti-doping, ethical breaches, betting-related issues and any kind of result...
A year ago Martin Fourcade was coming off the worst showing of his career, a cataclysm of a season leaving everyone who follows the sport scratching their heads. While he had two victories and another podium by Christmas, something was apparently wrong; his results declined after New Year’s and he wasn’t on the podium again for the rest of the season. He skipped the North American leg of the World Cup, raced World Champs, where...
In this episode, we connect with Max Cobb, the CEO of U.S. Biathlon. He also sits on the International Biathlon Union’s (IBU) Executive Board. When we spoke, he had just returned from the IBU’s “historic” Extraordinary Congress which took place from October 18th-20th, in Munich. The IBU has been rocked in the recent past by internal mismanagement and doping scandals. Rather than succumb to the inertia associated with systemic change, the IBU has reset and...
New IBU Secretary General Named On August 6th, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced Sweden’s Niklas Carlsson as its new Secretary General. At 44-years-old, Carlsson comes to the position with considerable experience in the world of alpine ski racing. According to the IBU press release, Carlsson served as the Secretary-General of the Swedish Ski Federation from 2011-2014. He has also worked for the International Ski Federation (FIS), and served on the Boards of two Swedish...
IBU Sanctions Two Russian Biathletes. On May 25, Russian biathletes Alexandr Pechenkin and Alexander Chernyshov each received four year bans from competition for anti-doping rule violations (ADRV). The International Biathlon Union handed down the sanctions. Each athlete has 21 days to appeal the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Pechenkin and Chernyshov were both suspected of doping after the analysis of the Moscow Lab Information Management System (LIMS) database. The World Anti-Doping...
The numbers speak the truth when it comes to leadership in Olympic sport. Let’s take International Technical Officials (ITOs), the people responsible for a range of duties like enforcing rules and race timing protocol during competition. Across four Olympics, including summer and winter Games from 2010-2014, women constituted no greater than 30 percent of ITOs. On the coaching side, the numbers were starker. Between 2010 and 2014, female accredited coaches at the Olympics never rose...