In the most unusual season of all, snow-rich Obertilliach will host the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in what will be ten days packed with the ambition, excitement and exuberance that only up-and-coming athletes, not yet burdened with the expectations of a whole nation, can produce. Obertilliach is, of course, also a traditional IBU venue that launched the careers of some of the biggest stars in biathlon today when it hosted the same event eight years ago.

• It all happened in January 2013

The IBU Youth/Junior World Championships Obertilliach 2013 stands out as the most formative one for many of biathlon’s brightest stars. In 2013, Laura Dahlmeier of Germany won medals in all the competitions she entered, all gold medals except one, a feat she would later repeat at the IBU World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria in the 2016/2017 season. Dahlmeier retired young with all the major achievements to her name, including the BMW IBU World Cup Total Score title for the 2016/2017 season. In Obertilliach 2013, Dahlmeier teamed up with Franziska Preuss and Vanessa Hinz to take relay gold.

Lisa Theresa Hauser won sprint bronze and individual silver to become Austria’s first female YJWCH medalist. She doubled down on that achievement at the IBU World Championships Pokljuka 2021 by winning silver in the mixed relay and in the pursuit, and then had a day of perfection, shooting 20/20 for a brilliant mass start win and the first-ever gold medal for Austrian women at the World Championships.

In the men’s competitions in Obertilliach 2013, JT Boe won gold in the pursuit and silver in the sprint, Alexander Loginov won gold in the sprint and in the individual, and Quentin Fillon Maillet anchored the French junior men’s relay to the silver medal. JT Boe won his second consecutive Total Score title last season while the three men won 11 medals altogether at the IBU World Championships 2020 in Antholz–Anterselva, Italy. A year later, in Pokljuka, JT Boe added two gold medals as well as one silver and one bronze to his collection, while Loginov and Fillon Maillet added one bronze each. Just a day before the youth biathletes open the Championships in Obertilliach with individual competitions, the question is: Who will start carving their own paths to biathlon glory?

• Can Shevchenko repeat her performance from Lenzerheide 2020?

Anastasiia Shevchenko of Russia won gold in the sprint and in the pursuit at last year’s Championships in Lenzerheide and competed at the IBU Cup level this season. She started the season with a win and two additional podiums in Arber and is currently eighth in the Total Score standings. Just two places below her is Aasne Skrede of Norway, who closed 90% of her targets last season, which made her a podium player almost every time she stepped onto the track. Skrede won silver medals in the sprint and pursuit in Lenzerheide. She then joined the Norwegian IBU Cup team and headed off to the IBU Open European Championships in Minsk-Raubichi, where she won a mixed relay bronze medal. The main difference between Shevchenko and Skrede, whose ski speed is almost equally fast, lies in their shooting accuracy at the IBU Cup level: Anastasiia is at 85% and Asne at 79%.

Amy Baserga won just one medal in Lenzerheide 2020 but had three wins, two second places and one third place in the regular IBU Junior Cup competitions, enough to win the IBU Junior Cup Women’s Total Score. She added three podiums including three wins in her single appearance on the IBU Cup circuit last season. Baserga is most effective in sprints, is capable of shooting clean and has significant experience. France brings back Paula Botet, who finished third in the Junior Cup Total Score and is 44th in the IBU Cup Total Score standings, Camille Bened, who is 38th, and Sophie Chaveau, who is skiing at -7% and is 30th in the IBU Cup Total Score standings. Austria boasts 2020 Youth Pursuit World Champion Anna Gandler and Italy, among others, Rebecca Passler.

Watch out for a very special talent emerging from Slovenia as well, for Lena Repinc, only 17 years old, made a debut at the IBU World Championships Pokljuka 2021 with a stellar performance in the second leg of the women’s relay. Prior to that, she finished fifth in the short individual at the IBU Cup in Arber.

• Claude, Hartweg, Cisar, Riethmueller

Last season’s IBU Junior Cup Men’s Total Score winner Niklas Hartweg of Switzerland picked up experience at the IBU Cup at the end of last season and has a half dozen starts on the BMW IBU World Cup circuit this season. He was also a member of the Swiss team at Pokljuka 2021, showing visible progress compared to the beginning of the season. Slovenia’s Alex Cisar was on the younger side of the juniors last season, but the two-time IBU Youth World Champion still managed to pick up a pursuit bronze medal after finishing 11th in the sprint in Lenzerheide and finished second in the IBU Junior Cup Men’s Total Score. Cisar trained with the Slovenian senior team, which includes multi-Olympic/IBU World Championship medalist Jakov Fak, and has some BMW IBU World Cup starts this season.

Emilien Claude will be France’s big hope. He spent most of last season on the IBU Cup circuit, where he picked up a third place in one of the last sprints of the year. Claude shot clean on six occasions but lacked a bit of ski speed. He opened 2021 with three starts in Oberhof, where he had, for a 21-year-old, a very respectable 33rd in the sprint and 39th in the pursuit. While the Norwegians are only coming with juniors, it is expected that some of them win medals because they were groomed in the very competitive Norwegian Cup. Germany’s best hope will be returning Junior Pursuit World Champion Danilo Riethmueller, who can generate formidable speed on the skis but has yet to fully master the shooting.

Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni & Archive