This week, the Para Biathlon World Cup will start in Vuokatti, Finland, where 90 athletes from 16 countries will compete. From Thursday to Sunday, we will see competitions in three different events: sprint, individual, and sprint pursuit.

The IBU Para Biathlon Calendar (2024-2025)

After the Season Opening in Vuokatti (12 -15 December 2024), the Para Biathletes’ new year begins in Val Di Fiemme (ITA) with a Sprint and Sprint Pursuit on 29-30 January 2023. This will also mark the Paralympic test event for Para Biathlon as Val Di Fiemme will be host to the Paralympic Biathlon events in 2026. Just one week later, the season highlight is going to take place in Pokljuka (SLO) – the IBU Para Biathlon World Championships will see three days of competitions (06 – 09 February) and promise to be a fantastic event, hosted by an experienced biathlon venue. The Para Biathlon season comes to a close one month later in Torsby (SWE) with another three days of competitions. Siwidata, IBU’s official provider of electronic sports timing and results will furthermore take over timing and results for Para Biathlon this season, allowing for the competitions to be slowly integrated into the IBU’s digital ecosystem over the course of the coming months.

IBU Para Biathlon race director Tomi-Pekka Riihivuori is excited at the start of the season. "The up-coming season looks good and we are in schedule. What makes me happy is that there are more teams and athletes this season in para biathlon than before. This has given us some positive challenges but with the help of the organizing committee we have been able to respond to those. There are not a lot of organizers for para biathlon events so it is incredible that we can start the season already and in this wintery environment."

"There are some challenges as we are emerging three different operators; biathlon, cross-country skiing and para sports but at the moment everything looks ready. We have a team now that can operate in para biathlon and this is amazing. It is crucial that this season we see what para biathlon needs and start to look already to the future so that we can develop the sport even more," Riihivuori concludes.

As mentioned before the qualification for the Paralympic Winter Games is starting this season. This is one of the reasons why there are more athletes competing the in the tracks.

Athletes and names to watch

Vision Impaired

On the women’s side, the German trio of Linn Kazmaier, Leonie Maria Walter and Johanna Recktenwald have had a first seat on the podiums of last winter, with Kazmaier getting the better of her two teammates more often than not. On the men’s side, only Anthony Chalencon has been able to break into the Ukrainian stronghold of Oleksandr Kazik, Iaroslav Reshetynskyi and co. Kazik walked away with two individual gold medals in Prince George at the World Championships, Chalencon secured the full set of medals in the individual competitions.

Standing

The is very little doubt that Mark Arendz is the man to beat in the Standing Classification – but the battle for the podium will be competitive nonetheless with Germany’s Marco Maier and Alexander Ehler, Ukraine’s Serhii Romaniuk and Grygorii Vovchynskyi and also Benjamin Daviet from France posing serious challenges.

On the women’s side watch out for three nations: Ukraine, China and Canada. Ludmyla Liashenko and Bohdana Konashuk have been dominating proceedings at last year’s World Championships – but Canada’s Natalie Wilkie and Brittany Hudak showed they can stay with the Ukrainian duo; Wilkie even managed to equal Liashenko to the split-second in the Sprint in Prince George for a shared gold medal.

Sitting

Oksana Masters continued her incredibly Paralympic Medal Haul in Paris, however, the 19x Paralympic medals had to undergo surgery at the end of November, ruling her out of a the first competition weeks – all eyes will be on Kendall Gretsch and Anja Wicker for the wins in the women’s sitting classification. On the men’s side, expect a battle between China’s Liu Zixu and Liu Mengtao and Ukraine’s Taras Rad with Yerbol Khamitov (KAZ) and Aaron Pike (USA) ready to play more than just spoiler.

Photos: Ahonen/IBU