Tomorrow’s biathlon stars are this week getting the opportunity to compete at a venue steeped in biathlon and Olympic Winter Games history, Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, USA. Over the next eight days, competitors at the IBU Youth and Junior World Championships will be vying for medals on the same tracks where Ole Einar Bjorndalen became a legend with his four Gold medal sweep at the 2002 Salt Lake OWG.

139 women and 169 men from 33 federations are on hand and it is likely that one or several of them will someday win medals in the Olympic Winter Games.

Germany, Norway. Italy lead strong women’s field

There are plenty of returning medalists and champions from last year’s IBU YJWCH in Obertilliach here, getting ready to test themselves in the thin almost 1700-meter air at Soldier Hollow. The well-known powerhouse nations of Germany, Norway, France, Russia and Italy all have strong teams here, dreaming of medals. The German women have a strong line-up including currently second and third in the IBU Junior Cup Total Score Johanna Puff and Luise Mueller as well as Lisa Spark. Norway has Aasne Skrede who has been competing on the IBU Cup circuit this season andf Maren Bakken who won several Youth titles a couple of years back. Italy has a powerful women’s squad including Linda Zingerle who won the IBU Cup super sprint at Sjusjoen, Hanna Auchentaller who has a World Cup start under her belt as well as a top five IBU Cup finish this season and Rebecca Passler winner of three medals last year in Obertilliach. France has Camille Coupe who won two Gold medals at the IBU European Junior Championships last month and Jeanne Richard who walked away from Pokljuka with four medals.

Potential medalists Kornev, Paulsen and Gunka

The men’s competitions will be as tough as ever. Germany’s Darius Lodl with five IBU Junior Cup podiums and a single mixed relay Gold medal in Pokljuka is a top contender. The top man is surely Aleksandr Kornev of Russia who has a victory and two second places this season as well as being the current leader of the IBU Junior Cup Total Score standings. Norway’s Vetle Paulsen who won the single individual last month at the Brezno IBU Cup will lead the Norwegian squad that last year won zero medals but will be inline to remedy that here. The Czech Republic’s Jonas Marecek who captured the European Junior Sprint title last month and teammate Ondřej Manek should be chasing medals. No one will be surprised if Poland’s Jan Gunka with an IBU Junior Cup sprint win and several World Cup starts this season or his teammate Marcin Zawol are on the podium.

Virtually all of the star power in the under-22 ranks has made its way to the high desert venue at Soldier Hollow. However winning medals will be a challenge. The altitude and very low humidity come into play as well as an Olympic-caliber set of tracks with some long hard climbs and a shooting range that can be very windy. Winning multiple Gold medals or multiple medals of any color might be the clue of Ole Einar or Kati Wilhelm (winner of 2 Golds in 2002)-type talent.

The competitions kick off tomorrow with the Youth Individuals at 1900 CET for the men and the women at 2200 CET.

Live Stream of all competitions

For the first time ever, all competitions both Youth and Junior will be live streamed on Biathlonworld.com’

The remaining schedule is as follows (all in US Mountain Time)

24 February 11:00 Junior Men 15 km individual 14:00 Junior Women 12.5 km individual

25 February 11:00 Youth Men 7.5 km sprint 14:00 Youth Women 6 km sprint

26 February 11:00 Junior Men 10 km sprint 14:00 Junior Women 7.5 km sprint

27 February 11:00 Youth Women 7.5 km pursuit 12:00 Youth Men 10 km pursuit 14:15 Junior Men 12.5 km pursuit 15:20 Junior Women 10 km pursuit

1 March 11:00 Youth Men 3 X 7.5 km relay 14:00 Youth Women 3 X 6km relay

2 March 11:00 Junior Men 4 X 7.5 km relay 14:00 Junior Women 4 X 6 km relay Photos: IBU/ Bjorn Reichert