Kontiolahti will host the opening week of the BMW IBU World Cup for the fifth time in the 2024/2025 season. With Johannes Thingnes Boe clear in his plans to win the Total Score for the sixth time in his career - and tie Ole Einar Bjoerndalen's record - and Lisa Vittozzi skipping the first three competitions of the season because of a troubled back, biathlon fans will be eager to see who enters the season in convincing form.

Before the competition gets underway we’ll take a look back to see how performances in Kontiolahti's Opening Week affected the Total Score outcome in 2003/2004, 2007/2008, 2020/2021, and 2022/2023.

A venue of great importance for JT Boe

JT Boe has won seven competitions in Kontiolahti with an astonishing five victories alone coming in the Sprint. Historical stats show that Kontiolahti has been a significant venue in his stellar career.

1. He won his first-ever individual gold medal at the IBU World Championships in the Sprint in 2015 in Kontiolahti.

2. He secured his second Total Score title in the dramatic conclusion to the shortened 2019/2020 season which was of course impacted by COVID-19.

3. He left Kontiolahti as the man in yellow in 2020/2021 and 2022/2023 and ended the season as the season's best athlete, winning his third and fourth Total Score title.

Don't judge the season after the Opening Week

Hanna Oeberg, with three wins, and Julia Simon, with two wins, have had the most success in Kontiolahti from still-active women.

Oeberg won back-to-back sprints in Kontiolahti and left Finland as the leading woman in 2020/2021, but the mercurial Tiril Eckhoff had other plans. After opening the season with a tough 67th place in the Individual and an equally disappointing 43rd place in the Sprint, she somehow finished eighth in the second Sprint, flawlessly won in the Pursuit, and never looked back. Eckhoff won the Total Score in 2020/2021 with 13 wins.

That you can't judge the season after the opening week was demonstrated by Magdalena Neuner 13 years before Eckhoff: after a 30th place in the Individual, 7th in the Sprint, and 17th in the Pursuit, she was ranked 15th in the Total Score after Kontiolahti. Despite this early setback Neuner won the first Total Score title of her career in 2007/2008.

In a classic showing of her trademark move, Simon roared back from 16th place in the Sprint to win in the Pursuit in the 2022/2023 season and started paving her way to her Total Score win despite trailing Lisa Vittozzi by 25 points after the Kontiolahti week.

In the 2003/2004 season Ole Einar Bjoerndalen wore the yellow bib after the opening week in Kontiolahti, but Raphael Poiree won the Total Score title. Four years later, Bjoerndalen trailed Ivan Tcherezov after Kontiolahti but lifted the Crystal Globe for the fifth time in his career in Oslo-Holmenkollen.

But sometimes it can give us a glimpse into the future. In 2003/2004, Liv Grete Poiree left Kontiolahti in yellow and closed the season with a win in the Mass Start in Oslo-Holmenkollen to seal her only Total Score title.