New biathlon rules for the coming season: the system will be adjusted - World Cup results no longer count

Created: 2022-12-09 13:09

By: Andreas Knobloch

Biathlon: Sven Fischer and Ole Einem Bjoerndalen once fought in the World Cup with a head-to-head race to the end.

© IMAGO / Camera 4

There are new rules for the winter of 2022/2023 in biathlon.

The points system, the World Cup results and the prize money are particularly affected.

Ruhpolding - The new biathlon season doesn't start until the end of November in Kontiolahti, Finland.

The German cross-country heroes are already busy training.

For example, a women's group traveled to Lillehammer in July to prepare as well as possible.

The men around Benedikt Doll and Philipp Nawrath were out and about during a training session on the Slovenian mountain Triglav.

For winter sports enthusiasts, the foundation stone is laid in the hot months.

Biathlon: New rules for the 2022/2023 season

All athletes have to adapt to some new rules from the coming World Cup winter.

According to a decision by the world association, the results of world championships will no longer be included in the overall World Cup rankings.

This was announced by the IBU after the meeting of its Executive Committee in Salzburg in mid-June.

The World Cup is probably the highlight of the season.

It will take place in Oberhof, Germany, from February 8th to 19th, 2023.

In addition, there will be no more discarded results in the World Cup from the upcoming season.

This means that all races are taken into account in the battle for the big crystal ball.

In order not to disadvantage athletes who miss competitions due to illness, the point system for the overall ranking and in the discipline World Cups will be adjusted.

Originally, the three worst results of each starter were discarded.

This was problematic because in the disciplines with four races or more, there was a discarded result, which meant that consistent athletes had to give away points they had achieved.

In 2010/2011 the deletions were abolished, from 2011/12 to 21/22 only the two worst were deleted.

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen once benefited from this regulation in the overall World Cup, pushing ahead of Sven Fischer because valuable points were deducted from him.

But Andrea Henkel was also at the top in the end, ahead of Kati Wilhelm.

Biathlon Rules: Changes in Prize Funds and New Secretary General

There are also changes to the prize money in the World Cup and in the second tier IBU Cup.

By 2024, the number of award-winning athletes will increase.

In a second step, the top biathletes are to receive higher prize money by 2026.

There are also personnel changes at the IBU: Secretary General Niklas Carlsson is resigning from his post, but will remain with the IBU until the end of September.

A successor has not yet been appointed.

Former German biathlete Daniel Böhm takes over the post of sports and events director.