BMW IBU World Cup 2023 Live Stream: IBU Biathlon World Championships 2023: Full schedule, preview and stars to watch From cross-country skiing to rifle shooting, two elements in one discipline. Endurance, accuracy, speed and body control: welcome to one of the most demanding sports; there is no other like biathlon.
As last season there were no world championships due to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the competition resumes this year in Oberhof. This town in the district of Thuringia, is known as a German winter sports centre, specially for biathlon and sliding sports. The luge world championships 2023 also took place in Oberhof in January.
All eyes will be set on the Norwegian and the French teams: between them, both nations won nine out of 11 Olympic titles at Beijing 2022. What to watch for: Norway and France among the favourites On the men’s side, Olympic champions Johannes Thingnes Boe (Norway) and Quentin Fillon Maillet (France) will be the ones to beat. Each of them won two individual gold medals in Beijing, the Norwegian in the sprint and mass start events and the French in individual and pursuit.
‘QFM’ previously told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview that he did not see Boe as his main rival for the season. “The biggest opponent is myself. It’s not pretentious, but I can affect the performance of my opponents by unsettling them.” The French star, who has been called the successor of Martin Fourcade, is still missing an individual title at the worlds. He is the current World Cup champion after three years of dominance from Boe.
His old brother Tarjei Boe, a three-time Olympic champion, will also compete in Germany trying to get his 21st world medal. Another Norwegian to watch will be Sturla Holm Laegreid, who clinched four golds in the last world championships, and won’t pass up a chance to do so again in Oberhof. The three of them, along with Vetlse Sjaastad Christiansen, won the relay Olympic title at Beijing 2022.
Germany’s home hopes are carried by two-time Olympic medallist Benedikt Doll. Gold medallists Sturla Holm Laegreid, Tarjei Boe, Johannes Thingnes Boe and Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen Gold medallists Sturla Holm Laegreid, Tarjei Boe, Johannes Thingnes Boe and Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen (Getty Images 2022) In the women’s events, fans will miss Norway’s star Tiril Eckhoff who will not be in Norway’s team.
After contracting covid at the end of the 2021/2022 season, Eckhoff has not been able to train at her usual intensity. The two-time Olympic relay champion and 10-time world champion announced a break from competition in November 2022. Norway will be still one of the teams to beat with 2021 relay world champions Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, Ida Lien and Marte Olsbu Roiseland making the team. Meanwhile, the German team competing on home snow will be led by 2022 Olympic champion Denise Hermann and Vanessa Voigt.
The International Biathlon Union has announced competition schedules for the BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon, the IBU Cup and the IBU Youth and Junior World Championships, including the provisional start times for the upcoming season 2022/2023.
The BMW IBU World Cup will kick off in Kontiolahti (FIN) on 29 November – 4 December 2022. The mid-week season start on a Tuesday has been agreed by IBU and its stakeholders to minimize clashes with the FIFA World Cup in Qatar played at the time.
The highlight of the season, the IBU World Championships Biathlon in Oberhof (GER) will take place on 06-19 February 2023. The season will come to a close in Oslo-Holmenkollen (NOR), with the final competitions taking place on 19 March 2023. The International Biathlon Union (IBU) today also published the list of National Federations which have been sanctioned for possessing waxes containing C8 fluorocarbons/PFOA above the allowed threshold, in violation of the IBU Event and Competition rules for the 2021/2022 season.
The National Federations who are fined for violations in the Junior Cup are: Korea, Czech Republic, Belarus and Finland. The National Federations who are fined for violations considered to be at minor level in the IBU Cup are: Poland, Germany and Japan. As a first-time offence, the National Federations have received a fine of several thousand Euros. A second violation will result in a higher financial fine and a third violation would see that National Federation banned from the next IBU event. Fines given at IBU Cup and Junior Cup level are lower than in the World Cup.