The International Biathlon Union (IBU) wants to please its broadcasters. It's understandable. Meeting this week in Belgrade, the body adopted new regulations for the 2024-2025 World Cup stages. It's no small feat. The goal: to ensure that biathlon fans follow the broadcasts of the competitions until the end. In the sprint and individual events, athletes ranked in the world's top 15 will now start in the middle, or even at the end, of the list. They will start between bibs 46 and 75. Advantage for the broadcasters: victory will sometimes be decided at the very end of the broadcast. But this new rule was approved by the IBU at its pre-season summit despite the opposition of those most concerned, the athletes. Around a hundred of them, from the major biathlon nations (Norway, Sweden, France, Germany), co-signed a letter asking the IBU to abandon this change to the rules, which they believe is contrary to the principle of fairness. The biathletes fear, for example, that an athlete ranked 16th in the world will start the event at the beginning of a race on a track in perfect condition, while the highest ranked athletes at the moment will have to wait and could inherit a degraded course. They were not heard. The new rule will be effective from the first stage of the World Cup, from November 30 to December 8, 2024 in Kontiolahti, Finland. But the IBU specified that it would be tested during the first month of the circuit, before possibly being applied for the rest of the season.
— Published September 27, 2024