The Biathlon Summer World Championships have been underway in Otepää, Estonia, since Thursday. As in previous years, the really big names are not taking part. The world association IBU has drawn conclusions from this and decided on a radical change for the future.
The Biathlon Summer World Championships could theoretically be the highlight for ski hunters in the World Cup-free months. But it is not.
The World Championships have a fixed place in the calendar, but many top stars skip the event because it simply doesn’t fit into their training schedule and events like the Blinkfestivalen or the Martin Fourcade Festival are easier to integrate into the schedule. The return is similar, but the effort is much lower. That’s what makes it so attractive for the top nations.
As a result, the Summer World Championships have degenerated into a kind of showpiece for the second tier in recent years. This inevitably means that public interest in the championships is rather limited. This is precisely the problem that the IBU now wants to tackle.
Biathlon World Championships no longer take place every year
As sports and event director Daniel Böhm openly admitted in an interview with the “chiemgau24” portal, the success of the Summer World Championships has been “limited”. The feedback from the athletes was also “rather moderate”. In order to change this, the decision was made in the spring “that the Summer World Championships will only be held every two years”, said Böhm, describing a radical step.
The topic of summer biathlon is and remains an extremely important one for the association, the official stressed. “In times of climate change, this must be highly relevant for us. Biathlon will certainly face long-term difficulties without summer biathlon.”
In order to avoid scheduling conflicts with other established summer events, Böhm says there are plans to hold the Summer World Championships in the fall. “This would also allow us to build a bridge to the winter,” explained the former world-class biathlete.
Source: www.sport.de
