The sport of biathlon has been around in one form or another for well over a hundred years. It was practiced as a way of life for long before that as well. While we are primarily focused on the today of biathlon that history is important! We exist in the context of all that came before us and what came before the present of biathlon? How did the sport develop? Who were some of the great athletes that came before today’s great stars? Who were the best of the best? What are the fun stories that tickled fans over the years that have been lost to time? That’s what this portion of the site sets out to accomplish. While not comprehensive we’re going to try to bring about a bit of collection of the history of this sport that we love. We’ll focus on a few primary areas of interest including:
How Did We Get Here? The Ultimate Timeline of Biathlon as a Sport
Penalty Loop Hall of Fame
Histories of the National Federations
Biathlon Story Time
How Did We Get Here? The Ultimate Timeline of Biathlon as a Sport
Haven’t you ever wondered how we got here? Biathlon isn’t a new sport. There are drawings going back centuries of humans skiing and hunting at the same time. So when did we decide to make it a sport? How did competitions begin? The IBU? The World Championships? This is my humble effort to tell that story. It’s starts at the beginning of the sport and takes us through the exciting sport of biathlon that we know today: Read the Timeline
Penalty Loop Hall of Fame
We’re going to build our Hall of Fame in the model of an ancient Greek or Roman temple of the gods. We’ll build one for the men and one for the women. We’re about to step inside the temple to see who sits in the position of honor and who else are merely gods among men. There will be 3 levels:
– Level 1 is like the outer courtyard where you might find busts of revered men and women
– Level 2 is inside the temple in the main rooms where you find the gods amongst men
– Level 3 is where the holiest of holies are honored. The inner sanctum is reserved for the best of the best
All statistics used are solo races and not including relay statistics. All medal counts include relays. Discipline globes didn’t not start to be given until as follows: Individual 1989; Sprint 1989; Pursuit 1997; Mass Start 1999. So keep all of that in mind!
Below you’ll find the names and the levels that I put each athlete into. Within each level there is no ranking! They are just listed by how I chose to list them. Click on each athlete for a further history and discussion of each individual athlete.
Let’s go build the Biathlon Halls of Fame!
The Best Men of All Time
Level 1: Honored Men
🇳🇴 Sturla Holm Lægreid*
🇳🇴 Frode Andresen
🇩🇪 Frank Luck
🇳🇴 Halvard Hanevold
🇩🇪 Michael Greis
🇳🇴 Erik Kvalfoss
🇫🇷 Quentin Fillon Maillet*
Level 2: Legends Club
🇳🇴 Tarjei Bø
🇫🇷 Raphael Poiree
🇳🇴 Emil Hegle Svendsen
🇩🇪 Sven Fischer
🇩🇪 Frank Peter Roetsch
🇩🇪 Frank Ullrich
Level 3: Holy Trinity of Men’s Biathlon
🇳🇴 Ole Einar Bjørndalen
🇫🇷 Martin Fourcade
🇳🇴 Johannes Thinges Bø
I originally wrote a piece during JT Boe’s stellar 2022-2023 season to examine where he stacked up as an athlete in the history of the sport and particularly how good was that season compared to all of the best seasons in biathlon history. While that piece is a little out dated now I’m still proud of that initial effort so I’m going to leave it here so anybody can see what we were thinking in the moment.
After 13 seasons racing on the IBU World Cup Johannes Thingnes Bo has said goodbye. We will never again see him line up to start a race against the other best athletes in the world. As we sit here in the days following Boe’s last race, it still hasn’t really sunk in. It might hit me a little bit over the summer when there are no Boe boys at the Blink Festival. Maybe it will be in October/November when we aren’t hearing about their preparation for the season. Likely it won’t sink in until the first races next season in Oestersund when he just isn’t there.
His career has now come to a close, so a question we started asking a few years ago, we can take a full analysis of: Is Johannes Thingnes Boe the Greatest Men’s Biathlete of All Time…or is he the Best?
Continue reading: JT Bø: Is he the Greatest Ever? Or the Best?
The Best Women of All Time
Level 1: Honored Women
🇫🇷 Anne Briand
🇳🇴 Marte Olsbu Roeiseland
🇸🇰 Anastasiya Kuzmina*
🇩🇪 Martina Beck
🇮🇹 Lisa Vittozzi*
🇸🇪 Helena Ekholm
🇫🇷 Sandrine Bailly
🇳🇴 Anne Elvebakk
🇫🇷 Julia Simon*
🇩🇪 Franziska Preuss*
Level 2: Legends Club
🇳🇴 Sanna Gronlid
🇨🇿 Gabriela Soukalova
🇩🇪 Kati Wilhelm
🇩🇪 Laura Dahlmeier
🇸🇪 Eva Korpela
🇮🇹 Dorothea Wierer*
🇳🇴 Tora Berger
🇩🇪 Andrea Henkel Burke
🇩🇪 Uschi Disl
🇳🇴 Tiril Eckhoff
🇫🇷 Liv Grete Poiree
Level 3: The Best of the Best
🇧🇾 Darya Domracheva
🇫🇮 Kaisa Makarainen
🇩🇪 Magdalena Neuner
🇸🇪 Magdalena Forsberg
Best Men’s Single Seasons of All Time
Have you ever wondered who had the best single season of all time? Not about the best career but just that one shining season where everything came together? The skiing was superlative, the shooting was completely on point, and that athlete was just constantly in contention? Me too. So I collected what I believe are the best seasons of all time. These are going to be listed in chronological order and not ranked.
Best Women’s Single Seasons of All Time
Have you ever wondered who had the best single season of all time? Not about the best career but just that one shining season where everything came together? The skiing was superlative, the shooting was completely on point, and that athlete was just constantly in contention? Me too. So I collected what I believe are the best seasons of all time. These are going to be listed in chronological order and not ranked.
Histories of the National Federations
Swiss Men:
Switzerland, one of the premier nations of Alpine skiing, has for years lived in the shadows of the likes of Norway, France, and Germany when it comes to biathlon. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t had their own moments right? It seems too improbable that they wouldn’t have had a least a few moments in the sun. But can you name any off the top of your head? The first thoughts that come to mind are probably of Bennie Weger (and his glorious beard). Maybe you thought of the Swiss women and the Gasparin sisters?
Continue reading History of Swiss Men’s Biathlon