The Biathlon World Cup is a top-level biathlon season-long competition series. It has been held since the winter seasons of 1977–78 for men and 1982–83 for women. The women's seasons until 1986–87 season were called the European Cup, although participation was not restricted to Europeans.
Competition and format
Overall Crystal Globes for the 2009/2010 and 2007/2008 seasons.
The World Cup season lasts from November or December to late March, with meetings in a different venue every week excluding some holidays and a couple of weeks before the season's major championships (World Championships or Winter Olympics). All in all, the season comprises nine to ten meetings, with events taking place from Wednesday–Thursday through Sunday. Relay competitions are held four to six times per season. Formerly it was counted as World Cup events are World Championships(the last Championship to count towards the World Cup were held in Pokljuka, Slovenia 2021) and Winter Olympics events (the last Olympics to count towards the World Cup were the 2010 Winter Olympics: from the 2014 Winter Olympics competitors are no longer awarded World Cup points for their Olympic performances).[2]
The athlete with the highest overall total score (i.e. total score for all disciplines) of the World Cup season is awarded the Big Crystal Globe trophy. A Small Crystal Globe trophy is awarded for the first place in the season total for each discipline. Hence, it is possible for an athlete to win both the Big Crystal Globe and Small Crystal Globes for the same World Cup season.[3]
The tables given below provide an overview of the highest-ranking biathletes and nations of each WC season.
For sprint/individual/pursuit/mass start first place gives 90 points, 2nd place – 75 pts, 3rd place – 60 pts, 4th place – 50 pts, 5th place – 45 pts, 6th place – 40 pts, 7th – 36 pts, 8th – 34 points, 9th – 32 points, 10th – 31 points, then linearly decreasing by one point down to the 40th place. In Equal placings (ties) give an equal number of points. The sum of all WC points of the season, less the points from an IBU-predetermined number of events (e.g. 2), gives the biathlete's total WC score.
From 1985 to 2000, WC points were awarded so that the first four places gave 30, 26, 24, and 22 points, respectively, and then the 5th to 25th place gave 21, 20, ..., down to 1 point. Before this, points were simply awarded linearly from 25 to 1.
As of February 2024, meetings have primarily been held in Europe and North America; the only other places to have hosted meetings that weren't the World Championships or the Winter Olympics, are Nagano, Japan in 1996–97, and Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2007–08 and 2016–17.
The women's World Cup seasons until 1986–87 were actually called the European Cup, although participation was open to biathletes of all nationalities. Until 1987–88, women raced on shorter tracks than they do today. The 1988–89 season was the first in which women raced on tracks of the same length that they do nowadays.
3Kaisa Mäkäräinen was the winner at the conclusion of the season with Tora Berger 2nd. However, the results of Olga Zaitseva were later annulled due to doping offences. The recalculation would have given overall world cup win to Berger, but the IBU made the decision based on the principle that clean athletes cannot be punished for the doping offenses of others.
Below is a list of all male and female biathletes that have won five or more individual World Cup, World Championships or Olympic races. Biathletes whose names are in bold are still active.[6][7]
List of top 10 most started all male and female biathletes in individual World Cup or Olympic races. Biathletes whose names are in bold are still active.[8]
