Status active Begins November Frequency annual | Genre sporting event Ends March | |
Date(s) Northern wintertime season | ||
The Biathlon World Cup has been held since the winter seasons of 1977–78 and 1982–83, for men and women, respectively (for women, the seasons through 1986–87 were called the European Cup, although participation was not restricted to Europeans).
Contents
Competition
The World Cup season lasts from November–December to 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. Also counting as World Cup events are World Championships, and formerly 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).
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.
Standings
The tables given below provide an overview of the highest-ranking biathletes and nations of each WC season. For each event, a first place gives 60 points, a 2nd place 54 pts, a 3rd place 48 pts, a 4th place 43 pts, a fifth place 40 pts, a 6th place 38 pts, 7th 36 pts 8th 34 points, 9th 32 points, 10th 31 points, then linearly decreasing by one point down to the 40th place. 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.)
Men
Romanization of Cyrillic script-based names follows the IBU's athlete records.
See the List of IOC country codes for expansions of country abbreviations.
Overall
Statistics
(¹ Vladimir Drachev changed his citizenship from Russian to Belarusian in 2002)
Women
Romanization of Cyrillic script-based names follows the IBU's athlete records.
See the List of IOC country codes for expansions of country abbreviations.
Overall
The women's World Cup seasons through 1986–87 were actually called the European Cup, although participation was open to biathletes of all nationalities.
1 Petra Schaaf married XC skier and later German national XC ski team coach Jochen Behle
2 Helena Jonsson married fellow biathlete David Ekholm in 2010
Statistics
¹ Helena Jonsson married fellow biathlete David Ekholm in 2010, and changed her name to Helena Ekholm
Most successful race winners
Below is a list of all male and female biathletes that have won 7 or more World Cup victories. Biathletes whose names are in bold are still active.
Updated: 19 February 2017