Biathlon at the 2026 Winter Olympics – Qualification

The following is about the qualification rules and the quota allocation for the biathlon at the 2026 Winter Olympics. ^[1]

Quota allocation

A total quota of 210 athletes are allowed at the Games (105 both men and women). The first 93 quota allocations, per gender, will be assigned from the 2024/25 World Cup Nation Cup score. The final 12 spots, per gender, will be allocated using the IBU Qualifying Points List (as of January 18, 2026), to nations who have not qualified any athletes yet, with a maximum of two per nation.

From the 2024/25 world cup final standings, NOCs ranked 1-3 will qualify six athletes, 4-10 five athletes, and 11-20 four athletes, for both male and female competitions. The final twelve spots in each gender are filled individually from the IBU Qualifying points list to a maximum of two for a nation, from nations not already qualified. Two of these spots will be used by the host if not already qualified. The host may only start in the relay competitions that they have enough qualified athletes for. Reallocation of unused quotas will be from the IBU Qualifying points list for nations that have not yet qualified, or only have one qualifier. For each event a maximum of 4 athletes per NOC may compete, except the Mass Start in which it remains possible to qualify up to 6.

Minimum Requirements

During the 2024/25 or 2025/26 Biathlon World Cup season the athlete must have two results at IBU Cup, Open European Championships, World Championships or World Cup in the Sprint or Individual and have at most an IBU Qualifying point total of 150 or less. Or, two placings in the top half at the Junior World Championships. They also can have a combination of both criteria (one of each). All relay members must meet this requirement as well.

Qualification summary

The NOC rankings are complete, so quotas achieved by this method are assured. The final twelve quotas (per gender), achieved through IBU qualifying points, can continue to change up to the 18 January 2026 deadline. ^[1]

Nations	Men's Quotas	Women's Quotas	Men's Provisional	Women's Provisional	Total
Australia			0	1	1
Austria	4	5			9
Belgium	4	4			8
Brazil			0	1	1
Bulgaria	4	4			8
Canada	4	4			8
China			1	2	3
Croatia			2	1	3
Czech Republic	5	5			10
Denmark			1	1	2
Estonia	4	4			8
Finland	5	5			10
France	6	6			12
Germany	5	6			11
Italy	5	5			10
Japan			1	0	1
Kazakhstan			2	1	3
Latvia	4	4			8
Lithuania	4	4			8
Moldova			2	2	4
Norway	6	5			11
Poland	4	4			8
Romania	4			2	6
Slovakia		4	2		6
Slovenia	5	4			9
South Korea			1	1	2
Sweden	6	6			12
Switzerland	5	5			10
Ukraine	5	5			10
United States	4	4			8
Total: 30 NOCs	93	93	12	12	210

Qualification standings

	Qualifies 6 athletes
	Qualifies 5 athletes
	Qualifies 4 athletes
	Qualifies 2 athletes by IBU qualifying points
	Qualifies 1 athlete by IBU qualifying points

Standings after 26 of 26 events. Men's standings [2] [3] Position Country Nations Cup Points 1   France 9002 2   Norway 8842 3   Sweden 7862 4   Germany 7689 5   Italy 6776 6   Switzerland 6737 7   Czech Republic 6493 8   Ukraine 6382 9   Slovenia 6320 10   Finland 6095 11   Austria 6085 12   United States 5530 13   Belgium 4666 14   Poland 4479 15   Bulgaria 4360 16   Estonia 4347 17   Romania 4283 18   Latvia 4176 19   Lithuania 4099 20   Canada 3560 21   Kazakhstan 3406 22   Moldova 2885 23   Slovakia 2485 24   Croatia 723 25   China 689 26   South Korea 667 27   Greece 313 28   Great Britain 300 29   Japan 300 30   Denmark [a] 264 [b] 31   Australia 197 32   Spain 65 33   Argentina 60 34   Mongolia 13

Standings after 26 of 26 events Women's standings [4] [5] Position Country Nations Cup Points 1   France 9060 2   Sweden 8146 3   Germany 8051 4   Norway 7967 5   Switzerland 7066 6   Italy 6758 7   Austria 6522 8   Ukraine 6124 9   Czech Republic 6018 10   Finland 5782 11   Poland 5733 12   Slovenia 5045 13   Estonia 5072 14   Slovakia 4850 15   Bulgaria 4820 16   Canada 4784 17   Belgium 4532 18   Latvia 4420 19   United States 4088 20   Lithuania 3501 21   Romania 2846 22   Kazakhstan 2663 23   Moldova 2489 24   China 928 25   South Korea 707 26   Australia 572 27   Croatia 452 28   Great Britain 384 29   Denmark [a] 233 30   Greece 186 31   Brazil 159 32   Japan 149 33   Hungary 104

IBU Qualifying points

As of 21 March 2025. ^[5]

Men's standings Position Athlete Points 1 Maksim Makarov 51.31 2 Sondre Slettemark 59.02 3 Mihail Usov 63.62 4 Krešimir Crnković 65.73 5 Tomáš Sklenárik 72.79 6 Timofei Lapshin 74.13 7 Vladislav Kireyev 74.42 8 Matija Legović 77.90 9 Nikita Akimov 82.57 10 Yan Xingyuan 84.77 11 Jakub Borgula 84.86 12 Mikito Tachizaki 99.74 13 Masaharu Yamamoto 109.04 14 Gu Cang 110.04 15 Rasmus Schiellerup 126.15 16 Enkhsaikhan Enkhbat 126.26 17 Choi Du-jin 127.87 18 Phoenix Sparke 133.04 19 Marcus Bolin Webb 133.42 20 Apostolos Angelis 140.44

Women's standings Position Country Points 1 Alina Stremous 54.24 2 Ukaleq Slettemark 70.97 3 Anastasia Tolmacheva 73.31 4 Anika Kožica 78.46 5 Ekaterina Avvakumova 88.03 6 Darcie Morton 99.22 7 Andreea Mezdrea 99.97 8 Meng Fanqi 100.13 9 Olga Poltoranina 102.09 10 Tang Jialin 103.13 11 Gaia Brunello 110.99 12 Aliona Makarova 113.68 13 Aisha Rakisheva 121.46 14 Shawna Pendry 133.29 15 Chloe Dupont 140.53 16 Ko Eun-jung 157.90 17 Sara Ponya 160.31 18 Konstantina Charalampidou 162.44 19 Aoi Sato 172.75 20 Mikoto Takeuchi 177.99

1. Athletes from Greenland qualify for Denmark.
2. Nation's cup points are only displayed for Denmark because they are the highest ranked National Federation of Denmark's National Olympic Committee. ^[1]

References

1. "Qualification System - XXV Olympic Winter Games, Milano-Cortina 2026" (PDF). Olympics.com. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
2. "World Cup Standings 2024/25". Eurosport.com. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
3. "IBU qualifying points". International Biathlon Union . Retrieved 24 December 2024.
4. "World Cup Standings 2024/25". Eurosport.com. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
5. "IBU qualifying points". International Biathlon Union . Retrieved 24 December 2024.