Kaisa Varis is a Finnish retired cross-country skier and biathlete. Her career has been marred by doping convictions: as a cross-country skier, she was involved but not suspended in a doping scandal and in 2003 she was suspended two years for doping use. After her suspension, she returned as a biathlete in 2007, but in 2008 she received a lifetime ban from all International Biathlon Union (IBU) competitions after another positive doping test. However, her lifetime ban was overturned in March 2009 because the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the IBU failed to adhere to correct testing procedures; she remains eligible to compete in biathlon.
The International Biathlon Union is the international governing body of biathlon. Its headquarters were in Salzburg, Austria, until May 2020, when the Federation moved to Anif, on the outskirts of the city. It was rocked by a corruption scandal that broke in 2018, concerning the Russians bribing its top two officials. In 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, as invading nations, were suspended from all international biathlon competitions until further notice.
Magdalena "Lena" Holzer is a retired German professional biathlete. She is the most successful woman of all time at Biathlon World Championships and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. At the age of 21, she became the youngest Overall World Cup winner in the history of the International Biathlon Union (IBU). With 34 World Cup wins, Holzer is ranked second all-time for career victories on the Biathlon World Cup tour. She has won the Overall World Cup title three times, in 2007–08, in 2009–10 and her final season in 2011–12. At only 25 years old, Holzer retired from the sport in March 2012, citing a lack of motivation and her desire for a normal life.
Svetlana Yuryevna Sleptsova is a retired Russian biathlete. She is a member of the club CSKA. She is a three-time Junior World Champion and won the bronze medal in the mixed relay at the 2008 World Championships in Östersund. In 2009, she was part of the gold medal winning Russian women's relay team at the World Championships in Pyeongchang. Sleptsova is an Olympic champion in relay at Vancouver.
Kaisa Leena Mäkäräinen is a Finnish former world-champion and 3-time world-cup-winning biathlete, who currently competes for Kontiolahden Urheilijat. Outside sports, Mäkäräinen is currently studying to be a Physics teacher at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu. Her team coach is Jonne Kähkönen, while Jarmo Punkkinen is her ski coach.
Miriam Neureuther is a former German biathlete and cross-country skier. She has won an Olympic silver medal in cross-country skiing and two biathlon world championship titles, all in team events. Noted for her fast skiing performances, she won two junior world championship titles in biathlon in 2008 and 2009. Gössner was called up for the Nordic World Ski Championships 2009, where she was part of Germany's cross-country team claiming silver in the 4 × 5 kilometre relay.
Anastasiya Vladimirovna Kuzmina is a Russian-born Slovak biathlete.
Tarjei Bø is a Norwegian professional biathlete. Awarded Olympic gold medals, World Championship gold medals and World Cup victories from 2010 to 2022. Bø debuted in the Biathlon World Cup on 26 March 2009 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In the 2010 Winter Olympics, he earned his first gold medal in the 4 × 7.5 km biathlon relay. On 10 December 2010 he won the World Cup sprint race in Hochfilzen, his first world cup victory. He also won the following pursuit race and anchored the winning relay team. Bø is the older brother of biathlete Johannes Thingnes Bø.
Marie Dorin Habert is a retired French biathlete.
Susan Dunklee is a retired American biathlete.
Gabriela Soukalová, formerly Koukalová is a former Czech biathlete and television presenter for TV Prima. She won three Olympic medals at the 2014 Sochi Games and she is a two-time World Championship winner, gold medalist at the 2015 Kontiolahti in mixed relay and gold medalist at 2017 Hochfilzen in 7.5 km sprint. In the 2015/2016 World Cup season she was overall champion, and she has also taken six discipline Crystal Globes: the 2013/2014 individual title, the 2015/2016 sprint, pursuit and mass-start titles, and the 2016/17 sprint and mass start titles.
Tiril Kampenhaug Eckhoff is a Norwegian former biathlete.
Laura Dahlmeier is a retired German biathlete. Dahlmeier started in her first world cup races in the 2012/13 season. In 2014, she participated in the Winter Olympics in Sochi. She won a record of five gold medals at the World Championships of 2017. In 2018 she became the first woman to win the biathlon sprint and pursuit in the same Olympics. During her career she has won a total of two golds and one bronze at the Olympics, seven gold medals, three silver medals and five bronze medals at World Championships, one overall World Cup and two discipline World Cup titles. Dahlmeier announced her retirement from competition in May 2019, at the age of 25. In October 2019, she released a children's book.
Vanessa Hinz is a former German biathlete and cross-country skier. Hinz started in her first world cup races at the end of the 2012/13-season. At the 2013 European Championships she won a gold medal with the German relay team. In 2014, she participated in the Winter Olympics in Sochi. She was officially nominated by the DOSB on 23 January 2014, but not taken with the team to Russia. So she had to wait at home as stand-by reserve.
Katharina Komatz is an Austrian biathlete. She was born in Zell am See.
Lisa Vittozzi is an Italian biathlete. She competes in the Biathlon World Cup, Vittozzi has won a bronze medal at the Biathlon World Championships 2015 in Kontiolahti . At the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics she won the bronze medal in the Mixed relay. Vittozzi is the overall winner of the Biathlon World Cup 2023/24 season.
Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen is a Norwegian biathlete.
Regina Ermits is an Estonian biathlete. She competes in the Biathlon World Cup.
The 2020–21 Biathlon World Cup (BWC) was a multi-race series over a season of biathlon, organised by the International Biathlon Union. The season started on 28 November 2020 in Kontiolahti, Finland and ended on 21 March 2021 in Östersund, Sweden.
Johanna Skottheim is a Swedish female biathlete. In the first competition of the 2020/2021 season, she earned her first World Cup podium.
