The 2025/26 biathlon season begins in Östersund this weekend. In advance, five top trainers addressed the question, among other things: Who will win the overall World Cup?
Although the 2026 Olympic Games are the overarching highlight of the coming biathlon season, winning the overall World Cup is and remains a major, worthwhile goal for the top stars. In an interview with the International Biathlon Union (IBU), five well-known coaches gave their tips for the outcome and named their big favorites among women and men.
Among those interviewed was Sverre Olsbu Røiseland, shooting coach for the German women. He sees four biathletes at the forefront in the fight for the big crystal ball. In addition to Franziska Preuß, he also named Lou Jeanmonnot, Lisa Vittozzi and “a Swede like Elvira Öberg”.
This is how the biathlon coaches predict the women’s World Cup
Johannes Lukas, head coach of the Swedish women, sees it very similarly. He has one of the Öberg sisters (“I won’t say which one”), Preuß and also Vittozzi on the list. France’s men’s coach Simon Fourcade, somewhat surprisingly, also named Océane Michelon alongside Preuß and Jeanmonnot.
Poland’s new head coach Uros Velepec sees a somewhat unusual duel for the women. He predicts Franz Preuss’ title defense and sees “a French woman in second, third, fourth and fifth place. And I can see Vittozzi and the Öberg sisters in front. But the top five women are very difficult to predict.”
Siegfried Mazet, Norway’s shooting coach, also has Preuß, Jeanmonnot and Vittozzi in the women’s field.
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Among the men, the five coaches see two biathletes in particular as being at the forefront in the fight for the big prize: Sturla Holm Lægreid and Eric Perrot. The Norwegian and the Frenchman were included in the favorites list by all coaches. There were also Sebastian Samuelsson, Quentin Fillon Maillet and Tommaso Giacomel. Velepec also has the Norwegian Martin Uldal at the top of the list.
It is also obvious to the coaches who will be the two biggest newcomers of the season. Among the women, the names of Selina Grotian and Océane Michelon came up, and among the men those of Isak Frey, Martin Uldal and Eric Perrot.