“Scandal”
TV breakdown at biathlon World Cup horrified the fans
16.02.2025 – 8:12 a.m.Reading time: 1 min.
He did it again: Norwegian biathlon superstar Johannes Thingnes Bö crowned himself into the world champion. However, fans are more than upset.
Johannes Thingnes Bö secured his 21st world championship title in a gripping sprint on Saturday and moved past icon ole Einar Björndalen, who has 20 World Cup gold medals in the closet. Björndalen praised Bö on ZDF: “He is a legend. If he continued if he had broken all my records.” Bö ended his career after the season and was now able to look forward to a World Cup victory again.
However, Norwegian fans are angry: they have not been able to see the decisive, last shooting of the dominator. The international director missed the perfect standing deposit of the 31-year-old in good time. Media director Christian Winkler from the Biathlon World Association (IBU) explained to the dpa: “Of course, such a mistake must not happen.”
Also shooting deposits of the World Cup-leading Sturla Holm Laegreid and Sweden Sebastian Samuelsson were not shown because the direction instead paneled other pictures. Commentator Marius Skjelbaek from the Norwegian broadcaster TV2 spoke of a “scandal”. The Swede Samuelsson described the incident as “very sad”, but also showed understanding in the face of the hectic course of the race.
Winkler apologized on behalf of the IBU, told the Norwegian public service broadcasting NRK: “The fact that John ‘is not shown last shooting cannot be shown. That is not okay.” However, the shooting was submitted very quickly in the repetition.