SIMON Julia

Dzinara Alimbekava was the surprise success story of the 2020/21 BMW IBU World Cup season. She came into the new season with an interesting resume: an IBU YWCH Relay Gold medal, a couple of IBU Cup sprint wins back in 2016, only one World Cup top 20 (a clean-shooting 13th at Oestersund 2018), but an Olympic Relay Gold medal. In the back of her mind was one goal, to be the best under 25 woman in biathlon. “I had one aim, to keep this Blue Bib and win it.” The young Belarusian did just that.

Alimbekava put on the Blue Bib when she finished with a personal best eighth place in the Kontiolahti women’s 15 km individual and never took it off. From that point, she notched personal best after personal best, fueled by solid skiing but most importantly 90% shooting, well above her previous season’s 76%. The high point of Alimbekava’s season came when she shot clean in the Hochfilzen sprint for her first-ever victory.

Although her torrid pace dipped a bit in the middle of her brilliant season, the Belarusian added one more line to her resume in the last competition of the season, the Oestersund women’s 12.5 km mass start, battling to second place to seal the Blue Bib title over Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold. In one season, Alimbekava went from virtual unknown to one of the top women in the sport.