Mentorship

EDITION 2025/2026 - Shaping Tomorrow’s Biathlon Leaders

IBU takes the next step to continue shaping the future of biathlon leadership globally, focusing on ambitious individuals, both women and men, who are committed to serving their national federation and the biathlon family for years to come. With this change in project approach, we believe in creating lasting change towards a more gender balanced future by fostering collaboration between women and men.

Program Objectives and Target Group

We seek ambitious individuals from Olympic and Para Biathlon ready to strengthen their leadership skills and take on bigger roles within their Clubs, National Federation, or IBU. The 2025 program is open to candidates who meet at least one of the following criteria:

Former athletes (who have competed in IBU events) ready to transition into leadership roles in Olympic or Para biathlon.
Individuals stepping into new roles within their Club, NF, or IBU—or preparing for the next stage in their leadership journey.
Those new to leadership roles who would benefit from a mentor to discuss ideas and challenges.

In addition to the criteria mentioned above, candidates must:

Have the support of their NF to pursue a specific goal or role.
Be highly motivated individuals committed to the necessary work to achieve their goals.
Be proficient in English.

Program Start: 2nd July 2025, with an in-person meeting at the IBU Headquarters.

The 10-month program is a mix of in-person, live online sessions and personal work with assigned mentors (each mentee is assigned a business and a biathlon expert mentor). The number of in-person sessions is 2 sessions of 2/3 days each, and online webinars with workshops 4 times, 2 hours each, working group meetings, and personal mentorship of a minimum of 12 hours.

Application Process

NFs submit a nomination application form for each candidate, including NFs recommendation letter, candidate’s CV and her/his motivational letter in IBU Scope.
Candidates meeting the selection criteria will receive instructions to apply through our program delivery contractor’s platform, including a written and video introduction.
Shortlisted 'semi-finalist' candidates will be invited for an online interview.
The top candidates will be approved for the program by the IBU President and Secretary General.
Once approved, Mentees will be matched with mentors and will have access to a wide range of professional development tools, topic-based webinars, and the broader IBU mentorship community.

Application Deadline: 12th of May 2025, via IBU Scope.

EDITION 2023/2024 - GAME CHANGERS

4th July 2023 Kick-off meeting with Mentees
30th August 2023 Kick-off meeting with Mentors
05th September 2023 Webinar - Story Telling
07th November Webinar 2023 - Building Your Brand
9thof January 2024 - Sport movement
21stof March 2024 - Negotiations
14thof May 2025 - Wellbeing
In-person meeting with IBU EB, Lenzerheide, SUI, 8-10 June 2024

List of mentees: Anais Bescond (NF FRA), Karin Oberhofer (NF ITA), Susan Dunklee (NF USA), Monika Hojnisz (NF POL), Kaisa Mäkäräinen (NF FIN), Karolina Dusilova (NF CZE), Kristina Skjevdal (NF NOR), Malin Joranil (NF NOR), Mihaela Visinski (NF CRO), Mina Ilic (NF SRB), Sanja Kusmuk (NF BiH), Nika Blazenic (NF SLO), Theresa Heinsinger (IBU), Anna Kitzbichler (IBU)

Target group: FORMER FEMALE ATHLETES

World Cup and IBU Cup level athlete
Preferable female athletes who retired from the sport no more than 5 seasons ago (flexibility for case-by-case decisions in case of good arguments),
Started a new role in the NF or ready for the next step in the organisation
The mentee and National Federation see a role for her in the organisation.
The role needs to be described in the application.
Be seen as a leader today or a near future leader.
Speaks English well
Application via IBU Scope by NFs from 26th of April to 31st of May 2023

Programme includes:

Individual mentoring done by the IBU mentor and SheSkillzGlobal mentor
Group tasks
Webinars and workshops focused on leadership skills development.
In-person meeting Q2 2024

Programme is developed and delivered by IBU in collaboration with SheSkillzGlobal

Info for candidates

ACTIVITIES IN 2022

29th of September: Meeting with Mentors - program evaluation
22nd of September: Summary Meeting
11th of August Webinar: Online meetings
16-19th of June: Meeting in Anif
24th of May Webinar: Media cover, interviews and promotion on LinkedIn. (Advice for interviews and writing the articles with prof. Toni Bruce, How to promote yourself with Servane Haycraft)
4-6th May Gender Equity Forum in Munich: Mind the Gap! How to accelerate the change.
26th April Webinar: Negotiations (Introduction to the topic with Prof. Suzanne C De Janasz, Experience sharing SG Niklas Carlsson)
24th February Webinar: Creating, maintaining and using the network (Introduction to the topic with prof. Maury Peiperl, Experience sharing President Olle Dahlin)

GOALS

Focus on mentoring the women who are today in a management position within their organization and are interested in moving forward and taking the next step in their career.

STATUS TODAY IN IBU

Lack of female leadership in exposed positions: in IBU EB, NFs’ Boards and other decision-making bodies (IBU Technical Committee), Head Coaches, Chiefs of Organizing Committee, Chiefs of Competitions (World Cups, World Championships) and lack of females on the International Referee and Technical Delegates position, too.

In 2022 IBU wants to support a maximum of 20 women that want to reach the following level:

Board/TC position in the IBU
National General Secretary/President level in the NF
Board position in the NF
National Team Coaches level
Management positions in NF
Decision-making positions in the IBU committees
International Referee/Technical Delegates position during the IBU events

From the applicants, we will interview those nominated by their NFs and who filled in the request. From the interviews, we will select the candidates presented for the IBU executive for a last decision/election.

HOW WE WANT TO SUPPORT THE CANDIDATE IN HER CAREER

We know that developing your full potential can be challenging for you as a female talent with ambitions. Your professional network may not be too extensive, and you may lack role models to look up to and talk with. Luckily, there is an increasing number of experienced professionals eager to help women succeed.

Our program is global from day one, with a common trait of mentors from different professions and countries. These mentors have extensive professional experience in their field of expertise combined with a readiness to invest a few days per year to be part of a global community aiming to achieve a world where talent has no gender.

With this mentoring network, IBU, together with SHESKILLZGLOBAL, aims to offer you as a female talent a safe and inspiring place to reflect on the sometimes-challenging moments in your professional journeys, helping you to make informed decisions about your next steps.

We aim to build a global community where professionals from different countries and cultures will meet as mentors and mentees, matched based on aspirations and experience. Those meetings will be mainly held online.

WHAT IS EXPECTED FROM A CANDIDATE IF SHE IS ELECTED

Participate in the kick-off meeting for the mentees
Set up clear goal(s) and commit to doing your best to reach this goal(s).
Attend the sessions with your mentor from IBU and SHESKILLZGLOBAL and work on the tasks the two of you agree about between the sessions. Then over the next 6-8 months, you will meet three times more for 60-90 min.
Participate in the webinars and meetings that will be offered during the programme.
Attend group sessions with the other participants (4-6 participants in each group).
Attend IBU Gender Equality Summit that is planned for May 2022 TBC
Attend “Face to face” session(s) that will go over 3 days in June 2022 IBU HQ.
Share your goal and where you are in the process.
Share experiences
Share challenges and give each other inputs
Let us know if you do not get the necessary support you were promised.

BUILDING A GLOBAL MENTORING NETWORK FOR WOMEN – HOW DO WE CONNECT THE PARTICIPANTS WITH THE BEST MENTOR

Sometimes it’s essential to have somebody from the same professional field or culture, other times not, also this we will try to handle in the best way to meet your expectations from our mentors. For this reason, you already know that as a part of the election process, you will be asked to fill in information about your primary areas of interest for development. It will help the mentor to know if they can be a good mentor for you.

TOPICS FOR THE SESSION WITH YOUR MENTORS CAN BE

Besides the ability to access your mentor’s professional experience, you will be able to discuss topics such as:

Sharing experiences with a professional from a different country or background
How to reach your next step in your career
How to manage relations with your manager and/or peers, how to handle conflicts
How to influence /get your points across, making an impact in your workplace
How to handle work-life balance

We firmly believe that our global mentoring network is poised to be a game-changer. One day, we hope our participants will go from being a mentee to being one of our mentors for other women who want to take a decision-making position in the biathlon family.