Johannes Thingnes Boe secured two individual golds and set two new statistical records at the BMW IBU World Championships in Lenzerheide 2025. Franziska Preuss met expectations by claiming her first-ever individual World Championship title, while Elvira Oeberg followed suit—making history alongside Hanna as the first sisters to win individual golds at the event. Meanwhile, France dominated the medal count among the powerhouse nations.

Johannes’ new - and last - mind-blowing records

At the end of the BMW IBU World Championships 2025, the last of his phenomenal career, Johannes Thingnes Boe was the only athlete with three individual medals; two were gold. Johannes shattered two historical records in Lenzerheide. His World Championships gold medal count, including relays, will forever stand at 23. His World Championships gold medal count in solely individual competitions will forever be 12. Both records are difficult to endanger, but Johannes is the first to acknowledge that sooner rather than later, someone would emerge with an outsized talent and ambition and do better than he did. As for his brother Tarjei - after a win in the Relay - he will retire as the only man with seven gold medals in the discipline.

Who else made history

Eric Perrot in the Individual and Endre Stroemsheim in the Mass Start won the remaining two men’s gold medals. They both did so in a deciding manner: Perrot with the fastest skiing time in the Individual, Stroemsheim with an unexpected early attack in the uphill in the dramatic final lap in the Mass Start where at-that-time leader Sturla Holm Laegreid pushed hard to avoid the final sprint where Stroemsheim is perhaps the strongest in field - at least according to Ole Einar Bjoerndalen - just to be left in slushy tracks.

With a bronze medal in the Individual, Quentin Fillon Maillet completed his set of medals at the World Championships in all seven disciplines. Fillon Maillet, of course, aimed for individual gold, but his shooting - as often this season - proved too erratic for the only trophy of the highest order still missing in his collection.

Mixed fortune for other big-ticket names

Of the remaining big-ticket favourites, Emilien Jacquelin and Martin Ponsiluoma failed to win medals due to their sub-par shooting accuracy of 77%. Sebastian Samuelsson’s poor health prevented him from thriving in the last laps, where he is usually the strongest. Laegreid only got the skis he desired on the final weekend, where he was spotless in the third Relay leg and won silver in the Mass Start. With the final Trimester of the World Cup season starting in a week in Nove Mesto, Laegreid will feel good about the fact that he withstood JT Boe’s assault at the end of the Mass Start in Lenzerheide and that he has 48 points advantage over him in the Total Score standings.

Preuss met expectations

Franziska Preuss ticked an important box in her long but often troubled career by taking her first-ever individual gold at the World Championships with a win in the Pursuit. She won another silver in the Sprint and bronze medals in the Mixed and Single Mixed Relay. Perhaps equally important - she performed better than Lou Jeanmonnot, her fierce rival in the Total Score battle, who went to Lenzerheide only to win just one individual medal - a bronze in the Individual. Preuss now goes to Nove Mesto with 92 92-point advantage and is relieved of the enormous World Championships expectations burden. She delivered in Lenzerheide - she is forever a World Champion!

Elvira Oeberg makes history for herself and the Oeberg sisters

Justine Braisaz-Bouchet in the Sprint, Julia Simon in the Individual, and Elvira Oeberg in the Mass Start, also celebrated in Lenzerheide. Believe it or not - Elvira won her first-ever individual gold at the World Championships or Olympic Winter Games. Hanna has three World Championship gold medals, making them the first sisters to win individual gold medals and second, after the Boe brothers, in the individual gold medal category among siblings.

Oceane Michelon and Maren Kirkeeide - alongside Jeanne Richard and Selina Grotian, both contenders for the U23 Score title - won their maiden World Championships medals in the Mass Start.

Julia Simon ended the Championships as the only athlete with four gold medals. She was a key athlete in all three gold-wining French relays - Mixed, Single Mixed, and Women’s relay.

France ruled

In the big picture, France won the most medals - 13, the most gold medals - 6 and failed to win at least a medal only in the last competition in Lenzerheide, in the men’s Mass Start. As Johannes Thingnes Boe said in Lenzerheide: “France is now the leading biathlon nation.”

Photos: IBU/Vianney Thibaut, Nordic Focus