A new unique rollerski Super Sprint debuts at this weekend’s Loop One Festival in Munich’s legendary Olympiapark, with the 60 best male and female biathletes in the world battling for supremacy in fast and furious, action-packed competitions.

Four midday qualification heats with fifteen athletes going head-to-head lead to an exciting men’s final at 15:30, followed by the equally thrilling women’s final at 16:15.

Path to the Finals

Four heats with 15 athletes starting together race over three 1.8 km loops around the Olympic Lake with two shooting bouts, prone and then standing with no spare rounds and a 60-meter penalty loop for each miss. As in all winter biathlon competitions, the athletes will be firing their standard .22 caliber biathlon rifles at targets 50 meters away.

The heats will be seeded by World Cup ranking with 1-4 and 4-8 distributed over the four heats and the remaining competitors spread over the four heats. A maximum of two competitors from the same team may compete in the same heat.

The top three finishers in each heat plus the next three fastest overall, “the lucky losers” move to the 15-person final.

Challenging Five-loop Finals

The finals up the ante for the 15 qualifiers in both the women’s and men’s competitions. The distances go up from the three 1.8 km loops in the heats to five loops, featuring four shooting bouts, no spare rounds and the 60-meter penalty loop for each missed shot. The shooting order is prone, prone, standing, and a final decisive standing stage before the dash to the finish.

From the heats to the final, don’t miss any of the action in this big 2025/26 season preview either in person at Olympiapark, on TV, or online, just 5 weeks before the BMW IBU World Cup season kicks off November 29 in Oestersund.

Photos: IBU/Nordnes, Authamayou