The Single Mixed Relay completed its quick rise from a quirky new biathlon competition to an Olympic medal event when it was added to the programme for Alps 2030 yesterday in an announcement from the International Olympic Committee. The SMR is an exciting, television friendly competition defined by speed on the tracks and range that makes it a fan and athlete favorite.

“This is kind of the future”

The Single Mixed Relay's rise to Olympic event status has been almost meteoric; it entered the World Cup scene in February 2015 in Nove Mesto and then later again in Oestersund in December 2015. At that time, the field was not always as star-studded as it is today, with every team now putting its strongest team on the starting line. Home team Sweden’s Linn Gestblom and Tobias Arwidson finished fourth in Oestersund and Arwidson predicted, “I think this is kind of the future. You can have this kind of race in a small stadium in the big towns. Sometime in the future, we are going to have more of this kind of races.”

Big Stars in Canmore

The competition made a splash with big stars the next March in Canmore when France fielded Marie Dorin Habert and Martin Fourcade. Dorin Habert using a spare in each leg, tagged Fourcade first and the duo ran away to a 45-second win over Simon Eder and Lisa Theresa Hauser.

Ironically, Fourcade had only one other SMR victory, also with Dorin Habert in the Oestersund season opener the next December with Eder and Hauser second once more. The Austrian pair continued their partnership over the next ten years as the most successful SMR team ever, racking up two victories and seven additional podiums.

First IBU World Champions: JT and Marte

The SMR became a medal event at the 2019 Oestersund IBU World Championships. By then, its acceptance and popularity was obvious from the faces on the podium. Norwegian superstars Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Johannes Thingnes Boe won the Gold medal, 13.5 seconds ahead of Italian legends Dorothea Wierer and Lukas Hofer, with Sweden’s biggest stars Hanna Oeberg and Sebastian Samuelsson third. Boe realised the win’s importance. “It’s super to be the first Single Mixed Relay World Champions… one for the history books!” Roeiseland and JT won that Championship two more times.

“It’s about pressure”

After that hard-fought first IBU SMR, Wierer summed up the character of this compelling competition that can turn in an instant. “We know we are a really good team, of course it depends on the shooting. It’s about pressure. He put a little pressure on me. I put pressure on him and it worked.”

What pair will take the first Olympic Single Mixed Relay Gold medal? We will know in three and a half years…stay tuned; excitement awaits!

Photos: IBU/Christian Manzoni