Like any sport, biathlon has its unexpected moments when something baffling to the casual observer happens. These moments are many times human errors, sometimes caused by icy tracks, and sometimes are just simply accidents. Regardless of what or how it happens, there is usually a remedy, and the athlete continues on in the competition.

Ingrid’s Broken Rifle Harness

Falls and crashes are a part of biathlon and when you fall, carrying a 3.5 kg rifle, it is likely that the rather fragile wooden or composite rifle stock will break. This happens multiple times each season. Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold encountered an even more bizarre rifle mishap in the 2025 Antholz Sprint. She was skiing into the shooting range when her rifle harness snapped. “The rifle fell off in the last curve. The sling fell off and then I had to carry the rifle into the shooting range. I'm quite impressed that I got four hits.”

Cross-firing: Braunhofer/Sjokvist

The easy one, missed many times by the casual observer is, “cross-firing.” When an athletes for example, lines up on Lane 2, but shoots at one of his opponent’s targets on either side. This can happen with a momentary lapse of focus as the competitor looks towards the targets 50 meters away, moving the rifle just a few degrees in the wrong direction. This recently happened to Italy’s Patrick Braunhofer who fired 5 shots at Sweden’s Henning Sjokvist’s target in the Ruhpolding Pursuit while the Swede had to stop and wait. “It’s incredibly hard to stand and wait while the others go by. I raced the last two laps furiously…was very happy to get a clear round in spite of everything.” Sjokvist got a 28-seond time bonus, while the Italian was penalized two minutes. It is best to double-check your lane and target number before shooting!

Lost Pole and Sportsmanship

Losing or breaking a ski pole occurs frequently. Sometimes poles just snap from pressure or a wrong movement results in a pole disappearing from the hand. Slovenia’s Lovro Planko and Germany’s Philipp Nawrath tangled in this season’s Oestersund 20 km Individual. The rivals shot standing on adjacent mats. As they left, the German stepped in front of Planko who stepped on Nawrath’s pole which he dropped. As they left the range, in a show of sportsmanship, the Slovenian handed Nawrath his pole. “It was my fault; it was the only fair solution.” Nawrath added, “He reacted pretty fast. That was nice thing to do, a fair play thing. That is one of the cool things about biathlon.”

No Magazine

Everyone always checks before the start, making sure they have four full rifle magazines and spare rounds, but sometimes that full magazine just is not there when needed! In the recent Nove Mesto Men’s Short Individual, Quentin Fillon Maillet suddenly raised his hand during his final standing stage; a sign calling an official. The problem: the French Olympic Champion had on dropped his 4th magazine into the snow, in an area where he could not retrieve it! The official handed him 5 cartridges that he put in the rifle stock, subsequently loading each one by hand, losing valuable time. Fillon Maillet eventually finished 17th.

Remember the old adage, “It’s biathlon; anything can happen!”

Photos: IBU/Yevenko, Manzoni, Nordic Foc