The World Team Challenge is an international biathlon competition, which has been held every year between Christmas and New Year since 2002 in Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen. Previously a similar competition was held at the same time of year in Ruhpolding, but since 2001 the venue was changed due to financial troubles.[1] The competition isn't part of the World Cup.

World Team Challenge
World Team Challenge 2005
Statusactive
Genresports event
Date(s)December
Frequencyannual
Location(s)Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia
CountryGermany
Inaugurated2002 (2002)

Statistics

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Winners by edition

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# Years Winners
1 2002   Michael Greis   Martina Glagow
2 2003   Ole Einar Bjørndalen   Gunn Margit Andreassen
3 2004   Ole Einar Bjørndalen   Liv Kjersti Eikeland
4 2005   Ole Einar Bjørndalen   Linda Tjørhom
5 2006   Ole Einar Bjørndalen   Linda Grubben
6 2007   Dmitri Yaroshenko   Ekaterina Iourieva
7 2008   Andriy Deryzemlya   Oksana Khvostenko
8 2009   Christoph Sumann   Kati Wilhelm
9 2010 a   Evgeny Ustyugov   Svetlana Sleptsova
10 2011   Carl Johan Bergman   Kaisa Mäkäräinen
11 2012   Anton Shipulin   Ekaterina Yurlova
12 2013   Florian Graf   Laura Dahlmeier
13 2014   Serhiy Semenov   Valj Semerenko
14 2015   Martin Fourcade   Marie Dorin-Habert
15 2016   Simon Schempp   Vanessa Hinz
16 2017   Alexey Volkov   Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht
17 2018   Lukas Hofer   Dorothea Wierer
18 2019   Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen   Marte Olsbu Røiseland
19 2020   Matvey Eliseev   Evgeniya Pavlova
20 2021   Felix Leitner   Lisa Theresa Hauser
21 2022   Fabien Claude   Julia Simon
22 2023[2]   Fabien Claude   Julia Simon
  • ^a The 2010 event was rescheduled for March 2011 because of the roof destruction.

Successful nations

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Rank Country Victories
1   Norway 5
  Russia
3   Germany 3.5
4   France 3
5   Ukraine 2
6   Austria 1.5
7   Italy 1
8   Finland 0.5
  Sweden

Participating nations

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Country 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
  Austria * ** 1* 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
  Belarus 1 1 * * 1
  Belgium * 1
  Canada 1 1 1
  China 1 1
  Czech Republic 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
  Finland 1 1 * * * 1 1
  France 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
  Germany 4 5 4 5 6 5 3* 1** 3 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
  Italy 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
  Japan 1 1
  Norway 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 * 1 1 1
  Poland 1 1
  Romania *
  Russia 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
  Slovakia 1
  Slovenia 1 1 1 1 1
  Sweden 1* * 1 1
  Switzerland 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
  United States 1 1 1 1
  Ukraine 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 * 1 1 1 1 1 1
Legend to the table

«*» – one athlete in a mixed pair.

References

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  1. ^ "From crazy idea to a successful biathlon competition" (in German). FC Schalke 04 Arena Management. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
  2. ^ "Simon and Claude Defend World Team Challenge Title". International Biathlon Union - IBU. 2023-12-28. Retrieved 2023-12-30.
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