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From cheating admissions to convicted fraudsters and repealed doping suspensions, the drama surrounding biathlon at Milano Cortina 2026 has made the events anything but boring.
Biathlon, a sport which combines cross-country skiing with rifle shooting, was originated by Scandinavian militaries in the 18th century and has been at the Olympic Games since 1960 for men, and 1992 for women.
“If you ask around on the street [about biathlon], for sure, and this is like, from Quebec all the way out to British Columbia, you’ll probably have question marks in everybody’s eyes,” said three-time Canadian Olympic biathlete Jean-Phillipe Le Guellec.
Biathlon, normally a sport that doesn’t garner much Olympic attention, has grabbed plenty of headlines in Italy thanks to the unconventional drama happening off the competitive field.
A member of the Norwegian team admitted on live television to cheating on his girlfriend. Meanwhile, a French athlete won the gold medal after being convicted of fraud and an Italian athlete was added as a late entry after a doping suspension was overturned.
But Le Guellec isn’t sure if it’s helping put biathlon “more on the radar,” or if die-hard fans are going to be driven away to something less controversial.
140 per cent increase in streams
Despite the sport’s dominant popularity in Europe, it has seldom gathered as much interest in North America.
France currently leads for overall medal count in biathlon at Milano Cortina with nine medals while Norway follows with eight.
However, because the recent international controversies around the Milano-Cortina Olympics, CBC platforms have seen a 140 per cent increase in streams related to biathlon to date compared to Beijing 2022.
Canada has eight athletes competing in biathlon, with all but one – Adam Runnalls – making their Olympic debut.
Olympian Profile on Adam Runnalls, representing Canada in Biathlon at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
Canada’s highest finish so far has been 17th place in the mixed 4x6km relay and Pascale Paradis’ 24th place finish in the individual women’s 15km.
“Canada is not one of the favourite nations to win medals on the international scale, be it the World Cup or being even the Olympics,” said Le Guellec, who is also calling the Olympic biathlon events for CBC Radio-Canada.
Canada has only ever secured three Olympic medals in biathlon and all by Myriam Bédard in the early 1990s. Le Guellec has one of the highest finishes for a Canadian biathlete at the Olympic Games since then, finishing fifth in the men’s 10km sprint at Sochi 2014.
Many of the Canadian athletes from previous Olympic Games retired after Beijing 2022, but Le Guellec said Biathlon Canada has been going through a transition.
“There’s been a lot of chaos as well within the national team organization, so to speak,” he said.
“We’ve had changes in the coaching staff. We’ve had changes in the high-performance director for Biathlon Canada. We’ve had, also, a change in the general manager.”
Le Guellec also said changes in funding from Sport Canada has also made it harder for athletes to attend as many World Cup tours as they might have 10 years ago.
The controversies
The controversies at Milano Cortina 2026 began with the men’s 20km individual event on Feb. 10 where bronze medallist Norwegian Sturla Holm Laegreid admitted in his post-race interview to cheating on his ex-girlfriend of six months before the Games started.
“It’s been the worst week of my life,” Laegreid told Norwegian media, adding “I wish I could share this with her.”
Laegreid has won four medals at these Games – two silver and two bronze – but said he regrets sharing such a “personal story” on “what was a day of celebration for Norwegian biathlon.”
Laegreid’s tearful confession of his infidelity might have made him a punchline across social media, but he was criticized for taking attention away from his teammate, Johan-Olav Botn, who won gold.
Botn dedicated the race to a former teammate from Norway, Sivert Guttorm Bakken, who died in December of heart disease.
“The whole biathlon community was completely shaken with that,” Le Guellec said, adding Laegreid’s confession made everything “a bit of an awkward situation for sure.”
Laegreid apologized to Botn and his ex-girlfriend, whom he said “unwillingly ended up in the media spotlight.”
Laegreid’s ex-girlfriend did tell Norwegian media — choosing to remain anonymous — “It’s hard to forgive. Even after a declaration of love in front of the whole world.”
“We have been in contact and he is aware of my views on this,” she said.
“They’re Norwegians. Just like hockey players over here, they’re superstars in biathlon,” Le Guellec said.
“So I totally understand his ex-girlfriend’s perspective, and like, ‘I don’t want to be in the spotlight of the media with this.’”
The drama continued on the women’s side of biathlon where on Feb. 11, France’s Julia Simon won the 15km individual event, despite having been convicted in October of using her teammate Justine Braisaz-Bouchet’s credit card to steal about €2,000 (3,231.43 Cdn) between 2021 and 2022.
Braisaz-Bouchet finished 80th in the same event.
Simon had to pay €15,000 (24,235.72 Cdn) in fines, given a three-month suspended prison sentence, and issued a six-month ban from the French Ski Federation, to which she only served one month, allowing her to compete at Milano Cortina.
Le Guellec said the case with Simon has been something that’s “been lingering on the French team for all these years.”
“The team came out this fall leading up to the Olympics announcing that they had buried the hatchet. They were ready to move on, and as a team, they were attacking this new season leading up to the Olympics as a team, unified and looking forward,” he said.
“All around that subject was, for them, a thing of the past.”
To top it all off, Italian biathlete Rebecca Passler, who was previously issued a doping suspension after testing positive for a banned substance in training last month, has been allowed to compete in Italy.
Passler successfully appealed the suspension to the National Court of Appeal of Nado Italia, the country’s anti-doping body, arguing her positive doping test for letrozole (a drug used in breast cancer treatment that can control the effects of steroid use) was due to a contamination she was unaware of.
Passler’s suspension was lifted and she was entered in the remaining women’s events taking place this week.
“The process was pretty speedy in clearing her. So, I mean, I leave it to that,” Le Guellec said.
Helping or hurting biathlon?
While the controversies off the field have captivated international audiences, many of whom may not have paid much attention to the sport before, Le Guellec isn’t sure if the drama is helping or hurting the sport.
“I think it doesn’t really attract people to come and see a sport, it doesn’t really lead people to pull away either,” Le Guellec said.
For hardcore fans of biathlon, Le Guellec said the drama might be doing less for increased interest beyond Milano Cortina 2026.
“If anything, it might create even some cleavage between fans from the Norwegian side or specific fans from the French side that actually pull away from biathlon with these kind of things happening with their favorite athletes,” Le Guellec said.
“Anyone who’s a huge fan of the Norwegians may be inclined to not watch the rest of the races and convert to cross-country to say something. Same thing for the Italians.”
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