What a World Cup, what a packed Vysotina stadium. Interest in biathlon is very high in our country, and fans do not miss any race. The biathlon boom is due to the current generation, which started to achieve great success around 2012.
NMNM hosted its first World Cup in the 2011/12 season. However, Jaroslav Sukup won the bronze medal in the endurance race at the World Championships. A year later, the Vysotina Arena hosted the World Championships with great success. Fans, excited by the good performances during the season, were expecting precious metal, and they got it right away in the opening mixed relay. It was Vitkova, Soukalova, Soukup, and Moravec who took the bronze medals. In the next race, things did not go well, but the team was still satisfied.
The rise of Czech biathlon athletes was further boosted by their five medals (plus an additional bronze in the women\’s relay) at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. She was the first Czech to reach the individual podium in her country. And also in front of the sold-out Visocina Arena. With more fans in attendance than the German resorts of Ruhrpolding and Oberhof, Czech fans were repeatedly cheered for their support; in December 2016, Gabriela Koukalova, who won gold in the final race (mass start), gave them an early gift in return They received a Christmas present.
Biathlon is not only thriving in the winter; the 2018 Summer World Championships broke all summer championship attendance records, and local athletes rewarded the crowd with five gold medals: Michal Krčmář, Ondřej Moravec, Veronika Vítková, Jakub Štvrtecký and the mixed relay team were crowned world champions. Other medal winners were Tomasz Krupčík in the adult mixed relay and juniors Markéta Davidová and Víceslav Hornich.
In December 2018, the world\’s elite descended on the NMNM once again, and although the Czech Republic did not win a medal this time, the crowd was fantastic once again. Hopefully there will be more races in our territory next season, in the spring of 2020. Let\’s hope it will be a great turnout.