From 23 February to 2 March, 2024, Otepää hosted the IBU Youth and Junior World Championships, during which 18 races were held and 54 medals awarded.
The Youth and Junior World Championships proved that the future of biathlon does not lie solely with the traditional biathlon nations, as the representatives from as many as 15 different countries took the podium. Medals were awarded to athletes from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. Norway took home the most medals, followed by France and Germany. On the last day of the competition, the President of Estonia Mr. Alar Karis and his wife Mrs. Sirje Karis also joined the spectators to support the athletes.
The IBU Youth and Junior World Championships is the largest event in the International Biathlon Union (IBU) competition calendar. “For the organizers, conducting the Youth and Junior World Championships was rather challenging, particularly in terms of the number of athletes and races,” Organizing Committee President Aivar Nigol said, “Together with 250 volunteers and an experienced organizing team, we successfully managed the task of organization.”
These competitions served as a good preparation for the Otepää organizing team to get ready for the Summer Biathlon World Championships to be held in Otepää from 22 to 25 August, 2024, with world’s top biathletes. In winter 2025, Otepää will host two IBU Cup stages, in 2026, a BMW IBU World Cup, and in 2027, the BMW IBU World Championships.