Biathlon: a bib like everyone else for Amandine Mengin at Oslo-Holmenkollen
On Friday afternoon, Amandine Mengin from Bresse will make her biathlon World Cup debut in theOslo-Holmenkollen sprint (Norway). With her place in the Mecca of Nordic skiing secured by her status as the best athlete at the junior world championships in Östersund (Sweden), the Frenchwoman is heading into this big first into the unknown.
“If someone had said that to me at the start of the season, I would have said it wasn’t a funny joke… But, of course, I’m very happy about this opportunity, she told Nordic Magazine at the end of last week. It’s going to be a big discovery and I’ll be gaining a lot of experience. I’m not really aware of everything that’s going to happen and who I’m going with! It’s a circuit that I idealise, so we’ll see what happens. What’s more, it’s not just any World Cup final: it’s Oslo and the retirement of the Boe brothers… There are so many factors that make this the perfect year!”
On the track, Amandine Mengin will not be distinguished from the other biathletes by the apple green bib. Previously worn by Ukraine’s Ekaterina Bekh in 2019, Switzerland’s Amy Baserga and Emilien Claude from the Vosges in 2021 and the Czech Republic’s Tereza Vobornikova in 2022, this distinctive jersey reserved for the best World Junior athlete to qualify for the World Cup finals has been dropped by the IBU.
Too confusing for both broadcasters and audiences, it has effectively been shelved after the 2021/2022 season.
At the end of that winter, we remember that Lou Jeanmonnot was wearing the shiny blue bib of the overall winner of the IBU Cup at the Oslo Finals. A bib that was also abandoned.
- “She’s going back to France to recover from the World Cup and prepare for this event”: Amandine Mengin is set to discover the World Cup in Oslo-Holmenkollen
- Amandine Mengin’s reaction to her selection for the Oslo-Holmenkollen World Cup: “If someone had said that to me at the start of the season, I would have said it wasn’t a funny joke…”.
- Firsts for Camille Bened and Amandine Mengin, the boys’ sevens: the French team selection for the Oslo-Holmenkollen World Cup finals
- “Help them to repeat what they have done so far”: what Cyril Burdet expects from Camille Bened and Amandine Mengin at their first World Cup in Oslo-Holmenkollen.
- Oslo-Holmenkollen: why did Lou Jeanmonnot have a shiny blue bib?
