Most of the sensations at the biathlon world championships in the XXI century happened in individual races. The format of this discipline itself assumes that at any moment the favorite may end up without a medal due to one mistake, while a successful outsider who shoots can get to the very top. For each miss, an extra minute is automatically added to the total time, and this punishment cannot be mitigated by speed at a distance, as in other races where there are penalty laps.
Already at the first world championship in the new millennium, such a surprise occurred in the men's 20 km race. By this time, nothing was left of the once-powerful Finnish team - its athletes completely lost their positions in biathlon and began to play the role of extras. But at the world championship in Pokljuka, luck smiled at Paavo Puurunen. At that time, the 27-year-old athlete had never before become the winner of the World Cups, and his highest achievement was fourth place at the 1999 World Cup in a mass start, when six seconds were not enough for bronze.
In Pokljuk, Puurunen took advantage of the mistakes of his rivals, although he himself was not perfect - at the last frontier the Finn made one mistake, which still did not prevent him from winning the first gold in 20 years for his country. At that time, the biggest failure at the turnaround occurred at Ole Einar Bjoerndalen - he made a mistake six times, but at the same time he lagged behind Puurunen by less than three minutes. However, this victory did not become an impetus for a successful career - the Finnish biathlete won another bronze medal in the World Cup two years later in the pursuit, marked fourth in the mass start at the Turin Olympics, and never rose above the sixth in the World Cup races lines.
There were surprises in women. By 2003, Czech Katerzhina Golubtsova was still a little-known athlete, who, at best, got into the top six at the World Cup stages, but did not reach the prizes. Before the World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, she still achieved the first medal success, and already at the main start of the season she surprised everyone with a victory in the individual race.
It was a classic case when to win gold it was required to simply close all the targets. Belarusska Elena Zubrilova made one mistake, and she lost to the Czech only eight seconds. Golubtsova’s victory was not sensational - a few days earlier she became a bronze medalist in the sprint. But at the end of the World Cup, she no longer shone, and her presence on the list of gold medalists of the World Cup may surprise modern fans.
Two years later, the Bjoerndalen World Championship was held in Hochfilzen - the Norwegian won almost all the tournament gold. Except for one thing - in the individual race he again failed due to five misses. The Czech Roman Dostal, who had never before climbed the podium, took advantage of this. The 34-year-old biathlete for a long time confidently led with a decent margin until at the final turn he made the first and only miss. Immediately after that, Sven Fisher, the unmistakably shooting German, got a chance for gold, but the 34-year-old Dostal managed to win nine seconds at the finish line. In the future, he only once became the second in the mass start at the World Cup stage and did not achieve more such successes as in Hochfilzen.
Russian fans should remember the victory of Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht in 2015, when she had not yet performed under a double surname. Inside the country, the girl was already a few years old, but did not reach the medals at the stages of the World Cup. In 2013, a crisis broke out in Yurlova's career - she was not accepted into the national team to prepare for the new season, she performed at only one stage of the KM and missed the Olympic Games in Sochi. It was necessary to qualify for the national team through the Cup of Russia, and by 2015, Yurlova still achieved her goal. After four races in the World Cup and showing results only at the level of the third or fourth dozen, she received a challenge to the championship of the planet in Kontiolahti, where she surprised the whole biathlon world.
The athlete who had hardly been written off was victorious in the individual race. The key to success was clean shooting - no one except Yurlova that day closed all targets. But just one mistake would send her to sixth place. The success of the 30-year-old athlete became a breath of fresh air for biathlon lovers from Russia - before this, there were no victories at the world championships for six years in a row.
In the United States, until 2017, there was not a single world biathlon champion at all. But everything changed after the competition in Hochfilzen. Their hero was the 35-year-old Lowell Bailey. Throughout his long and hardly remarkable career, he won only silver in one of the World Cup sprint races. In the first two races at the World Championships in Austria, Bailey achieved incredible success for himself - he twice hit the top six and was six seconds from the bronze in the sprint. But the American went further and won an incredible victory in the individual race.
That day Bailey started one of the last, and many could already decide that no one would dispute the victory of the flawlessly shooting Ondrej Moravets. However, at the end of the start list Bailey and Johannes Boe were still listed. The Norwegian eventually missed once at the last two lines, and a biathlete from the United States hit all targets. He bypassed Moravets by only 3.3 seconds and became the world's oldest biathlon champion in history.
But not only in individual races there were sensations. Pursuit races also provide fertile ground for this - the “dark horse” must first secure a good starting number after the sprint, and then break out in first place. A year ago, Dmitry Pidruchny was able to do this. Then in Ostersund, the Ukrainian biathlete was disappointed without the first personal medal of world championships in his career - in the sprint race he did not have enough three tenths of a second to Kenten Fillon Maye. Pidruchnyi didn’t immediately ask for a pass because of two misses on the bench, but competitors also had problems - sprint winners made 13 misses in total! Johannes Boe was especially distinguished, who lost his huge advantage due to three mistakes at the last frontier. Pidruchny made no more mistakes. No matter how hard the Norwegian tried, he never overtook the Ukrainian, who brought his country the first men's gold in the world championships.
In the mass start, surprises are extremely rare - after all, by default, only the strongest athletes are in this discipline, and someone’s victory can hardly surprise anyone. But Dominik Landertinger managed to impress the fans in 2009 at the World Championships in Pyeongchang. This 20-year-old Austrian began to amaze everyone at the stages of the World Cup, when he won three medals. At the main start of the season, only he was able to interrupt the winning streak of Bjoerndalen, who managed to win all three personal golds at the start of the mass start.
For almost the entire race from the general start, the next victory of the Norwegian was not in doubt - he was the leader with a comfortable advantage, while the main rivals managed to get even at the first lines. But in the final shooting Bjoerndalen made two mistakes, and immediately three athletes, including Landertinger, managed to get close to the leader. On the last lap, a serious fight for gold unfolded, in which the young Austrian left behind his compatriot Christoph Zumann, Russian Ivan Cherezov, and Bjoerndalen himself.
If you choose the most unexpected victory in the sprint over the past twenty years, then the success of Elena Pidgrushnaya in 2013 definitely comes to mind. Two silver medals in personal races and medals in the relay race - this baggage is usually not enough to be considered a favorite of the World Cup, especially against the backdrop of Tour Berger, who won all Crystal Globes that season. She was the leader of the sprint at the world championships in Nove Mesto, until she missed the second line. Then the Ukrainian biathlete came in first place, which misses that day were unknown. Although the Norwegian was desperate to close the gap, she still did not have six seconds to stop the Ukrainian sensation.