Dear Biathlon Family Australia,

The IBU has awarded AUS NF a World Cup Wild Card Women for Trimester 3 (T3) which Biathlon Australia has allocated to Darcie Morton. The Wild Card was allocated to Darcie Morton as the only Australian female athlete who is an "eligible" athlete having qualified personally under the IBU Event and Competition Rule (ECR) 1.5.3.3.

In addition to remaining Australia’s number one athlete, Darcie led our Women’s four times 6km Open European Championships Relay team at Martell Val Martello, Italy with a “phenomenally flawless” 0+0, 0+0 shooting performance. At the end of shooting 1, Darcie had moved ahead 14 places into 5th behind France, Bulgaria, Germany and Italy, and ahead of Sweden, Norway and Poland. Australia ended up 16th in the Relay ahead of Team USA in 17th. Well done to our National Women's Relay team of Darcie Morton, Rosie Franzke, Damika Morton and Isabella Moon. And well done again to Darcie on remaining Australia’s only World Cup athlete for Trimester 3.

Darcie’s Wild Card is in addition to the World Championships Men Wild Card recently offered to Phoenix Sparke. A couple of our members have requested assistance in interpreting the IBU Event and Competition Rules (ECR), so the Board would like to provide some clarity on how athletes who meet the personal qualification standard may be considered for Wild Cards.

Phoenix Sparke achieved results with IBU Q points (QP) at the Open European Championships, which got him a personal qualification for WCH 2025 (based on the ECR 1.5.3.2).

Quotas and Wild Cards for WCH are allocated in accordance to ECR 12.6.1.1.1, and although the IBU QP List was done after Trimester 2 (T2), the IBU still had an empty slot for Wild Card Men and based on Phoenix’s latest result, AUS NF was granted a second Men Wild Card WCH 2025 for allocation to an "eligible" athlete.

Some of you may be wondering why only Darcie received a World Cup Wild Card Women and Phoenix Sparke did not. The situation is slightly different here: Phoenix did achieve his personal qualification, but at the end of Trimester 2 2024/25 when T3 Wild Cards are allocated to NFs (based on ECR 15.6.2.b). AUS NF did not meet the required criteria for a World Cup Wild Card – as there was no male athletes with low enough points on the IBU QP list. This means that unfortunately AUS NF did not get offered a World Cup (WC) T3 2024/25 Wild Card, despite Phoenix Sparke achieving a personal qualification (based on 1.5.3.3.). If the situation changes at the end of T3, AUS NF will be in the game to get a WC Wild Card for T1 2025/26.

Olympic Winter Games 2026

The Board has also been asked by members which results for IBU QP will be calculated in order to get a Wild Card for OWG 2026 (we shall not call it Wild Card – it is a “special quota place”). Based on the OWG 2026 document Qualification System for OWG 2026 Biathlon on the BA website, the IBU QP List will be made on 18 JAN 2026: 

The list will be calculating the 3 best results where IBU QP are given for following period: 

T2 2025/26        all competition with QP in this uncompleted trimester (including WC 5 Ruhpolding and IBU Cup 5 Osrblie)

T1 2025/26        full trimester

T3 2024/25        full trimester

T2 2024/25        full trimester

Special quotas will be allocated to NFs/NOCs who do not have quota places yet.

The Board wants to ensure all who aspire to make the pinnacle events in our sport have access to the same information and acknowledges there is plenty to learn for those new to the sport and the above may not be obvious to all who have read the most recent IBU ECRs. Again we congratulate Darcie on her World Cup Wild Card and Phoenix and Noah on receiving their World Championship Wild Cards in accordance with the IBU Event and Competition Rules of January 2025. 

Biathlon Australia, stronger together, approaching both the Milano Olympic Winter Games and our 50th anniversary in 2026.

David, Sandy, Brett, Libby, Katerina, Mark & Murray