“If you are named to the national team for the IBU Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships in the United States next year, but fail to apply for a weapon permit by December 15 this year, you won’t be allowed to compete,” 

This season, the IBU Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships will take place in Soldier Hollow in the United States in February 2022. But due to strict rules regarding weapon permits in the United States, the biathlon federations have to apply for these permits no later than December 15, 2021. 

Headache for the national teams
For the Norwegian National Biathlon Association (NSSF), the US weapon permit requirements pose a problem: The national team to the 2022 Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships will not be selected until after the third round of Norwegian Cup competitions, which are held in the end of January. 

NSSF will select up to five junior men and five junior women (age 20 to 22), and up to four youth men and four youth women (age 18 to 19) for the championships in Soldier Hollow, a total of 18 racers. 

The team selection is based on the racers’ top results from four of the six competitions in the first three national cup weekends. The last of these is scheduled for January 23, 2022.  

“Currently, we have about 100 athletes who could potentially be in contention for those 18 spots to the World Championships,” NSSF head of development Harri Luchsinger says to ProXCskiing.com. 

Luchsinger is in charge of formalities, including weapon permits, prior to the team’s departure for the World Championships in the United States in February. 

Hundreds of applications
NSSF has solved the issue by making all the athletes who consider themselves a potential candidate to the championship team file for a weapon permit with the NSSF prior to December 15, 2021. According to NSSF, those who fail to submit the required information by the deadline, won’t be eligible for the 2022 world championship team.  

Two days prior to the deadline, NSSF has not received many applications. 

“I hope that just means a lot of athletes were waiting to see how they did in the first Norwegian Cup race weekend, which was December 11-12,” Luchsinger says. 

“I don’t think they can argue that they haven’t been informed. We have notified all the regional teams, private teams and clubs about the deadline, and posted all the information in a Facebook group that has more than 700 members,” Luchsinger says. 

“The form might seem complicated, but as long as you follow the instructions, it’s not that hard,” he adds. 

Rigid and labor-intensive
While Luchsiger recognizes that there is no way around the permit process, he finds that the US weapon permit requirements offer very little flexibility for countries with a large pool of potentially eligible athletes. 

“Nations with a smaller pool of athletes might be able to select their teams early. But given that we have so many athletes who could potentially make the team, we just have to collect the forms from everyone. This creates a huge amount of extra work. Additionally, sending a large team to the United States is expensive. But it will be a great experience for the athletes who are selected, and we are really looking forward to compete in Soldier Hollow,” Luchsiger says. 

On top of the US weapon permit application that is due in two days, on Wednesday, December 15, all athletes named to the team will have to file their renutover.no (antidoping statement), pass the health test requirements, and make sure their European weapon licence is valid.