From system reforms to Olympic goals: The path of Kazakhstan's biathlon in 2025–2026
2025: A Season of Wins and Success
The year started with big wins. At the World Winter Universiade, Nikita Akimov won a gold medal, and Kirill Bauer and Arina Kryukova won bronze medals. Kazakhstan athletes were also very good at the Winter Asian Games in Harbin. Vladislav Kireyev won gold in the sprint and Vadim Kurales won silver. In the relay races, the men's team won silver and the women's team won bronze. Because of this, Kazakhstan took first place in the team standings.
Also, Vladislav Kireyev finished in the Top 20 at the World Cup in Austria. This is a historic result for our country.
Helping Young Athletes
Kids' biathlon became much better this year. The project "Grand Tour Biathlon" helped many young talents. A new record was made at the competition in Balkashino—200 children took part in it. The final competition was in the Central Park of Astana. The Federation built a special shooting range there and children from 11 regions competed. The Federation gave 10 million tenge and new sports equipment to the five best regions.
We want our young athletes to compete in other countries. For two years, the best kids went to the famous Liatoppen Festival in Norway. This year, Yegor Nemtsev won first place in the sprint there.
To help our children, we invited a famous specialist from Italy, Luca Bormolini. He was the head coach of the Czech Republic women's team before. After the final in Astana, he made a two-week training camp in Shchuchinsk for the best young athletes of the Grand Tour. Later, these children went to the international IBU camp in Arber, Germany.
In July, we started a new project called "KBU coaching course." To teach our coaches, the Federation invited two experts from Norway—Trond Nystad and Knutt Brevik. For a few days, 28 coaches from all parts of Kazakhstan studied the best training methods in the world. Also, we signed an agreement with the APEMS University. Their specialists help us make a good scientific plan to train young champions.
Popularity and New Regions
Biathlon in Kazakhstan is growing fast. This year, we visited Kokshetau (where 40 children already train) and Kostanay, which already shows great results. We started to show the Grand Tour Biathlon races live on our YouTube channel "Qaz Biathlon." We also opened a Fan Shop. All the money from the shop goes to help children's sports schools. For the first time, we celebrated International Biathlon Day on May 22 with family races in 6 cities.
The Federation built new pneumatic shooting ranges in different regions, including Petropavl and Balkashino. We are building the same shooting ranges in Kostanay and Pavlodar now.
Another important step is digitalization. Now, the full rating of young athletes and the results of the Grand Tour (including the race in Ridder) are open to everyone on the Federation website. This makes the selection process very honest because every athlete and coach can see their progress.
2026 Strategy: Road to the Olympics
Our national team is fully ready for the Olympic season. Before the season started, the Federation gave all the necessary equipment to the national team and para-biathletes. Also, we have new top coaches from other countries. Sergey Alekseevich Sokolovskiy is now the head coach of the men's team. Before this, he was the head coach in Belarus and Lithuania. He also trained the leader of the Lithuanian team, Vytautas Strolia, who won medals at the World Cup. Mr. Sokolovskiy is known as a coach who can bring average teams to top places. We also invited a physiotherapist, Jani Kavcic from Slovenia, and a sports massage therapist, Aleksandr Komashko. This is very important to help athletes rest and recover.
Also, the Federation signed a contract with the German company SRB, which makes roller skis. Thanks to this, our national and youth teams received high-quality roller skis. Now we can also hold local competitions at a high level.
The uniform for the national team is made by the Swiss brand KV+. The athletes will wear it at the Olympic Games and World Cups. We made a new design for the Olympics: on the collar, we wrote the ancient Turkic runic words "Freedom" and "Victory." This is our symbol of spirit.
2026 will be a year of very big goals. Ahead are the Winter Olympic Games in Milano. Our main goal is to win "2+2" places (two for men and two for women) after the next five World Cup stages. Right now, we have only one place for men and one for women. The International Biathlon Union (IBU) will give the final information about the places on January 18.
Of course, it is very difficult to compete with top teams like Norway, Germany, and France. But we hope for good results from the leaders of our men's team.
Right after the Olympics, in March, everyone will watch our para-biathletes. The Federation gave them good equipment and support so they can win medals at the Paralympic Games and raise the flag of Kazakhstan.
In July 2026, our training project for young coaches, the "KBU Coaching Course," will become even bigger. Very famous world specialists will come to Kazakhstan. We invest in our coaches so that every child in our regions can get world-class training.
For the first time in history, Kazakhstan will host the IBU Youth Camp. More than 100 young athletes and para-athletes from 10 countries will come to train with top IBU instructors.
In 2026, Kazakhstan will take part in the Congress of the Asian Biathlon Federation. At this event, the Federation will choose the place for the Asian Championships for the 2026/2027 seasons. Kazakhstan, Japan, and South Korea want to host it.
Helping children's sports is still our main goal. The Grand Tour Biathlon is now a national brand, and it will grow in 2026. The second stage of the third season will be in Kostanay for the first time. Also, for the third year in a row, the best children will go to the Liatoppen Festival in Norway. Our children must see the best biathlon on the planet and win there! We will continue to build new shooting ranges, and all Grand Tour ratings will be updated quickly on our website.
We want to thank every fan for their support. In 2026, we will continue to work hard to make biathlon a favorite sport for the people of Kazakhstan. We believe that the New Year 2026 will bring many wins and success to our national team.
