The history of the European Junior Biathlon Championships dates back to 1994. For the first 22 editions, the competition was held together with the senior European Championships. Since 2016, the EJC, as an independent event, has been hosted in Pokljuka (three times), Nové Město na Moravě, Sjusjoen, Hochfilzen and Madona. In February, Jakuszyce will be added to this list—the juniors will compete for European Championship medals in Poland after a break of more than two decades. In 2000, Kościelisko hosted the competition.
Previous editions of the championships brought nearly 250 male and female competitors to the starting line, accompanied by more than a hundred coaches and technical staff. More than thirty national teams from around the world took part. The European Biathlon Championships are an open competition, so representatives of countries outside our continent may also compete. Eight sets of medals will be awarded in four events: the individual race, sprint, mixed relays and the mass-start race, making its debut in the championship programme and contested in the highly spectacular “mass start 60” format.
In the 2023/24 season, the junior category is open to athletes born in 2002 or later. There are not yet any household names among them, but Jakuszyce medalists are expected to become well known in the future. Examples abound—Elvira Oeberg, Marketa Davidova, Julia Simon, Sivert Bakken and Emilien Jacquelin all achieved their first successes at the European Junior Championships before establishing themselves permanently among the world’s elite.
The European Junior Championships are not the only international biathlon competition to be held at Polana Jakuszycka this winter. A week earlier—from 1 to 4 February—the Dolnośląskie Centrum Sportu will host the IBU Junior Cup, which will serve as a dress rehearsal before the championship event. The competition was moved to Lower Silesia in September after the organizers of the German venue in Notschrei officially withdrew.
Biathlon, a combination of cross-country skiing and shooting, is one of the fastest-growing winter sports. Olympic multiple-medalists such as Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, Martin Fourcade and Daria Domracheva are considered legends of world sport. Polish fans need no special introduction to Tomasz Sikora, Weronika Nowakowska or Monika Hojnisz-Staręga. We will see their successors in Jakuszyce in the first half of February.