Overview
- The IBU will leave the first start gate empty and observe a minute of applause before Thursday’s men’s sprint, and Norway will compete wearing mourning bands.
- Norway has called up 22-year-old Isak Frey to replace Bakken, while overall leader Johan‑Olav Botn and Sturla Holm Laegreid are out of Oberhof due to illness.
- Authorities continue to probe Bakken’s death in Italy, where he was found wearing a hypoxia mask reportedly set to simulate 7,000 meters, with any link to the device unconfirmed; he had previously paused two years after myocarditis in 2022.
- The Norwegian Biathlon Federation says hypoxia masks were never part of its official programs and has suspended their use pending the investigation, noting simulated-altitude methods were nationally banned from 2003 to 2021.
- WADA says it has no current plan to revisit its 2006 decision that hypoxia devices are not doping, even as it warns of health risks from improper use; definitive autopsy findings could come by March 7.