International Biathlon Makes Its IBU Cup Debut at Lake Placid
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — International biathlon arrived at one of America’s best-known winter sports destinations in 2026, when Mount Van Hoevenberg hosted its first International Biathlon Union Cup during the final two stops of the 2025–26 season.
The competition ran from Feb. 26 through March 8, bringing an international field to the Lake Placid venue and adding another chapter to a region whose Olympic history extends well beyond the hockey rink most closely associated with the 1980 Winter Games.
At Mount Van Hoevenberg, that history is visible in the landscape.
The modern biathlon course winds through the complex alongside trails used by recreational and training skiers. During competition week, local skiers continued using portions of the cross-country trail system while IBU Cup athletes raced nearby — an everyday winter-sports routine unfolding alongside an international competition.
Crowds during the weekday races were relatively small but energetic, with families among the spectators who traveled both domestically and internationally to Lake Placid. The result was an event that retained the atmosphere of a major competition without losing the close access of a smaller venue.
Conditions changed considerably during the week. Days were generally clear and comparatively mild, while overnight temperatures dropped sharply well below zero. Thursday brought grayer skies and occasional snow flurries, but significant wind was largely absent during the days FOURGE photographed the competition.
On March 4, France’s Gaetan Paturel won the men’s 10-kilometer Sprint in 24:00.1, edging Norway’s Ole Suhrke by one-tenth of a second. Sverre Dahlen Aspenes of Norway finished third, 11 seconds behind Paturel.
Two days later, Austria’s Lara Wagner won the women’s 12-kilometer Mass Start 60 in 32:21.1. France’s Amandine Mengin finished 9.7 seconds behind Wagner, with Italy’s Samuela Comola third at 20.7 seconds back.
Aspenes closed the March 6 competition by winning the men’s 15-kilometer Mass Start 60 in 40:15.7. Fellow Norwegian Martin Nevland finished second, 24.6 seconds back, while France’s Damien Levet took third.
For FOURGE, photographing the event required learning the mountain as much as following the competition. Initial coverage involved establishing where photographers could move safely around the course and which areas were accessible while racing was underway.
By the following days, that became a repeated circuit through several shooting positions around the course, allowing athletes to be photographed from different directions and at different points in a lap before returning toward the start-and-finish area.
The inaugural IBU Cup gave Lake Placid another international event within a winter-sports landscape shaped by generations of competition. For several days in early March, Mount Van Hoevenberg’s trails were simultaneously a world-class race course, a workplace and, just beyond the competition, a place where local skiers continued doing what they normally do in winter.
