October 17, 2025
It’s October, when the wax smells like hope and the calendars start arguing with themselves. This week, Nordic sport served three generous helpings: a diplomatic ski pass, a helicopter commute with a side of conscience, and hills that are literally being stretched like taffy.
First course: bureaucracy à la carte. Word slipped out that FIS leadership sent a courteous, many-syllabled letter asking national federations to support letting Russian and Belarusian athletes back under neutral flags. It quoted statutes, invoked neutrality, and promised confidentiality, which is usually what you say right before everyone talks about it anyway. The Nordics answered with a collective “not now,” Norway and Finland front and center, with Finland adding that, letter or not, the Ruka border still says “do not enter.” The whole delicate minuet is in NRK reveals FIS leaders’ letter seeking support to re‑admit Russian and Belarusian skiers (/cross-country-skiing/nrk-reveals-fis-letter-on-re-admitting-russian-belarusian-skiers-2025/) and its companion primer Winter sports: The letter that could decide if Russian athletes may compete again (/cross-country-skiing/letter-could-decide-russian-athletes-reinstatement-fis/).
Second course: the biathlon circus comes to town—Munich’s Olympic Park—on rollerskis, with a floating shooting range and a DJ, because nothing steadies the hand quite like bass that can loosen dental fillings. Tickets vanished, the grandstands filled, and Norway discovered their altitude camp in Italy overlaps. Solution? Two helicopters and a prayer to the sustainability gods. Performance first, glaciers later. Catch the sparkle in Loop One Festival brings biathlon to the heart of Munich (/biathlon/loop-one-festival-munich-urban-biathlon-rollerski-2025/) and the uneasy footnote in Norwegian biathletes ‘forced’ to take a helicopter — contradicting their own sustainability goals (/biathlon/norway-biathlon-helicopter-decision-contradicts-sustainability-goals/).
Germany’s headliner Franziska Preuss had to bow out after hand surgery—standing shooting prefers a hand that doesn’t argue with the trigger—but she’s upbeat for winter. Details at Biathlon star Franziska Preuss withdraws from Munich’s Loop One festival after hand surgery (/biathlon/preuss-withdraws-from-munich-loop-one-festival-after-hand-surgery/). And Sweden’s Ella Halvarsson is discovering the joys of heat training: like altitude, but with extra perspiration and occasional stars. “I almost fainted,” she said, which is one way to know the session worked. Her steamy tune-up is in Biathlete Ella Halvarsson’s extreme new training before the Olympics: “I almost fainted” (/biathlon/ella-halvarsson-heat-training-before-olympics-biathlon-svt-sport/).
Third course: big air and bigger ambitions. Slovenia approved funds to reprofile Planica’s majestic Letalnica so jumpers can flirt with 270 meters, which is the ski-flying equivalent of adding a guest room and then discovering a cousin named Gravity will be visiting all winter. If that happens, a few national records will start to wobble—Kamil Stoch’s Polish best among them. Read the blueprint in Planica ski flying hill to be rebuilt to enable new world record attempts (/ski-jumping/planica-ski-flying-hill-rebuild-aims-for-world-record/) and the Polish angle in Kamil Stoch’s national record under threat as Slovenia approves Planica ski flying hill enlargement (/ski-jumping/planica-hill-enlargement-could-threaten-kamil-stoch-polish-record/).
Meanwhile, on the ground where accounting lives, the Trondheim Worlds are still leaving tracks on the ledger. After a season of numbers skating on black ice, the organizing board has been reported to the police. No one likes a post‑race audit, but here we are: Worlds organizing board reported to police after financial collapse (/cross-country-skiing/trondheim-worlds-board-reported-to-police-over-financial-collapse/).
And in the human notes that don’t fit neatly into a start list: Austria’s Felix Leitner said “Ciao und Baba” at 28, a young farewell that arrived with a sore back and a tired heart. He’ll find something new to love—just not biathlon, not yet. His curtain call is here: “Ciao and bye”: Austrian biathlete Felix Leitner retires at 28 (/biathlon/felix-leitner-announces-retirement-austrian-biathlete-28/).
So the week leaves us with a few images: a letter looking for consensus and finding a snowdrift; a helicopter racing a training plan while a climate spreadsheet sighs; and an old valley in Slovenia quietly measuring out another twenty meters of possibility. Winter is close enough to taste, and the stories are already leaving tracks.