WTC Biathlon | Veltins Arena ‘auf Schalke’

The cross-country course – between the Winterdorf (Winter Village) and the stadium – is around 200 meters long. Passing cheering, celebrating and encouraging 50,000  biathlon fans. Followed by a camera on rails, and with only a slight chance of passing (the opponents), since the snow-covered course is only four meters wide. The best part is still to come: after a sharp right curve, (the athletes) enter a tunnel almost 100 meters long. All of a sudden, silence. Colorful „darkness“ – the tunnel is lit with multi-colored spotlights. The closer one reaches the tunnel’s exit with powerful thrusts, the louder the background noise gets. And then one enters the largest biathlon arena in Germany, perhaps even worldwide.

World-class biathletes will raise to the challenge of the Biathlon World Team Challenge (WTC) for the eleventh time this upcoming December – not somewhere in the biathlon strongholds of Scandinavia, Siberia, the Alps or in Thuringen, but in one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Europe. In the Veltins Arena „auf Schalke“ (on/at Schalke) – where FC Schalke 04’s footballers normally play their home matches in the German Bundesliga or in the European Cup. In a stadium that, thanks to it’s impressive multifunctionality, can be turned into an ice hockey arena, a handball hall or a concert auditiorium in a matter of days.