The change will be introduced at the World Cup premiere in Kontiolax, Finland, which starts this weekend.
The International Biathlon Union (IBU) wants to maintain the suspense longer by having the 15 best athletes receive start numbers among 46-74, and not among 1-30 as it has been until now.
However, the criticism of the decision has been massive among the athletes.
I think it opens up for more surprises. The thing (in biathlon) is that it's not just ten people who can be on the podium. Having start number 10 or 75 can be a pretty big difference, says Elvira Öberg.
And I see a risk that people won't watch the TV broadcast from the start, because I don't do that when I watch cross-country skiing. There could have been a middle way.
No Compromise
The athletes' committee, where Swedish star Sebastian Samuelsson is chairman, proposed a compromise with earlier start numbers for the best. But it was not accepted.
I really hope we don't end up in discussions about how the results lists looked if everyone had equal conditions, says he.
National team coach Johannes Lukas says that he and his colleagues from other nations receive a lot of statistics from the races and have ongoing contact with IBU.
If I see something in the results list that has changed, I'm the first to book a meeting with IBU and show my data. They have said that the competitions before Christmas are a test period. If they see that it's going badly, they will back down, I'm completely sure of that, says Lukas.
If the weather conditions are very bad, the start order can be adjusted.
Testing Another Warm-up
The criticism is mainly about two things: that in poor snow conditions, it becomes increasingly tough in the tracks the further back you start, and that it's difficult with warm-up on certain competition sites that lack warm-up tracks.
The Swedish national team has accepted that the decision is made and is instead trying to find solutions, primarily for warm-up if it can't be done on snow.
Now we can't complain anymore. If you have problems with running as a warm-up, it's time to train it now, says Lukas.
Hanna Öberg says that the national team has a good plan.
And it's nice that we got to test it before the World Cup starts.
Start numbers 1-15: Unseeded athletes where each country can place a freely chosen (unseeded) athlete.
16-45: Athletes in places 16-30 in the World Cup are drawn together with unseeded athletes.
46-75: The 15 best in the World Cup are drawn together with unseeded athletes.
76-: Athletes with high ranking points, but who are outside the top 30 in the World Cup (e.g. top athletes from the IBU Cup).
The new start order will be tested in the World Cup competitions before Christmas: Kontiolax November 30-December 8, Hochfilzen December 13-15, and Annecy-Le Grand Bornand December 19-22.
