Juniors Who Move Mountains: Results of the 2026 Junior World Championships Where Ukraine Won Six Medals

Ukrainian junior biathletes excelled at the 2026 World Championships, winning six medals, showing speed, shooting skills, and potential to join senior national teams soon.

Biathlon in Ukraine is still very much alive! Moreover, the indicator of lung capacity suggests the “patient” is in solid health. And the screening in the form of the 2026 Junior World Championships in Germany only confirmed this. This was reported by Champion.

Six medals of different kinds (there was just one at the 2025 Junior World Championships) and overall victories in various disciplines over the entire World Cup season – the awards of the nearest reserve do not allow anyone to loudly claim that “everything is lost.”

Of course, we would have liked to see more from a larger number of young athletes, particularly from the men’s side. After all, those who delivered at the championship were largely the ones everyone had counted on.

Yet despite everything, hope certainly does not die. As coaches say, the places achieved at the junior level often eventually carry over into senior sport.

In any case, we view Ukraine’s young biathletes through a single lens – as potential reinforcements for the main national teams.

Today the boys and girls left Germany for Ukraine, while we recall and analyze their achievements.

Our children are our flowers. Tarasyuk started it, Khvostenko and Merkushyna kept it going.

The championship could hardly have begun any better. Taras Tarasyuk won a medal in the very first race in the “youth boys” category. It was a good thing the 17-year-old athlete competed in his own age group, as he had often raced among older competitors.

The young athlete from the Ternopil region noted that he feels he has the strength to fight for results in other disciplines as well.

And that is more or less what happened, as he finished in the top ten in the sprint. With clean shooting, he could have been fighting for a medal. But for now, we do not have ultra-fast biathletes who can still “fly” into the top three even despite penalty loops.

In the same discipline in the “girls” category, Viktoriia Khvostenko shone — the niece of the legendary Oksana Khvostenko, coach of the current junior women’s national team.

“Viktoriia Khvostenko works very hard. It was evident from her results during the season. She had podium finishes, top-ten places, and results close to it. Everything about her progress is stable and well deserved. And of course, her genes are showing as well. Her aunt, the famous biathlete Oksana Khvostenko, was an excellent shooter. Her father, Oksana’s brother Oleksandr Khvostenko, was also very good at it.

There were some issues in a few races — she had nosebleeds. At one point they even hesitated about putting her in the relay, but she is a fighter, and her success at the World Championships once again confirmed that,” said Viacheslav Derkach, director of the State Center for Olympic Preparation in Biathlon, in an exclusive comment to Champion.

At the World Championships in Arber, the former well-known biathlete served as a coach-consultant.

Junior athlete Oleksandra Merkushyna completed the medal tally in the individual race.

In the sprint – no medals, but still a trophy

The format of this discipline gives athletes a chance to break into the top three precisely thanks to shooting. So it was very interesting to measure the level of the Ukrainians in the sprint – it is the foundation. There were no medals here, but it was far from hopeless. Tetiana Tarasiuk finished in the top ten and even won the small Crystal Globe at the end of the season. A wonderful farewell to junior biathlon!

Two more Ukrainians also made it into the top ten of the sprint standings: Viktoriia Khvostenko finished 6th and Kseniia Prykhodko took 8th place.

Oleksandra Merkushyna, a member of the main national team, even with three missed shots still had a chance for a medal, missing it by only a few seconds. A bronze with three penalty loops would have been extremely impressive. But Merkushyna can be understood. Confidence has appeared, she is ready to take risks at times, but the fatigue after the Olympic Games is also noticeable. The main thing is that there was another very telling aspect – speed. This is something that had often been lacking since the Semerenko sisters. And Merkushyna the younger demonstrated all her strengths in combination in the mass start 60, shining with gold.

“Sasha is in her final year as a junior and she really performed brilliantly, she was superbly prepared. Both her speed on the course and her shooting speed were excellent.

In the relay, the shooting did not quite work out, but that happens. She was a favorite in every race. For these achievements she received a personal quota for the final stage of the senior World Cup. I hope all the logistical issues will be resolved in time, especially the permits for the weapons, and that she will be able to compete in Holmenkollen in Norway, even though she had not planned to. She wanted to recover and prepare for the Ukrainian Championship,” Derkach noted.

The girls are knocking on the door of the main team, while the boys need to change

A great conclusion to the World Championships came on the final competition day, when two bronze medals were won in the relays. Both the girls and the junior women claimed bronze.

“In these relays we expected medals, based on the form the athletes were in. We did not rule out that the junior team could even win gold. A penalty loop prevented that, but everyone did a great job. Overall, the women’s team arrived at the championship in excellent shape, and that produced the result.

For example, the usual leaders — the French, the Norwegians, the Germans — were in worse form; perhaps they miscalculated something. Their shooting was also rather difficult, and our athletes took advantage of that. Because of the warm weather, the track was heavy and it was harder for them to demonstrate their technique. It is good that our service team coped well with these weather conditions,” the sports official noted.

Derkach notes that the men’s and junior teams should have shown better results at the championship and points out the reasons why this did not happen.

“Most of the boys looked weak overall; perhaps some are careless about their work. With many of them, something needs to change radically, because there is no progress — we are standing still. We understand that in such a situation it will be difficult to strengthen the main national team.

Overall, we need to reach a situation where the team doesn’t need to recruit, but to select. Although there are other nuances. Biathlon has declined in the northern regions of the country, partly due to reduced funding, partly because of security factors. The war is not an excuse, but it is a very important factor that brings adjustments. And this also needs to be considered. Among the girls, a worthy new generation is growing; with the men, it’s more difficult.”

According to the official, a number of female biathletes can already be included in the senior teams and given a chance.

“We will see after the season what the objectives will be. If it’s for one year, that’s one thing. If the plans are to be approved for a full Olympic cycle, that’s another. We understand that not all members of the current main team will make it to the next Olympics. But we also see that next season, most likely, there will be a smaller quota in the World Cups due to low positions in the Nations Cup standings. This means fewer biathletes will have the chance to compete. For some juniors, it may still be too early to show results at the senior level, but it is not too early to join the team,” Derkach concluded.

It is worth noting that most athletes from the current roster will participate in the Ukrainian Championship in Bukovel. These will be the last competitions of the current season.