Campbell Wright: The teenage biathlete with the Southern Hemisphere on his shoulders

"It's nice to be the New Zealand guy,” says biathlete Campbell Wright. “I'm from a weird country... Not a weird country, but a weird biathlon country.”

In reality, the 19-year-old is even more unusual than that. In the men’s 20km individual race on Tuesday 8 February, he was the only competitor among 92 from the Southern Hemisphere. And the youngest.

"It's nice, to be honest,” said Wright. “Because I'm not actually a big threat to anyone, lots of the big countries can cheer for me and tell me my splits. I'm no one's enemy."

At least, not yet. 

Wright finished 32nd in the 20km race at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. But biathletes tend to peak in their late 20s and early 30s. Given his age, Wright is hot property.

He is only the second teen ever to win World Cup points.

“In the entire world there is not another Campbell Wright. I speak to a lot of coaches from big national federations and they’re all jealous of him,” his coach Luca Bormolini told 1News in December.

And Campbell is mighty pleased with that 32nd spot.

“Of course I can’t compete for a medal because I’m still young in the sport of biathlon but I’m really happy with how I went,” he said.

“Being from New Zealand and being 19, I should come last at these races… but I turned it on. I don’t know how but I turned it on."

Wright said he would take confidence from his 20km result when he competed in the 10km sprint on Saturday 12 February.

But he was unable to repeat his long-distance feat, finishing 75th.

"Today was a hard day for me, I'm not going to lie. 

“I figured I'd roll the dice a little bit because if you roll the dice, there's a chance you can do a really good race. 

“I didn't have the legs and I blew up big time on my last lap and then missed two