2023 Orienteering World Cup

The 2023 Orienteering World Cup is the 28th edition of the Orienteering World Cup. The 2023 Orienteering World Cup consists of seven individual events and three relay events. The events are located in Norway, the Czech Republic, and Italy.^[1] The 2023 World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland are not included in the World Cup, but the European Orienteering Championships in Italy^[2] are part of the World Cup program. Non-European Orienteers can hence participate in the European Championships as well. Russian and Belarusian competitors are still banned, but this season saw Natalia Gemperle returning to the world cup, now competing for Switzerland.^[3]

The season started in Østfold, Norway, with a long distance race won by reigning champions Tove Alexandersson^[4] and Kasper Harlem Fosser. Fosser also won the middle distance^[5][6] but Alexandersson finished in second place, ten seconds behind teammate Sara Hagström. Both the relays were won by Swedish teams.^[7]

When the season continued in Česká Lípa all individual women's races were won by Tove Alexandersson, giving her a 130 point lead ahead of Sara Hagström in the world cup, almost securing her ninth total world cup win. On the men's side the races were won by Ralph Street, Jannis Bonek and Kasper Fosser. The relay was won by the Swiss team before the Czech and Swedish teams.

The World Cup Finals included the European Orienteering Championships and competitions were held in northern Italy. In the Sprint, Matthias Kyburz won with 4 seconds ahead of Kasper Fosser, putting Kyburz only 23 points behind Fosser in the World Cup standings heading into the Knock Out Sprint. In the Women's class, Hagström was the winner ahead of Alexandersson, but Alexandersson's 80 points for finishing second place was still enough to guarantee her the overall world cup victory with one round still to go, her score of 560 points now being impossible to reach for second placed Hagström even if Alexandersson did not finish and Hagström won the final round. By winning the overall world cup, Tove Alexandersson tied with Simone Niggli with 9 overall wins and one overall second place.

In the Knock Out Sprint, Alexandersson won the final round to end her season with 5 victories from 7 races. In the Men's class, a quarter final collision between current world cup leader Kasper Fosser and Swiss runner Joey Hadorn lead to both runners being unable to finish, leaving the World Cup open to Kyburz to overtake Fosser and win the World Cup if he finished in 4th place or better in his semi-final. In the end, Kyburz easily surpassed this, winning the Knock Out Sprint outright to take his 6th World Cup overall victory and his first since 2018.