A combined test of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is used as a form of military training and is based on the old military patrol race. Men's individual competitions are over 10 km and 20 km (6·2 mi and 12·4 mi), while women's are over 5 km and 10 km (3·1 mi and 6·2 mi). At designated points on the course, competitors have to fire either standing or prone at a fixed target. The biathlon was introduced into the Winter Olympic programme in 1960.
Biathlon, however, usually refers specifically to the winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.Called military patrol, the combination of skiing and shooting was competed at the Olympic Winter Games in 1924, and then demonstrated in 1928, 1936 and 1948, but did not regain Olympic recognition then, as the small number of competing countries disagreed on the rules (see also Governing body, below).
Presidents of the UIPMB/IBU:
1948–1949: Tom Wiborn (Sweden) 1949–1960: Gustaf Dyrssen (Sweden) 1960–1988: Sven Thofelt, (Sweden) 1988–1992: Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov (USSR/Russia) From 1992: Anders Besseberg (Norway)Champions
The following articles list major international biathlon events and medalists.
Biathlon Olympic Games Biathlon World Championships Biathlon World CupRules and equipment
The complete rules of biathlon is given in the official IBU rule book (see External links, below).
Basic concepts
In short, a biathlon competition consists of a race in which contestants ski around a cross-country track, and where the total distance is broken up by either two or four shooting rounds, half in prone position, the other half standing.
For each shooting round, the biathlete must hit five targets; each missed target must be "atoned for" in one of three ways, depending on the competition format:
by making a skiing round in a 150 m penalty loop, typically taking 20–30 seconds for top-level biathletes to complete (running time depending on weather/snow conditions), by having one minute added to one's total skiing time, or by having to use an "extra cartridge" (placed at the shooting range) to finish off the target; only three such "extras" are available for each round, and a penalty loop must be made for each of the targets in order to keep track of the contestants' progress and relative standing throughout a race, split times (intermediate times) are taken at several points along the skiing track and upon finishing each shooting round.Shooting details
The biathlete carries the 3.5 kg small bore rifle including ammunition in magazines on her/his back during the race.
The target range shooting distance is 50 m or 164 feet. When shooting in the prone position the target diameter is 45 mm or 1.7 inches, when shooting in the standing position the target diameter is 115 mm or 4.5 inches. On all modern biathlon ranges, the targets are self-indicating, in that they flip from black to white when hit, giving the biathlete as well as the spectators instant visual feedback for each shot fired.
Competition format
Individual
The 20 km Individual race (15 km for women) is the oldest biathlon event. The biathlete shoots four times at any shooting lane, in the order of prone, standing, prone, standing, totalling 20 targets. The biathlete shoots twice at any shooting lane, once prone and once standing, for a total of 10 shots. The distance is 12.5 km for men and 10 km for women, there are four shooting bouts (two prone, two standing, in that order), and each miss means a penalty loop of 150 m. To prevent awkward and/or dangerous crowding of the skiing loops, and overcapacity at the shooting range, World Cup Pursuits are held with only the 60 top ranking biathletes after the preceding race. The biathletes shoot at the lane corresponding to the position they arrived (Arrive at the range in 5th place, you shoot in lane five.) for all shooting bouts. In this 15 km (12.5 km for women) competition, there are four bouts of shooting (two prone, two standing, in that order) with the first shooting bout being at the lane corresponding to your bib(Bib #10 shoots at lane #10 regardless of position in race.) with rest of the shooting bouts being at the lane in the position they arrived (Arrive at the lane in 5th place, you shoot at lane five.).
Relay
The Relay teams consist of four biathletes, who each ski 7.5 km (men) or 6 km (women), with two shooting rounds; On the first shooting stage of the first leg, the participant must shoot in the lane corresponding to their bib number (Bib #10 shoots at lane #10 regardless of position in race.), then for the remainder of the relay, the relay team shoots at the lane in the position they arrived (Arrive at the range in 5th place, you shoot at lane five.).
Mixed relay
The most recent addition to the number of biathlon competition variants, the Mixed relay, is similar to the ordinary Relay but for the composition of the teams, each of which consists of two women and two men.
Team (obsolete)
A team consists of four biathletes, but unlike the case of the Relay competition, all team members start at the same time. Two athletes must shoot in the prone shooting round, the other two in the standing round. The skiers must enter the shooting area together, and must also finish within 15 seconds of each other, otherwise a time penalty of 1 minute is added to the total time.
Biathlon venues
World Cup events and World Championships in biathlon have traditionally been held at the following relatively few locations. (Due to the complicated shooting range equipment, which absolutely has to work in order to hold successful races, biathlon is a highly demanding sport for organisers.)
| Country | Major biathlon venues | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | Hochfilzen | Saalfelden | ||
| Canada | Canmore | Valcartier | ||
| Finland | Kontiolahti | Kuusamo | Lahti | |
| Germany | Oberhof | Ruhpolding | Veltins-Arena* | |
| Italy | Antholz-Anterselva | Cesana-San Sicario | ||
| Norway | Beitostølen | Holmenkollen | Lillehammer | |
| Russia | Khanty-Mansiysk | Novosibirsk | ||
| Slovakia | Brezno-Osrblie | |||
| Slovenia | Pokljuka | |||
| Sweden | Östersund | |||
| USA | Fort Kent, ME | Presque Isle, ME | Lake Placid, NY | Soldier Hollow, UT |
*The Veltins-Arena, located in Gelsenkirchen and renamed from Arena AufSchalke in July 2005, is the stadium of German football club FC Schalke 04.
Other Biathlon variants
Two common variations on biathlon are summer biathlon, where skiing is replaced by a cross-country run, and archery biathlon (or ski archery), where the rifle is replaced by a recurve bow.
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