Biathlon History Governing Body Champions Rule Overview

The sport has its origins in an exercise for Norwegian soldiers. The first known competition took place in 1767 when border patrol companies competed against each other. Gradually the sport became more common throughout Scandinavia as an alternative training for the military. Called military patrol, the combination of skiing and shooting was demonstrated at the Olympic Winter Games in 1924, 1928, 1936 and 1948, but did not gain Olympic recognition then, as the small number of competing countries disagreed on the rules (see also Governing body, below).

The first World ChampionshipThe first Biathlon World Championship (BWCH was held in 1958, with individual (official) and relay (unofficial) contests for men. The number of events has grown significantly over the years. Beginning in 1984, women biathletes had their own World Champion in the sport was held in 1958Events January January 1 Treaty of Rome founding the EU is implemented January 4 Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4 1957) January 8 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship January 18 Armed Lumbee Nat in AustriaAustria is a landlocked country in Central Europe, a federation of nine states. Austria is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the, and in 1960Events January-February January 1 Independence of Cameroon January 9 Aswan High Dam construction begins in Egypt January 11 Chad declares its independence. January 14 Ralph Chubb, the gay poet and printer, dies at Fair Oak Cottage in Hampshire. January 23 the sport was finally included in the Olympic GamesThe VIII Olympic Winter Games were held in 1960 in Squaw Valley, California, USA. Alexander Cushing, the creator of the resort, campaigned vigorously to win the Games. Then, there was a rush to construct roads, hotels, restaurants, and bridges, as well as.

2 Governing body

In 1948, the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne et Biathlon (UIPMB) was founded, to standardise the rules for biathlon and pentathlonGoudi Sports Complex on August 26, 2004. The modern pentathlon is a sports contest consisting of 5 events, hence the name pentathlon''. The events are epee fencing, pistol shooting, 200 m freestyle swimming, a show jumping course on horseback, and a cross. In 19931993 is a common year starting on Friday and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003 Events January January 1 Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic., the biathlon branch of the UIPMB created the International Biathlon Union (IBU), which officially separated from the UIPMB in 1998.

3 Champions

The following articles list Biathlon events and medalists. Contrary to the Olympics and World Championships, the World Cup is an entire winter season of (mostly) weekly races, where the medalists are those with the highest sums of World Cup points at the end of the season.

4 Rule overview

For complete rules, see the IBU Rule book. However, the concise rules given below should be enough for a spectator to understand what is going on at a biathlon stadium whether actually being there or at home watching a televised biathlon event.

4.1 Skiing

All skiing techniques are permitted in biathlon, but no other equipment than skis and ski poles may be used. Minimal length of the skis is the height of the skier less 4 cm.

4.2 Shooting

The biathlete carries the 3.5 kg rifle including ammunition in magazines on her/his back during the race. The rifles used are 5.6 mm (.22) caliber and are not automatic or semi-automatic; loading must be done manually by the biathlete.

The target range shooting distance is 50 m. Prone shooting target diameter is 45 mm, standing is 115 mm. The five targets are self-indicating, in that they flip from black to white when hit, giving the biathlete instant visual feedback for each shot fired.

5 Contest format

5.1 Sprint

In the sprint, held over 10 km (7.5 km for women), the biathlete shoots twice (10 shots), once prone, once standing. For each miss, a penalty loop of 150 m has to be completed before the race can be continued. The biathletes start in intervals (normally of 30 seconds, sometimes shortened to 20 seconds in between starters).

5.2 Pursuit

In the pursuit, the biathletes start with the time difference between them from a previous race, often a sprint. Therefore, the contestant crossing the finish line first becomes the winner. The distance is 12.5 km (10 km for women), and there are four shooting rounds (2 prone, 2 standing), and each miss means a penalty loop of 150 m.

5.3 Mass start

In the mass start, all biathletes start at the same time, which limits the maximum number of competitors. In 15 km (or 12.5 km for women), there's four rounds of shooting, twice standing, twice prone. Extra time is added for each missed target.

5.4 Individual

The 20 km individual race (15 km for women) is the oldest biathlon event. The biathlete shoots four times, in the order of prone, standing, prone, standing, totalling 20 targets. For each missed target a fixed penalty time, usually one minute, is added to the skiing time of the biathlete. As in the sprint competition, the biathletes start in intervals.

5.5 Relay

Teams consist of four biathletes, who each ski 7.5 km (both men and women), with two shooting rounds (one prone, one standing). For every round of five targets there are eight bullets available, though the last three can only be loaded one at a time from trays at the shooting range. If after eight bullets there are still misses, one 150 m penalty loop must be taken for each miss. The first-leg participants start all at the same time, and as in cross-country skiing relays, every athlete of a team must touch the team's next-leg participant to perform a valid exchange.

5.6 Team

A team consists of four biathletes, and all start at the same time. Two athletes must shoot in the prone shooting round, the other two in the standing round. In case of a miss, the two non-shooting biathletes must ski a penalty loop of 150 m. 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.

6 Variants

Two common variations on biathlon are summer biathlon, where skiing is replaced by a cross-country run, and archery biathlon, where the rifle is replaced by a longbow. There have also been (unofficial?) summer competitions in roller-ski biathlon.

7 See also

Skiing and skiing topics
Duathlon, Triathlon, Pentathlon, Heptathlon, Decathlon (non-winter sports, totally unrelated to biathlon)

8 External links

Official IBU website (in cooperation with the EBU; with race statistics, TV schedules, etc)
U.S. Biathlon Association

Skiing Shooting sports Rifle shooting sports Racing sports Winter sports Olympic sports

<Hide>

Home > Biathlon

1 History