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Biathlon (not to be confused with duathlon) is a term used to describe any sporting event made up of two disciplines. Biathlon, however, usually refers specifically to the winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. Another popular variant is summer biathlon, which combines cross-country running with riflery.
Unsurprisingly, biathlon events are broadcast most regularly where the sport enjoys its greatest popularity, namely Germany (ARD, ZDF), Norway (NRK), Finland (YLE), Sweden (SVT), Russia (RTR), Belarus (TVR), Slovenia (RTV), Estonia (ETV), and Bulgaria (BNT); it is also broadcast on European-wide Eurosport. Some events are broadcast on U.S. cable channel OLN.
The broadcast distribution being one indicator, the constellation of a sport's main sponsors usually gives a similar, and correlated, indication of popularity: for biathlon, these are the Germany-based companies E.ON Ruhrgas (energy), Krombacher (beer), and Viessmann (boilers and other heating systems).
Concise history
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 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). During the mid-1950s, however, biathlon was introduced into the Russian and Swedish winter sport circuits and was widely enjoyed by the public. This newfound popularity aided the effort of having biathlon gain entry into the Winter Olympics, where it has later become one of the most cherished sports.
The first World Championship in biathlon was held in 1958 in Austria, and in 1960 the sport was finally included in the Olympic Games. At Albertville in 1992, women were first allowed in Olympic biathlon.
The competitions from 1958 to 1965, using NATO calibers of 3.08mm, then a Large bore 0.223 before the 0.22LR (5.56mm) was standardized in 1978. The ammounition was carried in a belt worn around the competitor's waist. With the only competiton being the Men's 20km Individual, four different ranges and firing distances of 100m, 150m, 200m, and 250m. The distance was reduced to a single 150m station with the addition of the Relay in 1966. The shooting range was further reduced to a single 50m station in 1978 with the mechanical targets being making their debut at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
Governing body
In 1948, the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne et Biathlon (UIPMB) was founded, to standardise the rules for biathlon and modern pentathlon. In 1993, the biathlon branch of the UIPMB created the International Biathlon Union (IBU), which officially separated from the UIPMB in 1998.
Presidents of the UIPMB/IBU:
- 1948–1949: Tom Wiborn (Sweden)
- 1949–1960: Gustaf Dyrssen (Sweden)
- 1960–1988: Sven Thofelt, (Sweden)
- 1988–1992: Igor Novikov (USSR/Russia)
- From 1992: Anders Besseberg (Norway)
Champions
The following articles list major international biathlon events and medalists. Contrary to the Olympics and World Championships (BWCH), the World Cup (BWC) 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.
Rules and equipment
The complete rules of biathlon is given in the official IBU rule book (see External links, below). However, the concise description given below, along with the section on competition format, 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.
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. Depending on the shooting performance, extra distance or time is added to the contestant's total running distance/time. As in most races, the contestant with the shortest total time wins.
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. The large display screens commonly set up at biathlon arenas, as well as the information graphics shown as part of the TV picture, will typically list the split time of the fastest contestant at each intermediate point and the times and time differences to the closest runners-up.
Skiing details
All cross-country skiing techniques are permitted in biathlon, which means that the free technique is usually the preferred one, being the fastest. No other equipment than skis and ski poles may be used for moving along the track. Minimal ski length is 4 cm less than the height of the skier.Shooting details
The biathlete carries the 3.5 kg small bore rifle including ammunition in magazines on her/his back during the race. The rifles use .22 LR ammunition and are bolt action.The target range shooting distance is 50 m or 164 feet. There are five circular targets to be hit in each shooting round. 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 station, 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. Competitors' starts are staggered, normally by 30 seconds.Sprint
The sprint is 10 km for men and 7.5 km for women. The biathlete shoots twice at any shooting station, once prone and once standing, for a total of 10 shots. For each miss, a penalty loop of 150 m must be skied before the race can be continued. As in the Individual competition, the biathletes start in intervals.Pursuit
In a Pursuit, biathletes' starts are separated by their time differences from a previous race,To be precise; the Pursuit competition start intervals are determined by common rounding to the nearest whole second of the biathletes' time differences from the previous race—the amount of time each biathlete lagged after the winner to the finish line. most commonly a Sprint. The contestant crossing the finish line first is the winner. 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 in the skiing track, and undercapacity 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 station in the position they arrived (Arrive at the station in 5th place, you shoot at station five.) for all shooting bouts.Mass start
In the Mass start, all biathletes start at the same time and the first across the finish line wins. 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 stage being at the station your bib is assigned (Bib #10 shoots at Station #10 regardless of position in race.) with rest of the shooting stages being at the station in the position they arrived (Arrive at the station in 5th place, you shoot at station five.). As in Sprint races, competitors must ski one 150 m penalty loop for each miss. Here again, to avoid unwanted congestion, World Cup Mass starts are held with only the 30 top ranking athletes on the start line (half that of the Pursuit since here all contestants start simultaneously).Relay
The Relay teams consist of four biathletes, who each ski 7.5 km (men) or 6 km (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 changeover. On the first shooting stage of the first leg, the participant must shoot in the station of their assigned bib number (Bib #10 shoots at Station #10 regardless of position in race.), then for the remainder of the relay, the relay team shoots at the station in the position they arrived (Arrive at the station in 5th place, you shoot at station 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. Legs 1 and 2 are done by the women, legs 3 and 4 by the men. The legs are 6 km, as in the ordinary women's Relay competition.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. 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. Since 2004, this race format has been obsolete at the World Cup level.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.)
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. There have also been summer competitions in roller-ski biathlon, mountain bike biathlon and orienteering biathlon.
Notes
See also
Biathlon's two sports disciplines:
Other multi-discipline sports (otherwise unrelated to biathlon):
External links
- Event & Competition Rules Authorized by the IBU Congress, June 1998 – The official IBU rule book, with annexes
- Biathlonworld.Com – A cooperation between IBU and EBU; with race results/statistics, TV schedules, live competition results, etc.
- U.S. Biathlon Association
- History of Biathlon
- Veltins Biathlon World Team Challenge
- Biathlon on OLN TV
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