The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not timed per se, but depending on the competition, missed shots result in extra distance or time being added to the contestant's total.
The first Biathlon World Championships (BWCH) was held in 1958, with individual and team contests for men. The original team event, Team (time), was held for the last time in 1965, to be replaced in 1966 by the team event, Relay, which we know today. The number of events has grown significantly over the years. Beginning in 1984, women biathletes had their own World Championships, and finally, from 1989, both genders have been participating in joint Biathlon World Championships. In 1978 the development was enhanced by the change from the large army rifle calibre to a small bore rifle, while the range to the target was reduced from 150 to 50 meters.
Ole Einar Bjørndalen is a retired Norwegian professional biathlete and coach, often referred to by the nickname, the "King of Biathlon". With 13 Winter Olympic Games medals, he is second on the list of multiple medalists behind Marit Bjørgen who has won 15 medals. He is also the most successful biathlete of all time at the Biathlon World Championships, having won 45 medals. With 95 World Cup wins, Bjørndalen is ranked first all-time for career victories on the Biathlon World Cup tour. He has won the Overall World Cup title six times, in 1997–98, in 2002–03, in 2004–05, in 2005–06, in 2007–08 and in 2008–09.
Ricco Groß is a former German biathlete. He is one of the most successful biathletes of all time at the Winter Olympics and the World Championships.
Michael Greis is a former German biathlete.
Halvard Hanevold was a Norwegian biathlete.
Frank-Peter Roetsch is a German former biathlete. He was the first biathlete to win a World Cup race using the skating technique when he won in Oberhof in 1985.
Frank Luck is a former German and, before 1990, East German biathlete.
Algimantas Šalna is a former Lithuanian, Soviet biathlete.
Jakov Fak is a Croatia-born Slovenian biathlete competing for Slovenia since 2010. As a member of the Croatian biathlon team, Fak won bronze medals at the 2009 World Championships and at the 2010 Winter Olympics, where he was also the Croatian flag bearer at the opening ceremony. In 2010, Fak switched his citizenship and started competing for Slovenia. Fak won four medals at the World Championships with the Slovenian team, including two gold and a silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics. In addition, Fak has eight victories in the World Cup.
Lowell Bailey is an American biathlon coach and retired biathlete who competed from 2001 until 2018.
Anton Vladimirovich Shipulin is a retired Russian biathlete and politician serving as the member of the State Duma since 2019.
Johannes Thingnes Bø is a Norwegian biathlete. He is the younger brother of biathlete Tarjei Bø. At the Olympic Games in Beijing 2022, they became the first siblings to have individual medals in the same biathlon event. Thingnes Bø has won the Biathlon World Cup in 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2022/23 and 2023/24. Thingnes Bø is the second most successful male biathlete of all time in the World Cup with 85 individual World Cup victories, including victories at the Winter Olympic Games.
Vladimir Iliev is a Bulgarian biathlete.
The tank biathlon is a mechanized military sport event held by the Russian military as a part of the annual International Army Games. Inspired by the winter sport of biathlon, the sport emphasizes the complex training of tank crews including their rough terrain passing skills combined with the ability to provide accurate and rapid fire while performing maneuvers. The Russian team has so far demonstrated the most outstanding skills among participants.
Tiril Kampenhaug Eckhoff is a Norwegian former biathlete.
Laura Dahlmeier is a retired German biathlete. Dahlmeier started in her first world cup races in the 2012/13 season. In 2014, she participated in the Winter Olympics in Sochi. She won a record of five gold medals at the World Championships of 2017. In 2018 she became the first woman to win the biathlon sprint and pursuit in the same Olympics. During her career she has won a total of two golds and one bronze at the Olympics, seven gold medals, three silver medals and five bronze medals at World Championships, one overall World Cup and two discipline World Cup titles. Dahlmeier announced her retirement from competition in May 2019, at the age of 25. In October 2019, she released a children's book.
Biathlon at the 2018 Winter Olympics was held at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre, Daegwallyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do, South Korea. There were eleven events contested: men and women competed in each of sprint, pursuit, individual, mass start, and relay; there was also a mixed relay event. The eleven events were scheduled to take place between 9 and 23 February 2018.
Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold is a Norwegian biathlete who competed for Norway at the 2018 Winter Olympics. She represents the club Fossum IF.
The 17th World Team Challenge 2018 was a biathlon competition, that was held at December 29, 2018, at the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The event was visited by 46.412 fans.
Italy 
Germany 
Ukraine 
Norway 
France 
Switzerland 
Austria 
Czech Republic 
Russia