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.
A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating. In the Olympic Games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field, each consisting of a set number of stages (legs), each leg run by different members of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass the next runner a stick-like object known as a "baton" while both are running in a marked exchange zone. In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre and 1,600-metre relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres.
Magdalena "Magda" Forsberg is a Swedish former cross-country skier and biathlete. She was the dominant female biathlete from 1997 to 2002, when she retired, winning the Biathlon World Cup for six years straight. She is also a six-time world champion, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, and holds the record for the most World Cup victories in women's biathlon.
Michael Greis is a former German biathlete.
Biathlon debuted at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California with the men's 20 km individual event. At the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, the men's 4 × 7.5 km relay debuted, followed by the 10 km sprint event at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Beginning at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, women's biathlon debuted with the 15 km individual, 3 × 7.5 km relay, and 7.5 km sprint. A pursuit race was included at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The top 60 finishers of the sprint race would qualify for the pursuit event. The sprint winner starts the race, followed by each successive biathlete at the same time interval they trailed the sprint winner in that event. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, a mass start was introduced where the top 30 biathletes from the previous four events were allowed to start together for the competition.
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007 took place 22 February – 4 March 2007 in Sapporo, Japan. It was the second time this city has hosted these championships, having previously done so in the 1972 Winter Olympics. Sapporo was selected as venue by vote at the 43rd FIS World Congress in Portorož, Slovenia, on 6 June 2002. It also marked the third time the championships were hosted outside Europe in a year that did not coincide with the Winter Olympics; it was the first championship held in Asia. The ski jumping team normal hill event was not held, as it had been in 2005.
The International Biathlon Union is the international governing body of biathlon. Its headquarters were in Salzburg, Austria, until May 2020, when the Federation moved to Anif, on the outskirts of the city. It was rocked by a corruption scandal that broke in 2018, concerning the Russians bribing its top two officials. In 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, as invading nations, were suspended from all international biathlon competitions until further notice.
Magdalena "Lena" Holzer is a retired German professional biathlete. She is the most successful woman of all time at Biathlon World Championships and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. At the age of 21, she became the youngest Overall World Cup winner in the history of the International Biathlon Union (IBU). With 34 World Cup wins, Holzer is ranked second all-time for career victories on the Biathlon World Cup tour. She has won the Overall World Cup title three times, in 2007–08, in 2009–10 and her final season in 2011–12. At only 25 years old, Holzer retired from the sport in March 2012, citing a lack of motivation and her desire for a normal life.
The biathlon competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics were held at Whistler Olympic Park in Whistler, British Columbia. The events were held between the 13th and 26 February 2010.
The 43rd Biathlon World Championships were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea from February 13 to February 22, 2009. It was the first time that the Biathlon World Championships were held in Asia.
Kaisa Leena Mäkäräinen is a Finnish former world-champion and 3-time world-cup-winning biathlete, who currently competes for Kontiolahden Urheilijat. Outside sports, Mäkäräinen is currently studying to be a Physics teacher at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu. Her team coach is Jonne Kähkönen, while Jarmo Punkkinen is her ski coach.
The Biathlon European Championships are the top-European competitions in biathlon. The first edition was held in 1994, with sprint, pursuit, individual and relay. The number of events has grown significantly over the years. Till 2015, the competitions included also junior events but since 2016 the Junior Championships are held separately.
For the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, United States, a total of seven sports venues were used. All five of the venues used for the 1932 Winter Olympics were also used at the 1980 Winter Games with adjustments. These adjustments included electronic scoreboards, increased refrigeration, and the addition of a separate luge track. This was the last Winter Olympics where there were separate bobsleigh and luge tracks. The closest finish in Olympic history in cross-country skiing led skiing officials to time future events in hundredths of a second rather than tenths of a second. This would also apply to biathlon events. Eric Heiden won five gold medals at the speed skating oval while the "Miracle on Ice" took place between Americans and Soviets at the Olympic Center. In the late 1990s, the luge track was demolished and a new combination track was constructed in time for the only Winter Goodwill Games held. The sliding venue was named to the American National Register of Historical Places in February 2010.
Stina Nilsson is a Swedish former biathlete and former cross-country skier. She is a five-time Olympic medalist and the 2018 Olympic champion in the individual sprint. In March 2020 she announced that she would switch to competing in biathlon. In April 2024, she announced her return to cross-country skiing, this time as a long-distance racer.
Mari Eder is a Finnish former biathlete and cross-country skier.
Tiril Kampenhaug Eckhoff is a Norwegian former biathlete.
The 21st Biathlon European Championships were held in Nové Město na Moravě, Czech Republic from January 29 to February 4, 2014.
The Biathlon World Championships 2019 took place in Östersund, Sweden, from 6 to 17 March 2019.
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