The first Biathlon World Championships (BWCH) was held in 1958, with individual and team contests for men. 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.
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Having lost the bid for the 1992 Winter Olympics to Albertville in France, Lillehammer was awarded the 1994 Winter Games on 15 September 1988, at the 94th IOC Session in Seoul, South Korea. This was the only Winter Olympics to take place two years after the previous edition of the Winter Games, and the first to be held in a different year from the Summer Olympics. This was the second Winter Games hosted in Norway — the first being the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo — and the fourth Olympics overall to be held in a Nordic country, after the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, and the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Lillehammer is the northernmost city ever to host the Olympic Games. This was the last of three consecutive Olympics held in Europe, with Albertville and Barcelona in Spain hosting the 1992 Winter and Summer Games, respectively.
The 1960 Winter Olympics were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort in Squaw Valley, California, United States. The resort was chosen to host the Games at the 1956 meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Squaw Valley was an undeveloped resort in 1955, so the infrastructure and all of the venues were built between 1956 and 1960 at a cost of US$80,000,000. The layout was designed to be intimate, allowing spectators and competitors to reach most of the venues on foot.
Ruhpolding is the municipality with the biggest area of the Traunstein district in southeastern Bavaria, Germany. It is situated in the south of the Chiemgau region in the Alps and next to the Austrian border.
Ricco Groß is a former German biathlete whose exploits made him one of the most successful biathletes of all time at the Winter Olympics and the World Championships.
Michael Greis is a former German biathlete.
Peter Angerer is a former West German biathlete.
Jeremy Scott Teela is a former American biathlete and a Staff Sergeant in the United States Army.
Björn Ferry is a former Swedish biathlete and medal winning Olympian. He began competing internationally in World Cup competitions in 2001, but did not win his first international race until the 2007–2008 season. In 2007, he won gold in the mixed relay event at the Biathlon World Championships. The next year, at his third Winter Olympics appearance, he won the gold medal in the pursuit event. He started the event in 8th place as determined by the previous sprint event, but managed to overtake the race leader on the final lap.
Jakov Fak is a Croatian 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.
Simon Schempp is a German former biathlete.
Alfred Eder is an Austrian former biathlete.
Sara Studebaker-Hall is a retired biathlete from the United States who competed on the World Cup circuit from 2009 to 2014. Born and raised in Boise, Idaho, she has had multiple top 20 results and her best World Cup finishes are 14th in the sprint event at Presque Isle, Maine in February 2011 and 15th in the sprint at Kontiolahti, Finland in February 2012. She placed 17th in the individual race at the 2011 World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. She was ranked 34th in the World Cup in the 2010–11 season and 55th for 2011–12.
Valentyna Oleksandrivna Semerenko, known also as Valya Semerenko and featuring in statistics as Valj Semerenko is a Ukrainian biathlete. She is Olympic and World champion, multiple World championships medalist, and one of the most successful Ukrainian winter athletes.
Amanda Lightfoot is a British biathlete who competes in the IBU Cup.
Fanny Horn Birkeland is a Norwegian former biathlete. She competed at the Biathlon World Championships 2011, where she placed sixth in the relay with the Norwegian team. In January 2015, she won her first race in the 7.5 km sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany.
Wolfgang Pichler is a German biathlon and cross-country skiing coach.
Franz Bernreiter is a German former biathlete.
Kurt Pichler was a Swiss footballer. He competed in the men's tournament at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Pichler played 5 games for the Swiss national team.
