biathlon – the winter sport combining
cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.
A biathlon competition consists of a cross-country ski race around a track with the total distance broken up by either two or four shooting rounds, half in prone position, the other half standing. That’s right! Raising the heart rate while skiing then standing or half-lying to perform a target shoot that requires steadiness in hand-eye coordination.
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 (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 still remaining after expending the “extras.”
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.
skiing
All cross-country skiing techniques are permitted in biathlon. Most competitors choose the free technique since it is 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
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 160 feet. There are five circular targets to be hit in each shooting round: 10 km for men and 7.5 km for women. The biathlete shoots twice, 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. Competitors’ starts are staggered, normally by 30 seconds, but sometimes by only 20 seconds.
sprint
The sprint is 10 km for men and 7.5 km for women. The biathlete shoots twice, 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.Competitors’ starts are staggered, normally by 30 seconds.
pursuit
In a pursuit, biathletes’ starts are separated by their time difference from a previous race, 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), and each miss means a penalty loop of 150 m. World Cup Pursuits are held with only the 60 top ranking biathletes after the preceding race.
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 standing, two prone. 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. This is a smaller number than the 60 in the pursuit since here all racers start at the same time.
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.
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.
For more information about biathlon go to:
Biathlon Canada
Biathlon Manitoba