Winter Olympic Sports

Biathlon

History

Gold Medal Skiing has been around northern European countries and Northern Asia for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found cave paintings and pieces of wooden skis dating back about 10,000 years.

Gold Medal The biathlon was initially used for hunting in the northern Scandinavian countries as long ago as 4,000 years ago. The more modern version was in the 18th century when Northern Europe and Scandinavian countries held military competitions against each other. In 1924, a more familiar version was introduced as an army patrol. Biathlon was a demonstration event that included ski mountaineering, skiing, and rifle shooting. The demonstration events continued for the 1928, 1936, and 1948 Winter Olympics, then stopped until the 1960 Olympics, when we have our most current version of the sport.

Equipment Used

Silver Medal Skis, poles, binding (they hold the boot to the ski), goggles, helmet, and racing suit. They also use a rifle (.22 caliber rifle) with magazines (it holds the bullets) with five bullets. They use a sling and harness to help keep the rifle in place, as well as a scope, and a snow cover (it stops snow from getting into the rifle).

Silver Medal In the past, skis had a solid piece of wood like ash or hickory, but now they have a wooden core surrounded by layers of fiberglass with titanium (a kind of metal) edges.

Rules

Bronze Medal In this sport, athletes combine cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.

Bronze Medal Each race will have 2-4 targets to shoot at from about 50 m (165 ft) away. Each athlete must stand or lie down to shoot their target, depending on the requirements of the target. If the shooter misses, time will be added to their final score, or they will have to ski extra laps (only during the sprint, pursuit, and mass start events).

11 events in this category

Women

(The Olympic committee added the women’s events to the Albertville (France) Winter Olympics in 1992)

7.5 km Sprint (1992 Albertville gold medal winner 7.5 km Sprint (Unified Team) Anfisa Reztsova)
10 km Pursuit (2014 Sochi gold medal winner 10 km Pursuit (Belarus) Darya Domracheva)
12.5 km Mass Start (2006 Turin gold medal winner 12.5 km Mass Start (Sweden) Ann-Carn Olofsson)
15 km Individual (2014 Sochi gold medal winner 15 km Individual (Belarus) Darya Domracheva)
4X6 Relay (Gold medal winners 4X6 Relay (Ukraine) Yuliya Dzhyma, Valj Semerenko, Olean Pidhrushina, and Vita Semerenko 2014 Sochi)

Men

(Added to the Squaw Valley (USA) Winter Olympics in 1960)

10 km Sprint (2006 Turin gold medal winner 10 km Sprint (Germany) Sven Fischer)
12.5 km Pursuit (2010 Vancouver gold medal winner 12.5 km Pursuit (Sweden) Bjorn Ferry)
15 km Mass Start (2006 Turin gold medal winner 15 km Mass Start (Germany) Michael Greis)
20 km individual (2014 Sochi gold medal winner 20 km Individual (France) Martin Fourcade)
4 x 7.5 Relay (2006 Turin gold medal winners 4X 7.5 Relay (Germany) Michael Greis, Sven Fischer, Michael Rosch, and Ricco Gross)
Mixed Relay: (men and women) 4 x 6 km. (Added to the Sochi (Russia) Winter Olympics in 2014) (2014 Sochi gold medal winners (Norway)