What is Biathlon?

Skiing and guns seems like a dangerous combination, but in the Winter Olympics this combination is known as biathlon. Biathlon is very popular in areas like Germany, Norway, and Russia. In other parts of the world it’s much less well-known. At the Vancouver Olympics, there will be five events for men and five for women, including one team sport and four individual sports.

Biathlon didn’t start as a sport. It was more practical than that, providing a way for northern European hunters to provide food for their families for the past four thousand years. Later, sometime in the mid-16th century, Scandinavian countries began to put their armies on skis.

So, what is Olympic biathlon?

Each event consists of a cross-country ski race. Along the race route, there are shooting stops, the number of which vary by competition. Half of the shooting stops are standing and half are lying down.

At each stop, competitors have five bullets and five targets (50 m away) to hit. Time or distance is added based on how the athlete performs in the shooting.

The Vancouver biathlon events will be held at Whistler and will consist of the following events:

Men’s 4×7.5 km Relay
Women’s 4×6 km Relay
Men’s 10 km Sprint
Women’s 7.5 km Sprint
Men’s 12.5 km Pursuit
Women’s 10 km Pursuit
Men’s 15 km Mass Start
Women’s 12.5 km Mass Start
Men’s 20 km Individual
Women’s 15 km Individual

One big change for the U.S. in this year’s Olympic biathlon competition is that there is a chance for a medal. The current leader in the World Cup points standing is American Tim Burke. That puts him in an excellent position, going into the Olympics to medal in one of his events.

This is one of the most recent interviews with Tim, where he talks about taking the yellow bib (the point leader designation):