Andrea Nahrgang prepares to shoot from the prone position at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The complete rules of biathlon is given in the official IBU rule book. However, the concise description given below, along with the section on competition format, should be enough for a spectator to understand what is going on at a biathlon stadium whether actually being there or at home watching a televised biathlon event.

Basic concepts

In short, a biathlon competition consists of a race in which contestants ski around a cross-country track, and where the total distance is broken up by either two or four shooting rounds, half in prone position, the other half standing. Depending on the shooting performance, extra distance or time is added to the contestant’s total running distance/time. As in most races, the contestant with the shortest total time wins.

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 (running 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 in order 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. The large display screens commonly set up at biathlon arenas, as well as the information graphics shown as part of the TV picture, will typically list the split time of the fastest contestant at each intermediate point and the times and time differences to the closest runners-up.

Jeremy Teela shoots from the standing position at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Skiing details

All cross-country skiing techniques are permitted in biathlon, which means that the free technique is usually the preferred one, being 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 details

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 (5.56 mm) 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. When shooting in the prone position the target diameter is 45 mm or 1.7 inches, when shooting in the standing position the target diameter is 115 mm or 4.5 inches. On all modern biathlon ranges, the targets are self-indicating, in that they flip from black to white when hit, giving the biathlete as well as the spectators instant visual feedback for each shot fired.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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