Biathlon

Biathlon... A winter Sport played by using skies and rifles. this sport originated in snowy mountains to train soldiers in snow warfare.

Biathlon (not to be confused with duathlon) is a term used to describe any sporting event made up of two disciplines. Biathlon, however, usually refers specifically to the winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. Another popular variant is summer biathlon, which combines cross-country running with riflery.

Unsurprisingly, biathlon events are broadcast most regularly where the sport enjoys its greatest popularity, namely Germany (ARD, ZDF), Austria (ORF), Norway (NRK), Finland (YLE), Estonia (ETV), Poland (TVP), Sweden (SVT), Russia (Sport), Belarus (TVR), Slovenia (RTV), and Bulgaria (BNT); it is also broadcast on European-wide Eurosport. Some events are broadcast on U.S. cable channel OLN.

The broadcast distribution being one indicator, the constellation of a sport's main sponsors usually gives a similar, and correlated, indication of popularity: for biathlon, these are the Germany-based companies E.ON Ruhrgas (energy), Krombacher (beer), and Viessmann (boilers and other heating systems).

Rules and equipment

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

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

The complete rules of biathlon is given in the official IBU rule book (see External links, below). 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Shooting details

The biathlete carries the 3.7 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 164 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.

Competition format

[edit] Individual

The 20 km Individual race (15 km for women) is the oldest biathlon event. The biathlete shoots four times at any shooting lane^[1], 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. Competitors' starts are staggered, normally by 30 seconds.

[edit] Sprint

The sprint is 10 km for men and 7.5 km for women. The biathlete shoots twice at any shooting lane, 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. As in the Individual competition, the biathletes start in intervals.

[edit] Pursuit

In a Pursuit, biathletes' starts are separated by their time differences from a previous race,^[2] 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, in that order), and each miss means a penalty loop of 150 m. To prevent awkward and/or dangerous crowding of the skiing loops, and overcapacity at the shooting range, World Cup Pursuits are held with only the 60 top ranking biathletes after the preceding race. The biathletes shoot at the lane corresponding to the position they arrived (Arrive at the range in 5th place, you shoot in lane five.) for all shooting bouts

[edit] 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 prone, two standing, in that order) with the first shooting bout being at the lane corresponding to your bib (Bib #10 shoots at lane #10 regardless of position in race.) with rest of the shooting bouts being at the lane in the position they arrived (Arrive at the lane in 5th place, you shoot at lane five.). 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 (half that of the Pursuit since here all contestants start simultaneously).

[edit] Relay

The 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 single-loaded manually one at a time from spare round holders or bullets deposited by the competitor into trays or onto the mat at the firing line. If after eight bullets there are still misses, one 150 m penalty loop must be taken for each missed target remaining. 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. On the first shooting stage of the first leg, the participant must shoot in the lane corresponding to their bib number (Bib #10 shoots at lane #10 regardless of position in race.), then for the remainder of the relay, the relay team shoots at the lane in the position they arrived (Arrive at the range in 5th place, you shoot at lane five.).

[edit] Mixed relay

The most recent addition to the number of biathlon competition variants, the Mixed relay, is similar to the ordinary Relay but for the composition of the teams, each of which consists of two women and two men. Legs 1 and 2 are done by the women, legs 3 and 4 by the men. The legs are 6 km, as in the ordinary women's Relay competition.

[edit] Team (obsolete)

A team consists of four biathletes, but unlike the case of the Relay competition, all team members start at the same time. Two athletes must shoot in the prone shooting round, the other two in the standing round. In case of a miss, the two non-shooting biathletes must ski a penalty loop of 150 m. The skiers must enter the shooting area together, and must also finish within 15 seconds of each other, otherwise a time penalty of 1 minute is added to the total time. Since 2004, this race format has been obsolete at the World Cup level.

[edit] Biathlon venues

World Cup events and World Championships in biathlon have traditionally been held at the following relatively few locations. (Due to the complicated shooting range equipment, which absolutely has to work in order to hold successful races, biathlon is a highly demanding sport for organisers.)

Country	Major biathlon venues
Austria	Hochfilzen	Saalfelden
Canada	Canmore	Valcartier
Finland	Kontiolahti	Kuusamo	Lahti
Germany	Oberhof	Ruhpolding	Veltins-Arena*
Italy	Antholz-Anterselva	Cesana-San Sicario
Norway	Beitostølen	Holmenkollen	Lillehammer
Russia	Khanty-Mansiysk	Novosibirsk
Slovakia	Brezno-Osrblie
Slovenia	Pokljuka
Sweden	Östersund
Bulgaria	Bansko	Borovets
United States	Fort Kent, ME	Presque Isle, ME	Lake Placid, NY	Soldier Hollow, UT

*The Veltins-Arena, located in Gelsenkirchen and renamed from Arena AufSchalke in July 2005, is the stadium of German football club FC Schalke 04. Since 2002 the stadium has hosted a special end-of-year mixed team event, now called the "Veltins Biathlon World Team Challenge".

Other Biathlon variants

Two common variations on biathlon are summer biathlon, where skiing is replaced by a cross-country run, and archery biathlon (or ski archery), where the rifle is replaced by a recurve bow.

There have also been summer competitions in roller-ski biathlon, mountain bike biathlon and orienteering biathlon. Primitive Biathlon uses snowshoes and muzzleloaders.

The Boy Scouts of America offers a Bikeathlon variant at their national Scout jamboree that mixes BMX biking with air rifle shooting at biathlon type targets[1], and Philmont Scout Ranch has recently begun offering a similar activity[2].

Cadets Canada also offers biathlon to cadets across Canada, with 3 stages; zones, provincial and national. Cadets generally use Air Rifles at zones (which also often are held as summer biathlon, with running as opposed to skiing) and .22 caliber rifles at provincials and nationals. Races are shorter than world class events. More information can be found at [3] the National Cadet Biathlon Championship website

Athletics, also known as track and field or track and field athletics, is a collection of sports events that involve running, throwing and jumping. The name is derived from the Greek word "athlon" meaning "contest".

Some languages (e.g., German and Russian) refer to these sports as "light athletics" to distinguish them from "heavy athletics," like weight lifting, wrestling, etc.

Athletics was the original event at the first Olympics back in 776 BCE where the only event held was the stadium-length foot race or "stade".

There were several other "Games" held throughout Europe in the classical era:

* Panhellenic Games:
o The Pythian Games (founded 527 BCE) held in Delphi every four years
o The Nemean Games (founded 516 BCE) held in Argolid every two years
o The Isthmian Games (founded 523 BCE) held on the Isthmus of Corinth every two years (one year being that which followed the Olympics)
* The Roman Games – Arising from Etruscan rather than purely Greek roots, the Roman Games deemphasized footraces and throwing. Instead, the Greek sports of chariot racing and wrestling, as well as the Etruscan sport of gladiatorial combat, took center stage.

Other peoples enjoyed athletic contests, such as the Celts, Teutons and Goths who succeeded the Romans. However, these were often related to combat training, and were not very well organized. In the Middle Ages the sons of noblemen would be trained in running, leaping and wrestling, in addition to riding, jousting and arms-training. Contests between rivals and friends may have been common on both official and unofficial grounds. Many athletic sports have found favour in Europe throughout the ages. However, in Britain they fell out of favour between the 13th and 16th centuries due to government restrictions on sports aiming to reduce the practice of archery.[citation needed] After this ban was lifted in the 17th century sports began to flourish once more, but it was not until the 19th century that organization began to appear. This included the incorporation of regular sports and exercise into school regimes. The Royal Military College, Sandhurst has claimed to be the first to adopt this in 1812 and 1825 but without any supporting evidence. The earliest recorded meeting was organised at Shrewsbury, Shropshire in 1840 by the Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt. There are details of the meeting in a series of letters written 60 years later by CT Robinson who was a pupil there from 1838 to 1841.

Modern athletic events are usually organized around a 400 metre running track, on which most of the running events take place. Field events (vaulting, jumping, and throwing) often take place in the field in the centre of the track.

Many athletic events have an ancient origin and were already conducted in competitive form by the ancient Greeks. Athletics was included in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and has been part of the program ever since, providing the backbone of the Olympics. Women were not allowed to participate in track and field events in the Olympics until 1928. An international governing body, the IAAF was founded in 1912. The IAAF established separate outdoor World Championships in 1983. Other major events include the World Indoor Championships and the European Championships. The sport has a very high profile during major championships, especially the Olympics, but otherwise ranks well down the list of sports by public interest in almost all countries. The leading regular circuit of events takes place in Europe each summer, and includes the Golden League events.

The AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) was the governing body in the United States until it collapsed under pressure from advancing professionalism in the late 1970s. A new governing body called The Athletics Congress (TAC) was formed, it was later renamed USA Track and Field (USATF or USA T&F). An additional, less structured organization, the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) also exists in the USA to promote road racing. Both organizations allow athletes to receive money for racing putting an end to the "shamateurism" that existed before.

here are two seasons for track and field. There is an indoor season, run during the winter and an outdoor season, run during the spring and summer. Most indoor tracks are 200 meters, however, less frequently, there are smaller and larger tracks that measure from between 120 (13.3 laps to a mile) to 300 meters. The typical indoor track consists of four to eight lanes (usually six) instead of the six to ten (usually eight) on an outdoor track. Often an indoor track will have banked turns to compensate for the tight bends.

In an indoor track meet athletes contest the same events as an outdoor meet with the exception of the 100 m and 110 m/100 m hurdles (replaced by the 60 m sprint and 60 m hurdles at most levels and sometimes the 55m sprint and 55m hurdles at the high school level), and the 10,000 m run, 3,000m steeplechase, and 400m hurdles. Indoor meets also have the addition of a 3,000 m run normally at both the collegiate and elite level instead of the 10,000 m. The 5,000 m is the longest event commonly run indoors, although there are situations where longer distances have been raced. In the mid 20th century, there was a series of races 'duel races' at Madison Square Garden's (NY) indoor track, some of which featured two men racing a marathon (26.2 miles). However, this is an extremely rare occurrence, for obvious reasons. In some occasions, there may also be a 500 m race instead the open 400 m normally found outdoors, and in many collegiate championship races indoors both are contested.

In the field events, indoor meets only feature the high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump and shot put. The longer throws of javelin, hammer and discus are added only for outdoor meets, as there is normally not enough space in an indoor stadium to house these events.

Other events unique to indoor meets (especially in North America) are the 300m, 600m, 1000m and 35 lb. weight throw. In some countries, notably Norway, standing long jump and standing high jump are also contested.

For multi-event athletes there is the Pentathlon for women (consisting of 60m hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800m) and heptathlon for men (consisting of 60m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1000m).

The outdoor track and field season begins in the spring and may last through the summer. Usually the tracks are an oval shape track of 400 meters. However, some old tracks are still measured in yards, so they measure 440 yards. The track consists of 6-10 lanes and, for the bigger tracks, a steeplechase lane with a water pit. This can be inside or outside the track, making for a tighter turn or a wider turn. Often schools will place a playing field in the middle of the track, usually football/soccer/lacrosse, due to their size and shape. This inner field is usually known as the infield. Recently, some of these fields have been made out of AstroTurf or FieldTurf instead of grass.

Field events consist of the high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump and shot put. They also consist of the javelin, hammer and discus throws; however, often these are outside of the stadium because they take up a large amount of space and may damage grass fields. However, many tracks without a playing field in the middle use the infield for the throwing events.

There are other variations besides the ones listed below, but races of unusual length (e.g., 300 m) are run much less often. The unusual races are typically held during indoor season because of the shorter 200m indoor track. With the exception of the mile run, races based on imperial distances are rarely run on the track anymore since most tracks have been converted from a quarter mile (402.3 m) to 400 meters; almost all recordkeeping for imperial distances has been discontinued. However, the IAAF record book still includes the mile world record (currently held by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco for men and Svetlana Masterkova of Russia for women) because of its worldwide historic significance.

Men and women do not compete against each other. Women generally run the same distances as men although hurdles and steeplechase barriers are lower and the weights of the shot, discus, javelin and hammer are less.

* Track events - running events conducted on a 400 meter track.
o Sprints: events up to and including 400 m. Common events are 60 m (indoors only), 100 metres, 200 metres and 400 metres.
o Middle distance: events from 800m to 3000 m, especially 800 metres, 1500 metres, mile and 3000m. In the United States (especially high schools), distance events include 800 m, 1600 m (mile), and 3200 m (2 miles). (1 mile=1609.344 meters)
+ steeplechase - a race (usually 3000 m) in which runners must negotiate barriers and water jumps.
o Long distance: runs over 5000 m. Common events are 5000 m and 10000 m. Less common are 1, 6, 12, 24 hour races.
o Hurdling: 110 m high hurdles (100 m for women) and 400 m intermediate hurdles (300 m in some high schools).
o Relays: 4 x 100 metres relay, 4 x 400 metres relay, 4 x 200 m, 4 x 800 m, etc. Some events, such as medley relays, are rarely run except at large relay carnivals. Most American high schools run the 4x100, 4x400 and 4x800 with the 4x400 being the finishing event to the meet.
* Road running: conducted on open roads, but often finishing on the track. Common events are the 5k, 10k, 15k, 20k, half-marathon and marathon. The marathon is the only distance run in major international athletics championships such as the Olympics.
* Race walking: usually conducted on open roads. Common events are 10 km, 20 km and 50 km.
* Field events
o Throwing events
+ Shot put
+ Hammer throw
+ Javelin throw
+ Discus throw
o Jumping events
+ High jump
+ Pole vault
+ Long jump
+ Triple jump
Highly uncommon are the
+ Standing high jump
+ Standing long jump
+ Standing triple jump
* Combined or Multi events
o Pentathlon
o Heptathlon
o Decathlon

Archery

The second Olympic games, Paris 1900, saw the first appearance of archery. 7 disciplines in varying distances were contested. The next Olympiad, St. Louis 1904, had 5 archery events but no athletes from outside the United States competed. At the 1908 Summer Olympics, there were 3 archery events. Archery was not featured at the 1912 Summer Olympics but reappeared in the 1920 Summer Olympics.

Between 1920 and 1972, archery was not contested at the Olympic games. The archery competition that was featured at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich consisted of a double FITA Round competition with two events - men's individual and women's individual. This form of the archery competition was held until the 1988 Summer Olympics, when team competition was added and the Grand FITA Round format was used. Starting at the 1992 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Round with head-to-head matches was adopted, and has been used ever since.

Qualification

Qualification spots in archery are allotted to National Olympic Committees rather than to individual athletes.

There were four ways for NOCs to earn berths in Olympic archery. No NOC is allowed to enter more than three archers of each gender. For each gender, the host nation is guaranteed three spots. The most recent World Target Competition's top 8 teams (besides the host nation) each receive three spots, and the 19 highest ranked archers after the team qualifiers are removed also earn spots for their country. 15 of the remaining 18 spots are divided equally among the five Olympic continents for allocation in continental tournaments. The last three spots in each gender are determined by the Tripartite Commission invitation.

Each NOC that receives three places for individual archers (i.e., the host nation, the top 8 teams at the World Target Competition, and any other nation that is able to take 3 of the remaining 37 places) is able to have its three archers compete as a team in the team competition.
Competition

Modern Olympic archery consists of four medal events: men's individual, women's individual, men's team, and women's team. In all four events, the distance from the archer to the target is 70 metres.

[edit] Individual

In the individual competitions, 64 archers compete. The competition begins with the ranking round. Each archer shoots 72 arrows (in six ends, or groups, of 12 arrows). They are then ranked by score to determine their seeding for the single-elimination bracket. After this, final rankings for each archer is determined by the archer's score in the round in which the archer was defeated, with the archers defeated in the first round being ranked 33rd through 64th.

The first elimination round pits the first ranked archer against the sixty-fourth, the second against the sixty-third, and so on. In this match as well as the second and third, the archers shoot simultaneously 18 arrows in ends of 3 arrows. The archer with the higher score after 18 arrows moves on to the next round while the loser is eliminated.

After three such rounds, there are 8 archers remaining. The remaining three rounds (quarterfinals, semifinals, and medal matches) are referred to as the finals rounds. They consist of each archer firing 12 arrows, again in ends of 3 arrows. The two archers in the match alternate by arrow instead of firing their arrows simultaneously as in the first three rounds. The losers of the quarterfinals are eliminated, while the losers of the semifinals play each other to determine the bronze medal and fourth place. The two archers who are undefeated through the semifinals face each other in the gold medal match, in which the winner takes the gold medal while the loser receives the silver medal.

[edit] Team

Each country that has three archers in the individual competition also gets to compete as a team. The same three archers from the individual competition must compete as the country's team. Their scores in the individual ranking round are added to determine the team's ranking round score.

The first team round is the round of 16, but as the number of teams is usually between 9 and 15 the highest ranked teams typically get a bye in the first round. Matches consist of each team firing 27 arrows in 3 ends of 9 arrows, with each archer on the team firing 3 arrows per end. Advancement and medals are determined in the same manner as the individual competition.

Early Games

Early Olympic archery competitions had events that were mostly unique for each Games.
1900 1904 1908 1912 1920
6 events, men only 6 events, men and women 3 events, men and women not held 10 events, men only

* Au Cordon Doré, 50 metres
* Au Cordon Doré, 33 metres
* Au Chapelet, 50 metres
* Au Chapelet, 33 metres
* Sur la Perche à la Herse
* Sur la Perche à la Pyramide



* Team round, men
* Team round, women
* Double American round, men
* Double Columbia round, women
* Double National round, women
* Double York round, men



* Double National round, women
* Double York round, men
* Continental style, men



* Fixed large bird
* Fixed small bird
* Moving bird, 50 metres
* Moving bird, 33 metres
* Moving bird, 28 metres
* Fixed large bird, team
* Fixed small bird, team
* Moving bird, 50 metres, team
* Moving bird, 33 metres, team
* Moving bird, 28 metres, team

[edit] Modern Games
Event 72 76 80 84 88 92 96 00 04 Years
Double FITA round, men X X X X - - - - - 4
Double FITA round, women X X X X - - - - - 4
Double FITA elimination round, men - - - - X - - - - 1
Double FITA elimination round, women - - - - X - - - - 1
Elimination round, team men - - - - X - - - - 1
Elimination round, team women - - - - X - - - - 1
Olympic round, individual men - - - - - X X X X 4
Olympic round, individual women - - - - - X X X X 4
Olympic round, team men - - - - - X X X X 4
Olympic round, team women - - - - - X X X X 4
Events 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 28