Biathlon

Attempts to introduce a winter multi-event, patterned after the modern pentathlon, began in 1948, when the winter pentathlon was contested at the 1948 St. Moritz Olympics as a demonstration sport. It consisted of cross-country and downhill skiing, and also shooting, fencing, and horse riding.

Biathlon, which consists of cross-country skiing in which the runner stops at intervals to shoot a rifle at a target, was known in the 1920s but was not popular until the 1950s. In 1924, a military ski patrol race was a medal sport at the Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix. Military ski patrol was similar to a team biathlon event, with team members skiing together.

The first World Championships were held in 1958 at Saalfelden, Austria. The sport was quickly placed on the Olympic Programme, showing up at Squaw Valley in 1960. Women’s biathlon made its Olympic début in 1992 as a full medal sport at Albertville.

Biathlon is currently governed by the International Biathlon Union (IBU), which has 64 member federations (including eight provisional members) as of January 2026.

Beginning in 1953, biathlon was governed by the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM), and the organization actually changed its name to the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne et Biathlon (UIPMB) in 1968. This was the only time that an international federation governed sports on both the Summer and Winter Olympic Programmes. In 1993, the federation split into two separate groups to allow biathlon to act autonomously. Since 20 August 1998, modern pentathlon and biathlon are governed separately, with modern pentathlon returning to the UIPM, and the new IBU governing biathlon.

Biathlon events originally consisted of a single men’s race (20 km). A men’s relay (4×7.5 km) débuted at Grenoble 1968, and, in 1980 in Lake Placid, a second individual event (10 km sprint) was contested for the first time. Men and women now compete at five Olympic events each – sprint, pursuit, mass start, long-distance, and relay. At Sochi 2014, a new mixed relay event was added to the Olympic Programme. Biathlon is scored by time, with penalties given for missing a target in the shooting phases. Depending on the event, the penalty may be assessed either by a time addition or requiring the athlete to ski an extra penalty lap. As of 2026, Norway has been the most successful nation in Olympic biathlon, winning 67 medals and 25 golds, followed by Germany (55 medals and 21 golds) and France (45 medals and 19 golds).

The most successful individual has been Norway’s Ole Einar Bjørndalen, with eight gold medals, followed by France’s Martin Fourcade, with six. Bjørndalen also leads the men overall count, with 13 medals, ahead of his compatriots Johannes Thingnes Bø and Emil Hegle Svendsen, and France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet, all with nine Olympic medals.

Among women, Uschi Disl (GER) has won nine medals and two gold medals, while Belarussian Daria Domrachava leads the gold medal count, with four gold medals and six medals in all.