The Biathlon Sport Imagine skiing around a turn at twenty miles per hour with a rifle harnessed on your back. Quickly pulling the rifle around from your back, you settle with the first target in sight. The winter Biathlon is a combination of cross country freestyle skiing and rifle marksmanship.
Competitors ski with rifles and shoot at small knock down targets fifty meters away.
Missed targets add either fixed penalty time to the final time or require penalty laps on a 180 meter loop. The summer Biathlon is a combination of cross country running and rifle marksmanship. Competitors run without rifles, however. They leave a rifle at the shooting range, with is either 25 meters or 50 meters in length, and pick it up to shoot during the race. A race will have an even number of shots with prone and standing shooting positions.