The word biathlon (biathlon) consists of a combination of two parts: Latin bis - twice and Greek attlon - competition, fight. It is a winter biathlon, which includes cross-country skiing and target shooting. Biathlon became an Olympic sport in 1960. Today, competitions in this sport attract a huge number of fans around the world.
The history of this sport has several thousand years, not even hundreds. Similar actions can be seen in primitive hunters, who went hunting on homemade skis in winter and shot at targets - animals. At the time, the reward for successful shooting and racing was loot. Today the principle has remained the same, only the reward has changed.
Outwardly, the principle of competition looks quite simple. There are several disciplines within the same race. One of them is a sprint. In this case, men run a distance of 10 km, women a little less - 7.5 km. During the race, they must stop to shoot twice and hit 5 targets. Each miss adds a penalty of 150 meters for the athlete to run. Those who are the first to finish the sprint race (which is about 60 athletes) immediately go into the pursuit race.
This section is a 12.5 km race for men and 10 km for women. The start of one or another participant in the competition is determined by the time that was typed in the sprint. Competitors must stop 4 times to fire. Five targets are the norm for each of them. Here, for each miss, an additional 150 meter penalty loop is also added.
The next stage of the biathlon competition is the individual championship. The track for the race here is 20 km for men and 15 km for women. 4 shooting ranges at which the athletes must fire. Here the system for calculating penalties for misses is slightly changed - an additional minute is added to the personal time of each participant in the competition for each shot missed by the target.
Then only the team relay remains. The team consists of 4 people. Each must run a distance of 7.5 km. During the race, you need to hit 5 targets. In case of a miss, each participant is assigned an additional 150 meter circle.
Biathlon is considered one of the most expensive sports. Special equipment, cartridges and, of course, weapons. Since the 70s of the last century, small-bore carbines have been used for biathlon. They help to reduce the firing distance to 50 meters. This has helped to increase safety in stadiums and significantly reduce the size of special areas where the race takes place.
