Like many of the modern sports, the
biathlon has its origins in the distant
past. Historians suggest that prehistoric
hunters were the first to use the combination
of skiing and shooting, followed by warriors.
The oldest rock-paintings found date back to
the Neolithic age (about 3000 B.C.) and show
hunters with bow and arrow moving on sliding
timber. In Northern Europe, hunting on skis was
well known, as in Northern Asia and North
America. In China, "winged horses" on the feet
were employed to track wildlife in snow-covered
regions. In the Middle Ages, the military
aspect of shooting on skis came into the
foreground, and the traditional patrol race
came into being (preventing today's Biathlon
from becoming a pure sporting event for quite
some time). Since the end of the 19th century,
soldiers on skis were found in Scandinavia,
Russia, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In
1776 in Norway, the first biathlon competitions
were organized; the competitors fired rifles
while racing ahead.
Such competitions were held at regular
intervals between 1792 and 1818. In Germany the
first military patrol race was held in 1902. In
Norway the team competition was joined in 1912
by an individual race during which 10 rounds
were fired in two shooting bouts. The 1st
Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix, France
included a ski patrol race on its program. This
event was organized as a demonstration, and was
repeated at the 1928, 1936 and 1948 Winter
Games. It was not until the 44th session of the
International Olympic Committee, meeting in
Rome in 1949, however, that Sweden's proposal
to include a combination of cross-country
skiing and shooting in the Olympic program as
an individual competition open to civilian
competitors was accepted. The official
designation Biathlon first appears in the rules
of 1955. The first Olympic competition was held
in 1960 in Squaw Valley, Calif., after the
Union International de Pentathlon Moderne
(UIPM) had integrated Biathlon as a sport in
1957. The development was rather quick, though
the first World Championships in Saalfelden in
1958 found only 25 athletes from seven
countries to start in the 20 km race. The
sport's development was enhanced by the change
from the large army rifle caliber to small bore
rifle in the winter season of 1977/78. Modern
technology changed the target systems, the
skating step increased the speed of the race,
and TV brought millions of enthusiastic
spectators to the Sport of Biathlon.
Source: The International Biathlon Union