Shooting Stars and Slippery Slopes Quiz

Answer: True

The first recorded biathlon competition took place in 1767 between guard companies at the Norwegian-Swedish border. At the first Olympic Winter Games in 1924 in Chamonix, biathlon, at the time called "military patrol", was introduced as a demonstration event. It wasn't until the 1950s that biathlon was accepted by the IOC as an official Olympic sport.

Answer: A rifle

The rifle, carried on the athlete's back, should be a .22 caliber and have a minimum weight of 3.5 kg. According to the official IBU rules, "the rifles may not be of automatic or semi-automatic design. Loading or unloading may be executed only by the competitor's muscle force."

Answer: No

Because of the less stable shooting position, the targets used for standing shooting are more than twice the size of the targets for prone shooting. The prone targets are 45 mm in diameter, whereas the diameter of the standing targets is 115 mm. The shooting distance is 50 meters for both prone and standing shooting.

Answer: Individual (20 km/15 km)

Typically, a biathlete has to complete an extra lap of 150 meters for each missed target. In the individual competition however, which is 20 km for men and 15 km for women, each missed target adds a 1 minute penalty to the biathlete's total time.

Answer: Ole Einar Bjørndalen

After "just" one Gold and one Silver medal in Nagano, Bjørndalen won a Gold medal in every biathlon race held at the 2002 Olympics. He was the first biathlete ever to accomplish this. The Olympic program for biathlon consists of the individual competition, the sprint, the pursuit, and the relay.
Frode Andresen was in the Norwegian relay team together with Bjørndalen, while Ricco Gross won a silver medal with the German team. Johan Olav Koss was a famous Norwegian speed skater.

Answer: International Biathlon Union (IBU)

The UIPMB was founded in 1948, standardising the rules for both pentathlon and biathlon. The International Biathlon Union was founded as a tree of the UIPMB in July 1993, and they separated formally in 1998.

Answer: Hochfilzen

As you may have guessed, ORA stands for Oberhof, Ruhpolding, and Antholz. Antholz is in Italy, Oberhof and Ruhpolding are both German biathlon venues. Hochfilzen is in Austria, and although it does host biathlon World Cups, it's not part of the ORA Trophy.

Answer: True

Before each competition, the athletes had to inflate the balloons themselves. Paper and breakable glass were commonly used as targets as well, until the introduction of mechanical falling plates at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. Later, most World Cup venues used electronic targets.

Answer: He was lapped.

A broken ski can be exchanged without penalty, as long as at least one ski makes it from start to finish. Cross-firing on to a target in another shooting lane is no reason for withdrawal either. Hit targets on another lane does not count as hits however.

Answer: False

'Biathlon' comes from the Greek words 'bi' and 'ahtlos', meaning 'two' and 'contest' respectively. Bia is the Greek personification of power and force, but she doesn't have anything to do with biathlon.