Biathlon at the Winter Olympics

Biathlon at the Winter Olympics
Biathlon at the Winter Olympics
IOC Code	BTH
Governing body	IBU
Events	11 (men: 5; women: 5; mixed: 1)
Winter Olympics
	1924; 1928; 1932; 1936; 1948; 1952; 1956; 1960; 1964; 1968; 1972; 1976; 1980; 1984; 1988; 1992; 1994; 1998; 2002; 2006; 2010; 2014; 2018; 2022; 2026; Note: demonstration or exhibition sport years indicated in italics
	Medalists;

Biathlon debuted at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California with the men's 20 km individual event. At the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, the men's 4 × 7.5 km relay debuted, followed by the 10 km sprint event at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Beginning at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, women's biathlon debuted with the 15 km individual, 3 × 7.5 km relay (4 × 7.5 km during 1994–2002, and 4 × 6 km in 2006), and 7.5 km sprint. A pursuit race (12.5 km for men and 10 km for women) was included at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The top 60 finishers of the sprint race (10 km for men and 7.5 km for women) would qualify for the pursuit event. The sprint winner starts the race, followed by each successive biathlete at the same time interval they trailed the sprint winner in that event. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, a mass start (15 km for men and 12.5 km for women) was introduced where the top 30 biathletes from the previous four events were allowed to start together for the competition.

Military patrol

Prior to the biathlon debut at the 1960 Winter Olympics, there was a military patrol event that was held at four Winter Olympic Games: 1924, 1928, 1936, and 1948. Medals were awarded for military patrol in 1924, but it was a demonstration event for the other three Winter Games. Military patrol is considered by the International Biathlon Union to be the precursor to biathlon.^[1]

Summary

Games	Year	Events	Best Nation
1	1924	1	Switzerland (1)
2	1928	1	Norway (1)
3
4	1936	1	Italy (1)
5	1948	1	Switzerland (2)
6
7
8	1960	1	Sweden (1)
9	1964	1	Soviet Union (1)
10	1968	2	Soviet Union (2)
11	1972	2	Soviet Union (3)
12	1976	2	Soviet Union (4)
13	1980	3	Soviet Union (5)

Games	Year	Events	Best Nation
14	1984	3	Norway (2)
15	1988	3	East Germany (1)
16	1992	6	Germany (1)
17	1994	6	Russia (1)
18	1998	6	Norway (3)
19	2002	8	Norway (4)
20	2006	10	Germany (2)
21	2010	10	Norway (5)
22	2014	11	Norway (6)
23	2018	11	Germany (3)
24	2022	11	Norway (7)
25	2026	11

Events

Men's

• = official event, (d) = demonstration event

Event	24	28	36	48	60	64	68	72	76	80	84	88	92	94	98	02	06	10	14	18	22	Years
Military patrol	•	(d)	(d)	(d)																		4
individual (20 km)					•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	17
relay (4×7.5 km)							•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	15
sprint (10 km)										•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	12
pursuit (12.5 km)																•	•	•	•	•	•	6
mass start (15 km)																	•	•	•	•	•	5

Total events	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	5	5	5	5	5

Women's

• = official event, (d) = demonstration event

Event	92	94	98	02	06	10	14	18	22	Years
individual (15 km)	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	9
relay (4×6 km) ^[2]	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	9
sprint (7.5 km)	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	9
pursuit (10 km)				•	•	•	•	•	•	6
mass start (12.5 km)					•	•	•	•	•	5

Total events	3	3	3	4	5	5	5	5	5

Mixed

Event	14	18	22	Years
relay (4×6 km) ^[3]	•	•	•	3

Total events	1	1	1

Medal table

Sources (after the 2022 Winter Olympics):^[4]
Accurate as of 2022 Winter Olympics and IOC Executive Board decision of May 19, 2022 to redistribute medals in the biathlon women's 4x6km event at the 2014 Winter Olympics.


Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Norway (NOR)	22	18	15	55
2	Germany (GER)	20	21	13	54
3	France (FRA)	12	9	11	32
4	Russia (RUS)	10	5	8	23
5	Soviet Union (URS)	9	5	5	19
6	Sweden (SWE)	6	6	6	18
7	Belarus (BLR)	4	4	3	11
8	East Germany (GDR)	3	4	4	11
9	Slovakia (SVK)	3	3	1	7
10	Unified Team (EUN)	2	2	2	6
11	Canada (CAN)	2	0	1	3
12	West Germany (FRG)	1	2	2	5
13	Ukraine (UKR)	1	1	3	5
14	Bulgaria (BUL)	1	0	1	2
15	Czech Republic (CZE)	0	4	4	8
16	Finland (FIN)	0	4	2	6
17	Austria (AUT)	0	3	3	6
18	Italy (ITA)	0	1	6	7
19	ROC (ROC)	0	1	3	4
20	Slovenia (SLO)	0	1	1	2
21	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	0	1	0	1
	Poland (POL)	0	1	0	1
	Switzerland (SUI)	0	1	0	1
24	Croatia (CRO)	0	0	1	1
Totals (24 entries)		96	97	95	288

Notes

This table does not include medals of 1924 military patrol event, that the IOC now treats as a separate discipline.
2 silver medals and no bronze were awarded at 2010 men's individual distance.

Number of biathletes by nation

Nation	24	28	32	36	48	52	56	60	64	68	72	76	80	84	88	92	94	98	02	06	10	14	18	22	Years
Andorra (AND)																						1			1
Argentina (ARG)													4	3	3	7	1		2	1					7
Australia (AUS)														1	1	2	2	1		1	1	2			8
Austria (AUT)									4	4		4	5	4	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	9	9	10	15
Belarus (BLR)																	11	9	11	10	9	10	10	10	8
Belgium (BEL)																							2	5	2
Brazil (BRA)																						1			1
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH)																				2	1	1			3
Bulgaria (BUL)												2	2	3	5	10	5	5	5	6	6	6	10	8	13
Canada (CAN)										5					5	9	7	6	1	7	8	8	10	8	11
Chile (CHI)																			2	2					2
China (CHN)													5	5		8	4	4	5	6	6	5	2	8	11
Chinese Taipei (TPE)												2		1											2
Costa Rica (CRC)														1											1
Croatia (CRO)																			1	1	2				3
Czech Republic (CZE)																	10	8	10	10	10	10	11	10	8
Denmark (DEN)																					1			1	2
Estonia (EST)																8	9	4	4	6	9	9	6	8	9
Finland (FIN)								4	4	6	5	4	6	5	5	9	9	7	9	1	4	4	8	8	17
France (FRA)								4	1	6	5	5	5	4	7	10	11	10	10	9	11	12	12	12	17
Germany (GER)																10	9	11	11	10	12	12	12	11	11
Great Britain (GBR)								2	4	5	4	4	4	6	4	5	4	2	4	2	1	2	1		16
Greece (GRE)																2	1	1	2	1	2	1			7
Guam (GUM)															1										1
Hungary (HUN)								1						5	1	9	5	5	3	2	1	1			10
Italy (ITA)											5	4	5	5	6	10	6	6	10	10	10	10	11	10	14
Japan (JPN)									2	4	4	5	4	4	4	3	2	8	8	9	2	5	6	6	16
Kazakhstan (KAZ)																	2	8	2	2	9	10	10	3	8
Kyrgyzstan (KGZ)																	1	1	1						3
Latvia (LAT)																4	5	5	5	9	9	2	3	1	9
Lithuania (LTU)																2	2	1	2	2	1	2	4	5	9
Moldova (MDA)																	2	2	2	4	2	1		4	7
Mongolia (MGL)									4	2															2
Norway (NOR)								3	4	5	5	4	5	5	6	12	11	9	9	10	11	12	11	12	17
New Zealand (NZL)																					1			1	2
Poland (POL)									4	6	5	4				9	10	9	5	10	10	10	7	5	13
Puerto Rico (PUR)															1										1
Romania (ROU)									4	4	5	4		5		6	5	2	4	5	5	2	6	2	14
Russia (RUS)																	10	11	11	12	11	12			6
Serbia (SRB)																					1	1			2
Slovenia (SLO)																5	6	9	10	8	8	6	7	6	9
Slovakia (SVK)																	6	5	6	10	10	8	10	8	8
South Korea (KOR)														1	5	4		1	2	1	2	2	6	3	10
Spain (ESP)														2						1	1	2			4
Switzerland (SUI)									4			3	2	1		1	3	1	4	2	6	9	10	8	13
Sweden (SWE)								4	4	5	4	4	4	5	4	10	10	8	5	6	10	5	10	11	17
Ukraine (UKR)																	10	10	11	10	11	11	11	10	8
United States (USA)								4	4	5	4	5	6	6	5	11	9	9	8	9	9	10	10	8	17
NOCs no longer competing at the Winter Olympics
Czechoslovakia (TCH)										2	5	5	4	5	5	10									7
East Germany (GDR)										5	5	5	4	4	6										6
Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR)																							4		1
Serbia and Montenegro (SCG)																				1					1
ROC																								10	1
Soviet Union (URS)								4	4	4	4	4	4	4	5										8
Unified Team (EUN)																11									1
United Team of Germany (EUA)								4	4																2
West Germany (FRG)										4	2	6	6	4	5										6
Yugoslavia (YUG)													1	6	1	4									4

Nations	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	9	14	16	14	18	18	25	22	28	32	32	34	37	37	36	28	30	56
Biathletes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	30	51	72	62	74	76	95	90	196	193	183	190	204	221	216	219	212	1583
Year	24	28	32	36	48	52	56	60	64	68	72	76	80	84	88	92	94	98	02	06	10	14	18	22

References

^ "A Quick Look at Biathlon through the Years". International Biathlon Union - IBU. 2022-01-04. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
^ The women's relay has been contested over three different distances: 3×7.5 km (1992), 4×7.5 km (1994–2002) and 4×6 km (2006–10)
^ The mixed relay has been contested over two different distances: 2×6 km + 2×7.5 km (2014–18) and 4×6 km (2022)
^ "Olympic Analytics - Medals by Countries". olympanalyt.com. Retrieved 2022-02-20.

External links

Media related to Biathlon at the Olympics at Wikimedia Commons

[IBU_2022-1] "A Quick Look at Biathlon through the Years". International Biathlon Union - IBU. 2022-01-04. Retrieved 2023-06-28.

[relay-2] The women's relay has been contested over three different distances: 3×7.5 km (1992), 4×7.5 km (1994–2002) and 4×6 km (2006–10)

[mrelay-3] The mixed relay has been contested over two different distances: 2×6 km + 2×7.5 km (2014–18) and 4×6 km (2022)

[4] "Olympic Analytics - Medals by Countries". olympanalyt.com. Retrieved 2022-02-20.

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