Various games are played during winter season. Biathlon is one of the sports that is treated as a winter sport and combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting altogether.
It was developed as a mode of military training. The latest version of biathlon is a civilian variant of the old military combined exercise in Norway. Austria was the first country where the first Biathlon World Championship was organized in 1958. The sport was ultimately given place in the Olympic Games in the year 1960. To make and implement standardize rules for the biathlon (the modern pentathlon), the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne et Biathlon (UIPMB) was founded. It consists of a race in which participants ski through a cross-country trail system whose total distance is divided into either two or four shooting rounds. The first half is divided in prone position, the other half in standing position. Depending on the shooting performance, extra distance or time is allocated to the contestant's total running distance or time. The contestant who completes the challenge in the shortest total time wins. Five targets are given to hit and a penalty is given for each missed target. Each team consists of four biathletes, and they all start at the same time.
By: Anita Aishvarya