Biathlon is the winter Olympic sport combining cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship. Alternating skiing and shooting, biathletes compete under the pressure of the clock that continues to run even as they stop to shoot. There is a penalty for each missed shot so biathletes must balance speed on the course and on the range with shooting accuracy. The athletes shoot from two positions - Prone and Standing - in various different sequences depending on the competition. In each shooting stage the athlete has five shots to hit five targets 50m (164 ft) down range. The target hit area for prone is 4.5cm (less than 2 inches) and 11.5cm (about 4.5 inches) for standing. When hit, the black target turns white showing everyone the shot hit the target - or not.

On NBCSN now if you care to watch.

Cool story Brah

I've never snow skied so I would probably shoot my self or a bystander....

These are obviously not your average off-the-shelf rifles. Still, shooting open sights while trying to run a ski race must be very demanding on one's shooting skills.

Any yet, we often struggle at hitting an area the size of a pie plate with a scoped rifle shooting from a window ledge while sitting in an old office chair.

Just watched it myself, pretty impressive with all that adrenaline.

Those guys are beasts.

Biathlon gots nothing on JG's Hunters Rifle Challenge.


this is where the REAL athletes compete under excruciating pressure and conditions.

Targets are at 50 meters. When standing, targets are the size of a saucer. When laying prone at 45 degrees, the target is the size of a silver dollar.

I watched the women, and there are some very good shots. Googled the guns and they run about $3K - $4K and use .22LR...

I "practiced" for an elk hunt a few years ago by jogging around my place with a scoped air rifle and weighted back-pack. Had pie-tins and muffin cups set out as targets every 100 yards or so. Getting those cross hairs settled when out of breath and your heart pounding in your chest is challenging to say the least! Hats off to those athletes who can do it with such apparent ease. (No, I wasn't planning on running and gunning for elk. The idea was to get at least familiar with shooting while out of breath)

Almost all of them are shooting Feinwerkbau or Anschutz. Badazz target rifles. Very impressive iron sights shooting for sure.

And you would think they sleep with them by how easy they work and shoot them.

Men are up now.

I noticed the many Meopta spotters in use too.

My favorite winter Olympic event!

Interesting video I came across about the rifles used:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5728981794001/?#sp=show-clips

Pistol grip means you can't compete in Commiefornia.

Bolt actions aren't classified as "assault rifles" there, so feature laws don't apply.....yet.

unbelievable how they can get under control to shoot. I can barely hold my rifle up, much less steary

I heard simo hayha won gold in this event. Can anyone confirm this?

But do you practice 8 hours a day 7 days a week?

Wikipedia says he was a competitive shooter and had lots of trophy's for shooting before joining the military. So he may very well have competed in a sport like Biathalon. But Biathalon didn't become an Olympic Sport until the 1960's and Simo Hayah would have been an old man by then. There is not a Simo Hayha listed as wining any medals for Biathalon. There was a predecessor to Biathalon called Military Patrol that was a team demonstration sport in the 1924, 1928 and 1936 Olympics, but I can't find any medal lists for it.

So I'm pretty confident in saying Simo Hayha did not win an Olympic Gold Medal in "Biathalon", but, I'd say there is a pretty good chance given where he grew up, and his history of being a competitive shooter that he probably competed in a sport similar to Biathalon at the local level in Finland, If he had competed in the Olympics in Military Patrol an won a medal I'm sure the Finnish press would have made a big deal about it after WWII, so I would say he did not medal in the Olympics in Military Patrol either.

Lol I was kinda kidding, just seemed like something they would do in his neck of the woods. Cool stuff tho, didn't know half of that.

The biathlon was originally a Norweigen military training exercise. So it's possible he came across the event before, in a different form.