Competition Format

Sprint

In the sprint, held over 10 km (7.5 km for women), the biathlete shoots twice (10 shots); once prone, once standing. For each miss, a penalty loop of 150 m has to be skied before the race can be continued. The biathletes start in intervals (normally of 30 seconds, sometimes shortened to 20 seconds in between starters).

Pursuit

In a Pursuit, the biathletes start with the time difference between them from a previous race, often a Sprint. The contestant crossing the finish line first becomes the winner.

The distance is 12.5 km (10 km for women), there are four shooting bouts (two prone, two standing), and each miss means a penalty loop of 150 m. In World Cup pursuits, the 60 top ranking biathletes after the preceding race are allowed to participate.

Mass Start

In the mass start, all biathletes start at the same time; first across the finish line wins. In this 15 km (or 12.5 km for women)competition, there are four bouts of shooting; two standing, two prone. As in Sprint races, competitors must ski one 150m penalty loop for each miss.

To prevent awkward or dangerous crowding in the skiing track, and undercapacity at the shooting range, World Cup mass starts are held with only the 30 top ranking athletes on the start line.

Individual

The 20 km individual race (15 km for women) is the oldest biathlon event. The biathlete shoots four times, in the order of prone, standing, prone, standing, totalling 20 targets. For each missed target a fixed penalty time, usually one minute, is added to the skiing time of the biathlete. As in the sprint competition, the biathletes start in intervals.

Relay

Teams consist of four biathletes, who each ski 7.5 km (both men and women), with two shooting rounds (one prone, one standing). For every round of five targets there are eight bullets available, though the last three can only be loaded one at a time from trays at the shooting range. If after eight bullets there are still misses, one 150 m penalty loop must be taken for each miss.

The first-leg participants start all at the same time, and every athlete of a team must touch the team's next-leg participant to perform a valid exchange.

Team

A team consists of four biathletes, and all start at the same time. Two athletes must shoot in the prone shooting round, the other two in the standing round. In case of a miss, the two non-shooting biathletes must ski a penalty loop of 150 m.

The skiers must enter the shooting area together, and must also finish within 15 seconds of each other, otherwise a time penalty of 1 minute is added to the total time. This race format is now obsolete at the World cup level.