History

The sport has its origins as an exercise for Norwegian soldiers. The first known competition took place in 1767 when border patrol companies competed against each other. Gradually the sport became more common throughout Scandinavia as an alternative training for the military. Called military patrol, the combination of skiing and shooting was demonstrated at the Olympic Winter Games in 1924, 1928, 1936 and 1948, but did not gain Olympic recognition as the small number of competing countries disagreed on the rules.

The first World Championship in the sport was held in 1958 in Austria, and in 1960 the sport was finally included in the Olympic Games.