Rules

Start
The athletes have to be minimum 15 minutes before the start in the warm-up area, where is checked if the athlete and his/her equipment are regular.

Penalty loop
A penalty loop has the length of 150 metres. Per missed target the athlete has to run one penalty loop.

Shooting range
The shooting raqnge consists of 30 lanes and during the Individual and Sprint competition the athletes can choose a lane. In a Pursuit, Relay and Mass start competition is settled by the position in the race and assigned by the chief of competition.
The targets are 50 metres away and the targets for prone shooting have a diameter of 45mm, for the standing shooting 115mm.

Discontinuation
If the temperatures are -20°C or less the competition must be broken off. If there are bad wind - and view circumstances (i.e. fog) the competition can be broken off, too.

Rules for qualification
To start in World Championships races or Olympic races there have to be fulfilled one of the following criterions during the last 4 years :
- a time less than 20% worse than the time of the Top 3 in a World Cup or World Championships race
- a place in the better half of a race at Junior World Championships
- the reigning World Champion is qualified automatically for his/her discipline

Number of participants
At Olympic Games or World Championships are maximum 4 athletes per nation allowed. At World Cups or European Cups decides the place in nation ranking of the previous season how many athletes of a nation can start.

The leader in Overall World Cup wears the Yellow Tricot and the leader in the respective discipline ranking gets the Red Tricot. Since the season 2004/2005 exists also the Yellow-Red Tricot, if the leader in Overall World Cup is also leader in discipline ranking.

Equipment
Ski : For Biathlon are mostly Skating-Ski used because this is faster than the classic method. The two biggest producers are Rossignol and Fischer. Those companies produce "Extra-Ski" for the best athletes that are adjusted to the athlete.
During the competition can maximum one ski be changed. Minimum 1, of the before the race marked ski, has to be brought into the finish.

Shoes : Nearly all biathletes use skating-shoes, except of a few. It's important by choosing a show that the athlete feels comfortable. Besides is valid : the lighter the better.

Sticks : Normally the sticks consist of Carbon or Fiber so that the weight is very small. For some time exists a system that the athlete hasn't to slip out of the loop, but to "click" simply out. But this system is used by very few biathletes. The disadvantage is that you can't have a hole for the trigger finger in the gloves, but a lot of biathletes like to have a direct contact between trigger and finger.
If a stick breaks you can change it.

Rifle : Anschütz 1827 Fortner is the rifle which is used by 80 percent of the athletes in the World Cup. It is produce in Ulm/Germany. In a distance of 50 metres it has a deviation of 2 centimetres. To keep the weather away from the rifle is a snow cover on the front and site. It's not allowed to use sights that enhance vision. It must weight 3.5 kilograms and the trigger weight must be at least half a kilogram. Before every shooting you must put in a magazine with 5 shoots because outside of the shooting mat the rifle mustn't be loaded. In average a biathlete needs 22 till 28 seconds for one shooting. Since 1972 just rifles with small calibre can be used. You can change a damaged rifle once it during the race at shooting range. Per team are just 2 reserve rifles allowed.

Points
Place 1 : 50 Points
Place 2 : 46 Points
Place 3 : 43 Points
Place 4 : 40 Points
Place 5 : 37 Points
Place 6 : 34 Points
Place 7 - 15 : each 2 points less
Place 16 - 30 : each 1 point less

Biathlon

Disciplines