Biathlon

Biathlon

The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not timed, but depending on the competition missed shots result in extra distance or time being added to the contestant’s total.

The modern biathlon is a civilian variant of the old military combined exercise. The first Biathlon World Championship was held in 1958 in Austria, and in 1960 the sport was finally included in the Olympic Games. At Albertville in 1992, women were first allowed in the Olympic biathlon. The pursuit format was added for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and the IBU added mixed relay as a format for the 2006 season.

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Age categories

Men & Women: 30+, 35+, 40+, 45+, 50+, 55+, 60+, 65+, 70+, 75+, 80+, 85+
Relays: 30+, 40+, 50+, 60+

Masters competitors must have reached their 30th birthday by December 31st of the year prior to the competition year to be permitted to take part in the WWMG. The age at this date further defines the athletes age category.

Events and disciplines

Sprint Competition: 2 shootings
M30+ 6.0-9.0 km
M60+ 4.5-5.0 km

W30+ 6.0 km
W60+ 4.5-5.0 km

Individual Competition: 4 shootings
M30+ 10.0-12.0 km
M60+ 7.5 km
M70+ 5.0 km

W30+ 7.5 km
W60+ 5.0 km

Relay: 2 shootings/ leg
M30+ 3×6.0 km
M60+ 3×4.5 or 5.0 km

Women 2 or 3 x4.5 or 5.0 km

“World Masters Sport doesn’t allow building new venues and encourages the host cities to use existing facilities to keep the costs lower. Therefore, all sport information is subject to changes depending on the venues available.”

Athlete Comments & Reviews

“My friends just joined in and came as well!”

“I wanted to get back into that competitiveness and that competition arena and so someone shared about these Masters Games and so I looked into it and I thought that looks really lovely, I would like to try it and I joked around with some past friends and said: I think I’m going to do this Masters Games thing and they were like we’ll get into it too!”

“I can only smile from ear to ear!”

“I’m going home with a nice set of medals, so happy. Smile says it all!”

“Incredible to see so many different athletes and sports”

“Just seeing everybody from all over the world in different sports. It’s just incredible to talk to so many different athletes and hear their stories.”

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