(person) by Literati Sun Mar 10 2002 at 10:04:17

Biathlon is a cool sport, because it has guns. This concept should be incorporated into more sports, especially figure skating.

As you can tell from the lil chart below, the Biathlon is completely dominated by Europeans. Not just the women's events, throughout the time it's been an Olympic sport, only three medals has been won by a non-European, 2 Golds and a Bronze by Canadian Myriam Bédard.

A quick note about the scoring. For the 15km, there are 4 sets of five shots, evenly spaced throughout the race. For every shot missed, a 1 minute penalty is added to the person's time.

For the 7.5 km Sprint, there are two sets of shots taken, and for each shot missed, a 150m lap is taken.

For the 12.5 km Pursuit, it's 4 rounds of shots. The race is run by having the winner of a previous day's Sprint start first, with the other competitors leaving after her, having to wait as long as they were behind her the day before, before they can start. They then try to chase after her. Fun. The penalty for missing a shot is a 150m penalty lap per shot missed.

The relay has each team member skiing 7.5 km and shooting twice, with each missed shot worth a penalty lap. In 1992 there were 3 people per relay team, but since 1994 it's been 4 X 7.5km, just like the men's.

Medal Count         Gold   Silver  Bronze
Germany              5       6       3
Russia               4       2       3             
Canada               2       0       1
France               1       1       1
Norway               0       2       1
Bulgaria             1       0       1
Ukraine              0       1       1
Belarus              0       1       0
Sweden               0       0       2
Results by year:
  • Nagano, Japan. 1998
      15 km
    • Bulgaria Yekaterina Dafovska 54:52.0 - Gold
    • Ukraine Yelena Petrova 55:09.8 - Silver
    • Germany Ursula Disl 55:17.9 - Bronze

    • 7.5 km Sprint
  • Russia Galina Koukleva 23:08.0 - Gold
  • Germany Ursula Disl 23:08.7 - Silver
  • Germany Katrin Apel 23:32.4 - Bronze

    • 30km Relay
  • Germany - Gold
  • Russia - Silver
  • Norway - Bronze

  • Lillehammer, Norway. 1994
      15 km
    • Canada Myriam Bédard 52:06.2 - Gold
    • France Anne Briand 52:53.3 - Silver
    • Germany Uschi Disl 53:15.3 - Bronze

    • 7.5 km Sprint
  • Canada Myriam Bédard 26:08.8 - Gold
  • Belarus Svetlana Paramygina 26:09.9 - Silver
  • Ukraine Valentina Tserbe 26:10.0 - Bronze

    • 30km Relay
  • Russia - Gold
  • Germany - Silver
  • France - Bronze

  • Albertville, France. 1992
      15 km
    • Germany Antje Misersky 51:57.2 - Gold
    • Unified Team Svetlana Pecherskaya 51:58.5 - Silver
    • Canada Myriam Bedard 52:15.0 - Bronze

    • 7.5 km Sprint
  • Unified Team Anfissa Retzova 24:29.2 - Gold
  • Germany Antje Misersky 24:45.1 - Silver
  • Unified Team Yelena Byelova 24:50.8 - Bronze

    • 30km Relay
  • France - Gold
  • Germany - Silver
  • Unified Team - Bronze

    • Sources: ibu.at, tsn.ca, cbs.sportsline.com
    I like it!