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Ski Archery is a relatively obscure sport that involves skiing and shooting arrows at targets. The sport has close similarities to biathlon, with the bows and arrows replacing the rifles.
![Ski Biathlon is very similar to Ski Archery](../winter/images/biathlon-pixabay.jpg)
Though archery while skiing has been in existence for several decades, it did not take a competitive form until 1991. Currently ski archery is practiced by many countries around the world where other winter sports are prevalent.
Races are conducted in a format similar to that of a biathlon, where athletes ski through a course and stop for shooting at targets. Similar to biathlon, race winners are decided by the speed of skiing and the accuracy of the shots.
A ski archery course is 12 km long for men and 8 km long for women. The targets used are 16cm in diameter and are placed 18m away from the shooting line. Archers have to shoot four arrows at each target from a kneeling position. Each shot is very valuable because a miss will result in a penalty and the athlete has to ski 350m before leaving the target area. The skier to first cross the finish line is declared as the winner.
Ski archery is a rather insignificant sport when compared with biathlon. There are only a very few competitions conducted for the sport.
Similar Sports
- Biathlon — a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.
- Field Archery — a form of archery that involves shooting at targets of varying distance, often over rough terrain.
- Cross-Country Skiing — races over snow-covered terrain using skis.
- Ski Orienteering — athletes navigate from the start to the finish through checkpoints while riding on skis.
- Laser Run — four legs of laser pistol shooting, each followed by an 800m run. It is also the final leg of the modern pentathlon.
Related Pages
- About Archery Sports
- Complete list of sports
- The Encyclopedia of Sports
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