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Biathlon Orienteering (also known as orienteering shooting) is a combination of the navigation sport of orienteering with rifle shooting. This unique combination tests both physical endurance and navigational skills.
![map and compass](../orienteering/images/map-and-compass-pixa.jpg)
Biathlon Orienteering is another variation of the traditional Winter Olympic sport of biathlon, which combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. The sport, invented in Sweden, is mainly practiced in the Nordic countries, as well as a few other European countries.
Biathlon orienteering is a sport with the same structure to traditional biathlon, a endurance event combined with shooting. The endurance component is orienteering, a sport where participants use a map and compass to navigate through unfamiliar terrain and find specific control points. The shooting component is usually conducted using small-bore biathlon rifles to shoot at conventional biathlon targets at a distance of 50 meters .
The orienteering format can either be freestyle (classic) style and/or point orienteering.
The sport is organized internationally by the International Biathlon Orienteering Federation (IBOF), and the World Biathlon Orienteering Championship (WBOC) is held annually.
Similar Sports
- Summer Biathlon — a combined sport of roller skiing (or trail running) and rifle shooting.
- Biathlon — a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.
- Target Sprint — a combination of sprint running and air rifle shooting.
- Nordic shooting with cross-country running — the summer variant of Nordic Field Biathlon, a precursor to Olympic Biathlon.
- Laser Run — four legs of laser pistol shooting, each followed by an 800m run. It is also the final leg of the modern pentathlon.
- Triathle — a shortened version of the Modern Pentathlon, athletes compete in shooting, swimming and running events as a part of a single race.
- Modern Pentathlon — comprises five events: fencing, 200m swim, show jumping, and combined pistol shooting and 3200m run.
- Ski Archery — a combined sport involving skiing and shooting arrows at targets.
- Cross country running — individuals or teams run races which involve courses over natural terrain.
Related Pages
- About Shooting Sports
- Biathlon at the Winter Olympics
- About Multi-Sports
- The complete list of sports
- The Encyclopedia of Sports
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