Winter Olympic sport that combines ski race with shooting a rifle. Biathlon is most popular in Germany, Russia, Austria, Norway, France and Sweden. C 1993 to the present, the official international biathlon competitions, including the World Cup and World Championships, held under the auspices of the International Biathlon Union (English International Biathlon Union, IBU - SME).Considered the ancestor of the biathlon competitions military patrols - a sport, the rules of which resemble the modern biathlon team race. Today, there are many varieties of biathlon, a combination of: cross country skiing and shooting sports bow (Acher biathlon), race on snowshoes and rifle shooting (biathlon snowshoe) race on skis hunting and shooting with a hunting rifle (hunting biathlon). Among non winter biathlon release Summer Biathlon - it combines running and shooting (cross biathlon), race on roller skis and shooting (roller ski biathlon), and the race on mountain-bikes and shooting (biathlon on mountain-bikes). Of all the varieties of biathlon only "classic" winter and summer biathlon biathlon (all three varieties) are supervised SMEs.