Biathlon in the context of "Military patrol at the 1924 Winter Olympics"

The modern Olympic Games were founded by French historian Pierre de Coubertin. France has competed in every edition (both Summer and Winter), with the possible exception of the 1904 Games (as sources disagree about whether athlete Albert Corey competed for the United States or France).

Through the Paris 2024 Games, French athletes had won 815 medals at the Summer Olympic Games in a wide variety of sports, achieving particular success in fencing, cycling and judo. France has won an additional 138 medals at the Winter Olympic Games, notably in alpine skiing and biathlon.

Military patrol is a team winter sport in which athletes compete in cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. Formerly ski mountaineering was also part of the sport. It is usually contested between countries or military units.

The military patrol competition encompasses 20 km cross-country skiing (15 km for women) and rifle shooting. The size of the patrol is four members, one leader and 3 members. The leader does not take part in shooting. The rules are very similar to modern biathlon.

Biathlon debuted at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Olympic Valley, California with the men's 20 km individual event. At the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, the men's 4 × 7.5 km relay debuted, followed by the 10 km sprint event at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Beginning at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, women's biathlon debuted with the 15 km individual, 3 × 7.5 km relay (4 × 7.5 km during 1994–2002, and 4 × 6 km in 2006), and 7.5 km sprint. A pursuit race (12.5 km for men and 10 km for women) was included at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The top 60 finishers of the sprint race (10 km for men and 7.5 km for women) would qualify for the pursuit event. The sprint winner starts the race, followed by each successive biathlete at the same time interval they trailed the sprint winner in that event. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, a mass start (15 km for men and 12.5 km for women) was introduced where the top 30 biathletes from the previous four events were allowed to start together for the competition.

A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating (usually with a baton in the fist). In the Olympic Games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field, each consisting of a set number of stages (legs) (usually four), each leg run by different members of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass the next runner a stick-like object known as a "baton" while both are running in a marked exchange zone. In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre (4 × 100-metre) and 1,600-metre (4 × 400-metre) relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres.

Biathlon at the 1994 Winter Paralympics consisted of ten events.

Nordic skiing encompasses the various types of skiing in which the toe of the ski boot is fixed to the binding in a manner that allows the heel to rise off the ski, unlike alpine skiing, where the boot is attached to the ski from toe to heel. Recreational disciplines include cross-country skiing and Telemark skiing.

Olympic events are competitive cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined — an event combining cross-country skiing and ski jumping. The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships host these sports every odd-numbered year, but there are also separate championships in other events, such as Telemark skiing and ski flying. Biathlon combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting, but is not included as a Nordic discipline under the rules of the International Ski Federation (FIS). Instead, it comes under the jurisdiction of the International Biathlon Union.

Competitive cross-country skiing encompasses a variety of race formats and course lengths. Rules of cross-country skiing are sanctioned by the International Ski Federation and by various national organizations. International competitions include the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, and at the Winter Olympic Games. Such races occur over homologated, groomed courses designed to support classic (in-track) and freestyle events, where the skiers may employ skate skiing. It also encompasses cross-country ski marathon events, sanctioned by the Worldloppet Ski Federation, and cross-country ski orienteering events, sanctioned by the International Orienteering Federation. Related forms of competition are biathlon, where competitors race on cross-country skis and stop to shoot at targets with rifles, and paralympic cross-country skiing that allows athletes with disabilities to compete at cross-country skiing with adaptive equipment.

Norwegian army units were skiing for sport (and prizes) in the 18th century. Starting in the latter part of the 20th century, technique evolved from the striding in-track classic technique to include skate-skiing, which occurs on courses that have been groomed with wide lanes for those using the technique. At the same time, equipment evolved from skis and poles that were made of wood and other natural materials to comprising such man-made materials as fiberglass, carbon fiber, and polyethylene plastics.