ANTERSELVA, Italy (AP) — The sport of biathlon, which combines cross-country skiing and precision target shooting, requires hundreds of hours of training annually and the ability to push your body to the maximum effort for an athlete to have a chance of success at the Olympics.

ANTERSELVA, Italy (AP) — Lisa Vittozzi secured Italy's first Olympic gold medal in biathlon, hitting all 20 targets in the 10-kilometer pursuit biathlon race at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Sunday.

French biathlon great Martin Fourcade and the German relay team received gold medals from the 2010 and 2014 Olympics respectively on Sunday in a reallocation ceremony at the Milan/Cortina Games. The ceremony took place in the sold-out Anterselva biathlon stadium between the men's and women's Olympic pursuit races in the presence of International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry.

Here's is the full Olympic biathlon schedule for the 2026 Winter Games

Biathlon combines two sports – cross-country skiing and shooting – into one race. The biathlon first made its debut 66 years ago in the 1960 Winter Olympics at the renamed Palisades Tahoe in Olympic Valley near Lake Tahoe. This year, the Winter Olympic biathlon games will be held in Antholz (Anterselva), Italy.

Johan-Olav Botn hit all 20 targets to claim gold for Norway in the Olympic 20 kilometres biathlon race on Tuesday. Botn, the early season World Cup leader, was 14.

"It's about giving back and justice," said France's Martin Fourcade, now the gold medalist in the mass start from the 2010 Games.

ANTERSELVA, Italy (AP) — Johan-Olav Botn of Norway shot perfectly in his Olympic debut to secure the gold medal in the men’s 20-kilometer individual biathlon at the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Tuesday.

Meet some of the faces behind a world-class training facility in Brillion, Wisconsin, that is helping athletes prepare for Olympic-level competition in cross-country skiing and biathlon.

The Winter Olympics bring sports we barely see outside of these few weeks. Many of them look exciting. Some of them look like a bad idea for normal people. A lot of these events mix speed, ice, height,