Biathlon originated in the snowy forests of Scandinavia , especially in what is now Norway and Sweden, as a combination of skiing and hunting/military patrol on skis.

Quick Scoop: Origin of the Biathlon

  • The roots go back several thousand years to northern Europe, where people hunted on skis with bows, spears, and later firearms to survive long winters.
  • This practical mix of cross‑country travel on skis and armed hunting/defense gradually turned into organized military ski patrols in Scandinavia.
  • A key milestone was an 18th‑century competition held by Swedish and Norwegian border guards, often cited as the first biathlon‑type race.
  • In the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, a precursor event called “military patrol” brought this ski‑and‑shoot tradition onto the Olympic stage, before modern biathlon became an official Olympic sport in 1960.

So, if you’re wondering “where did the biathlon originate from?” , the answer is: in the far‑northern, snowbound landscapes of Scandinavia/Northern Europe , born from ancient hunting and later refined through military ski patrol traditions.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.