Biathlon is a winter sport discipline that combine skating cross-country skiing and prone/standing rifle shooting. Skiing performance consists in 3 to 5 laps (duration 5 to 8 min, depending on race format) while carrying the rifle, 2 to 4 shooting series with 5 targets each placed 50 m away within the shooting range, and eventual penalty loops (75 or 150 m) in case of missed targets. Easy to understand how biathlon requires elevated physiological demands but also fine motor control to be able to shoot accurately and quickly, in conditions of high physical and mental stress. In long term training programming, high-level biathlon coaches need updated scientific knowledge to provide right physiological, coordinative and technical stimuli to develop and improve all the components that are basic for biathlon performance. As an endurance discipline, aerobic capacity (V`O2max and its fractional utilization), anaerobic capacity (the anaerobic contribution to maximum mechanical power production) and exercise economy (particularly important in sports with high technical component) are important performance determinants. However, biathlon is a peculiar intermittent endurance sport, with moderate performance duration and the need to smartly control the physiological effort prior to shooting. Predictive models revealed that speed and V`O2 at 2 and 4 mMol/L as well as skiing economy are the physiological parameters that mostly explain the variability of biathlon performance, after shooting accuracy (Jonas 2022). From a biomechanical perspective, shooting accuracy in high-level biathlon was related to the ability to control the athlete-rifle stability while aiming and just after the shoot release. High hold stability, cleaness of triggering and reduced center of mass displacement across the shooting direction, were all related to high shooting performance. The aim of the present invited speech is to understand what are the best laboratory testing routines for high-level biathlets in order to monitor the effect of regulat training or particular training regims, by looking at the literture but also trying to think about new testing routines that give a complete assessment of the biathlet. In particular, another issue is to provide evidences to understand the need for the development of field testing routines to integrate laboratory assessment and improving the understanding of both biathlon performance and athlete development. The principal scientific questions that seem to be important to face could be related to different fields such as the physiological effect of skiing and training on different terrains, the physiological and biomechanical effect of skiing and training with or without the rifle, the understanding of better individual balance between intensity distribution and shooting performance for prone or standing series, the effect of particular strength training regimes on upper body strength, gear distributuion and strategies of poliìng force application while skiing with the rifle. Again, as far as concerns shooting, filed testing should help in understand and improve shooting approach in different conditions (different positions, exercise effort, respiration patterns or stressors such as the presence of opponents or the noise). These themes are of particular interest for high-level biathlon and maybe should deserve a scientific in-depth analysis in the next future, integrating laboratory and filed testing routines.
© Copyright 2025 10th International Congress on Science and Skiing, January 28 - February 1, 2025, Val di Fiemme, Italy. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.