Skiing and guns seems like a dangerous combination, but in the Winter Olympics this combination is known as biathlon. Biathlon is very popular in areas like Germany, Norway, and Russia. In other parts of the world it’s much less well-known. At the Turin Olympics, there will be four events for men and four for women.

So, what is biathlon?

Each event consists of a cross-country ski race. Along the race route, there are shooting stops: two stops for the sprint and relay; four stops for the pursuit and individual events. Half of the shooting stops are standing and half are lying down.

At each stop, competitors have five bullets and five targets (50 m away) to hit. Time or distance is added based on how the athlete performs in the shooting. Each miss in the sprint, pursuit, and relay events results in a 150-m penalty loop. Each miss in the individual event adds one minute to the athlete’s final time.

In the relay, each four-person team has three extra bullets at each shooting stop. The extra bullets must be hand-loaded one at a time, and they must be used until all five targets have been hit or all the bullets have been shot.