Biathlon is a cool sport, because it has guns. This concept should be incorporated into more sports, especially the Bobsleigh.
As you can tell from the lil chart below, the Biathlon is completely dominated by Europeans. Not just the men's events, throughout the time it's been an Olympic sport, only three medals has been won by a non-European, 2 Golds and a Bronze by Canadian Myriam Bédard.
A quick note about the scoring. For the 20km, the first set of shots is taken after 4 km, every 4 km after that. That's 5 shots per set of shots. For every shot missed, a 1 minute penalty is added to the person's time.
For the 10 km Sprint, there are two sets of shots taken, and for each shot missed, a 150m lap is taken.
For the 12.5 km Pursuit, it's 4 rounds of shots. The race is run by having the winner of a previous day's Sprint start first, with the other competitors leaving after him, having to wait as long as they were behind him the day before, before they can go. They then try n' chase after him. Fun. The penalty for missing a shot is a 150m penalty lap per shot missed.
For the relay, there are four people, each skiing 7.5 km, and shooting twice. The penalty is a lap for a miss.
Medal Count Gold Silver Bronze
Russia 12 7 8
Germany 8 13 8
Norway 9 4 2
Finland 0 4 2
Sweden 1 0 4
Italy 0 1 2
France 0 1 2
Belarus 0 0 1
Austria 0 0 1
Results by year:
Nagano, Japan. 1998
20 km
- Norway Halvard Hanevold 56:14.4 - Gold
- Italy Pier Alberto Carrara 56:21.9 - Silver
- Belarus Aleksei Aidarov 56:46.5 - Bronze
10 km Sprint
Norway Ole Einar Bjoerndalen 27:16.2 - Gold
Norway Frode Andresen 28:17.8 - Silver
Finland Ville Raikkonen 28:21.7 - Bronze
30 km Relay
Germany - Gold
Norway - Silver
Russia - Bronze
Lillehammer, Norway. 1994
20 km
- Russia Sergey Tarassov 57:25.3 - Gold
- Germany Frank Luck 57:28.7 - Silver
- Germany Sven Fischer 57:41.9 - Bronze
10 km Sprint
Russia Sergey Chepikov 28:07.0 - Gold
Germany Ricco Gross 28:13.0 - Silver
Russia Sergey Tarassov 28:27.4 - Bronze
30 km Relay
Germany - Gold
Russia - Silver
France - Bronze
Albertville, France. 1992
20 km
- Unified Team Yevgeni Redkin 57:34.4 - Gold
- Germany Mark Kirchner 57:40.8 - Silver
- Sweden Mikael Löfgren 57:59.4 - Bronze
10 km Sprint
Germany Mark Kirchner 26:02.3 - Gold
Germany Ricco Gross 26:18.0 - Silver
Finland Harri Eloranta 26:26.6 - Bronze
30 km Relay
Germany - Gold
Unified Team - Silver
Sweden - Bronze
Calgary, Canada. 1988
10 km Sprint
East Germany Frank-Peter Roetsch 25:08.1 - Gold
Soviet Union Valeriy Medvetsev 25:23.7 - Silver
Soviet Union Sergey Chepikov 25:29.4
- Bronze
30 km Relay
Soviet Union - Gold
West Germany - Silver
Italy - Bronze
Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. 1984
10 km Sprint
Norway Eirik Kvalfoss 30:53.8 - Gold
West Germany Peter Angerer 31:02.4 - Silver
East Germany Matthias Jakob 31:10.5 - Bronze
30 km Relay
Soviet Union - Gold
Norway - Silver
West Germany - Bronze
Lake Placid, United States. 1980
10 km Sprint
East Germany Frank Ulrich 32:10.69 - Gold
Soviet Union Vladimir Alikin 32:53.10 - Silver
Soviet UnionAnatoliy Alyabiev 33:09.16 - Bronze
30 km Relay
Soviet Union - Gold
East Germany - Silver
West Germany - Bronze
Innsbruck, Austria. 1976
30 km Relay
Soviet Union - Gold
Finland - Silver
East Germany - Bronze
Sapporo, Japan. 1972
20 km
- Norway Magnar Solberg 1:15:55.50 - Gold
- East Germany Hansjörg Knauthe 1:16:07.60 - Silver
- Sweden Lars Arvidsson 1:16:27.03
- Bronze
30 km Relay
Soviet Union - Gold
Finland - Silver
East Germany - Bronze
Grenoble, France. 1968
30 km Relay
Soviet Union - Gold
Norway - Silver
Sweden - Bronze
Innsbruck, Austria. 1964
Squaw Valley, United States. 1960
20 km
- Sweden Klas Lestander 1:33:21.6 - Gold
- Finland Antti Tyrväinen 1:33:57.7 - Silver
- Soviet Union Alexander Privalov 1:34:54.2 - Bronze
Sources: cbs.sportsline.com, tsn.ca