That Sweden is a leading nation in Biathlon is no news to anyone. We have long been incredibly successful, with big names in the sport today, such as Hanna Öberg and Sebastian Samuelsson, or historically, of course, Björn Ferry and Magdalena Forsberg. So why don’t we also participate in the sport of Ski Archery? And, most importantly, what is it?

Olaus Magnus Historia om de nordiska folken. Bok 4 – Kapitel 1 – Bok 4 har rubriken “Om krig och sedvänjor hos de hedniska skogsborna och dess grannar”. – Utgivningsår 1555.

Ski Archery is much older than traditional biathlon with rifles. The earliest depictions we can find of ski archery come from Scandinavia, specifically Norway. Paintings by the artist Claus Magnus show several ski archers carrying and shooting with short recurve bows. The work is from the 1540s and shows archers both on skis and on horseback.

Like ski archery, biathlon competitions with rifles also have their origins in Norway. The first known competition took place in 1767, where soldiers in Norway competed against each other. The sport was often practiced by military personnel in Scandinavia during that time and was actually part of the first Olympic Games in Chamonix in 1924, under the name “Military Patrol.” However, it would take 36 years before the event appeared in the Olympics again, first in Squaw Valley in 1960. Much of the delay was due to different countries’ interpretations of the rules.

As for ski archery, it took much longer than 36 years for the sport to gain international recognition and regulations. The sport had a rebirth in Italy in the 1980s, and World Archery took it under its wing in 1991.

Today, we know that the sport is practiced primarily in Italy, France, the USA, Germany, Ukraine, Slovenia, Russia, and Japan. However, major international competitions are still rare.

Photo Credit: skiarchery.ru

Competition rules in ski archery are very similar to those in biathlon. The typical race distances are 12 km for men and 8 km for women. You shoot from 18 meters at 16 cm target faces. You carry your bow and arrows on your back in a harness. If you miss any of the targets at the shooting range, you, just like in biathlon, will either receive a penalty time or extra penalty loops.

For those who want to learn more about the rules and competition rounds, the full rules are available on World Archery’s website and in WA’s rulebook (in English), as well as summarized and partially translated into Swedish by BK Fiskgjusens’ own longbow archer Jonas Hellsén. These can be downloaded as PDFs on the Swedish Archery Federation’s website.

As of now, there are no clubs in Sweden that have adopted this training and competition form, but that doesn’t stop you from being a leading person in your local club and promoting the sport. Sure, snow is required to train in this sport, and it might be difficult to train in certain parts of our long country, but in that case, you can look into Run Archery, or running/archery, which we will write about later in 2021.

Today, Sweden has large international names in regular archery, such as Lina Björklund, Fredrik Lundmark, Kaarina Saviluoto, and Erik Jonsson. So, what’s to say that, with some determination, motivation, and a lot of training, we won’t see your name in the headlines as Sweden’s best ski archer in the future? We’ll see you in the tracks!

We also want to share two YouTube videos from different ski archery competitions: one from a Russian competition in 2012 and one from a German competition in 2002.

Vignette image: skiarchery.ru

Vinjettbild: skiarchery.ru