At the

1948 Winter Olympics The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games (german: V. Olympische Winterspiele; french: Ves Jeux olympiques d'hiver; it, V Giochi olimpici invernali; rm, V Gieus olimpics d'enviern) and commonly known as St. Moritz ...

in St. Moritz,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1948, the last

military patrol Military patrol was a team winter sport in which athletes competed in cross-country skiing, ski mountaineering and rifle shooting. It was usually contested between countries or military units. The military patrol competition encompassed 25 ki ...

competition was held as a

demonstration sport A demonstration sport, or exhibition sport, is a sport which is played to promote it, rather than as part of standard medal competition. This occurs commonly during the Olympic Games, but may also occur at other sporting events. Demonstration spor ...

. This was in part to the aftermath of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, which decimated

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. This sport would be superseded by the

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not tim ...

competition which debuted at the

1960 Winter Olympics The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Vall ...

. The cross-country ski run was not prepared, and was made by the leading Swiss team. The Czechoslovak participant Karel Dvořák described the weather of the day as extremely mild with temperatures of about 0 °C at the starting point at the upper cableway station (2,486 m) on top of the

Corviglia Corviglia is a location on the eastern slopes of Piz Nair, overlooking St. Moritz in the canton of Graubünden. It lies on the watershed between the rivers Schlattain (Val Saluver) and the Ovel da la Resgia (ending in Lake St. Moritz), at an elev ...

in the morning. The participants wore military equipment, 10 kg of baggage on the back and a military rifle. Only the officers, the patrol leaders, had pistols and did not compete in shooting. At the shooting range they had to shoot on three rubber balloons at a distance of 150 m. Every hit gave a bonus of 1 minute for the team.Karel Dvořák
''Karel Dvořák: Moje vzpomínky na 5. ZOH''
(Czech), January 17, 2003. ''Event held on February 8, 1948''

Notes and references

External links

Official report
of the 1948 Olympic Winter Games {{Biathlon at the Winter Olympics 1948 Winter Olympics events 1948 1948 in biathlon 1948 in cross-country skiing 1948 in military history Men's events at the 1948 Winter Olympics