Scoring

The ranking is based primarily on the overall World Cup standings, the Olympic Games, and the World Championships. The overall World Cup carries the highest single-event point value, while the Olympic Games and World Championships provide multiple separate scoring opportunities across the individual disciplines.
Biathlon is distinctive in that the leading athletes generally compete across the full range of disciplines rather than as narrow specialists. The scoring structure reflects this by combining long-term World Cup performance with results from individual events at the major championships.
Team events, most notably relays and the historic patrol races, are awarded three times the points of individual competitions in order to give them greater weight in the national rankings, but they are not included in the individual rankings.