Military Ski Patrol at the 1928 Winter Olympics

The military ski patrol was held as a demonstration sport in 1936 and 1948, in addition to 1928. For many years it was considered a demonstration sport in 1924, as well, but research by Ture Widlund, co-founder and the first Vice-President of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH), showed that both curling and military ski patrol had the same status in 1924 as all the other sports on the Winter Program, and the 1924 event is now acknowledged as a full-medal Olympic event. A similar event to the military ski patrol was the team event contested at the biathlon World Championships between 1989 and 1998.

The 1928 event was delayed 45 minutes because a snowstorm the night before required some cleaning of the track. The 1928 course was over 30 km, with elevation gains of 1,100 metres. The event is a variant of the biathlon relay with four cross-country runners starting together and stopping to shoot at various intervals.