Multisport

Not to be confused with multi-sport events.

Triathletes begin the swimming stage of the 12th World Military Triathlon.

Multisport is a family of athletic competitions in which athletes race in a continuous series of stages or "legs", and rapidly switch from one athletic discipline to another in order to achieve the best overall time. Most multisport events are endurance races, consisting of aerobic activities such as cycling, running, kayaking and cross-country skiing.

Familiar events from the Olympic Games such as the pentathlon, decathlon, and modern pentathlon are not usually considered to fall in this category because their individual components are not held back-to-back.

Standard multisport events

The world of multisport competitions has grown from the older and more traditional triathlon and duathlon competitions, and today includes a large number of variations. There is quite a bit of variation in the naming of these events; the more common and most standardized names are listed here.

Sport Name	Stages
Triathlon	Swimming, cycling, running
Off-road triathlon	Swimming, mountain biking, trail running
Duathlon	Running, cycling, running
Off-road duathlon	Mountain biking, trail running
Aquathlon	Swimming, running
Biathle	Swimming, running
Aquabike	Swimming, cycling
Quadrathlon	Swimming, kayaking, cycling, running
Rowathlon	Indoor rowing, cycling, running
Winter triathlon	Cross-country skiing, cycling, running
Winter quadrathlon	Cross-country skiing, cycling, running, snowshoeing

Adventure racing includes races which comprise a number of different stages of different types. In many adventure races, the competitors do not know some or all of the stages before the race, and must handle unexpected challenges. A team normally consists of 4 people with at least 1 female. All team members must stay together at all times.

Related events

Biathlon, which consists of alternating stages of cross-country skiing and shooting is often confused with duathlon because of the similarity in names. Some consider biathlon to be a form of multisport event, while others exclude it from the category because the athlete's score includes shooting accuracy in addition to total race time.

Coast to Coast (race), Multisport race held in the South Island of New Zealand. The Longest Day is considered the World Champion for this type of non-standard multisport race.

There are also three military multisports, mainly participated in by militaries at the World Military Games and world championships: Aeronautical pentathlon, Military pentathlon, and Naval pentathlon.