Biathalon

[armedindy]

Is the USA team any good at this? it sure would be cool if the olympics ever considered a three gun or idpa or something like that...i dont compete, but a pistol shooting event would be fun to watch

 

[rockhopper46038]

The summer Olympics have plenty of shooting sports represented - although it wouldn't surprise me if they get gradually weeded out and replaced by crap like croquet or something. I've never been able to find much coverage of the events, though. As for biathlon; I don't think we're top tier competitive

 

[armedindy]

The summer Olympics have plenty of shooting sports represented - although it wouldn't surprise me if they get gradually weeded out and replaced by crap like croquet or something. I've never been able to find much coverage of the events, though. As for biathlon; I don't think we're top tier competitive

wow, i had no idea...shows the kinda crap coverage they have of it...pity

 

[Dead Duck]

Bi-athlon in the USA?

I think the San Francisco team has been training for that event for decades now.

 

[Aejsl]

My kids are just now old enough to get into the games. They think biathlon is the coolest thing ever.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

Americans traditionally fare poorly at the biathalon during the Olympics, typically because of the transition from cross-country skiing to shooting. Americans still can't compete with Europeans in cross-country skiing, since its a comparatively rare sport here in the US.

 

[ghostdncr]

The shooting sports have traditionally been the most under-covered sports in the Olympics. I can't prove this, but have been watching since the late sixties and that's my take on it.

 

[BigMoose]

The lady shotguner from the USA has gotten a good amount of coverage.

 

[DRob]

Just watched the women's biathlon. No, the USA is not competitive although one of our athletes was in third place for a minute in the 7.5 kilometer "sprint" event which had 84 entries. She ended up 14th. The other 3 Americans finished 44th, 53rd, & 65th. Imagine sprinting for 6-7 minutes then shooting 5 targets prone, then another sprint followed by 5 shots standing. Ski a penalty loop which adds 20-25 seconds to your time for each shot you miss. Talk about learning to control your breathing! The top 4 finishers had no penalties. Oh, yeah. Very cool rifles.

 

[spaniel]

The Americans never do well in the event, and would not if they were the best shooters by a wide margin. Same reason we can't compete in any of the nordic events, Americans are not born on skis like in Scandanavia. I went to college far up north and cross country skiied a lot, and was friends with some of the better skiers our nation has to offer.

They were amateurs compared to the Europeans.

The Norwegians are so good that a couple Olympics back they had a skier who had won a pile of medals in the ski events but got too old to be a serious medal contender. So for his last Olympics he switched to biathlon. He was not a great shooter at all but as biathlon is for the JV skiers, the ones that can't cut it in the open events, he could miss twice as much as them and still make it up on the course.

 

[mrjarrell]

I watched part of the women's biathlon yesterday. They were pretty good. Can't see these on NBC. Fortunately, we use a proxy and the BBC's iPlayer. The Brits actually show the Olympics and there's not a lot of talking over everything.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I watched part of the women's biathlon yesterday. They were pretty good. Can't see these on NBC. Fortunately, we use a proxy and the BBC's iPlayer. The Brits actually show the Olympics and there's not a lot of talking over everything.

Just this morning they were advertising that the men's biathlon competition would be at 3 p.m. today... You mean they're not going to show it?

 

[menzzer37]

I watched part of the women's biathlon yesterday. They were pretty good. Can't see these on NBC. Fortunately, we use a proxy and the BBC's iPlayer. The Brits actually show the Olympics and there's not a lot of talking over everything.

Incorrect. Women's biathlon was on NBC yesterday aorund 4pm. I watched the entire cverage.

 

[Aejsl]

Yep. I think it was 7500 meter. Two shooting positions. I googled biathlon yesterday. I guess it is a 50 yard shot. Target is 1.8 inches prone. And 4.5" standing.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Shooting segment coming up next... 3:49 p.m. right now...

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Well... That was pretty anticlimactic. They show the guys shooting prone, but don't show the targets at all. The excitement is overwhelming. *yawn*

 

[DoggyDaddy]

It would be better if they were shooting 7.62x54R rifles... or 8mm...

 

[Sylvain]

Olympics-Biathlon-France's Fourcade wins men's 12.5km pursuit | Reuters

 

[printcraft]

Olympics-Biathlon-France's Fourcade wins men's 12.5km pursuit | Reuters

That is amazing!

I could have sworn they would have dropped their guns at the start and been disqualified.

 

[HoughMade]

When I was a youngster, I got inspired by Lake Placid and (already being a hobby cross country skier), I started skiing through the woods and fields with my Red Ryder on my back with a twine "sling", stopping every so often to shoot at various stuff and imitate what I saw on TV.

It was good to grow up in very snowy, very rural SW Michigan.