Olympic Biathalon

[jds holler]

Watched a little of this last night and wished I'd been paying more attention to it. I'm basically ignorant about it.
Italian gal won the gold, with perfect shooting score. I don't know how they factor times, or other criteria.
Anybody know about the hardware they're using?? jd

 

[RegionRat]

Here is a little video that saves many words.

 

[jds holler]

Thanks Rat, that was great. Now I REALLY wish I'd watched more of it. jd

 

[RegionRat]

The big problem we have here with Biathlon, is a shortage of places where athletes can train.
Otherwise, my guess is more kids would have jumped into this here.
There are only about 15 sites here.
There are about 800 kids into US Biathlon, and for comparison there are something like 8000 in Norway.

 

[Bemoni]

The Norwegians are born with ski boots and are dominant in Biathlon.
The rifle everyone is using, is the Anschütz 1827 Fortner, which has been the de facto standard rifle for the sport, in the past 40 years.
Wiki has a good article on it.

Anschütz 1827 Fortner - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[dryhumor]

Some serious fitness and endurance…

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Watching the men's relay, ski is our weakness. Was interesting watching spare rd reloads. TV coverage of actual shooting was typical of NBC.

 

[D-4297]

My wife ; who is Norwegian by heritage , 1st generation American-born tells me that Babies are pulled by Mom in a sled , while she skis until they can walk , and then fitted with ski boots , skis , and then pulled by Mom on the skis until they can walk well on their own . They are then taught the proper mechanics of cross-country , and ski everywhere any time they go anywhere with Mom or Dad , and by the time they are in school , they are accomplished at skiing . They are taught to ski as they are taught to walk . Maybe that has something to do with it .

 

[Monte F]

I had always heard they were born with ski boots. The skis come later.

 

[Tucker 7br]

To trial a summer biathlon at your local club, you only need a high school cross country team, and a few 10/22's staged at the gun club rifle range or 50y pistol range. The rest is easy.They already know how to run, just teach them to shoot. Then upgrade from there.

 

[hoz53]

The big problem we have here with Biathlon, is a shortage of places where athletes can train.
Otherwise, my guess is more kids would have jumped into this here.
There are only about 15 sites here.
There are about 800 kids into US Biathlon, and for comparison there are something like 8000 in Norway.

i was reading an article about klaebo the other day and it said norway has 1000 ski clubs. this for a country with 5 to 6 million population

 

[saunaking]

To trial a summer biathlon at your local club, you only need a high school cross country team, and a few 10/22's staged at the gun club rifle range or 50y pistol range. The rest is easy.They already know how to run, just teach them to shoot. Then upgrade from there.

My kids did both (cc & nordic skiing), my son competed in biathlon for 2 years. They aren't close to the same. Great runners are no competition for good nordic skiers. Nordic skiers are on a different level than all other distance sports. Look at the VO2 max scores for any distance athlete if you want to compare them.
Cheers

 

[hoz53]

My kids did both (cc & nordic skiing), my son competed in biathlon for 2 years. They aren't close to the same. Great runners are no competition for good nordic skiers. Nordic skiers are on a different level than all other distance sports. Look at the VO2 max scores for any distance athlete if you want to compare them.
Cheers

yeah when they can CC ski 50 km race. its almost unreal to me the condition those guys are in. Klaebo is an endurance monster

 

[jweb308]

Youtube has a ton of Biathlon coverage, search IBU Biathlon and it is all right there. Most races are same day, just a few hour s delayed. Alternatively you can stream them with the IBU app.
March 5-8 they are in Finland, Estonia the following week and then Norway for the final race of the season the weekend after that.
The IBU coverage is much better than what you experienced from NBC.
You want to see some really fast and accurate gun handling, google Martin Udal or Lisa Vittozzi.

 

[saunaking]

yeah when they can CC ski 50 km race. its almost unreal to me the condition those guys are in. Klaebo is an endurance monster

What's amazing about Klaebo is being able to win the sprints and the marathon distances. Usually if you are great in the sprints, you're not as good in the endurance events.
Cheers

 

[XTR]

Watch them closely on YouTube videos and you will see some really interesting breath control.

Each miss requires a penalty lap, usually in the range of 20ish seconds.

Step one, XC ski fast. (It’s kind of an aerobic thing)
Step 2 stop and shoot offhand or prone at small targets with a 22LR @50 meters. Targets are 4.5 cm prone and 11.5 cm offhand (1.7 inches and 4.5 inches).
Step 3 don’t miss
Step 4 do penalty laps if needed
Step 5 repeat

 

[hoz53]

What's amazing about Klaebo is being able to win the sprints and the marathon distances. Usually if you are great in the sprints, you're not as good in the endurance events.
Cheers

he has certainly advanced the sport