While a biathlon refers to a sporting event that combines two different kinds of sports, it usually refers to cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. The first time I heard about this, I thought it was a joke. Here's the gist of the sport: 
You ski around a cross-country track with a rifle on your back. The total race distance is broken up by two or four rounds of shooting at a target. If you miss the mark then you are penalized. As you can imagine, it's tough to shoot accurately when you're huffing and puffing and your heart is pounding. The trick for biathletes is to slow down their skiing pace as they approach the shooting range, so they can concentrate on controlling their breath and resting their muscles.
A biathlon is really a mind/body workout and interesting challenge. Want to see a video to find out what it's all about? Then read more
I love that even though I cannot understand the announcer his excitement is infectious. Does a biathlon sound like something you'd be interested in trying?
DC
Homebase
Valentino
My dad use to try train my sister for Bialthon when she was a preteen in IL. She was good, good at X-country skiing, good at the shooting. Then he accepted transfer to sunny SoCal and so went his desire to have my sister be the black bialthete.
1i actually watched this during the last winter olympics....man, it's hard work! to be able to shoot accurately after exerting all of that energy skiing to the target...i know i couldn't do it!
2I use to have a computer game where you could compete in the Winter Olympics with this, skijumps and such. I totally sucked at it and sincerely doubt that I'd be any better in real life!
3Post New Comment
Please share your opinion with our community, but make sure it is on topic and follows our Community Rules. We moderate comments and prohibit personal attacks, threats, spam, lewd images, or the promotion of your personal website.