It's time the winter biathlon got some respect
By James A. Swan, Ph.D.Like most people, I've been following the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, enduring the all-too-frequent commercial breaks, the sometimes inane commentaries and often embarrassing interviews, as well as the scandal surrounding the figure skating pairs competition. Regardless of the distractions, at their best the Olympics touch our hearts and send the human spirit soaring.
Right now people are up in arms about judging bias in figure skating. But there's another bias I think deserves some attention: media bias in reporting the winter biathlon.
| “ | It's like climbing up 25 flights of stairs and then threading a needle five times, without missing the hole. ” | |
| — US Biathlon team member Shaun Marshall-Pryde |
This year there are four different biathlon races for men and four for women — eight gold medals up for grabs in all. Those covering the Olympics may argue that people aren't interested in the biathlon. Talk to the Europeans about that.
In northern Europe, the winter biathlon is more popular than the Super Bowl. Between December and March, World Cup biathlon matches draw the largest television audiences of any winter sport in Europe. During the five days of biathlon competition at the Lillehammer Olympics more than 500,000 wildly cheering spectators turned out, filling the 80,000 seat stadium, and spilling over into the woods to cheer on the biathletes. It was the most-watched event.
What is the biathlon?
In case you're not sure just what sport I'm talking about, the biathlon is a cross-country race where contestants periodically stop to fire .22 rifles at small targets 50 meters distant. Winter biathletes use cross-country skis to traverse the course while the summer competitors are on foot, but the sport is essentially the same. The winner is determined by the fastest time.
Accuracy in shooting definitely counts, though, factored in as time penalties for misses. In the Winter Olympics, for each miss a biathlete must ski an extra 150-yard penalty lap before returning to the course.
The biathlon is an intense sport requiring extraordinary skills. After several kilometers of flat-out skiing, shooters un-shoulder their bolt-action, 5-shot .22 rifles and take one of two positions to fire. From the standing position the targets are 3-inch diameter metal discs. The prone-position targets are about the size of a half-dollar. The guns have no optical sights.
The physical and mental skills of a biathlete are exceptional. They must ski flat-out in the cross-country and then suddenly compose themselves enough to shoot out the targets in a matter of seconds. "It's like climbing up 25 flights of stairs and then threading a needle five times, without missing the hole," US Biathlon team member Shaun Marshall-Pryde told me at a recent seminar on shooting sports held by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
A brief history
The first winter biathlon contest was held in 1767, between Swedish and Norwegian border patrols. It entered the Winter Olympics as a demonstration in 1924, and did not become a regular event until 1960. The Russians held the team honors for the first six Winter Games. The Germans have taken the Gold in the last three. As of February 15, the highest-place US finisher in the men's 10Km biathlon was Jeremy Teela of Heber City, Utah, who was 20th. In the women's 7.5km, Kara Salmela of Duluth, MN finished 49.
There are 220 biathletes established for the current Winter Games, 112 men and 108 women. Nations qualify for the event based on their competitors' performance in World Cup events and World Championships. To be eligible you must be in either the top 20 percent of biathletes in the World Cup standing, or the top half of the World Junior championships. Each country can have up to four athletes per event. The US is fielding a team of eight — four men and four women. All are from either Alaska or northern states that get a lot of snow.
Men and women each have four events: the sprint (10km men; 7.5km women) with two stops to shoot; the pursuit (12.5km men, 10km women), with four stops; the individual, which is like a marathon (20km men, 15km women) with four stops; and the team relay with four people each traveling 7.5km and shooting at two stops during their lap.
You can find out more about the biathlon events through the Olympics website, www.olympics.org. I found it fascinating that the site talks about the type of skis biathletes use (shorter than regular cross-country skis) and the clothing of the competitors, but nothing is said about their rifles.
For the record, according to Jerry Kokesh, Development Director of the US Biathlon Association, about 95 percent of Olympic biathlon rifles are made in Germany by Anschutz. They cost about $2,100, before each contestant pays another $500 to $600 to have the stock customized. To learn more about the rifles and this year's US team, consult the US Biathlon Association website. The US team sponsors are LL Bean, Exel Ski Poles, Federal Cartridge Company, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Despite the fact that shooting sports are global, enormously popular, and among the safest of all competitive sports, the US press tends to avoid firearms sports as if they didn't exist. Instead they dwell on firearms crime and accidents, even when safety levels in both are at all-time levels. Such bias serves no one. It's time for a change — for the biathlon and shooting sports in general — if for no other reason than the biathlon is rapidly growing in popularity in North America. Some $12 million has recently been invested in new biathlon facilities in the US, in addition to the $10 million spent on the Soldier Hollow facility in Salt Lake City.
One reason why the US does not do better in the biathlon is that currently the NCAA does not sanction the sport, so the only collegiate biathlon team is the 10 athletes at the US Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan.
There are, however, 1000 members of the US Biathlon Association and, according to Jerry Kokesh, 60 men and 25 men from that group tried out for this year's US Olympic squad. Kokesh says that clubs and youth teams and leagues are springing up all across the US. Those kids need some positive role models and the US needs to honor its athletes, all of its athletes.
James Swan is the author of the book "In Defense of Hunting."
To purchase a copy visit his website.
