I want to be a biathlete!

The Olympics just ended and I have to admit I did watch some. I could do without the Curling not only is it one of the dumbest looking sports out there, who wants to train for a sport that involves using a broom to sweep. “Honey, could you do some training this afternoon and sweep out the garage?” On the other hand, speed skating, I’ve always wanted to try that. But the sport that captured my attention the most this winter was that of biathlon. I’ve always been a bit perturbed at people who call a duathlon a biathlon, but that’s another story…

Here’s the description I pullled off the site www.biathlete.org:

“Imagine skiing around a turn at twenty miles per hour with a rifle harnessed on your back. Out of breath; your heart pounds in your chest as you ski up to a rifle firing point. Quickly pulling the rifle around from your back, you settle with the first target in sight. Better calm your nerves quickly to knock down the targets; the clock is running.

Winter Biathlon is a combination of cross country freestyle skiing and rifle marksmanship. Competitors ski with rifles and shoot at small metal targets fifty meters away. Missed targets add either fixed penalty time to the final time or require penalty laps on a 180 meter loop.”

Yep, biathletes have it figured out. I bet they don’t have problems with people driving by and hollering at them while they’re out training. Imagine the new found respect motorists would have if we started biking with rifles straped to our backs. They can wear what ever clothes they want, who’s going to make fun of an expert marksmen with a rifle strapped to their back?

I actually used to own a pair of cross country skis back when I lived in Wisconsin, but there never seemed to be enough snow to do much skiing and I never had a high tech graphite rifle to strap to my back. I still think it would be cool though…