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[martl]

no love for Biathlon at all? You fellas have no idea how big that is in D/FR/N/A/I - crowds at world cup races can exceed 100.000 (over 3-5 days), the 2012 world championship drew 240.000.
The top athletes like Bjoerndalen, Forcade, Neuner or Dahlmeier are absolute national heroes, only football players outrank them in popularity (and possibly income).

Exciting spectator sport too, both on location as on TV, there always is a lot of stuff happening.

Those folks do a 10km cross country in 27 minutes and stop a few times in between to hit 5 bullseyes in 6 seconds ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHILPbO-BOg

by the way, those people knoww how to ski, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F98o-C7c8M0

[bironi]

Originally Posted by Frankwurst

I like curling. Laugh if you will but having done it on more than one occasion there is alot more to it than meets the eye. Not as exciting as figure skating and someone landing a triple camel toe but the strategy and ability to place stones is a challenge and not as easy as it appears. I also enjoy the ski jumping, speed skating, downhill skiing, luge, bobsled and all the other high speed sports. Go U.S.A.

I was not laughing. To my eye it is one of the best spectator sports of the Winter Olympics. I do enjoy some of the others, just not as much.

[cadence90]

.... ..
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[buddybikes]

I stayed in a Vermont Bed and Breakfast back in the late 90's. The host was the national Biathlon coach who back in, think 80 won gold medal. He had pictures all over the B&B, his highlight was Lillihahammer from pure beauty and running of an olympic event.

His summer training for the day was to grab the gals and run up a big VT mountain. More fun than a gym!

[BobO]

Originally Posted by martl

Those folks do a 10km cross country in 27 minutes and stop a few times in between to hit 5 bullseyes in 6 seconds ....

I recall reading an article during the last winter games about how these athletes dose their efforts so they can be stable while shooting without having to take too much recovery time. As if it's not hard enough to get your pacing right for just the distance.

[72gmc]

Originally Posted by martl

no love for Biathlon at all?

I was watching Oberhof women's sprint last night while doing some homework!

I like the Michael Ebs Henschel channel on YouTube. Lots of biathlon and I get to practice listening auf Deutsch.

[wc1934]

Originally Posted by martl

no love for Biathlon at all? You fellas have no idea how big that is in D/FR/N/A/I - crowds at world cup races can exceed 100.000 (over 3-5 days), the 2012 world championship drew 240.000.
The top athletes like Bjoerndalen, Forcade, Neuner or Dahlmeier are absolute national heroes, only football players outrank them in popularity (and possibly income).

Exciting spectator sport too, both on location as on TV, there always is a lot of stuff happening.

Those folks do a 10km cross country in 27 minutes and stop a few times in between to hit 5 bullseyes in 6 seconds ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHILPbO-BOg

by the way, those people knoww how to ski, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F98o-C7c8M0

Lots of love here!!!
They are hard core athletes - I think, as with many events, they make it seem so easy that the general public doesnt realize how difficult it really is - thus under appreciated.

When we watch Tour riders climb the Col de la Madeleine or the Tourmalet, etc we wonder why no one attacks the leader - because they are Friggen impossible climbs!!!

[72gmc]

Further down the biathlon rabbit hole: pool footage of biathlon events from the 2010 Olympics with no announcing, just natural sound.

[tuscanyswe]

Biathlon has so many things going for it. It can change in an instant. Its never over.

Ole einar is the most decorated winter olympian ever. 8 gold? Maybe 9. Gold in at least 4 winter olympics thus far.

Even as a swede im a big fan of this norweigan dude .)

[72gmc]

Those 2010 clips include women's events with Magdalena Neuner. While we're on the subject of athletes with a lot of trophies ...

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by martl

no love for Biathlon at all? You fellas have no idea how big that is in D/FR/N/A/I - crowds at world cup races can exceed 100.000 (over 3-5 days), the 2012 world championship drew 240.000.
The top athletes like Bjoerndalen, Forcade, Neuner or Dahlmeier are absolute national heroes, only football players outrank them in popularity (and possibly income).

Exciting spectator sport too, both on location as on TV, there always is a lot of stuff happening.

Those folks do a 10km cross country in 27 minutes and stop a few times in between to hit 5 bullseyes in 6 seconds ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHILPbO-BOg

by the way, those people knoww how to ski, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F98o-C7c8M0

Love watching it but don't know a GD thing about it. :-)

[tuscanyswe]

Originally Posted by 72gmc

Those 2010 clips include women's events with Magdalena Neuner. While we're on the subject of athletes with a lot of trophies ...

You picked the one clip with a swedish dude winning, thanks
Such a great name to! Who names their sons "bear" anyways..

Ok ill admit it, i can watch almost any sport. Just leave me there infront of it for 30 min or so then im usually pretty into it. Tho for winter sports i could never get behind bobsleigh. I think it may just be reruns running in a loop, i wouldent know either way. Just not a great tv sport, imo ofc.

[martl]

Originally Posted by BobO

I recall reading an article during the last winter games about how these athletes dose their efforts so they can be stable while shooting without having to take too much recovery time. As if it's not hard enough to get your pacing right for just the distance.

I'm not really an expert, but there are some facts i learned:

- Biathletes want to have the heartbeat down *a bit* for the shooting, but not too much, so wasting too much time at the shooting range is dangerous

- .22 LR ammo is used at a distance of 50 m today, but up until 1977, common rifle ammo (7.62 NATO or similar) was used at 250m range. (The whole sport started as a military competition)

- in the James Bond movie "for your eyes only", Bond gets chased by a nameless east german biathlete on skis. Even though the movie dates from 1981, the villain does *not* use .22

- Ole Einar Björndalen participates infrequently in XC events, he has won several norwegian national titles and even a world cup race

- we frequently met olympic gold medallist Uschi Disl who used to live in our cycling club's favourite training areal. She kicked our asses whether she was on roller skis or on her bike.

[Davist]

Originally Posted by cadence90

Figure skating is definitely a sport that has very much "evolved" to capture the tv viewer with increasing glitz and glamour. When I was a child figure skating had three events:
1) Compulsories: the "figures" in figure skating. No music, no show, etc.; just skating pre-determined (by rule) purely technical routines in order to demonstrate skills. Like kids writing the alphabet, or cyclists doing track stands.
2) Short Program.
3) Long Program.

Jettisoning the compulsories was a bad move imo. Now, more and more, and with the introduction of "Ice Dancing" as an Olympic sport, figure skating is not at all the same thing. What is ironic is that today's skaters can land triples and quads, etc., all night long, but often with little if any real grace either within the moves or linking the moves.

I don't think that figure skating technical scores are actually "fairly cut and dried" at all. There is often controversy, and often variance and debate...as there will be with 9 judges and 1 referee.

.
.

Actually, Ice Dance includes a "set pattern" dance (short dance) like the old figures/compulsories with a set pattern Dance. Ice dancing has been an Olympic sport since '76 Innsbruck.

Here's one of the patterns, one originating in the US:



The true compulsories were not even watchable and required a different pair of skates, judges with magnifying glasses to look at the traces, etc.

bias: My wife is a multiple master's level world champion in Ice Dance, and while some here think it's not a sport, it certainly (along with all figure skating) takes tremendous dedication and fitness. Yes, the costumes are sparkly, but along with the new scoring in figures, it's a more athletic based competition. As far as subjectiveness, what's a catch in the NFL anyway?

[Frankwurst]

Originally Posted by bironi

I was not laughing. To my eye it is one of the best spectator sports of the Winter Olympics. I do enjoy some of the others, just not as much.

It helps if you know how it scores and understand some of the strategy involved and I know to alot of people it looks simple but sweeping is an art and hard, as is throwing and being the skip. It really is a very intense strategic sport. It's like cycling, people who don't know it don't get it. Those that do know it, like it.