Biathlon

[Athena]

Your biathlon thread! 

[proserpina65]

Oh man, no Ole Einar Bjorndalen to watch in this Olympics!  I'll have to learn some more Norwegian names, I guess, but none will be as fun to say.

[MyAimIsTrue]

I loved Ole and his name as well.

[mtlchick]

Skiing and a rifle.  Who doesn't enjoy that?

 

Ole Einar Bjorndalen not being there makes my head hurt.  

[gingerella]

A sport I wish I had tried as a younger lass, because who doesn't want to shoot a target while their heart is POUNDING after doing a spot of cross country ski racing? I love watching biathalon, and so far they've got pretty decent coverage and not hidden in the middle of the night. Thank you NBC! 

And I too will miss Bjorndalen, he is a legend.

[FrenchCheese]

Biathlon competitions are almost finished as only team relays for women and men are the only 2 remaining. After living 5 years in Norway, this event has become my favorite in the Winter Olympics (and not just because french are quite good at it).

If for the women Dahlmeier for Germany is the star with 2 gold medals, it is a french man who is entering the history of the sport with 3 gold medals for this year (to add to the 2 he already got in Sotchi). And I'm especially happy for his last two wins. He won the mass start at the photo finish (in Sotchi he lost the sprint of the mass start also like that). And today he won the mixed relay race with 3 of his teammates by dominating the last leg. But what make me happy in today race is the joy of Marie Dorin Habert who won her second OGM and was crazy happy during the ceremony. One month ago she was almost retiring because of bad results in the World Cup and she told her coach to not take her in the Olympics if they didn't think she was one of the 4 best french women. Her results in Pyeongchang are amazing compared to the whole year and she did put France in a good place after the first relay. Despite what she probably thinks she is one great champion who deserves every title she got. 

Edited February 21, 2018 by FrenchCheese

[vavera4ka]

On ‎2‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 7:13 PM, mtlchick said:

Skiing and a rifle.  Who doesn't enjoy that?

 

Ole Einar Bjorndalen not being there makes my head hurt.  

well, technically Ole is (was?) there as a coach in team Belarus with I assume, daughter, cheering on Domracheva.  babysitting duties while mommy tries to come back to Sochi glory lol (only one medal for her though :( )

[FrenchCheese]

He must do a good job. Belarus women team just won the gold in the team event. 

[vavera4ka]

2 hours ago, FrenchCheese said:

He must do a good job. Belarus women team just won the gold in the team event. 

He was so adorable at the last time check, letting her know she increased her lead and then barely containing himself running towards the finish. King Ole was super proud of his Queen Dasha.

 

ETA:

Edited February 22, 2018 by vavera4ka

[NUguy514]

7 hours ago, vavera4ka said:

That is one attractive couple.  Goodness.

[mtlchick]

3 hours ago, NUguy514 said:

That is one attractive couple.  Goodness.

If they ever had a child together, I bet they would be like "Meh, I'm going to be a very good looking accountant."

[FrenchCheese]

@mtlchick, they already have a baby girl together. Domracheva did come back from maternity leave in february last year (if I remember correctly). 

[vavera4ka]

Darya gave birth in October 2016 and came back to competition in January 2017.

[legaleagle53]

Congratulations to Paralympian Kendall Gretsch, who just won her first medal of the games -- GOLD.  It's also the first gold medal and first medal for women's biathlon across both the Olympics and the Paralympics!

Now, tell me again how Paralympians are inferior to regular Olympians?

[Raikas]

I've never been a big fan of watching the nordic/biathlon events in the Olympics (although I think cross-country skiing itself is fun), but I'm finding watching the standing paralympic biathlon (and cross-country) races really fascinating. 

In the Olympics (and in the paralympic sitting and VI classes) those races are almost relaxing (as a viewer, obviously) since everyone goes through more-or-less the same motions, but the standing race has so many different techniques that it's almost like watching an applied physics lesson in all the different ways someone can ski and drop down/get up to shoot depending on their particular component of body parts.  In the men's those two top competitors (the one-armed Canadian guy and the French guy with no knee joint) have such completely different ways of moving, it's like no other sport I've ever watched. It's wild.

Edited March 17, 2018 by Raikas

[legaleagle53]

1 hour ago, Raikas said:

I've never been a big fan of watching the nordic/biathlon events in the Olympics (although I think cross-country skiing itself is fun), but I'm finding watching the standing paralympic biathlon (and cross-country) races really fascinating. 

In the Olympics (and in the paralympic sitting and VI classes) those races are almost relaxing (as a viewer, obviously) since everyone goes through more-or-less the same motions, but the standing race has so many different techniques that it's almost like watching an applied physics lesson in all the different ways someone can ski and drop down/get up to shoot depending on their particular component of body parts.  In the men's those two top competitors (the one-armed Canadian guy and the French guy with no knee joint) have such completely different ways of moving, it's like no other sport I've ever watched. It's wild.

This is exactly why I'm glad to see the Paralympics get more and more respect each quadrennium.  Just because these athletes' bodies don't function the way yours and mine do, that doesn't mean that they're still not the best in the world at what they do - and don't think for a second that they couldn't kick your ass just as hard as an Olympian could!

[Raikas]

On 3/17/2018 at 5:24 PM, legaleagle53 said:

This is exactly why I'm glad to see the Paralympics get more and more respect each quadrennium.  Just because these athletes' bodies don't function the way yours and mine do, that doesn't mean that they're still not the best in the world at what they do - and don't think for a second that they couldn't kick your ass just as hard as an Olympian could!

True enough.  I have to say, watching the biathlon/x-country here does make me wonder why they can't do mixed-class events in the distance running events in the summer paralympics.   I know there have been leg amputees (especially Richard Whitehead, I think?) who were campaigning to be able to run the marathon with the arm classes, and it seemed like the argument boiled down to "it would be confusing". But since they can do it in the nordic events it seems like that means it's not actually much of an issue.

[KAOS Agent]

I think it's because a prosthetic leg can give an unfair advantage to a runner. They wouldn't necessarily see the same advantage on skis because the skis remove the differences that provide the advantage. 

This is an article that discusses the research they've been doing regarding prosthetics and how they might benefit someone over an athlete with legs and feet. I thought it was interesting that someone racing with a prosthetic on their left leg is at a disadvantage to someone racing with a prosthetic on the right leg. There's a lot more to it than simply avoiding confusion. 

[Raikas]

On 3/19/2018 at 10:55 PM, KAOS Agent said:

I think it's because a prosthetic leg can give an unfair advantage to a runner. They wouldn't necessarily see the same advantage on skis because the skis remove the differences that provide the advantage. 

This is an article that discusses the research they've been doing regarding prosthetics and how they might benefit someone over an athlete with legs and feet. I thought it was interesting that someone racing with a prosthetic on their left leg is at a disadvantage to someone racing with a prosthetic on the right leg. There's a lot more to it than simply avoiding confusion. 

Yeah, although in the case of Whitehead, we're a long, long way from above-knee prosthetics being anywhere near as fast as anyone with knee joints, so I don't see that being the driver behind that particular decision.  

Interesting article though. One of the commentators for the biathlon said something similar about side-differences, not because of prosthetics, but that skiers using a single pole on the left versus on the right were better able to handle certain turns.  At a certain point, even in a sport with factored times, it seems like there has to be a certain amount of inequality just built in.

 

Markus Rehm's case is interesting, although I feel like it's missing a piece of the puzzle to not mention that virtually all (I think it was something like 8 out of 9 in the last world's) wears exactly the same blade that he does while he's jumping nearly a metre further than them every time.  If the blade itself were a straightforward advantage why aren't they all benefiting the same way? As much as I respect paralympic sport, I think Rehm is a lot more fun to watch when he's in grand prix-type events with able-bodied athletes because at least there he has some competition. He wins by such huge margins in para-athletics events that as a viewer you're really only watching to see if he breaks his own world record.