I was just watching the Olympics and they announced that the Germans won a gold medal.  

I would imagine that the trick in being successful in the biathlon is being able to calm down enough in order to take a steady shot after sprinting for 150 meters or so.  

What is it like?

One of the Biathlon events for the men is 50 km.

I once saw a Biathlete hooked up with some sensors and your could see how fast their heart rates dropped to make the shot.  Incredible athletes!!!

Typically, the people that compete in combined events are quite good enough to be medalist in single events.  I know this is definitely true of the events that include an equestrian portion.  This is not to say these people aren’t world class athletes, just not the very best in individual categories.

Dude its not 150 meters they cover between shooting stages. Its close to 5000 meters or about 3.1 for the 20 km biathlon. Plus you ski with your rifle.

I think its the national sport of Finland.

I am thinking about organizing a ar15.com Biathlon. 1.5 mile run shoot 10 targets, 3 legs like that and every target you hit you get 10 seconds knocked off you time.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biathlon

dang, I didn't realize it was so far in between shooting stages.

Superior athletes for sure.  

5000 meters.  Damn.  I can't even walk that far without stopping for a beer.

I nordic raced in high school, and toyed around with doing biathalon as my coach was ex-olympic biathalon-er. We talked about setting up a course, and then I moved across the country, and that was that.

It's certainly true that most of the biathaloners are folks who are a few nano-seconds off of a spot on the primary national team. That makes them, like 11th in their nation (or in the Fins case, the world) instead of, oh, 3rd.

Typically the US is good in shooting and sucks in skiing. Just like in Modern Pentathalon, only instead of sucking in one other event, we suck in 4.

But we make up for it in curling.

2520

Quoted: I am thinking about organizing a ar15.com Biathlon. 1.5 mile run shoot 10 targets, 3 legs like that and every target you hit you get 10 seconds knocked off you time.

I'm in.  bet there aren't many of us on this site that can run a single 1.5 mile leg let alone 3 of them, though.

Check out www.usbiathlon.org for background on the sport and clubs. The usual course of fire is ski a lap, shoot 5 prone, ski another lap and shoot 5 offhand, than ski a final lap. Distances very depending upon the race, usually 7.5K to 10k total, up here. Sometimes we will add two more shooting stages. Depending upon the race you either have time added for each missed shot or ski a penalty loop for each missed shot. In summer its a trail run. We have three locals in Italy this year with the team.

Watched it in person at the Utah Olympics.  Amazing athletes.  If I'd skied that far I'd hardly be able to stand, much less keep a steady position...

I can not ski I would love to run it though.