Word: biathlon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Today I'm firing my gun for the first time, and it feels good. I'm on the target range of the Saratoga Biathlon club near the south shore of the Sacandaga Lake in upstate New York. I'm on skis, and there is a cleverly designed harness on my Russian-made .22-caliber rifle that allows me to carry it on my back as I wend through the woods between shooting stops. The air is cold and it is difficult to hold the rifle still with my heart pounding, but I actually hit a few targets and finish...
...started during the Lake Placid Olympics in '80, when I first saw a short segment on biathlon and it seemed like the coolest winter sport ever (skiing with a rifle on your back - come on!). After the '84 Sarajevo Games my friend Erik suggested that we train for the Calgary Olympics, and the idea caught on. We set about to educate ourselves, but in the pre-Internet 1980s it was tough to find any information about the sport, so we just made it up, happily skiing around the hills in southern Oregon with rifles on our backs, using the wrong...