SUMMER BIATHLON
Unique winter sport finds a warm-weather, Midwest home in Minnesota
By Jill Troutner
Biathlon: For most people, that means winter biathlon. The sport of winter biathlon in Europe is equivalent in popularity to the NBA in the United States. Winter biathlon's heritage dates back to a means of survival. The first organized biathlon was developed initially for military purposes. In 1555 a Finnish army unit defeated a Russian unit, partly because of mobility on skis. Ski divisions played key roles in the Great
Scandinavian War in 1700–1718. By the late 19th century, Russian, German, Swiss and Austrian soldiers also used skis. The first ever recorded biathlon competition was organized in 1767 by the "ski–runner companies" guarding the Swedish–Norwegian border.
The evolution of biathlon today has made it one of the most agonizing and interesting sports in the world. Due to the many factors in biathlon, it is difficult to dominate the sport. The faces on the podium are constantly
changing–adding to its excitement.
Winter biathlon does have a warmer side. Running and shooting, mountain biking and shooting – and no, you do not run and/or bike with the rifle. In winter, the skiers haul those extra seven or eight pounds with them.
In summer biathlon, the traditional race distance varies between 4–6 kilometers, depending on the course available. As with winter biathlon, the runners or bikers do race loops and then come in to shoot. Races
start and finish by the biathlon shooting range. Every competitor must be safety certified or go through the safety/novice clinic prior to competition. The biathlete will start off running a 1.5–2K loop, ending back at the biathlon range. Each racer's rifle will be waiting at the range in a rifle rack. The racer grabs the rifle by the barrel (straight up and down) and walks to on open shooting point.
The first shooting stage is called prone shooting (laying down). There are
five shots for five targets. After all five shots have been taken, the racer returns the rifle to the rack and takes off running to either the penalty loop or straight onto the race course, depending how well the shooting went. The second loop is run, and it's back at the range to repeat the shooting process. This second stage of shooting is done while standing, again five shots for five targets. The rifle goes back on the rack and it's
either in the penalty loop to pay for those misses or immediately back on course and hammering to the finish.
It doesn't sound too difficult, right? The tradition biathlon analogy is of running several flights of stairs and then trying to thread a needle. My personal analogy springs from a more varied athletic background – imagine Michael Johnson and Michael Jordan in a three lap race on a 400 meter track. After each of the first two laps, they shoot five free
throws with each miss adding an additional 50 meters to the next lap. Who would win?
I think the beauty about biathlon is that you have to be "just good enough" at two things to take the day. The fastest skier or runner cannot survive several shooting misses. The perfect shooter can't make up the time if they don't have enough speed. Once in a while, you have the perfect race where you do both things so well that you leave the field
minutes behind you. I have known some biathletes who have trained and raced 10 years before they finally had that perfect race!
The other intriguing thing about biathlon is that you usually did one of two things well and you can console yourself with that. There is always the greatest shooting on a day where you couldn't get out of your own way and vice versa. Post–race at a biathlon event, you hear things like, "if you
had hit one more" and "well, I had the fastest ski/run time of the day."
Biathlon is fraught with disappointment. Too much time wasted on the range, too many penalties, too slow getting around the course – lots of pieces to the puzzle make this an odd and confusing little sport to the uninitiated.
Yet we are all uninitiated in the sport of biathlon, due to its many little complexities. On that note, let me initiate you on a couple of things: the
Minnesota Biathlon Junior Development program has and is producing well over half of the current and future biathletes in this country; three of the eight members of the Olympic biathlon team were from Minnesota with ties to the Minessota Biathlon program, and the World Junior Team had a "whole lotta Minnesota" in it as well (eight of 14 athletes).
If you are a junior, and interested in Junior Development Camp opportunities with Minnesota Biathlon, contact Piotr Bednarski at MNbiathlon@aol. If you are a master interested in running biathlon, you can contact me at JBTroutner@aol.
If you would like to get a little more initiated in the sport of biathlon this summer, come out to run or mountain bike with us. If you have your own biathlon rifle, bring it along. To get on a summer biathlon information mailing list, contact me at JBTroutner@aol. Also, biathlon information
will be posted on the Minnesota biathlon Web site at www.http//members.aol.com/esecord and www.minnesotabiathlon.com.
MN SUMMER BIATHLON SCHEDULE
June 1: 4–6K Summer Biathlon at Woodland Trails in Elk River.
June 29: 3x4K Mountain Bike Biathlon at Mount Itasca in Grand Rapids.
July 27: 4–6K Summer Biathlon at Snowflake Nordic in Duluth.
Aug. 10: 4–6K Summer Biathlon at Woodland Trails in Elk River.
Sept. 28: 4–6K Summer Biathlon at Snowflake Nordic in Duluth.
Oct. 5–6: Summer Biathlon Nationals at Mount Itasca in Grand Rapids.
Oct. 26–27: Minn. Biathlon Fall Festival at Camp Ripley in Little Falls (rollerski only)
All race times are the same: 9–9:40 a.m. zero, 9:45 a.m. start, 10:30 a.m. novice clinic, 11:30 a.m. novice race.
SOURCES FOR BIATHLON INFO
www.skinnyski.com
www.http//members.aol.com/esecord (MNBiathlon – just use skinnyski link!)
www.USBiathlon.org
www.biathlonworld.com
www.wintersport.as
www.IBU.at/
www.FROZENBULLET.com (highly recommended)
www.biathlon.qc.ca (Quebec biathlon)
www.biathlon-antholtz.it
www.ski.tunnelvoukatti.fi/eindix.html
www.minnesotabiathlon.com –the new and improved Minnesota site for race schedule, results, photos, news and classified ads.
BIATHLON EQUIPMENT SOURCES
Check out the MNBiathlon Web site, www.minnesotabiathlon.com, for "For Sale" items.
Altius Endeavors, West Yellowstone, MT 59758: Some rifles, rifle accessories, Anshutz repair (406/646–9222, 406/646–9433 fax; altius@gomontana.com).
Rifle cases: ICC and KKAir, International Transport Cases (800/262–3322, 509/326–5436 fax).
Core Sport Rifle Accessories (888/830–2785, 218/682–2785 fax; coresprt@uslink.net).
KG Larsen Biathlon: rifles and accessories (helps to know some Norwegian but not necessary), Post@kg-larsen.no, Larsen.biathlon@marnardal.mail.telia.com; www.senternett.no/kg-larsen-biathlon; www.kg-larsen.no; phone: 473/828–7619 fax; 473/828–7751.
Bredvold Rifle Stocks (You Better Know Norwegian!) phone: 473/629–51051.
Gunsmithing: Neil Johnson at www.neilJGuns.com; 800/284–8671. | 
