I spent the past 9 days up at the Whistler Olympic Park in the Callaghan Valley, which this year hosted a World Cup event in several Nordic sports. I was there for the biathlon, and got a front row seat on the range as an electronic target operator. Yesterday during the Women’s Relay competition we were treated to a master class in shooting.
From there select “Replay - Relay Women” and move the slider to 63min into the video coverage. There you will see the 3rd leg woman from Germany, entering the range with ~1:20 in hand over her next competitor. Watch her shoot, and then watch the Chinese woman who follows.
For those of you not particularly familiar with biathlon, each of these women skis three 2km loops with two shooting bouts in between for a total of 6k of skiing per relay member, 4 members to each team. In the video referenced above at the time referenced above, the women had just finished their second of three 2km loops on a quite challenging course, and were shooting for their final time in the standing position.
I know virtually nothing about biathlon except that it is one of my favorite sports to watch during the Winter Olympics. Is it becoming common for the events to use the electronic/laser target systems?
They aren’t laser, but most of the high end competition (IBU and Olympic) is done with electronic target systems. At the lower levels of competition (regional, etc) they have rope-activated systems which work just as well, really - the electronic systems just make it possible to get the data out to TV instantaneously, and provide some other nice metrics for post race analysis (shooting analytics, etc).
Interestingly, in Precision Shooting they use “open” targets with sonic sensors that can detect the exact placement of the bullet to the millimeter while biathlon targets are just impact based. I suppose “where” you hit doesn’t matter as long as it’s on-target for biathlon, but I’d have thought that shooting sports would use similar target technology.
Biathlon is shot with a bolt action rifle using .22 LR (standard velocity) bullets on a 50m range. The prone targets are 45mm and the standing targets 115mm in diameter. Each athlete gets 5 shots to hit 5 targets except in the relay, where they are given three extra rounds for each bout of shooting (8 chances to hit 5 targets). The extra rounds must be hand-loaded.
Long way from a 10/22 that’s for sure! That’s impressive. I used to think shooting 50m prone with targets like that with NO activity beforehand was tough. I cannot imagine skiing in to do it. That Chinese racer was sick!
Me too. Its compelling drama to have a skier come in with a good lead and then have the pressure to hit shots to keep it. Earlier this year Magdalena Neuner (fastest skier on the women’s circuit, but poor shooter) gave up a 1:30-plus lead in the last shooting session by missing all 5 shots. It was crushing, think of Crowie getting to the last 10K of the marathon with a 4 minute lead and then being forced to sit for 6 minutes on the sidewalk because he couldn’t thread a needle and watching 3 or 4 guys run past.
Plus its fast, sexy women on skis with guns. What’s not to like.
Move the slider to 4:30 - Jeremy Clarkson tries to cheat by using Heckler and Koch MP5 machine gun. (I’m sure it was full of blanks but it was kind of funny)
At a minimum they must have pretty good awareness of their breathing and heart beat and the discipline to shot at a consistant point in that cycle. I’m sure it helps alot if you are in good enough shape to have your heart rate and respiration rate come down quickly.
Those targets would not be that hard to hit, even for a fairly novice shooter, if you were rested and not under time pressure but you add in many kms of skiing at race pace and it is pretty amazing what they can do.
Generally speaking athletes try to not work very hard as they approach the range, and select a lane further down to maximize their rest (though this is not always possible). Slow, deep breathing and superior cardiovascular fitness are critical, as is a lot of practice so that each individual knows how hard (s)he can go, where and when in the race and yet still shoot well. Somewhat similar but far more difficult to a fast transition in triathlon, shooting well with HR is something that needs to be practiced and practiced and practiced. While an incredibly physical test, there’s a lot of mental training as well.
In the longer races there’s a marked difference in even the best athletes in their approach as they enter the range for the later shootings vs the earlier. The first time they enter the range they take their foot off the gas a bit and coast up to the mat, perhaps shaking out their arms/legs and resting for a second while approaching their lane. In the third and fourth bouts, they’re often coasting in with their elbows on their knees, trying very hard to slow down their breathing and gain some control over their arms/legs. They also tend to take a bit longer setting up their shots (though some still shoot incredibly fast and with remarkable accuracy).
One of the key components of biathlon fitness is the ability to change gears from going really hard to calm controlled breathing, with steady hands/legs. It’s not simply an event where the biggest engine wins, but the biggest engine with the ability to reign in the power and produce accurate shots quickly. Slow, steady breathing and incredible control over one’s extremities is critical to success, and the best biathletes not only ski and shoot well, but can rapidly bring their heart rate under control as well as not have jittery arms/legs.
In the video above the Chinese still came in second to Germany - but that is because they aren’t anywhere near the skiers the Germans are. Truth be told they’re probably middle of the pack at best when it comes to skiing ability, and likely closer to the back of the pack. Our Canadian gals would crush them in a ski race, and we placed 9th (tying our all-time best in this event). But DAMN, can those Chinese women shoot!
