Just an example of NBC's horrible coverage of the olympics. They tell you who won in the streaming link. I suspect it designed to force people to watch their horrible live coverage with more filler than sports.
On biathlon: It is a fantastic sport and as was said above, a blend of high adrenaline skiing and calm and deliberate shooting. You have to be a top level skier and shooter. They are shooting prone (with skis on) and standing at 50 meters with open sights. Every miss is a lap on the penalty loop which adds 20 to 25 seconds. At this level that is too much to make up skiing so it is rare for someone to get on the podium with more than 1 miss. For the 7.5 km sprint the women were participating at night with a strong crosswind. They were making sight adjustments on the fly.
The two way toggle straight pull bolts are an engineering marvel. The shooter opens the bolt with their index finger and closes it with their thumb. One smooth motion with the finger coming right back to the trigger at the end of the motion.
Biathlon is popular in Europe because it was invented in Scandinavia back in the mid-1800's as training for their skiing infantry. The Scandinavians dominate the sport as they do in cross-country skiing in general. It is also interesting to note that most of the top level athletes are in their 30's. I don't see the sport becoming popular in the USA as we don't have the patience to watch something that long. Even the 7.5 km sprint takes 1 1/2 hours and you don't know who will actually win until the end due to the stagger start with an athlete starting every 30 seconds. In the USA we like downhill skiing and snowboarding. Those are the snow sports that get the big sponsors and have full time athletes.
I watched the Women's Biathlon last night and thought they did a good job keeping track of standings.
I do wish they had a camera over the penalty loop, though.
I was amused by the color commentator having to explain gun stuff like sight adjustments to the announcer. He should have explained that the wind was strong enough to move bullets around.
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