February 18th, 2006

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Sports
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Biathlon is My Favourite Event

After hockey, I think biathlon is my favourite event in the Winter Olympics. I like its peculiar, conflicting combination of activities–cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It’s conflicting, of course, because the skiing gets your heart rate up to 180 beats per minute, which isn’t particularly conducive to shooting a silver-dollar-sized target half a football field away. I had assumed it had its origins in hunting, but actually we can blame the Norweigians:

The sport has its origins in an exercise for Norwegian soldiers. The first known competition took place in 1767 when border patrol companies competed against each other. Gradually the sport became more common throughout Scandinavia as an alternative training for the military. Called military patrol, the combination of skiing and shooting was demonstrated at the Olympic Winter Games in 1924, 1928, 1936 and 1948, but did not gain Olympic recognition then, as the small number of competing countries disagreed on the rules.

Eventually it was added to the Winter Olympics in 1960. I watched a great race in the men’s 12.5 km pursuit earlier today.

Comments: 5 Responses so far

JohnB
February 18th, 2006
7:03 pm

Judging by the empty seats … the wise 2010 ticket purchaser will seek out tickets for Women’s hockey.

Yes, yes, yes … there won’t be as many empty seats in Vancouver as there are in Turin/Turino but I also doubt they’ll go as quickly as seats for other events. In addition, most of the other events are better covered by television than by watching the events in person.

(And just to prove I’m not a first time visitor: I know you want figure skating tickets. Join the crowd. So many, many of the tickets are set aside for Olympics VIPS that you probably won’t get any — and those that you do get will be awful.)

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Travis
February 18th, 2006
8:35 pm

“Disagreed on the rules”? Like, whether there should be live targets and such? Yikes!

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Jamil
February 19th, 2006
2:19 am

hey
how true is that about figure skating?
that the VIPS get all the good tickets.
there must be a few good tickets laying around.
and If it is 110% true, then how do I become an Olympic VIP :D
and is it worth even being a volunteer to get tix?

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DaveO
February 19th, 2006
9:50 am

i found in SLC, that tickets for early round events and “hi-volume” events (i.e. cross country) were readily available and, at all events, the world’s finest scalpers

All tickets are sold by the official ticket borkers though the local area does get an alottement which will be sold locally on an adhoc basis but likely to be scooped up by pros (if you tried to buy Canucks tix on the first day of pulbic sales, then you know what i mean).

To get the most desirable tickets, you are obliged to buy contrived “Olympic experience packages” from the official ticket vendors. So, if you want say, Gold Medal Hockey, had gotta buy a package with over-priced ceremonies, maybe some ice dancing qualifying and 50km x-country and prelim luge. All of those can be cool but you will spend a lot of money for events you could buy from scalpers for MUCH cheaper on the day of. Riskier sure, but thrifty.

I went for the approach of seeing lots of events and a variety of events rather than a few high-profile events. As a result, i saw dozens of events in many disciplines, and almost every one, scalpers were selling tickets for less than face-value.

Being a volunteer is noble and perhaps enjoyable from a “feel-good inside” standpoint, but not the best way to get you mitts on tix and you do spend a lot of time standing around just out of earshot of events so missing a lot of action.

Bear in mind, few events are stinkers and at every event you will see something that impresses you to be sure.

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DBarclay
February 20th, 2006
10:49 am

Regarding biathlon, I always think of the fast moving guerilla ski troops of the Finnish army in the Winter War.

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