Results to be proud of

     Men’s Individual start, for those that don’t understand this event it is played out as follows; Men race 20 kilometres and women race 15 kilometres. Competitors start one at a time, every 30 seconds, and ski a 4-kilometre (men) or 3-kilometre (women) loop five times. Between each loop, competitors stop four times at the shooting range to take five shots at a target. If an athlete misses a shot, one minute is added to his or her total time at the end of the race. The athlete with the lowest time, which consists of a combined ski time and shooting time penalty, is the winner.

Svendsen

Bjoerndalen

Novikov

Ustyugov

Leguellec

Smiles all around

Robot Cam

I must tell you that the tension of being at the Olympics with a Norwegian ski company and not too much to show for it so far was getting the crew down. Was it the weather (snow and rain squalls at an inopportune time), ski prep, ski selection or is it the athlete we don’t know! The results speak for themselves for today! (I can’t report, but you all know the results now). It was a much better day.

Since this is my first experience at an Olympic or World Cup, I was pleased to see the wax techs from the Norway, Belarus and Russia in the wax cabin when I got back from my duties. Canadian (biathlon beer) (it has 5 dots on the can) was being passed around. The smiles were across every ones face and the shaking of hands was in full force. Visits were made to the Nations cabins to congratulate and toast the hard work.

 

Back in Squamish at our house, the serious party began (some stated if felt that we went from zero to hero in one race). I will put on paper that I am not a professional drinker and was shown how to celebrate either in Ukrainian, Norwegian, or Swedish style. The toasts were fast and plenty (Vodka in a small glass straight back) and continued until there was no more.... “No headache this way” said Oleg. If anyone tried to hydrate with water we would say “vish piss and poop in there, wadka better. We also witnessed what we are calling the Russian Alarm clock, Oleg was watching TV with his eyes closed and as he heard less and less his drink tipped over and filled his pants with cold beer, he was up in a second and off to bed.

We were up early and off to the race site with no headache but quite tired.