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From: tlanders@sequent.com (Troy Landers)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Olympic Biathalon
Message-ID: <35606@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 91 00:56:39 GMT
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In article <35380@mimsy.umd.edu> tlanders@sequent.com writes:
# ...
#What I would really like to see is a discussion of the various Olympic
#shooting events (you know, the ones that the TV won't show so they don't
#"glorify guns".)   I know about biathalon, but aren't there quite a few
#others?
#
#-Troy

I'll give it a try.

Beside the biathlon (cross-country skiing and target shooting) and the
regular Olympics target shooting events (small bore, large bore, rifle,
pistol, air rifle, air pistol, trap and skeets, ...) I can think of the
pentathlon which includes cross-country running, fencing, swimming, 
horsemanship (?) and pistol shooting.

Does anyone know if there is any shooting event in the World University
Game?

I'm familiar with the biathlon event. So here is a description.
The biathlon is an interesting combined sport in which competitors have
to shoot at knock-down metal targets at the distance of 50 meters 
(around 60 yards). The size for the prone position is 4.5 cm (less than
2") and for the standing is 10.5 cm (about 4"). The rifle used is of 
.22 calibre and is a 5-shot bolt action. There are three events for
men: 10km sprint (you stop twice - 5 shots for the prone and 5 for standing),
20km (you stop 4 times to shoot prone, stand, prone, stand) and the 3x7.5km
relay (you stop 2 times to shoot prone and standing and are allowed three
extra rounds for manual loading). For missed shots, you'll get time
penalties or have to ski penalty loops depending on the event. Women
and juniors have similar event at shorter distances.

The typical times (skiing and shooting with appropriate penalties) are 
25, 55, 65 minutes. Usually competitors have to shoot quickly even at
heart pulse at 150 per minute. A Soviet guy managed to hit
5 standing shots in 10 seconds in gusting wind condition! (Talk about
those killer assault semiautomatic to be banned because of their
"high rate of fire"!)

In the last Winter Olympic in Calgary, Canada, the biathlon events
drew the largest number of spectators (30,000?).

And there is a Summer running version (3 miles with two shooting bouts)
which you could try. Biathlon shooting is pretty neat -- you can see
and hear the target being knocked down by a solid hit.