Biathlon And Hardships
Yesterday was a sport day for me, I've managed to watch a couple of live sport events from Hochfilzen, Austria and one of them was the Biathlon World Cup. For those of you who don't know this sport, it's skiing and shooting. It was an interesting event and maybe the first I've watched from the beginning to the end.
It was the biathlon sprint, a 7.5 km route. The Italian Dorothea Wierer won with 21:26 minutes, followed by the Russian Svetlana Mironova with a time of 18:3 minutes.
Looks like Dorothea Wierer is in a good shape as she won both the 7.5 km Sprint and 15 km Individual at the first stage at the beginning of December in Östersund, Sweden and yesterday the 7.5 km Sprint again. Yomorrow it's going to take place the 10 km Pursuit but I'm not sure she's in it as I know almost nothing about it.
Anyway, biathlon is a nice winter sports that requires quite a lot if you want to take it seriously. You need a proper training at a good ski resort that has a place for biathlon, equipment and also a good biathlon rifle that can cost you quite a lot.
What was very strange yesterday, all of the participants who crossed the finish line yesterday, fell on the ground grasping for air. The commentator said it's the lack of oxygen which is understandable. Imagine skiing at the highest speed possible for you to be as fast as you can. That means your heart rate and pulse are somewhere sky high. Plus Hochfilzen's altitude is 959m above sea level. Poor athletes were half dead, laying on the ground for a minute, trying to get some air.
The other thing I came to realize is how hard it is for them to shoot. Imagine racing from point A to B, trying to be the fastest, then you get to the shooting range, where you have to lay down or stand and shoot. Shooting is a very important part and you have to be the best in order to win, of course. Now, when you arrive to the shooting range, you also are grasping for air from the speed skiing but you need to control your breathing in order to shoot, everyone knows that. To normalize your breathing it takes time but the more time you spend doing that, the more time you lose. It takes time and practice to get used to it.
Tomorrow is the 10 km Pursuit and want to watch it if possible to learn more as this is an interesting sport.