[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

I think shoot moderately is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. They have to hit a golf ball from 50 meters prone and a grapefruit from standing. While at like 80% of Vo2 max.


Just looked at some 2018 winning times - not certain if it was the exact same course, but:

women's 10km freestyle ski = 25 mins
women's 10km biathlon = 30:35 with 1 penalty on 4 shootings; 2nd was 31:04 with 4 penalty loops

Penalty loops are 20-25 seconds. Assuming all misses 20 loops at 20 seconds = 6:40. Say 20 seconds per shooting to slow, draw rifle, crank off 5 shots, don it again, and get poles back on as you recover speed puts us to 8 minutes = 33 mins. But it also means an extra 3kms of distance - which we've accounted for, but you probably can't ski 13kms at the 10km pace, so add another 30-60 seconds. Also the extra weight and general burden of the rifle must slow you down a bit more.


In the 2018 event I looked at none of the 58 biathletes shot clean; only 6 had 1 miss; most had 3-5 misses; several misses 7-8 including one of the top qualifiers from the sprint.

So even assuming 50% shooting would be a tall order - if you did that it could get you around the 30:30 mark...but to achieve that 50% you're gonna have to coast in a lot more and take a lot more time for each shooting, which quickly adds up to another minute or two.

I think the best hope for shooting is probably closer to 20% - I think you're allowed to stay on the same target if you miss, so with 5 tries on 1 target you might mange to land 1 in each round of shooting.

So even for the very fastest free skier I don't think it maths out.

I loved this guys hockey video, and he delivered a gem again on biathlon: