Quote:
Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers
I loved this guys hockey video, and he delivered a gem again on biathlon:
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i like how he describes the penalty loop as "behind the shooting range" - like your penalty also involves having to dodget bullets! (of course he means its behind the shooters).
Digging deeper into the rules - the "Individual" events (but not all of the solo events) have a 1 minute penalty for each miss instead of penalty loop, so it's even more punitive there.
In relays, each competitor has 3 spare rounds that they must load individually by hand if they've missed (and then I think it's penalty loops if they still fail).
Another thing I never thought about is that they have to load a magazine of 5 rounds before each shooting. Which I'm sure is very quick if you're well practiced, but could be easy to fumble while wearing gloves with a flat-out ski max heartrate approach. It sounds like the magazines clip onto the rifle magnetically, but maybe loading/unloading the magazine into the rifle requires a bit more precision.
it's such an awesome and dramatic sport. The commentators kind of suck though. I watched the men's sprint yesterday and I wasn't 100% sure whether it was a medal event in itself (didn't want to spoil by googling but turns out it is) or if it just sets up the pursuit. The finishes for 2nd to 4th was super close, but the commentators didn't convey the stakes at all and just talked in a bored voice like "cool...into 3rd by 0.1 seconds so that's how far behind they'll start in the pursuit...the guy in 1st place by 12 seconds seems to be celebrating a little early considering there's still 40 competitors on track" (all lower ranked and a minute behind with zero chance).