Stupid biathlon question. The french women ski so fast they outski their penalty misses. Couldn't a top regular cross country skier shoot moderately and ski fast enough to win?
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.
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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:
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And now Holman looks like she just did a double touch. More of brushed the granite with her finer while releasing it but they’ve opened Pandora’s box this is curlings toe in the crease.
The other teams getting worked up about this are the epitome of poor sportsmanship a finger touch on a rock that far up the ice has no advantage at all. Its sour grapes and trying to win on a technicality. its extra cheesy when most of these countries dont even curl and send their players to Canada to live abd train and leetch off our curling culture That said canada should know better.
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Finland crushes Italy with a new Olympic record in shots on goal (62), very likely guaranteeing a place in the quarterfinals as the best 2nd place team (6 points and +10 goal differential) along with division winners Slovakia and Canada.
A lot of time and hot air spewed by the Canadian coverage on the curling dram and the twice daily state of Poulin. Most of the other sports that Canadians are in are relegated to an 30 second recap and an graphic on the screen, and, very carefully none of the inexperienced talking head hosts, wanting to stick anyone’s neck out, have engaged in much lot chatter about this country not having a gold medal yet.
The overcorrection on the curling competitions, where officials suddenly became involved when they weren’t before (players took care of it and didn’t bitch and moan) will change this competition. No idea if any of these foreign teams are in the World Championships in Calgary next month, but if so they’ll be some booing there.
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I loved this guys hockey video, and he delivered a gem again on biathlon:
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).
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The other teams getting worked up about this are the epitome of poor sportsmanship a finger touch on a rock that far up the ice has no advantage at all. Its sour grapes and trying to win on a technicality. its extra cheesy when most of these countries dont even curl and send their players to Canada to live abd train and leetch off our curling culture That said canada should know better.
I'm conflicted; I've only seen footage of one smoking gun fault (and even then it's not necessarily 100% conclusive), but it sure sounds like it's not an isolated event. I can't see how it's very consequential, but if it's inconsequential then just don't do it.
It's a ridiculous thing to be self policed though...I'm sure these guys know when they're borderline on it, but it would be hard to be certain like if you touch a rock while brushing (which apparently Canada has called themselves on at leasts once so far).
Major comps should have a judge and cameras at the hog line and a review process. Or just cameras and the competitors can call a challenge if they want (but consequence for being wrong is they lose their next rock). Seems like it might be a tough thing to rule conclusively though, even if you had a camera on each side and overhead
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Dual moguls is kinda lame. It's silly to have a simultaneous event so heavily weighted to judging. I'm sure the judges rely heavily on preconceptions about the competitors.
It should be all about speed with potential for deductions (time penalty). Each competitor should choose from a standardized list of airs that they both have to do. And then judges can assign 0.1, 0.25, or 0.5s penalties for poor execution on air or turns. It would be way more exciting to watch as an actual 'race'.
Or make it a team synchronized thing...that would be pretty cool.
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Last edited by powderjunkie; 02-14-2026 at 02:14 PM.
I dont understand how Canada is so bad at curling these days. We have 90% of the world's curlers and all of the competitors seem to come here to train and play yet at the Olympics lately seem to be constantly on the outside looking in
I'm conflicted; I've only seen footage of one smoking gun fault (and even then it's not necessarily 100% conclusive), but it sure sounds like it's not an isolated event. I can't see how it's very consequential, but if it's inconsequential then just don't do it.
It's a ridiculous thing to be self policed though...I'm sure these guys know when they're borderline on it, but it would be hard to be certain like if you touch a rock while brushing (which apparently Canada has called themselves on at leasts once so far).
Major comps should have a judge and cameras at the hog line and a review process. Or just cameras and the competitors can call a challenge if they want (but consequence for being wrong is they lose their next rock). Seems like it might be a tough thing to rule conclusively though, even if you had a camera on each side and overhead
Clearly they just have to stop doing it i agree. But by all accounts its never been police or considered a major issue so hard to get why its now such a big issue.
