Your day has finally come.
Of all the weirdo Olympic sports that have made me shake my head and wonder "Why?", the one at the top of my "I don't get this at all" list is the biathlon.
You ski...then you shoot...then you ski some more.
WTF?
It always seemed so…arbitrary. Specifically, so arbitrarily James Bondish. Like a Cubby Broccoli had somehow slipped onto the event selection committee, gotten everyone drunk, and the next day, viola!
Ski-shootin’!
And after that, the 100-meter breast-stroke in shark-infested waters followed by synchronized pommel horse and parallel bars fencing.
And then a vodka martini (you know which kind), followed by Earth-shaking, allegiance-realigning sex with Honor Blackman.
Unfortunately, this sad old world has at last created a calling for the lonely biathelete …
Snipers, armed skiers help guard Turin Games
By Antonella Ciancio and Sophie HardachWed Jan 25, 3:30 AM ET
Snipers, policemen and armed skiers will watch over the Winter Olympics next month, helped by information from intelligence services around the world, Turin's security chief said in an interview.
Prefect Goffredo Sottile, who is in charge of public security in Turin province, said he met FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday to discuss the situation two weeks before the Games, which will run from February 10-26.
"Of course there will be snipers. There'll be an entire system. All the special police forces will be activated," he said, sitting in an office in the elegant palazzo that housed Italy's first government when Turin was still the capital.
"The times in which we live are the way they are, which is why there's huge attention. In previous Olympics a similar deployment of security forces would have been unthinkable."
Italy, an ally of the United States in the Iraq war, has repeatedly been mentioned as a potential target for a militant Islamist attack.
…
12 comments:
It always seemed so…arbitrary. Specifically, so arbitrarily James Bondish. Like a Cubby Broccoli had somehow slipped onto the event selection committee, gotten everyone drunk, and the next day, viola!
There's that mysterious viola again (see my comment two posts down). I didn't know they use them in the biathlon.
Maybe the biathlon is in the Winter Games as a throwback to old Norsemen who, having given up their longboats, ski and hunt in the Winter woods of Scandenavia. Maybe that's the explanation. Voila!
Scandinavia.
I'm too lazy to look around for the thread in which we are all commending and congratulating you for your 2 (so far) Koufax nominations. (Best New Blog and Most Worthy of Wider Recognition.)
So here are my commendations and congratulations!
Don't forget to vote, everyone!
Dude,
Biatholon is waay ff'n fun.
I love to ski,
I love to shoot,
so sue me.
What about curling? Godsdamned shuffleboard on ice with concrete lumps and little stiff brooms. What the hell's the point of *that*?
You can't go past welsh bog snorkling...climb into a dirty little drain with a face mask.
Exploded view of the winter games. Neat.
I'd be willing to guess that the biathalon was added at the end of WWII in honor of the norweigians who routinely harrassed the Wehrmacht and then skidaddled.
driftglass,
the biathalon was the 'sportization' of military training; the event was originally called "military patrol." (really) In the 1930s, the Scandinavian countries (and Russia & Germany) had battalions of infantry trained to ski and shoot. chautauqua's right but the biathalon was added well before WWII (the 1920s).
us blues,
The first one was my unreliable fingers at work, but this one was just for you :-)
mike the mad biologist,
you scare me, man. but in a good way.
anon,
welsh bog snorkling is NOT jelly-related? man, it my face red. well, purple, actually.
I wish they had a summer games version. I propose cycling and free throw shooting.
How about the "pigout marathon"...
run 2 miles ... eat 5 donuts
run 2 miles ... eat 5 hotdogs
run 2 miles ... mandatory barf session
run 2 miles ... eat 5 donuts
......
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