Meet the One-Shot Olympians
NPR Reporters Try Their Hand at Some Olympic Sports

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Winter 2002 -- The 2002 Winter Olympics, Feb. 8-24 in Salt Lake City, will focus attention on sports that most Americans have never tried, and may know little or nothing about. Well-trained Olympians will perform great feats on snow and ice, making the dangerous and difficult appear routine.

NPR's Tom Goldman aims at a target on the Olympic biathlon course at Soldier Hollow, Utah. Photo: Patrick Murray, NPR

To showcase Olympic events from the participants' perspectives, NPR News' Olympics reporters will offer primers on key sports -- after trying the sports themselves. As the first contestant in these mock NPR Games, Tom Goldman takes Morning Edition through the biathlon, a centuries-old sport of skiing and shooting.

But Goldman offers this caveat: "Webster's Dictionary defines sport as 'a physical activity engaged in for pleasure.' If that's true, then you're going to have a hard time calling Olympic biathlon a sport." Accompanied by Randy Hill, assistant coach for the U.S. biathlon team, Goldman strapped on cross-country skis and a .22 caliber rifle and entered the "world of masochism" that is this sport. In the longest event, biathletes race against the clock to ski 12-1/2 miles, stop at a shooting range four separate times and try to concentrate -- despite heaving chests and burning leg muscles -- on hitting five targets.

Soldier Hollow, Utah, is the site of the Olympic biathlon events. Photo courtesy Salt Lake Organizing Committee

After skiing a short course to see what it's like trying to aim while out of breath, Goldman says he "squeezed off five shots in a little over a minute. The best biathletes will do it in about 20 seconds." Goldman's assessment of his biathlon performance: "Alas, no medal -- but I gained a tremendous amount of respect" for the event and the athletes who master it.

Among upcoming events in The NPR Games: Howard Berkes takes a run at the luge and the bobsled, and Robert Smith tries his hand at curling.


Other Resources

• Learn about the equipment used in the biathlon at the The United States Biathlon Association Web site.

• Read a spectator's guide to the biathlon.

• Review biathlon terminology.

• Read about biathlon events at the Salt Lake 2002 Web site.

• Learn more about the sport at the International Biathlon Union Web site.