Skiing and shooting are an unlikely mix of sports, but Qu’Appelle Valley’s biathletes say they love the challenge.
“It’s exhilarating. It’s about conquering elements, the nature,” Duane Banman, Qu’Appelle Valley Nordic Ski Club’s head coach, said.
“They really are as different as you could get, and the challenge of the sport is being able to do the two things that are polar opposites,” he added.
The biathlon has its roots in Scandinavia, where people hunted on skis hundreds of years ago. It officially became an Olympic sport in the sixties.
On Sunday, aspiring athletes got a chance to test their skills on the trails, then on the target, as they tried out the biathlon.
“It’s a little overwhelming when you start because I’d never cross country skied before, but once you get into it, it’s really fun,” Ethan Lambert, a new biathlete, said.
Successful biathletes have to switch gears from heart pounding cardio to an almost zen-like state, Banman said.
“If you take a cross-country skier, they are really known for being an aerobic machine that just hammers for half an hour to an hour,” Banman said. “And then if you take a match shooter, a simple target shooter, that’s a person who is able to almost be in a coma when they’re in a standing position and shoot,” Banman said.
“Biathlon is one of those things that you can’t just be physically fit, you have to be mentally fit and mentally able,” Doug Sylvester, the provincial coach, said.
“The fastest guy doesn’t always win in biathlon. It has to be a fast person, but they have to be smart up here too,” he said.
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