Nordic Nation Podcast: Biathlon Primer with Rosanna Crawford

It’s worth asking this question: could an entire continent having a love affair with a sport that combines skate skiing and shooting be wrong? There’s the raw, heart-thumping power of the skiing mingled with the laser-focus almost the zen-like quality of shooting at a quarter-size target. Throw in a few thousand fans with cowbells, horns,and a long winter night’s worth of libations, and you’ve got a sport that either live in person or broadcast on a screen has captured the wintertime sport scene in Europe.

For the diehard nordic ski fan, International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cups have for sometime been easily streamable on the Internet. If you were disinterested in the shooting, there’s obviously the skiing. But understanding the shooting process — where athletes immerse themselves in a mind-body flow shooting at small targets sandwiched between full-throttle ski laps — broadens one’s appreciation for the sport.

In this episode of Nordic Nation, Biathlon Canada veteran Rosanna Crawford brings listeners into the shooting range — in fact she debriefs her world champs personal-best race at the 2016 IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway.

Hear those cheers roar after a target flips black with a direct hit? What’s not to love? Click the play arrow below to listen to the podcast. (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.