Dump It!

Now those are some intense fans! Dumping it Portland style!

As the snow beat down on me in Oberhof during the Mass Start today, I was psyched to learn that my sis, mom, and a bunch of friends in Portland were cheering me on back home in the States via the interweb.  For those of you confused by the hand gestures in the photo as well as the title of this post, “Dump It” is a catch phrase that my sis and I, along with several friends, came up with during the past year.  Loosely translated, it refers to anything “cool, interesting, extraordinary, or just plain insane”.  For example, one could scream, “Dump It!” just prior to bungy-cording off a bridge or setting off a trebuchet on a cold winter’s night.  Used as a cheer, one can yell, “Dump it!”  as a means of telling someone to “Go for it!”, “Rip it up!”, “Go for the Gold!”, etc.  To flesh out the phrase, we all came up with the international sign for “Dump It” (See above photo) so that it can be both an auditory and visual experience.

It was a fun race today with a lot of lead changes and an incredibly close field.  I had a couple misses in the first standing stage which took me out of contention for the lead group, but I was happy to come back and clean the final stage to finish in 16th.  Although I think there was roughly 30,000 spectators in the Oberhof Stadium today, I think the “Best Fan” award has to go to the Portland Posse for organizing what looked like a sweet Stateside biathlon party!  Thanks guys and see you (via the net) next week in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic!

-LB