Over the past week and a half, my Facebook has been blown up with two things: friends becoming fans of ridiculously random pages, and Olympic curling-related statuses.
Now I love sweeping just as much as the next guy, but I just can’t get emotionally invested in a sport that requires the same athletic ability as household chores.
No, the Winter Olympic underdog sport for me is the biathlon.
Picture the lovechild of cross-country skiing and a shooting range.
The skiing portion requires fast and physically demanding cross-country racing, while the rifle shooting requires pretty much the exact opposite.
When the athletes ski into the shooting range, they must put down their ski poles and take five shots at a metal target located 50 meters away.
Oh yeah, and the size of the target is about the circumference of a silver dollar.
Missing just one shot means the competitor must ski a 150-meter penalty lap.
Basketball fans think free throws under pressure are hard?
Try running 15 kilometers, while stopping intermittently to steady your heart rate enough to accurately shoot a rifle five times.
I’d really love to see this sport make its way into the Summer Olympics.
Wouldn’t it be awesome to see fastest man in the world, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, stop and shoot archery after running the 100-meter dash?
