Tuesday, March 9, 2010

"Summer Biathlon" the New Sport at the B.C. Winter Games

Due to lack of snow, the British Columbia Winter Games, held recently in Terrace, were forced to replace the biathlon event with a "summer biathlon", where competitors run and shoot instead of cross country ski and shoot.

The average snowfall in Terrace in February is 30 inches and 16 inches in March.  Terrace is located about 1000 km northwest of Vancouver, where the recent Winter Olympics also faced major issues due to lack of snow. Although they did manage to truck in snow and thereby avoid replacing snowboards with skateboards.

The photo shows a typical summer biathlon, although it is not the one held at Terrace during the B.C. Winter Games, which I could not find a photo of.

The games were held over a few days last week and this past weekend and were reportedly very well supported in Terrrace. There was plenty of snow in the mountains for downhill skiing, by the way..

The "summer" biathlon is an established sport, and a totally appropriate replacement for biathlon, especially considering that most serious biathlon competitors do train in the summers.

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