Crikey, we're getting beaten by a Brit - in skiing!

[Guns 'n' Roses]

Andrew Musgrave is a bloody good cross country skier. Competing in the nog championships, kicking Nog arse!

http://gfx.dagbladet.no/labrador/313/313384/31338422/jpg/active/729x_13197743.jpg

[PSRB]

[Classic Jorge]

[Snin]

plus they are all army..but gutted as they are being disbanded as a team soon and the poor feckers have to go back into the army..though they only joined army to be in the x-country / biathahalon teams..and now got to do there stretch being shot at :-(

"
Sochi 2014: Biathletes face giving up the Games for army life
By Ollie Williams BBC Olympic sports reporter

Join the Army, they said. Compete at the Olympics, they said.

Now, the show is nearly over.

No sport at the Games can match biathlon for military firepower: soldiers the world over competing in a cross-country skiing contest punctuated by rounds on a rifle range. Armed forces treat places on the start line as a source of pride.
Biathlon

Biathlon - cross-country skiing and shooting - has been an Olympic sport since 1960
There will be 11 biathlon events at Sochi 2014, including a mixed-gender relay for the first time
Britain is not a biathlon power. GB's best result was Keith Oliver's 11th-place finish in the men's 20km at the Sapporo 1972 Games
Lee Jackson, the lone Briton at Vancouver 2010, came 55th, 56th and 66th in his events at the Games
Britain will send one male and one female biathlete to Sochi 2014

Get Inspired: BIATHLON
Video guide to biathlon

The British Army has been no exception, but now money for the GB squad has run dry. Without a fresh injection of £50,000 per year, the game is up.

After Sochi 2014, if no team is left, the soldiers skiing for Britain must prepare for life back in the regiment.

"The thought of not being able to continue in the sport is devastating to me," says Amanda Lightfoot, expected to be named as Britain's only female biathlete for the Sochi Games.

"But we're out here now to do this job and have the best season ever. It means more than anything to go out, this season, with a bang."

The reason so many soldiers compete for GB is that the Army actively supports biathlon. Its members are encouraged to aim for the top if they are good enough - and Britain will send one male and one female biathlete to Sochi 2014.

"I got involved in biathlon within 18 months of me being in the military," says Lee Jackson, the lone British biathlete to compete at Vancouver 2010.

"Slowly I was pushed towards being an elite athlete from within the military, towards this fantastic opportunity I could have to represent Great Britain at the World Championships and the Olympics."
Play media

Preparing skis for Olympic biathlon

Moreover, the Army uses biathlon as an advert, a message to potential recruits that this is not just about going to war - this lifestyle lets you play sport, and could even be your route to the Olympic Games.

"Winter sports contribute directly to military output and fighting spirit, are an essential part of decompression from operations and remain an important element of the moral component," said Martyn Allen, secretary of the Army's own winter sports association, in an email to BBC Sport.

"Some 100 Army athletes have competed in the Olympic Winter Games since the War, including 38 biathletes. Sport has always been an integral part of Army life, training and general well-being, and the Army has always supported its elite athletes in all summer and winter sports."

Now, the current crop of biathletes may need that support more than ever.

By virtue of their Army salaries - a funding luxury few other British winter hopes receive, though costs like equipment and ammunition make biathlon an expensive sport - the squad are all tied to regiments. They are expected to blend back into Army life if their team collapses.

Yet some of these soldiers have spent more than a decade as high-performance international athletes, often sacrificing their rank as a result. Viewed from the vista of a mountainous Swedish shooting range, regimental life is hard for some to contemplate.
Continue reading the main story

“There are worse things in life. I've still got employment when I finish with the sport�

Lee Jackson GB biathlete

"It's going to be particularly difficult to adapt back to being a soldier full-time," confesses 26-year-old Lightfoot, a member of the Adjutant General's Corps.

"It's not going to be impossible - the Army are going to go out of their way to try to help us - but it's going to be difficult not to get up and train every day. My body is so used to it.

"To go back to military duties... I'm a clerk, and the thought of sitting behind a desk and doing people's pay is terrifying, actually."

[Guns 'n' Roses]

And the wons he beat are top in the world. You've got yerself a red hot gold candidate for the 'lympics. :nod:

[Guns 'n' Roses]

http://www.awimb.com/legacy.php?t=getfile&id=2514&private=0

[Billy Goat Sverige]

[Guns 'n' Roses]

Everyone in my country does this. I however, did it more than everyone. I'm twice norwegian jr champion and a junior world cup silver medallist in the noble sport of Nordic Combination. Cross country skiing and ski jumping.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[Billy Goat Sverige]

[Guns 'n' Roses]

[PSRB]

I love that sport, mad men!

[Guns 'n' Roses]

[Guns 'n' Roses]

Back when I was young the juniors jumped in hills where you could typically jump 90 meters, but now, sheeet, they have 12 year olds who easily jump 130 m.

The clue is to start early, in small hills, you gradually increase the hill size and as you repeat it successfully, the nervousness that creeps in the first time you jump in a big hill disappears.

This is my cousin, btw. He kinda had to start all over again getting rid of that nervousness. :hehe:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcissqZakDg

[Brentwood]

I drove back from Gardemoen last night. 3 separate car crashes where they broke too hard and spun, crashing into other cars. i couldn't even make out the lane markings :hehe:

[PSRB]

[Supermac1976]

http://youtu.be/ebtGRvP3ILg

"Here goes something, I guess." :hehe:

[Guns 'n' Roses]

But I drove instead, and it took me hour 'n a half.

Polish lorry driver sideways blocking all traffic. Bloody furriners!

[Snin]

practice..and 10 meter jump is only few inches high on a small lump of a hillock..the 10 m is how far you can possibly jump

http://voices.yahoo.com/learn-ski-jump-everything-beginner-n eeds-know-4508889.html (http://voices.yahoo.com/learn-ski-jump-everything-beginner-needs-know-4508889.html)

[Snin]

i love riding them! even more fun than a motocrosser i found! across the frozen lakes then into the woods flat out..a good day ahhat

[Guns 'n' Roses]

Usually the worst fear disappeared once you were in the inrun. But the feeling after overcoming the fear is just fantastic. And the rush...

She kinda "cheated" though. Those were alpine skis I think.

[Guns 'n' Roses]

I think our new governement might lift the ban though.

[Billy Goat Sverige]

it in the mornings :hehe:

[Brentwood]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2246910/Spectacular- photos-snowmobilers-riding-snowy-border-Sweden-Norway.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2246910/Spectacular-photos-snowmobilers-riding-snowy-border-Sweden-Norway.html)

[Brentwood]

I was up at the windows in my office taking pictures while the locals didn't even look up at it. I also discovered that they don't really go in for the whole snowball fight thing as much

[Snin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az95oMTOalc

:bow: :bow: