For area skier, Sochi is daunting task

When Leif Nordgren was growing up in the snowy landscape of Colorado and hitting the trails around the Northeast Twin Cities as part of the Forest Lake nordic ski team, little did he know it was going to eventually take him to a little coastal Russian town called Sochi. Nordgren, of Marine on St. Croix, is competing in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games as a biathlete, a sport that combines the grueling physicality of cross country skiing and the mental sharpness of target shooting with a rifle. The event has many different varieties for the skiers, and Nordgren will be competing in the 10km Sprint, the 12.5km Pursuit, the 20km Individual and the 4x7.5km Relay. He said the start lists for the Mixed Relay and Mass Start events are pretty restricted, and he’ll only race those two if he’s having a very good week leading up to them. Here is the breakdown of each race, as explained by the Olympic Guide:

Individual
The original biathlon event is the individual race, which is run over a 20 km course for men and 15 km for women. In the individual event, the skier must stop four times to shoot at five targets each time. Each time they miss a target they receive a one minute penalty.

Sprint
The sprint race (10 km for men and 7.5 km for women) is raced over a three lap course. The biathletes will stop twice and shoot at five targets. If they miss a shot they must ski through a 150 m penalty loop before they can continue along the race course.

Pursuit
The top 60 finishers from the sprint race qualify to compete in the pursuit race (12.5 km for men and 10 km for women). The person with the best time in the sprint race starts the pursuit and each other competitor begins in order according to their sprint finish time. The goal of the race is to pursue the leader and make up ground to be the first to cross the finish line. The race is divided into five laps and four shooting bouts. Because the racers can bunch up at the target sections of the race, they must shoot in the order that they arrive at the shooting range, which often means that racers are left standing around waiting for their turn. Each missed target results in a trip through the 150 m penalty loop before the biathlete can continue along the course.

Relay
The men’s relay is a 4 x 7.5 km event; in other words, each of the four biathletes follows a course that is run over three laps and two shooting bouts. The women run a 4 x 6 km race. Each competitor must perform two shooting rounds. For each shooting round the competitor has 5 targets. If they miss any of the targets they must manually load a bullet into the gun and try again. They can do this up to three times, if necessary. If after all this they still have misses, they must run the 150 m penalty loop for each missed target.

Nordgren, who moved with his family to Marine on St. Croix when he was nine, has been skiing his whole life. “My family was big into cross country skiing ever since I was a young kid,” Nordgren said. “I learned to ski when I was about two or three.” At that time, the Nordgrens lived in Colorado, but surprisingly, it’s when they made the move to Minnesota that skiing became a huge part of Nordgren’s life. A few years after the move, Nordgren took up shooting, but he didn’t start taking biathlon training serious until he was 17 years old.

After two years of training full time for the biathlon, Nordgren qualified for the junior national team and in his second junior world championships in Germany in 2008, he won a bronze medal in the pursuit race. “I know that maybe I had some potential and if I worked hard I could eventually make it on to the national team,” Nordgren said. Nordgren did eventually make that national team, and although he has had a rough season so far this year, he still made the cut as one of the five Olympic skiers for the U.S. “So far I've had a fairly sub par season in my eyes,” he said after he landed in the Russian resort town. “I've been sick a few times and haven't really lived up to my potential. I'm now in good shape, hopefully the best I've been in all year, and I'm looking forward to proving what I can do!”

Nordgren said he owes a lot of what he knows now to two of his teammates, Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey. “Its a privilege to be able to train everyday with both of them. They are two of the best biathletes in the world, very professional in every aspect of their training, and I've learned a lot from them over the years,” he said. So far Nordgren has had a tough time on the course. He finished in 45th in the 10km sprint and 53rd in the 12.5km pursuit, but that’s not stopping him from enjoying his time in Russia. “The Olympics have been pretty sweet, but fairly laid back. We're living in the ‘Endurance Village’ which is a little removed from the main village cluster in Sochi. It’s only biathletes and cross country skiers at our village,” he explained. “For the most part I'm pretty focused on the races to come. Most of our time has been spent doing the last little preparations before the races actually start. So I haven't made it out of our village yet! But, I'm pretty excited to meet other Olympians. During our season we're pretty much resricted to the biathlon circuit, so it will be nice to get out and meet some cross country skiers, and other Olympians.”

Nordgren has a few races left to participate in. The Individual 20km is scheduled for Thursday, February 13 at 6 p.m. Russian time, which is 8 a.m. here in Minnesota. The 4x7.5km relay is on Friday, February 22 scheduled for 6:30 Russian time, or 8:30 a.m. here.