We hear from Mitch Fraas

Got a response from Mitch Fraas, who will forever be known in Finland and Greece as the first winner of an Olympic pin from the 2006 Washington Post Winter Olympic blog. I had asked him to describe his favorite Winter Olympic event in 10,000 words or less. He chose less.

I think I might have to argue for biathlon as the best sport in the winter olympics. It's fairly easy and common to see people throw things onto ice as in curling - much less so to see folks firing rifles after a bit of skiing. Plus in the IOC's official description of biathlon they write, " Biathlon was originally a tactic of survival rather than a sport."

Well put Mitch. I also got a lengthy defense of biathlon from a reader named Jon:

I personally love biathlon, even though I neither ski nor shoot guns. It always seemed like such a bizarre set of skills to mix, but then one digs into the history of most of these winter sports and of the northern European countries and realizes that there's a great tradition (military) doing this. It's a great story in that respect. But I happen to like it because it requires that incredible change from working all out, skating with your heart beating 220 beats a minute, to suddenly having to stop breathing, stop the heart pounding, concentrate, and serenely shoot the target, then pick back up and go again. (And if you fail at the concentration part, you have to do more work - ski more - than if you succeed). There's nothing quite like that in any other sport I've run across.

I'm veering dangerously close to a bus trip to the biathlon venue. One more comment, from my wise friend Steve, a former brilliant sports writer. Well, he's still brilliant, but no longer a sports writer. Anyhow:

Incidentally, one fun fact about the biathlon (or, more precisely, rifle) that I learned while covering the Citadel: because a woman's heart beats much slower than a man's, a woman is going to be the best sniper in the world. I mean, presuming you could find a woman mean enough. I know I have.

We also heard from our second-place finisher, Greg Stambaugh, who finished something like 10th in the Torino 2006 hat competition. As the second-place finisher, Greg earned the right to determine my Saturday destination. Not really wanting to take a three hour bus ride, though, I limited him to city events, which was pretty unfair. He chose the men's 5,000-meter long track speed skating event: "go see Chad Hedrick go for it," he said, obviously proving that he knows a bit about the Olympics. So as long as I can get in, I'm there. Greg also earned day two MVP awards for forwarding the blog's link to several of his friends, which I appreciate.

By Dan Steinberg |  February 9, 2006; 1:44 PM ET
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Posted by: jhorstma | February 9, 2006 03:37 PM

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