Biathlon-Precision and pulse at a premium in pursuit of biathlon glory

ANTERSELVA, Italy, Feb 13 - For biathletes at the Winter Games, the task is clear - ski as fast as you can, hit all your targets from 50 metres with your heart bursting out of your chest and then tear off again with the best in the world hot on your heels in pursuit of glory.

Sound simple? For the average person it would be impossible, but for the cream of the biathlon crop it is what they are doing across the 11 Olympic competitions at Milano Cortina which are never anything less than nail-biting, nerve-jangling affairs.

"It is like trying to hit a golf ball from 50 metres," Sweden's Anna Magnusson told Reuters of the pressures of trying to hit the tiny target on the shooting range.

Magnusson is one of four Swedes selected for Saturday's 7.5km women's sprint and will compete against teammate Elvira Oeberg as they seek to secure their first medals of the Games.

"I see a lot of white rings and a small black dot," Oeberg said when asked about what is in her line of sight when she enters the range.

"It's very hard - even though I'm only 26 years old. I've been doing this for almost 20 years. I've been doing this for a long time, and it's still very hard."

Biathletes spend hundreds of hours practising shooting but there is still no guarantee of success even for the best.

"I shoot between 10,000 and 15,000 shots per year, and still I miss them sometimes," Oeberg said with a wry smile. "It's hard, there are small margins, and it takes a lot of training to get good at it."

POUNDING HEART

It is one thing to shoot accurately when practising on the range but another entirely when you are racing against the clock with your heart pounding against top-class athletes who are all battling for the podium positions 1,800 metres above sea level.

"When you get into the range you usually first look for the flags to see if it's windy, then you look at what mat you are supposed to be shooting on ... and then I just try to find the right black dot as fast as possible," Magnusson explained.

Biathletes can experience heart rates of more than 180 beats per minute out on the course and, though that drops somewhat as they come in and begin shooting, their pulses can still be racing and their chests and shoulders heaving as they set their sights to try to hit the five targets as fast as possible.

"You'd rather shoot at your own pace. If you're in good shooting form and there's no wind or anything that's bothering you, you want to keep (your preferred pace), it's optimal," Magnusson said.

"If you aim for too long and then have to hurry, it's easier to miss - at the moment of the shot you might move, and then it can be a miss, but I would say that the best shooters are the ones that can adapt."

The 30-year-old, who won an Olympic silver medal in the women's relay in 2018, shoots with an eye patch that blocks out almost everything but the target she is trying to hit - one of many careful calibrations each athlete makes to their rifles.

"I can't shoot with other people's weapons," Swede Martin Ponsiluoma told Reuters. "If I take Sebastian (Samuelsson's) rifle, I wouldn't be able to hit the black spot at all."

With precision at a premium, fans can be scathing of a biathlete missing a couple of shots under pressure. When asked how many of the five targets an average person might hit in one prone shoot, Magnusson does not give much for their chances.

"Most of them would hit zero," she said with a broad smile. "I don't think there would be that many hits.

"Standing, I think people maybe might do better, but I would be very impressed if they got more than one on target." REUTERS