Day 4 (Feb 18)

We woke up extremely early to drive to BCIT campus to catch a bus to the Biathlon Venue on Whistler. We drove across town in the dark of morning, with little traffic. It was nice to be crowd free for a bit. We got to the buses, and they gave out free coffee and hot chocolate in the parking lot. The bus ride was nice, and we got to watch the sun rise over the islands of the west coast. The riders mostly slept, read, and were in awe of the scenery.
We got off the bus and had to walk about a half mile up to the actual ski venue. The walk was nice, and they had a snow sculpture and bathrooms about halfway up. As we approached, it was obvious that Scandinavia enjoys their x-country skiing. There were tons of Norwegian flags. We found a place on the hill overlooking the stadium and stood behind a french crowd for the first race, the women's 15km individual.
We watched the race from our spot on the hill, as well as from a trail along the last corner.
Each skier started 30 seconds after the next. They would ski 5 km and then come in and take 5 shots. If they missed their targets, they lost one minute on their time.
We watched a skier from Norway run away with the race. The crowd was fun. There were German's with old army helmets, robes, mustaches, and eagles. There was a French man with a trumpet who had a suit made out of feathers. It was great.
Between the races, there was a musician on the hill singing, and our group went into a warming tent to eat our lunch. About an hour later, the Men's race started. Again, the Norwegians were the team to beat. Bjoerndalen, the godfather of biathlon, skied the race 2 minutes faster than any other but missed two shots. A man from Belarus did not miss a shot and was tied for first at the halfway point of his last lap and crossed the line tied for silver with Bjoerndalen. Norwegians went for gold and silver. It was pretty incredible to see the crowd shirtless and cheering for their country.

The bus ride home, I am pretty sure everyone slept. We got back to the cars and drove home. We met my brother and his wife who had arrived at 3am the night before. They went downtown during the day and described the crowds and lines. We then had our Christmas. Not all of us were together for the holiday, so we exchanged gifts and ate a great lasagna dinner. We watched the results from the day and enjoyed some family time.