Nordic biathlon consists of two competitions, ski jumping and cross-country skiing, which test the comprehensive ability of athletes. It has been included in the competition since the first Winter Olympics in 1924 and is the only event at the Winter Olympics to compete only in the men's category.
Competition: Origin Nordic Most difficult skiing
Olympic Winter Games
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, there are 3 sub-events in the Nordic biathlon, namely: men's individual standard platform + 10 km cross-country skiing, men's individual big jump + 10 km cross-country skiing, men's team big jump + 4X5 km cross-country skiing, the competition day is February 9, 15, 17, the first two individual races, and finally the team competition. There are a total of 55 seats in the competition, and each team can send up to 5 players to participate.
The main rules of the Nordic two-sport competition are the same as those of ski jumping and cross-country skiing, in which cross-country skiing is all free technology. The calculation method of the Beijing Winter Olympics will adopt the Gunderson competition system, that is, the ski jumping competition will be carried out first, and the order and interval of departure of the athletes in the ski jumping will determine the order and interval of their departure in the cross-country skiing competition, and the players will need to postpone the departure of 4 seconds for each point behind in the individual competition, and 1.33 seconds for each point behind in the team competition. The final ranking of an individual or team is determined by the order in which they reach the finish line in cross-country skiing.
Chinese team Zhao Jiawen in the game
Nordic biathlon has high requirements for the comprehensive quality of athletes, training is also more difficult, ski jumping special athletes are usually lighter and have good coordination, cross-country skiing special athletes pay more attention to physical fitness and physical strength, testing athletes' endurance, aerobic ability and so on. Nordic biathlon players need to find a balance between the two, which often requires athletes to have a clear understanding of their own abilities and the direction of their expertise, and finding this balance is also the pursuit of many athletes.
Austria's Gottwald, who won three gold medals at the Winter Olympics, once admitted after retiring that even if he had been honored, he was not sure whether he would achieve this goal. At the same time, he also believes that this is precisely the charm of the sport.
Development Pattern: Europe's Hegemony Cannot Be Shaken
Nordic biathlon, as its name suggests, has been carried out well in Norway, Finland, Sweden and other places, and since the 1960s, the level of players from Central European countries and regions such as Germany, Switzerland and Austria has begun to improve.
Norway and Germany are both veteran Nordic teams, with Norway winning the most gold medals at the Winter Olympics in history, with a total of 13 gold medals. But at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Norway did not perform well, winning only one silver medal in the team event, while germany won an overwhelming victory - winning all three gold medals and also finishing in the top three of men's individual big jump + 10 km cross-country skiing. Germany's main player Eric Frenzell also defended his title in the men's individual standard + 10 km cross-country skiing event.
Nordic biathlon national training team
If Germany has won the Nordic biathlon at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the stage may belong to Norway's Jar Magnus Ribel, an athlete born in 1997 who has won the world number one position in the previous three seasons and has shown an extremely stable competitive state. In the new season, Ribel has also won the title in all the world cup matches that have been successfully completed, and "who can beat Ribel" has become a topic of conversation among Nordic fans.
But Ribel is not invincible. Born in 2001, Austrian youngster Lampart beat Ribel at the 2021 World Championships to win the title, and Japanese veteran Watanabe Xiaodou and Germany's Wenzenz Geiger also have great strengths.
In the men's team event, the overall strength of Germany and Norway is very close, the two teams are bound to compete fiercely for the gold medal, and Austria, Japan and other teams also hope to fight for a better position on the podium for themselves.
China's current situation: catching up The debut of the Winter Olympics
Nordic biathlon has a long history at the Winter Olympics, but developed late in China. In 2009, Chinese athletes competed in the Nordic biathlon of the Universiade, but in high-level events, the level of Chinese athletes was quite different from the world stage, and they had never qualified for the Winter Olympics before the Beijing Winter Olympics.
At present, this Nordic biathlon training team was established in June 2018, and most of the selected athletes have a certain foundation in cross-country skiing, but the level of ski jumping is relatively weak. After the establishment of the team, it immediately went to Japan, Finland and other places to carry out foreign training. In December of the same year, the team competed in an Intercontinental Cup tournament in the United States, marking their first international 2nd-world event in Northern Europe. Despite the poor results in the first competition, the players recognized the gap in strength, but also increased their confidence and motivation, and did their best to devote themselves to training. In December 2020, the Hebei Laiyuan National Ski Jumping Training and Scientific Research Base, which was officially put into use, also created better preparation conditions for the Nordic training teams, and the wind tunnel laboratory has greatly improved their training efficiency.
Zhao Jiawen (Photo/Zhang Xin)
Over the past three years, China's Nordic biathlon training team has been growing continuously. On November 26, 2021, Zhao Jiawen of the team won the 22nd place in the Intercontinental Cup men's individual standard platform + 10 km cross-country skiing event held in Nizhny Tagil, Russia, locking in a beijing winter olympic host position, and Chinese athletes will step on the Olympic field for the first time.
"It's hard to work together on these two projects." Zhao Jiawen also talked about the difficulty of the Nordic two in an interview. In his opinion, this is one of the hardest snow sports. But with the support of his own efforts and various training guarantees, the improvement of him and his teammates is also obvious to all, which is more obvious in the ski jumping performance, "With the preparation of wind tunnel training, we have a little bit of progress on the jumping platform every day." ”
At present, five athletes from the Nordic biathlon training team are in Laiyuan for the final sprint preparation for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Zhao Jiawen said that before the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, he will strive to improve his competitive level in all aspects through scientific training, and strive to stand on the Winter Olympic field with the best mental outlook and competitive state.