Para Olympics start with Biathlon tomorrow !

IPC begins tomorrow !

It's snowing a lot in Whistler....so much that official practice was closed yesterday as 40cms came down - groomers working around the clock !
Dirk just called me from the cross country stadium, where all Para Olympic events will be running out of - NO Ski Jumping in these Olympics, and Biathlon has amalgamated into the Cross Country Venue - saying it was still snowing with 20-25cms predicted before it'll end by midnight.

Good thing, as the competitions begin tomorrow morning: Biathlon Pursuit:

March 13, 2010
10:00 - Biathlon - Men's 2.4km Pursuit Qualification, Sitting
10:11 - Biathlon - Women's 2.4km Pursuit Qualification, Sitting
10:30 - Biathlon - Men's 3km Pursuit Qualification, Standing
10:42 - Biathlon - Women's 3km Pursuit Qualification, Standing
11:15 - Biathlon - Men's 3km Pursuit Qualification, Visually Impaired
11:22 - Biathlon - Women's 3km Pursuit Qualification, Visually Impaired
Finals start at 12:20pm Canadian Mark Arendz, is a strong contender in the Mens Standing How It Works Biathlon combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting similar to the Olympic biathlon competitions. Paralympic athletes, however, always shoot in a prone position. In the short distance biathlon, skiers race a 2.5-kilometre loop three times stopping twice at the shooting range where they take five shots at a metal target 10 metres away. Each target has five plates, fixed in a straight row, which the athlete must hit the middle (bull’s eye) of. The bull’s eye is 15 mm in diameter and if a competitor misses a plate, they must ski a 150 m penalty loop for each missed shot. Visually impaired skiers use an acoustic system for shooting that uses differing tones as the rifle is aimed toward the bull’s eye. Biathlon races comprise an interval start format with skiers starting every 30 seconds. The International Paralympic Committee utilizes a Nordic Percentage System in order to equalize the disability time handicap for skiers within each category. The percentage is applied to each skier’s final time and the skier with the lowest calculated time is the winner.