Home » Blogs » Blind Biathlon

Blind Biathlon

Robert Farago - comments No comments


“Your ears only hear a tone. So the tone is stronger to your left or your right. You don’t know that until you wave the rifle around to find it.” I, for one, am not a big fan of anyone waving a rifle around. Still, you gotta give the visually-impaired athletes credit for choosing biathlon, a sport that combines cross-country skiing and target shooting. The winnipegfreepress.com gives us the low-down on the technology required. “For the shooting, visually impaired skiers use a special rifle with a infra-red beam that converts light into sound. The rifle is hard-wired to a computer. ‘You put the headset on,’ said [visually impaired cross-country skier Brian] McKeever. ‘You cycle the action on the rifle and it beeps faster and faster with a higher and higher pitch the closer you are to the centre (of the target). You are listing for the solid, high-pitched tone.'” Then BLAM! OK, plink. Anyway, sounds like fun! “Blind biathlon is a bit of an oxymoron, isn’t it?” joked McKeever. “The first time I heard about it I laughed.” So, is it OK for us to laugh too?

Tags Rifles
Photo of author

Robert Farago

Robert Farago is the former publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

Leave a Comment