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Biathlon has grown in the United States since the first recorded race in Colorado in 1957. It was America that hosted the first Winter Olympic Games with biathlon as an official event in 1960 in Squaw Valley, California. Americans were also captivated by biathlon when the Olympic Games returned to their soil in Lake Placid in 1980 and in Salt Lake City in 2002. The United States has hosted the World Championships in addition to a dozen World Cup events, most recently in 2004, when the circuit traveled to Lake Placid and Fort Kent, Maine.
Over the past decade, American athletes have become ever more competitive with their European counterparts. Though challenged by a lack of support from the American public, they are inching closer to the ultimate goal of bringing home Olympic medals. It is very unlikely that the United States will lead the medal count from the Winter Olympic Games again without medals from biathlon. In 2002, when the Olympic Games were held on American soil, the United States was second in the medal count. Germany was one medal ahead with 25 percent of its medals coming from biathlon alone. It was the same story for Norway, which was third on the medal count.
At the start of the 2008/09 season, the United States will have five start positions on the World Cup for men and two for women. The team has been decided based upon last season’s results.
For the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the U.S. and most other nations will be allowed to register five athletes per gender, with four start spots in the individual and sprint competitions. Qualification criteria have yet to be released, but will most likely be dependent upon an athlete’s World Cup and/or European/IBU Cup results, rather than by using an Olympic Trials, as was used in the past.
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