Today we are off to Alpensia for the women's 10 km biathlon pursuit. This event does not start until 7:30 PM so I spend the morning editing photos and working on this blog. While we are sitting here, we hear a number of fighter jets taking off nearby. Apparently, Gangneung is home to the Korean Air Force's 18th fighter wing. They are responsible for enforcing the no-fly zone over Gangneung and PyeongChang - just another reminder of the challenges involved in preventing terrorist attacks during the Olympics.
We've been eating at the same Taste Local food court everyday so we want to try something different today. There is an exhibition area across the street that looked like it was going to have a cafe area when we went through it several days ago so we head over there. Unfortunately, it seems mostly designed to teach foreigners about the tea ceremony and they only have hot beverages available. So it is back to the food court. Not that I'm complaining. Not only is the food authentic and tasty, it is also incredibly cheap. A full meal for both of us including drinks is running about 9,000 krw (US $9). This is a great way to avoid the Olympic Park markup where a bottle of water costs 4 times what it costs in the food court. And while we are there, we meet all sorts of people. Today we met the mother of Canadian cross-country skier Devon Kershaw. She tells us that Devon is competing in his 4th Olympics.
We head across the street to Gangneung train station to catch the KTX high speed train to Jinbu. We've been through Jinbu a couple times now so we know the drill. The venue does not open until 3 hours before the event so we are a little early. The Jinbu station has a lot going on (Olympic exhibitions, live performances, a small Olympic store) so we hang out there for about 40 minutes before catching the TS4 bus to Alpensia. Across the aisle from us are a couple who are looking at the pins on my vest and hat. The man, who looks somewhat Asian but not quite in a way that tells you he's probably not from Korea, China or Japan. Since they like the pins, I give them each one from my giveaway pile. They thank me and hand me a small green button with Cyrillic writing. The woman explains that it says Sunrise and says that they are from Siberia. I ask them what the temperature was where they live when they left for the Olympics. She smiles and says -50 C (-58 F). Yikes! I tell her that this weather, which is pretty cold to us, must seem like summer to them. They both laugh.
After the 20 minute ride, the bus stops and we get off - and find ourselves at the entrance to ski jumping where we were before. Unfortunately, that is not where the entrance to the biathlon venue is. We have to ask several volunteers before we can find one that says that we should have stayed on the TS4 bus to the next stop. We walk back to the bus stop and wait about 15 minutes for the next TS4 bus. It finally arrives and we get on, after confirming with the bus driver that we are on the right bus. We get off at the next stop. There is no signage indicating where to go so we decide to go left. We walk for about 15 minutes before we realize that we should have gone right. Eventually, we get to the security checkpoint and begin a fairly long uphill walk to the stadium.
It is a balmy (not!) -11 C (12 F) and even after our transit detours, we still have about 2 hours until the start of the event. The venue map says that there are food concessions and a spectator warming area close by. We walk up to the concession stand and see that they have a pretty long list of Korean foods including noodle bowls (sort of like instant raman meals in the US), grilled sausage with cheese, tteok-bokki (fish cakes in a flaming hot [spicy] sauce) and steamed buns with both sweet red bean and meat fillings. We ask for two or three things and each time are told that they are not available. At this point, the cheese shop skit from the English comedy group Monty Python's Flying Circus is flashing through my mind - the joke is that the cheese shop doesn't actually have any cheese. We finally discover that they do have the noodle bowls and steamed buns with red bean filling. We go for two orders to steamed buns and two hot chocolates and then go over to the warming hut to eat.
When we get there, there are only a couple people from Finland (wearing blue and white hats with horns) and a couple Korean families, but 2 hours later when we are ready to go outside, the place is packed - understandable given that it is both cold and windy outside. We fire up our glove warmers and head out.
We find our seats, which are directly in front of a group of three Norwegian fans who also have horned hats and big signs supporting Norwegian Marte Olsbu, who already has a silver medal in the 7.5 km sprint held several days ago. Shortly after we get there, the organizers open a standing room area directly between us and the course and a huge number of people flock to this area. This means that we probably won't be sitting for the event. This is okay with us as standing at least keeps the blood moving to our feet which at this point are much colder than our hands.
Starting order for the pursuit is based on the finishing times in the 7.5 km sprint. All of the racers line up in a series of chutes:
and are released at specific times based on how far behind gold medalist Laura Dahlmeier from Germany they finished. You can see part of the shooting range behind them. Off to the right is the penalty loop - a skier has to take the 20-25 second penalty loop for each shot they miss.
Dahlmeier heads out first to a huge cheer:
and is followed 24 seconds later by Olsbu:
as the Norwegian fans behind us go nuts. After the first few competitors, the spacing get much smaller:
The skiers head up the bridge and on to the uphill part of this 2 km (1.2 mile) course. When each skier completes their lap, they head slightly to the left and come back through the tunnel (where the Olympic rings are in this picture) and into the shooting area. Each person shoots five shots, twice in the prone position followed by twice standing.
The Norwegians are excited because by the time that Dahlmeier re-enters the stadium after her first lap:
Olsbu has already cut her lead in half. Unfortunately for them, Dahlmeier makes all five of her shots and Olsbu misses once; falling from 2nd to 6th during her one penalty lap. While Olsbu is falling back, two-time Olympic gold medalist Anastasiya Kuzmina from Slovakia has moved up from 13th into 3rd. Kuzmina's two victories were both in the sprint and uses her superior speed to gain ground on Dahlmeier. Kuzmina is only 9 seconds behind after both women miss one shot in the second shooting stage. Kuzmina erases the rest of Dahlmeier's lead during the 3rd lap and leads by a second as they come into the stadium for the first standing attempt:
But Dahlmeier again has no misses while both Kuzmina and Olsbu both miss twice. Kuzmina is now nearly 40 seconds behind while Olsbu drops into 10th place 70 seconds behind Dahlmeier. The only skier making inroads on the leaders is Anais Bescond from France. She started in 19th position and has worked her way up to 4th after three shooting cycles by only missing once.
Dahlmeier comes into the stadium for the 4th shooting cycle and again has no misses (she now has one miss in 40 attempts in the sprint and pursuit events) and is cruising to victory. But the race for second gets much tighter when Bescond again makes all five shots and Kuzmina misses once. Kuzmina is now in second by less than 1 second. It is still neck-and-neck when the two women get to the straightaway to the finish:
But Kuzmina's skiing is just too strong and she hangs on to claim the silver. Bescond is thrilled to take the bronze medal.
Now we have a decision to make. Although it appears that our ticket was only for the women's event, it does not look like they are going to clear the venue before the men's 12.5 km sprint that starts in about 40 minutes. We could easily stay, but it is really cold (at least to us) and if we stay, we would get home at midnight again so we elect to head for the buses. This was good as we were able to get on a bus to Jinbu right away and were able to catch an earlier train to Gangneung right away. The taxi line at Gangneung station was not very long and we were home in just over an hour from when we left the stadium. A miracle as this same combination has taken us as long as 3 hours previously!
Steps for the day: 8,094
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