During the winter in Europe, a World Cup biathlon, an Olympic sport that combines Nordic skiing with rifle shooting, is the equivalent of Monday Night Football. Some 70,000 rowdy spectators show up and millions of television viewers tune in.
In the United States, biathlon is barely a blip on the winter sports scene, with around 1,000 total participants sprinkled around New England, Utah, Alaska, Montana, California, Minnesota, and the Adirondacks, at Mount Van Hoevenberg, on the biathlon course created for the 1980 Winter Olympics. That might change if Paul Smith’s College’s plans for its trail system at the school’s Visitor Information Center pan out.
The VIC, a nature center on the campus northwest of Saranac Lake, already maintained 40 kilometers of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing trails that looped out from…