Click this link to order! https://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Skis-Skiing-Russia-Biathlon/dp/0875804764/jeffpottersoutyo (OYB gets a %.)
Here’s a neat book that does what I like books to do: it shows how one thing is connected to a lot of others. If you learn about Russian biathlon you’ll learn about the whole XC ski world and its development. You’ll learn about how sport fit into Communism — and how it changed as the USSR changed. (Spoiler: it’s really interesting and complex, but a big side effect of Glasnost and the opening of the USSR to the West was traditional sport like XC collapsing, totally falling out of favor with the masses even though it was promoted because of its suitability for the masses, but it reminded the public so much of the state that they rejected it and started straining toward worthless, commercially exploitive, generally harmful or pointless Western sport. Whew!)
You’ll learn about the nature of Russians, too — which is info that seems relevant today, given the events in Ukraine and Crimea and…?
And since this is a detailed study of biathlon, which relates to XC, it includes details of XC which we haven’t seen before, or at least in awhile. Indepth looks at each winter Olympics. The impact of changes in waxing and ski technique.
Here’s the book description on Amazon:
“Nowhere in the world was the sport of biathlon, a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship, taken more seriously than in the Soviet Union, and no other nation garnered greater success at international venues. From the introduction of modern biathlon in 1958 to the USSR’s demise in 1991, athletes representing the Soviet Union won almost half of all possible medals awarded in world championship and Olympic competition. Yet more than sheer technical skill created Soviet superiority in biathlon. The sport embodied the Soviet Union’s culture, educational system and historical experience and provided the perfect ideological platform to promote the state’s socialist viewpoint and military might, imbuing the sport with a Cold War sensibility that transcended the government’s primary quest for post-war success at the Olympics.
“William D. Frank’s book is the first comprehensive analysis of how the Soviet government interpreted the sport of skiing as a cultural, ideological, political and social tool throughout the course of seven decades. In the beginning, the Soviet Union owned biathlon, and so the stories of both the state and the event are inseparable. Through the author’s unique perspective on biathlon as a former nationally-ranked competitor and current professor of Soviet history, Everyone to Skis! will appeal to students and scholars of Russian and Soviet history as well as to general readers with an interest in skiing and the development of twentieth-century sport.”
Click this link to order! (OYB gets a %.)
https://https://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Skis-Skiing-Russia-Biathlon/dp/0875804764/jeffpottersoutyo
https://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Skis-Skiing-Russia-Biathlon/dp/0875804764/jeffpottersoutyo
