Feb 11 – I love the Olympics, Summer or Winter makes no difference to me. The pomp and grandeur of the opening and closing ceremonies is always worth the time wasted frying your brain cells in front of the tube. Teams from all over the world gather for one week of all out, blood sweat and tears, leave nothing behind competition, awesome. This week the XXI Olympic Winter Games will be held in British Columbia, Canada from Feb. 12th -28th. That’s west coast Canada, so we will actually get to see some TV coverage at a reasonable time.

Sgt. Jeremy Teela, a bi-athlete with the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, practices prone shooting Oct. 21, 2009 at Soldier Hollow, Utah, in preparation for the XXI Olympic Winter Games Feb. 12-28 in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. U.S. Army photo by Tim Hipps

I like all the events but especially the individual events. With all the different camera angles available the crazy fast events like luge, 2 man bobsled and downhill (girls do that one too) are a real thrill ride. But one of the sport that you hardly ever get to see, unless the US has a vested interest, is the biathlon.  So when I heard that Army Sgt. Jeremy Teela a three-time Olympic athlete was returning with his sights set on becoming the first U.S. bi-athlete ever to win an Olympic medal I was stoked.

For those of you who don’t know, the biathlon is a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting, very boring to watch but super hard to compete, especially at a world class level. Sgt. Jeremy Teela is one of our Best.  I am going to let Tim Hipps who works for the Army’s Public Affairs office tell you the full story while I go check the schedule so I can set my TeVo. You can read the rest of this story by   following this link and book mark this page to read event updates during the week.

UPDATE 2/14: Army Sgt. Jeremy Teela finished ninth in the men’s 10-kilometer sprint on the first day of competition. Tella’s U.S. teammates include Tim Burke, who finished 47th today,  four-time Olympian Hakkinen, 32, of Kasilof, Alaska, who finished 54th today; Lowell Bailey, 28, of Lake Placid, N.Y., who was 36th today; and first-timer Wynn Roberts, 21, of Battle Creek, Mich.

UPDATE 2/16: Sgt. Jeremy Teela of the Vermont National Guard was penalized for starting early and finished 24th in the Olympic men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit race today. Teela, was penalized 22 seconds for leaving the starting area two positions early, then nailed all 10 of his targets from the prone position, but missed four while standing. It is doubtful he would have meddled with the four penalty laps caused by the missed shots.

UPDATE 2/16: Sgt. Teela sat out the Olympic men’s 20-kilometer individual race yesterday because of illness.

UPDATE 1/23: Army World Class Athlete Program biathlete Sgt. Jeremy Teela of the Vermont National Guard battled illness to finish 29th in the Olympic men’s 15-kilometer mass start Feb. 21 at Whistler Olympic Park.