Konrad struggles in Biathlon, succeeds

CESANA SAN SICARIO, Italy — Sarah Konrad pushes herself through life with the force of an overachiever, moving between cycling and skiing and her studies, becoming an Olympian and earning a doctorate.

She's a UW-schooled geologist with post-doctorate work on her résumé. A three-time collegiate national champion in cycling. The oldest member — 38 — of this U.S. Olympic team. And, soon enough, the first American woman to compete in separate events at the same Winter Olympics as she takes on the biathlon and cross-country racing.

The drive and the fire and the will are the reasons Konrad is standing here, in Italy, at the Olympics, on the cusp of history. They're also the reasons why her latest endeavor, the women's biathlon, doubles as her greatest struggle.

"I always just decide what I want to do, and then I go and do it," Konrad said Thursday after she finished 75th in the 7.5-kilometer sprint, which was won by France's Florence Baverel-Robert. "That's almost working against me in biathlon. The more you want to do well, the worse you do."

There's no dichotomy like the biathlon in all of sports. It requires aggression and adrenaline to cross-country ski as fast as possible around the course. But it also requires focus and precision to stop, gather and shoot at far-away targets.

The home version of the biathlon would involve running laps around the property and stopping inside the kitchen to thread needles.

The business biathlon would involve this: "Do you ever do presentations and use laser pointers?" Konrad asks. "Do you know how hard it is to hold the pointer steady? Well, go and sprint a kilometer and then try to do it."

The personality traits that make Konrad a classic overachiever are the traits that lead to her struggles in biathlon.

There's the tug-of-war, then, between being aggressive enough to take advantage of her strength and not so aggressive that her weakness buries her at the bottom of the pack.

"I haven't gotten rid of the aggression enough, I guess," Konrad said. "So it's going to be a relief to go over to cross country [her next event]. I'll be able to just go for it, and not have to worry about this area, where I can fail so miserably."

Konrad, from Bishop, Calif., took no solace in the fact she started biathlon only three years ago.

Coaches told Konrad her lack of formal training meant they would not have to undo all the mistakes a trained shooter learns along the way. Konrad even quit her job doing post-doctorate research on glaciers at Wyoming to train for these Olympics.

And that's what hurt the most about finishing 75th in an 83-woman field.

"It's all right up here," she said, pointing at her head. "I get too anxious about making the shot. Then I miss it. I feel like I'm going backwards right now."

Konrad will not give up on this dream, though, despite her result and age. She's planning on at least another year competing after these Olympics.

She has loved skiing long before she went racing Wednesday nights at Snoqualmie Pass. That and weekend jaunts to the mountains in the Pacific Northwest kept her sanity during graduate school at Washington.

She fell in love again three years ago with a sport that's so popular in Europe that between November and March it draws a higher television share than this year's Super Bowl.

A sport that secured one half of Konrad's bid for history this week.

"It's a great opportunity, but it sounds like plenty of men have done it before me," Konrad said. "I've made the decision to do this, and I'm glad I made that decision. I certainly have no regrets."

Note

• Russian Olga Pyleva was thrown out of the Olympics and stripped of her silver medal in the 15km event for failing a drug test, the first athlete caught for doping at the Turin Games.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.