The scoreboard backdrop to Whistler Olympic Park's biathlon course. (Luke Winn/SI)

WHISTLER, British Columbia — I went to Whistler Olympic park on Valentine’s Day to see if the U.S. might win its first-ever medal in biathlon, a skiing-and-shooting sport that’s been in the Games since 1980. Tim Burke, a 28-year-old American from Paul Smiths, N.Y., came into the men’s 10K sprint ranked 12th in the World Cup standings, and was supposed to have a chance to make the podium. That didn’t happen. The following things did:

1. An absurd storm cycle affected every rider who started after the 15th position — including Burke, who took off 29th. The sky was sunny before the race. The early starters began cross-country skiing in light rain on an icy (fast) track. Burke took off in heavy rain, which turned to sleet, and then heavy snow after his first round of shooting — causing the course to get crunchy and incredibly slow. He had slush in his sights during his second (and final) round of shooting, when he missed two critical targets. By the time he crossed the finish line, it was raining heavily again, and by the time he did interviews in the mixed zone, the sun was back out.

“That was by far the most unfair race I’ve ever been a part of,” said Burke, who still has three individual events left in this Olympics — the combined pursuit, the 15K mass start, and the 20K. “The people starting in the middle of the pack had no chance today, and unfortunately, I was one of those.”

Gold-medalist Vincent Jay of France started sixth; silver-medalist Emil Hegle Svendson started 10th; and bronze-medalist Jakov Fak of Croatia started fourth. Only one biathlete who finished in the top 10 started outside the first 15 in the lineup.

(Side note: If you’re going to follow Burke for the rest of the games — or are still trying to figure out how biathlon works — check out this video on his training process, by Time’s Sean Gregory.)

2. The greeter outside the venue in the morning provided a helpful holiday reminder, which resulted in some media hugging:

3. I realized just how big of a deal biathlon is in Norway. Americans barely care about it at all, but this thing felt like the Norwegian (and, to a lesser degree, German and Austrian) Super Bowl. The Michael Jordan of biathlon, Ole Einar Bjorndalen, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, failed to medal after missing four targets. Norwegian fans’ new star, Svendson, did, and they were prepared for that celebration with plenty of fluids (the first photo below) and custom bibs bearing his visage (the second photo, at center):

Norweigan fans loaded up on pre-race libations. (Luke Winn/SI)

From left: The Kaiser; Norweigans rocking face-bibs for Emil Hegle Svendson; German superfan. (Luke Winn/SI)

4. The German contingent really likes to get dressed up for this thing. They bookend the Norweigans in the montage above, and the guy on the right served as a real-life yard gnome for the Whistler course:

German fan? Or front-yard gnome? You decide. (Luke Winn/SI)

5. There was an M.C. there pumping up the crowd before the race started, shouting things over a soundtrack that included Europe’s The Final Countdown. At one point he asked the North Americans to teach the Europeans the wave, and the Europeans to teach the North Americans how to respond to hits or misses on the shooting course. (Protocol is to “Yay” a hit, and “Oooh” a miss.)

6. After the race was over, the Polish contingent provided a couple of excellent photo ops, the first with a Valentine’s Day sign …

Two members of the Polish contingent prepared a live Valentine's Day card. (Luke Winn/SI)

… and the second, with a gun-show pose:

Welcome to the Polish Gun Show! (Luke Winn/SI)

Should make a sweet new profile picture on Nasza-Klasa. (That’s Polish Facebook.)