The biathlon is a sport of opposites. One moment, you are skiing at full speed, pushing your body to its physical limits. The next, you’re trying to load a bullet. Your heart is racing. A crowd is cheering. And you need to shoot a small target from 50 meters away.
As Olympic biathlete Tommy Giacomel puts it:
“Biathlon is tricky because it combines two sports that don’t have anything to do with each other.”
In this world of extreme opposites, mental performance is just as important as the physical.
Why Endurance Athletes Should Care About Biathlon
At first glance, it might seem like biathlon has little in common with endurance sports like cycling or triathlon. But endurance athletes face many of the same mental demands: staying focused when exhausted, making split-second decisions in chaotic conditions, and managing pressure.
That’s why the mental training of elite biathletes offers valuable lessons for anyone pushing their physical limits.
In an Nduranz podcast episode, we spoke with Tommy Giacomel about how he trains his mind. Here are his insights that every endurance athlete can use.
1. Mental Fatigue Results in Mistakes
In biathlon, a missed shot doesn’t just cost you time—you get the physical punishment of a penalty lap. As Tommy explains, those mistakes compound quickly.
The more tired you are, the harder it is to shoot well. And the more shots you miss, the more tired you get.
In other endurance sports, mistakes from mental fatigue aren’t so obvious—but they are still there. Missed corners, skipped feed zones, crashes caused by hesitation or overconfidence…
Key takeaway:
Even if you feel fine physically, mental fatigue can have serious consequences. Take these seriously—train your mind deliberately.
The mental aspect may be why elite cyclists peak later than athletes in other sports (before the era of Tadej Pogacar and Egan Bernal, the average age of Tour de France winners was 28). The physical ability may be there earlier, but the ability to handle stress and make smart choices under pressure takes longer to develop.
2. Stressors Shouldn’t Be a Surprise
In biathlon, athletes don’t just practice shooting—they practice shooting under pressure. Coaches intentionally disrupt their routines, fire off commands, or make them shoot after exhausting intervals—anything to mimic the stress of race day.
“The coaches are trying to stress us as much as possible during the shooting sessions.”
While it sounds like torture, this deliberate stress exposure helps athletes stay calm and execute under race-day pressure.
This kind of preparation may not be common in other endurance sports, but it is just as important. Athletes need to be prepared for stressful situations like dropped bottles, mechanical failures, or unexpected changes in tactics.
Key takeaway:
Simulate stress before race day. Ride or run under fatigue, with distractions, or after hard intervals. For situations you can’t replicate in training—like a crash or a mechanical failure—use visualization. This involves mentally going through the challenge and imagining how you’d respond. That way, if it happens for real, your brain already knows what to do.
3. Focus Is Trained
Biathlon stadiums can draw crowds of over 30,000 people. It’s not like golf: those crowds cheer loudly. On top of the cheers, biathletes can also hear their competitors shooting.
With so many distractions, it can be hard to find your focus.
Tommy admits that it doesn’t happen every time, but he has learned to block out these distractions. His focus is so intense that he often isn’t even aware of anything around him.
“When you are feeling your flow, it’s like you have one meter of air around you.”
Key takeaway:
Focus is a skill. It requires training. Practice creating a mental anchor. Focus on a single action: your breath, your cadence, or your line.
4. There’s a Thin Line Between Routine and Burnout
Tommy typically fires 15,000 practice shots each year. The repetition builds consistency and precision.
Until it doesn’t.
Tommy says that the routine can become so boring that it actually becomes stressful. When that happens, the routine harms training instead of helping.
“It was so bad that I started to cry in front of the coaches because my head was completely done.”
Key takeaway:
Routine builds confidence, but monotony kills focus. If you are feeling stressed, it’s okay to take a break, mix up your training, or change your environment.
5. Focus on Performance, Not Results
Tommy Giacomel explains that if a strong skier is just ahead of you in a race, your instinct is to chase. But that effort can backfire.
“You just want to keep up with him. But then you might arrive at the shooting range outside your comfort zone—and miss.”
In other endurance sports, chasing competitors can also have consequences: blown pacing, missed fueling checkpoints, lost focus… It can become a fast spiral of mistakes.
Key takeaway:
Focus on your process, not the podium. Thinking about your finish time mid-race won’t help.
6. Don’t Try to Fix Everything at Once
Every athlete wants to improve. But relentless self-correction can backfire.
When Tommy’s shooting started falling apart during a training block, his instinct was to push through. But the more he tried, the worse he got.
His coaches had to step in and tell him to stop. Not to give up—but to step away, reset, and come back with a clearer mind.
Key takeaway:
Improving performance isn’t always about grinding away. Relentless fixing can turn into burnout. Know when to step away and take a break.
7. Accumulated Stress Takes a Toll
Even though they sometimes train in -15°C conditions, Tommy managed to make it through an entire season without getting sick.
But the moment the racing stopped, everything hit at once. He woke up tired and sweating, and was sick for a week.
“All the stress came out of my body.”
This wasn’t just from physical fatigue. Your brain is part of your endurance system. It can keep the system running under stress for a long time—but when the pressure lifts, the crash can come fast and hard.
Key takeaway:
Schedule time for psychological resets: unstructured training, quiet days, and time away from performance metrics. Don’t wait until your body forces you to stop.
Want to hear more about the world of biathlon? Listen to the full podcast episode with Tommy.