TargetTalk

That's very cool. Thanks for posting.

I notice that Skanåker shot with both eyes open, no glasses or anything, like Yusuf Dikeç does in air pistol. From what I understand, this is still OK under current ISSF rules in air pistol and free pistol, right?

I also noticed that "Mexico City", in German, was spoken as "Mexico City" (at 0:42). This puzzles me - I was expecting "Mexiko-Stadt" or even "Ciudad de Mexico".

No, we dschermans are truly internaschenal...

Many english words, names, phrases etc have been implemented into the german language. In fact some years ago (also in 1968 til the 1980's, as I remember) it really was Mexiko-Stadt (and never "Ciudad de Mexico), like we still say New York City or Washington D.C. (really Dee Cee). Maybe journalists were tired of translating it...

Last year while travelling two weeks through Nevada and California I decided (don't know why exactly) to rent a car with a german language navigation system. I was afraid of not understanding a speaker with an accent or something like that. What happened? It was a desaster and awful to hear US street names, monuments, crossings etc. pronounced strictly in german language - which is very confusing and often only funny.

In the german news some names of international cities have slowly been transferred to the somehow "original" spelling and pronounciation in the recent years, like Mumbay for Bombay and Beijing instead of Peking.

To Skanaker: in the last years he was promoting an own invented shooting glass, which could be fixed at a baseball cap and put into the sighting line very easily. But in fact he really shoots with both eyes open, but he used, as long as it was allowed, two blinds on the sides of his cap. Of course only to prevent light disturbancies - he used to pause in the middle of the match, sometimes to walk to the spectators and telling jokes.

Ulrich Eichstädt wrote:To Skanaker:... ...he used to pause in the middle of the match, sometimes to walk to the spectators and telling jokes.

Yes, often with his pistol still in his hand!

Never saw that myself (and I have been "live" at a lot of his competitions) - and I can't imagine, that range officers at an international match would have accepted that, even with the "old" rules.

I saw it with my own eyes. Munich World Cup early 1990s. Wandering down the line Hammerli in hand to chat with Swedish a team mate.

Obviously wrong behaviour, okay. Could also have been a repair and announced to the RO.

But if that event 23 years ago justifies to claim "often with his pistol still in his hand!"?

Sounds a bit envy to me, sorry.

Ulrich Eichstädt wrote:Obviously wrong behaviour, okay. Could also have been a repair and announced to the RO.

But if that event 23 years ago justifies to claim "often with his pistol still in his hand!"?

Sounds a bit envy to me, sorry.

Envy or not is frankly irrelevant, once is too often !

I must admit I've never seen him 'miss-behave', but then I've only seen him shoot air pistol a few times, and in more recent years.

Rob.

RobStubbs wrote:once is too often !

I fully agree to that, that's for sure.

Not misbehaving, but I did see how he was practically carried to the range after a long, looooong night, and still shot 561 FP...

I just spoke with Dan Iuga who was traveling, he was second in that match, not bad for a rapid fire shooter who later won a gold for Romania. I've shot with Ragnar a bit both in matches and training, he loves to shoot-all day long.

j-team wrote:

Ulrich Eichstädt wrote:To Skanaker:... ...he used to pause in the middle of the match, sometimes to walk to the spectators and telling jokes.

Yes, often with his pistol still in his hand!

Perhaps it was to ensure that his jokes would be well-received and laughed at?
Maybe some of those very jokes are in the book "Scandinavian Humor and Other Myths"...?
Why, you can even get your very own copy today from Amazon! http://www.amazon.com/Scandinavian-Humo ... 0961696702

Haha.

I remember that it was a quite good joke I didn't know before. He was telling it to me at the World Cup in Milano in 2004, one of his last international matches. I was watching him shoot, he turned, saw me, made a pause, left his pistol at his place (!) and walked over to me waiting at the handrail between the spectators and the shooting area.

For one like him, belonging to the Top Ten in the world for more than 25 years, I thought this was pretty cool.