Lyle Barber Nelson (born February 9, 1949, in

McCall, Idaho McCall is a resort town on the western edge of Valley County, Idaho, United States. Named after its founder, Tom McCall, it is situated on the southern shore of Payette Lake, near the center of the Payette National Forest. The population was 3 ...

) is a retired American

biathlete The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not ti ...

. He represented USA at four Olympics. At his last Olympics in 1988, he was the flag bearer. In 1976 he finished 35th in the Individual 20K biathlon. He led off the American team with

Dennis Donahue Dennis Donahue (born August 22, 1944) is an American biathlete. He competed at the 1972 Winter Olympics and the 1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (, ) and commonly known as Innsb ...

, John Morton and Peter Dascoulias as they finished 11th place in the 30K relay. In 1980, when USA hosted at Lake Placid, he finished 19th in the new 10K sprint biathlon and joined

Martin Hagen Martin Hagen may refer to: * Martin Hagen (biathlete) * Martin Hagen (politician) {{hndis, Hagen, Martin ...

, Donald Nielsen Jr. and Peter Hoag Jr. in finishing 8th in the 30K relay. In 1984, he returned to the Individual 20K biathlon, finishing 26th. He joined Nielsen again along with Bill Carow and Josh Thompson in finishing 11th in the 30K relay. In 1988, as the 39 year old veteran, he was selected to carry the flag at the 1988 Opening Ceremonies held just north of his home in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

. In the 10K sprint, he finished tied with Sverre Istad for 30th place and joined Thompson, Curt Schreiner and Darin Binning in finishing 9th in the

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switc ...

Personal life

Prior to the Olympics, he attended the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

, graduating in 1971 and joining the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

, rising to the rank of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. He later attended the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, earning his master's degree. As an administrator, he was the president of the United States Biathlon Association. He worked on trying to expand the sport into a summer biathlon program to attract some of the 16 million runners into biathlon. He served as a commentator at the

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

and 1998 Olympics. When the Olympics returned to the USA at

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, he served as the venue director for the biathlon. He is currently Director of Community Relations and Health Promotion at St. Luke’s McCall Hospital in his home town.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Lyle 1949 births American male biathletes Biathletes at the 1976 Winter Olympics Biathletes at the 1980 Winter Olympics Biathletes at the 1984 Winter Olympics Biathletes at the 1988 Winter Olympics Living people Olympic biathletes for the United States 20th-century American sportsmen