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 2,991 ...

) 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 time ...

. 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 (german: XII. Olympische Winters ...

, John Morton and

Peter Dascoulias Peter Dascoulias (born April 17, 1949) is an American biathlete. He competed in the 20 km individual event at the 1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (german: XII. Olympische Wint ...

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, Donald Nielsen Jr. and

Peter Hoag Jr. Peter Hoag Jr. (born March 17, 1954) is an American biathlete. He competed in the 10 km sprint event at the 1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an ...

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 the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

. In the 10K sprint, he finished tied with

Sverre Istad Sverre Geir Istad (born 3 January 1965) is a former Norwegian biathlete. He was born in Voss as the son of Jon Istad, and represented the club Voss IL. He competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. He won a silver medal in the team ev ...

for 30th place and joined Thompson,

Curt Schreiner Curt Schreiner (born March 9, 1967) is an American biathlete. He competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics, the 1992 Winter Olympics and the 1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, ...

and

Darin Binning Darin Binning (born May 5, 1966) is an American biathlete. He competed in the 20 km individual event at the 1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games (french: XVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver ...

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 swit ...

Personal life

Prior to the Olympics, he attended the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

, graduating in 1971 and joining the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, rising to the rank of

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

. He later attended the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

, earning his master's degree. As an administrator, he was the president of the

United States Biathlon Association The United States Biathlon Association (USBA) is the national governing body for Olympic biathlon in the United States and a member of the International Biathlon Union (IBU). The USBA exists to support and encourage the development of biathlon in ...

. 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 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

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

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

, 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 of the United States