Just went back to see if you can vote again, and you can! But, Liza fans, I’m afraid that Yurlova is pulling away. Here are the results at the moment (09:30 BST):
1. Ekaterina Yurlova (Biathlon) 37.2%
2. Liza Tuktamysheva (Figure Skating) 31.3%
3. Pavel Kolizhnikov (Speed Skating) 23.1%
4. Maxim Mihaylov (Volleyball) 5.7%
5. Semion Elistratov (Short Track Skating) 2.7%
Never heard of the listed people except Liza, but it is interesting that Biathlon seems popular sport in Russia. I thought it is one of the least popular sports in the world, no offense to the sport fan though.
To be honest, Yurlova is the only one I've heard tell of, and that is only because of that surprise win a few weeks ago. Even though I've been watching biathlon for just over a year, she had never cropped up on my radar before the recent World Championships.
Biathlon is very popular in Russia. A few times this season, Patrick Winterton and Mike Dixon told us a figure for the number of people that do biathlon in Russia, and it was massive (unfortunately, I can't remember what the figure was).
The problem is that doping in biathlon is also very popular in Russia. There are so many people competing, that there is a belief that if you want to do well, you need that extra bit of "help". And unscrupulous coaches start them on the drugs at a very early stage of their competitive career.
Apparently, the IBU have tried to tackle it, but the scale of the problem is just too large.
Patrick and Mike were saying that it has got to the stage that if a Russian does well, you can't get excited about it because you can't be sure whether it was a legitimate result or not. And that that is a real shame. That the actions of some are reflecting badly on the whole team.
On the other hand, they also had a novel way of looking at it.
During the final round of the World Cup (at Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia!) they were discussing the German team, and how for years there were so few Juniors coming through because the Senior team was so successful. Then, all the top German biathletes retired around the same time, and the coaches were left in the position of bringing all the Juniors through at once. And, because there were no figureheads left for the Juniors to look up to and learn from, it took a long time for the team to get back near the top.
Anyway, they were contrasting this to the Russian team, where there is a constant stream of Juniors coming through to the Senior team. Except, the reason the Russian team is so good at bringing on the Juniors is because of the number of Russian biathletes that are getting caught for doping!
I bought pay tv recently and I now get Eurosport, and they showed some biathlon. It was actually quite interesting. Lots of different skills needed.
During the Olympics last year, I made it perfectly obvious that I am not a big fan of cross-country skiing. But, despite this, I came to really like biathlon. And that is because of the shooting element. This is the exciting part.
Seeing how many of the targets go down.
Seeing if anybody can manage a clean sweep.
Seeing what is the most targets somebody misses.
Seeing the orders change according to penalties applied for missing.
Seeing if somebody can ski fast enough to regain their position after getting penalties.
Seeing what is the highest position achieved by somebody with each number of targets missed.
Plus, it helps that there are such beautiful examples of womanhood within biathlon, such as Grabriela Soukalova (CZE), Darya Domracheva (BLR), Dorothea Wierer (ITA)...
CaroLiza_fan
Mishin isn't quite that thick! 
I just went back some pages and re-read the adventures of Princess Liza and her many suitors...
)
