Lyle Barber Nelson (born February 9, 1949, in McCall, Idaho) is a retired American biathlete. He represented USA at four Olympics. At his last Olympics in 1988, he was the flag bearer.[1]
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. 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.
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.[2]
He served as a commentator at the 1994 and 1998 Olympics. When the Olympics returned to the USA at Salt Lake City in 2002, he served as the venue director for the biathlon.[3]
He is currently Director of Community Relations and Health Promotion at St. Luke’s McCall Hospital in his home town.[4]