Lanny and Tracy Barnes started sport shooting at an early age before transitioning into biathlon. The identical twins from Durango, Colorado, who are attempting to become second-time U.S. Olympians in 2010, talked about the similarities and differences between the two sports, as well as between themselves.

You both ranked in the top-20 in shooting percentage on the World Cup tour in 2008-09. How have you become so successful on the range?
Tracy Barnes: Our dad taught us how to shoot when we were really young. Most people who come into biathlon are skiers who learn how to shoot, and we were the opposite. We started out shooting, and learned - and are still learning - the skiing portion of it. Just having that knowledge and experience gives us an edge.
Lanny Barnes: With shooting, it's something you have to work on, day-in and day-out. It's a skill that has to be learned. No baby picks up a gun and says, ‘I'm a great shooter.'

Did you ever dream of competing in shooting at the Summer Olympics?
Tracy: When we were growing up, we actually had dreams of the Summer Olympics, but only because we were huge into soccer.

So shooting never became the Olympic sport of choice?
Tracy: No, I think we needed something a little more exciting. Biathlon had that.

What's the difference between sport shooting and shooting in biathlon?
Tracy: When you practice shooting, you practice a certain cadence. Between each shot, you want it as consistent as possible, so that you're doing the same thing for each shot. With biathlon, though, there are so many different variables, like the wind or how you're feeling on a certain day. You can be feeling really good and skiing into the range harder, or you can be feeling lousy and struggling to get there. You have to be able to adapt to those kinds of variables. When my sister and I train, we train for different situations, shooting faster and then slowing it down, or shooting slowly and getting quicker.

Is that your own program, or part of a larger, national program?
Tracy: It's something that Lanny and I have been working on for quite a while. Where many athletes are students of skiing, my sister and I are students of shooting. We watch other people shooting, we change our rifles and adapt them so that they fit perfectly - like a glove to our bodies - and we watch a lot of video. We're constantly thinking about it.

When you're on the course, how can viewers tell the difference between the two of you? What trait distinguishes you the most?
Lanny: The biggest difference you can see, whether you're close up or far away, is in our ski technique. When Tracy skis, she holds her hands in close, and when I ski, I hold my hands far out. People say that it looks like I'm flapping my wings or trying to fly. They call Tracy's technique the ‘mini-me' because her hands are so close in.
Tracy: I am an inch taller than Lanny. In certain years, our rifles are different colors. Every year, we paint our rifles something different, so we can tell them apart.

Do you share any pre-race routines?
Tracy: One superstition we have carries over from soccer, where we used to wear our game jerseys to bed the night before a game. Now, we wear our race bibs to bed the night before a race.
Lanny: We did a lot more of that in soccer. Our team wouldn't play a game unless Tracy had her hair in pigtails, because we thought it would mean bad luck if she didn't.

Have you ever switch places as a joke?
Tracy: We used to do that a lot in elementary school. At lunch, we'd go into the bathroom and change clothes, so the teacher would think we were the other one. On occasion, we try it with our coaches, because sometimes they mess up on who's who. I think it comes with being a twin. We're both tricksters.

But you haven't tried switching bibs in a race?
Tracy: No, we haven't tried it, but we've joked about someone being in the woods and handing off. But we'd definitely get disqualified if someone found out about it!

Compiled by Martin Thorstensson, NBCOlympics.com