![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2012/02/Group02102012cm026.jpg" "IBU world cup biathlon, relay mixed, Kontiolahti (FIN)")
The U.S. Biathlon Association has announced its 2012-13 national team, which consists of 12 returning members and a single new nomination.
The squad is led by five Americans who achieved top-ten results on the 2012 World Cup circuit, and were rewarded with “A1” nomination: Tim Burke, Lowell Bailey, Russell Currier, Jay Hakkinen, and Susan Dunklee. In total, seven women and six men will make up next year’s national team, a slight decrease from last year’s size.
Comings and Goings
The vast majority of last year’s national team was renominated for 2013. The two departing members are Bill Bowler and Wynn Roberts; Bowler competed in several IBU Cup races this year, topping out with finishes of 29th and 26th in Canmore, while Roberts, a 2010 Olympian, did not see international action and began racing for the National Guard partway through the season.
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2011/01/lp-6k-hannah-0934.jpg" "Hannah Dreissigacker (CGRP) - Fifth place")
They are replaced by Hannah Dreissigacker (Morrisville, VT), a member of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project ski team who has competed in a few biathlon races for each of the past seasons. Dreissigacker’s best ski results this year were seventh place in the skate sprint at U.S. National Championships, fifth place in the 5 k classic at Canadian Nationals, and seventh in the American Birkebeiner marathon.
In biathlon, she finished 26th in the individual race at Open European Championships in Brezno, Slovakia, and 16th at an IBU Cup sprint in Canmore. With the national team “B” nomination, Dreissigacker will make biathlon a prime focus.
“I’m excited about being named to the team!” she told FasterSkier. “I had some lows and some highs with biathlon this past year, but I’m excited that they chose to look at the potential showed in the high points. I’ve been wanting to do something different in terms of training and life in general, and so this is the perfect opportunity to keep training but to change things up a bit and get re-energized.”
The Same at the Top
None of the team’s top talent has gone anywhere, and the U.S. will likely see the same faces leading the way in the coming season.
Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) had five top-ten finishes this season, including a tenth-place result in the sprint at World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany, and a fourth-place finish at the final sprint in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Burke, who earned the overall yellow leader’s bib for a period back in 2009-10, had surgery for compartment syndrome last spring, and this was his first season back at full capacity. He finished 20th in the World Cup Total Score.
Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) was right alongside Burke all season, and eclipsed him in the Total Score, finishing 14th. Bailey had nine of the top twelve results of his career this year, including two fifth-place World Cup results from sprints in Kontiolahti, Finland and Östersund, Sweden. He also contributed several head-turning leadoff relay legs throughout the season.
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2012/03/Group040312mf174-bailey-schempp-pursuit.jpg" "IBU world championships biathlon, pursuit men, Ruhpolding (GER)")
Burke and Bailey perhaps did the most to increase visibility for the U.S. men’s team this season, as they were near the front of mass start and pursuit races late in the game on multiple occasions and often in medal position.
Veteran Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK) was re-selected based on a ninth-place finish in the pursuit in Hochfilzen, Austria, and a 36th-place ranking in the Total Score.
Currier (Caribou, ME) is on the “A” team for the first time, after breaking through on the World Cup this year with a pair of surprise sixth-place finishes in sprints in Kontiolahti and Nove Mesto, Czech Repulbic.