Tandy Back with National Team and Back on Track after Wrist Fracture

Last season started solidly enough for Canadian biathlete Megan Tandy: in the opening World Cup race in Östersund, Sweden, the two-time Olympian finished 25^th in the pursuit. In the points, and something to build on.

By the end of the season, things looked very different. Tandy fractured a bone in her wrist just before she was set to compete in the World Cups in Canmore, Alberta. That knocked her out of the rest of the season — and because she had not yet met the criteria for athlete funding (“carding”) through Sport Canada, threw her future as a biathlete into doubt.

But come spring, her medical exception was granted and Tandy was back to being funded.

“The carding doesn’t nearly cover the costs of being a full time athlete but it definitely  helps pay the rent, and without it I would have likely retired,” she explained in an interview last week.

By the time she regained her carding, she was also able to train again. Life was back on track.

“I had a hard cast for almost 9 weeks so my arm looked was a bit on the pale skinny side for awhile, but I recovered well and have had no pain or other problems with my wrist since May,” Tandy wrote in an email. “The recovery process mostly just involved a lot of patience and playing with my hand strengthening rubber web or squeeze ball a few times a day. I had to ease into rollerskiing with my left pole slowly, but after a few weeks everything felt perfect!”

Based in Germany for the last several years, Tandy also has a new living situation. She is splitting her time between Klingenthal, where her ex-husband and son alive, and Siegsdorf, where she trains at the major German biathlon base in Ruhpolding with other international athletes constantly coming and going.

The previous summer she had been primarily in Klingenthal, which has few biathlon facilities. Between the ability to do more specific training and setting up house with her boyfriend, U.S. Biathlon wax tech Federico Fontana, Tandy sees herself having a much-improved situation.

“When I have my son then my #1 priority is being Mom,” she explained. “And when my son is with his father I can train at the world-class facility alongside many international athletes in Ruhpolding. It has truly taken some time to build a life for myself again and put things back together after the separation and custody battle more than 2 years ago – but right now this is the happiest, healthiest version of me since at least 8 years! … Siegsdorf reminds me little bit of [British Columbia] with the Bavarian alps and Chiemsee Lake right here. I can actually go for a 40km rollerski loop right from my driveway!”

She also trained with the Canadian National Team during the off-season for the first time in years.

“I was able to train in Canmore at our home training center for 3 weeks this July and have been following the national team training program since then,” she wrote. “Between Dropbox, Sprongo and Skype, long-distance coaching can offer a lot and I think this has been something really positive for me.”

The national team is also happy with the arrangement. Tandy has primarily been working with National Team Coach Roddy Ward.

“Our hope was to provide Megan some guidance as we believe she has the potential for top results (which she began to show 2 seasons ago) and even more importantly, to be a contributing member of a medal winning relay team- that is the big goal for the women’s program,” Ward wrote in an email.

In the 2014-2015 season, Tandy had a breakthrough and notched four top-15 finishes on the World Cup.

“I have tried to help her with a training structure and some training ideas,” Ward continued. “Ultimately, given the distance and unique training environment/opportunities, she still drives her own day to day training. We have also setup some monitoring and have made some positive interventions. From what I can tell it’s been going well for Megan. She has stayed healthier than normal and has actually set up some great training opportunities so she is not alone. These include 2 camps with us, a camp with the US team, a stint back home in Prince George and some training with German and British athletes in Ruhpolding.”

Tandy joined the U.S. team for their summer training camp in Oberhof, where she was able to get in some on-snow time in the ski tunnel. She also joined the women for a relay effort at German National Championships.

“I had just packed my bags to leave when the women’s coach, Jonne [Kahkonen] asked me to race because one of the U.S. girls was sick,” Tandy wrote. “It was super fun to race, great to shoot under pressure again, but I was pretty tired and was not happy with the ski performance. All in all I actually feel like I am in better shape this fall than I have been for 3 years – I am feeling good, but I haven’t had a lot of opportunity for race pace comparison up until now.”

That will change. Tandy is in Canada for Frozen Thunder, to get some training time with her team and coaches as well as to compete in selection races for the World Cup. She is pre-selected to start the season on the second-tier IBU Cup circuit, but wants to grab one of the free spots to race on sport’s bigger stage.

North American relay team at German Nationals. Just a few spectators in the stands. With Megan Tandy (CAN) and Clare Egan.

A photo posted by Susan Dunklee (@susan.dunklee) on Sep 11, 2016 at 1:41am PDT

Thinking back on her injury at the end of the season, it seems like Tandy has come a long way.

“I can honestly say there where some sad moments home alone in March with no snow while all the teams were racing!” she admitted. “I used the down-time to finish up some school work, which was good, and I also think I was lucky that the recovery period was in the spring so I was healthy and training normally for the whole summer.”

Eventually, Tandy sees herself helping and managing other athletes.