divWhile training at Soldier Hollow this month, I got the opportunity to visit a class of b5th graders/b at bParley’s Elementary School in Park City/b. We had plenty of time to talk about biathlon, traveling and answering their questions. This was a fun group who offered some great questions about skiing and shooting. Defining my sport, and its difficulty, really came through however once I showed them a paper target from the morning’s training session that demonstrated what a group of 5 prone and 5 standing shots at 50 meters looks like, AND, with the help of their imaginations I demonstrated both shooting positions./divdivbr //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k1DHbqzFvCE/SuuxnwFC3xI/AAAAAAAAAqA/yKNRXRS-unc/s1600-h/IMGP0146.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 260px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k1DHbqzFvCE/SuuxnwFC3xI/AAAAAAAAAqA/yKNRXRS-unc/s400/IMGP0146.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398603874812747538″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”iDemonstrating the standing position./i/divdivbr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k1DHbqzFvCE/Suuxniv0p2I/AAAAAAAAAp4/jOLAEiDUlT4/s1600-h/IMGP0144.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 324px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k1DHbqzFvCE/Suuxniv0p2I/AAAAAAAAAp4/jOLAEiDUlT4/s400/IMGP0144.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398603871234074466″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”iDemonstrating the prone position./i/div/divdivbr //divdivThis is a lucky bunch of kids who are growing up in an Olympic town, just the same as I did. Growing up, I dabbled in speedskating, raced alpine competitively until I was 15, even tried figureskating (but ultimately chose skiing to my parents’ great relief), my siblings ventured off into the freestyle world, I skied Bill Koch with the local ski club occasionally, took one shot at jumping off the 15m ski jump and also had a couple opportunities to give luge a try. Along with school, sports was obviously something I have always been in to, but honestly never thought it would actually become my career. In retrospect I am very glad that I had so many opportunities to take advantage of living in the wintry Adirondacks and was able to use sport as a mode for learning about my self, being a teammate, good sportswoman, getting outdoors, setting goals and achieving them. Now that I travel the world with biathlon, I am thankful I had a pretty good base to start from./divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1362992899157556571-4328683864743074876?l=comeskiwithme.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
