Our recent series on biathletes facing the question of when and whether to go to college (parts two, and expressed frustration that star athlete Laura Spector was returning to school for the summer after a disappointing season and did not seem to plan on joining the national team program in Lake Placid. It was not an unreasonable sentiment: without actually seeing an athlete, a coach’s job is certainly much harder. And as a European (Kahkonen...
Our recent series on biathletes facing the question of when and whether to go to college (parts two, and first part of our series, we focused on several elite junior biathletes who, bucking the conventions of the early- and mid-2000’s, decided to go to college before returning – often extremely successfully – to biathlon. Without a single exception, the five athletes said that today’s juniors should not rule college out as a means of facilitating...
Note: This is the last piece in a three-part series following several groups of biathletes as they negotiate the college question. part two looked at USBA’s 2007-2010 Development Team. In November, 2011, Casey Smith was named Junior Biathlete of the Year for 2011 by the United States Biathlon Association (USBA). In a European country, that might mean a pat on the back from a coach at practice, perhaps an honorary celebration thrown by an athlete’s...
Note: This is the second piece in a three-part series following several groups of biathletes as they negotiate the college question.
BEND, Ore. – Jean-Philippe Le Guellec was riding high in 2010 when he finished sixth in the sprint, 11th in the pursuit, and 13th in the individual at the Vancouver Olympics. The Canadian biathlete – then 24 – was motivated and aiming for his first Word Cup podium. The 2011 season didn’t go quite as expected; he picked up just four top-20 results and late in the year received a diagnosis of mononucleosis, which explained...
BEND, Ore. – The U.S. and Canadian national teams are here in Bend to get on snow, and they seem to be loving it. But what about skiers who are already located in the Oregon Cascades? On several days, local high school athletes have also made the drive up to Mount Bachelor to ski and soak in the atmosphere at North America’s own version of the Dachstein glacier. Unlike senior World Cup athletes, most juniors...
BEND, Oregon – Biathlon Canada Head Coach Matthias Ahrens, a native of Germany, had never been to Bend until this month. But now that he’s seen what the town has to offer, he anticipates being back. “It’s perfect,” he told FasterSkier as his athletes did an interval workout on Wednesday. “It’s so nice that now we have winter conditions – every day it has been perfect conditions for skiing, plus you can go down and...
BEND, Ore. – It may have been spring at Mount Bachelor this weekend, but by the time Wednesday rolled around, it was more like winter. Snow had fallen overnight and stuck to the mountain’s flanks, and flurries continued to drift from the sky as the U.S. and Canadian national ski teams competed in relay races with several club teams. Canadian Olympian and current Alberta World Cup Academy coach George Grey skied the course before the...
BEND, Ore. – Jessie Diggins had a big year in 2012. After thoroughly dominating the domestic racing scene in the fall and early winter, the CXC and U.S. Ski Team athlete headed to Europe, where she immediately made a splash on the World Cup. In her first race there, in Milan, she finished 18th in the freestyle sprint, then followed it up with a second-place finish in the team sprint with Kikkan Randall. Diggins went...
BEND, Oregon – Even though the U.S. biathlon national team did not compete in the Pole Pedal Paddle on Saturday morning like their skiing counterparts, the athletes still didn’t get to sleep in for their weekend. After all, this is training camp. Instead, they headed up to Mount Bachelor to do intervals, and had to start early so that they could be off the race trails before the five-sport extravaganza began. “Early in the morning...
Once the country’s best juniors, a handful of biathletes – including Lowell Bailey, ranked 14th in the 2012 World Cup standings – detoured through college programs before representing the U.S. at World Championships and the Olympics.
BEND, OREGON – How would a veteran describe Bend’s five-sport Pole, Pedal, Paddle to someone who has never seen it? “It’s a circus,” XC Oregon racer Stephanie Howe told FasterSkier at the race’s conclusion. “It’s the biggest logistic nightmare in the world… I just never have stuff lined up ahead of time. It’s always scrambling at the last minute.” First there’s the equipment: alpine skis, poles, boots, and a helmet; nordic skis, poles, and boots;...
BEND, Oregon – It’s hard to imagine Kris Freeman as an underdog in a race that involves cross country skiing and running. But to this city’s residents, that’s exactly what he was on Saturday morning before the start of the 36th annual Pole Pedal Paddle: some Olympian who was trying to unseat the hometown favorite, Andrew Boone. Boone had won the race – which combines downhill skiing through gates, roughly eight k of nordic skiing,...
This season, U.S. biathlete Laura Spector was tired, possibly overtrained, and unable to find the form that had netted her a top-20 World Cup finish in 2011. She's solving the problem in an unconventional way: by taking organic chemistry.
As the 2014 Sochi Olympics draw near, the U.S. Biathlon Association is focusing all of its resources on the national team. President Max Cobb discussed subtle changes in strategy: a smaller men's team, a bigger women's team, and lots of careful planning.
The U.S. gained a World Cup starting position in both women's sprints and men's distance races for 2013, and Kikkan Randall will receive automatic starts that don't count towards the quota. The bad news? A loss of one spot in men's sprint races.
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...
While U.S. Ski Team (USST) coaches have nominated athletes for the 2012-2013 team, the names have not been approved by higher-ups in the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA). Until they are, athletes and coaches alike are unable to reveal the makeup of next year’s team. They can, however, discuss the U.S. program in general, as Head Coach Chris Grover did with FasterSkier on Tuesday, when he addressed, among other things, the coaches’ understanding of...
Three top young biathletes spent a ten days as part of a team in Sweden, training, going to school, and racing alongside their hosts. “American kids have to sacrifice more if they want to go into full-time racing,” said Tara Geraghty-Moats.
Jaque Mourão may be a 36-year-old Brazilian mom, but the Quebec-based endurance queen has already made history in mountain biking and cross-country skiing. With help from Sweden's Matthias Nilsson, she now has her sights set on biathlon, and further inspiring her countrymen to pursue their dreams.