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Coverage of elite Biathlon racing and news – from the junior level to the World Cup.
U.S. Biathletes: Home on the Range at Soldier Hollow Camp (with Photo Gallery)
BiathlonDrylandGeneralJuniorsWorld Cup

U.S. Biathletes: Home on the Range at Soldier Hollow Camp (with Photo Gallery)

Chelsea LittleOctober 18, 2011

The U.S. biathlon community may be small, but one benefit of its size is that almost everyone can gather each year in October for a training camp at Soldier Hollow. This year, the senior national team is joined in Utah by the junior national team as well as biathletes from the Maine Winter Sports Center, Durango and as far as Canada. Inviting everyone brings training quality up, said national team women’s coach Jonne Kahkonen, who...

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BiathlonGeneralOlympicsWorld Cup

CAS Overturns IOC’s Rule Against Dopers, Opens Door to Sochi for Yaroshenko, Matveeva, and Others

Chelsea LittleOctober 10, 2011

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) recently reached a decision which could drastically change the competitive landscape at the Sochi Olympics. “I can not describe in words how happy I will be able to defend the honor of Russia in Sochi,” Russian skier Natalia Matveeva told skisport.ru. Matveeva has stood on the World Cup podium ten times, and recently finished a two-year doping ban after testing positive for EPO. But even though she had...

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After a Year of Health Struggles, Nilsson Forced into Early Retirement
BiathlonGeneralOlympicsWorld Cup

After a Year of Health Struggles, Nilsson Forced into Early Retirement

Chelsea LittleOctober 3, 2011

Swedish biathlete Mattias Nilsson is hanging up his rifle at age 29, he abruptly announced on Thursday. After struggling with health problems all year – including hemochromatosis, when too much iron builds up in the body – Nilsson received confirmation last week that he had a leaky heart valve and that it was dangerous for him to continue competing in endurance sports. “I had been somewhat prepared that this could be the news, but not...

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Youth Olympic Games Presents: Aleksandra Zakrzewska
BiathlonInterviewsJuniors

Youth Olympic Games Presents: Aleksandra Zakrzewska

Chelsea LittleSeptember 27, 2011

(Note: This is the fourth in a series of interviews with athletes who will be competing at the first-ever winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria this winter. The first interview was with Sean Doherty, the Nick Proell.) When the Youth Olympic Games kick off in Innsbruck, Austria this January, one American biathlete will have a lot of experience on her side. It’s not her own experience: neither of the two girls named to the...

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BiathlonInterviewsWorld Cup

Kocher Regroups and Moves Forward as Part of New Biathlon Alberta Regional Training Center

Chelsea LittleSeptember 19, 2011

When two-time Olympian Zina Kocher was left off of Biathlon Canada’s “A” team this spring, she was surprised. “Criteria was never set before the season started,” Kocher told FasterSkier in an interview; it wasn’t until after the season was over that athletes learned whether their results were good enough for a nomination. Instead of simply adjusting and continuing on with the national team, Kocher turned down the “B” team nomination altogether and joined another squad,...

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Youth Olympic Games Presents: Anna Kubek
BiathlonGeneralInterviewsJuniors

Youth Olympic Games Presents: Anna Kubek

Chelsea LittleSeptember 14, 2011

(Note: This is the second in a series of interviews with athletes who will be competing at the first-ever winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria this winter. The first interview was with Sean Doherty.) Of all the biathletes set to compete at the Youth Olympic Games in January, Anna Kubek of Duluth, Minnesota, might have the least experience: she only picked up biathlon in 2010, and hadn’t even skied before that point. But to...

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BiathlonInterviewsJuniors

Youth Olympic Games Presents: Sean Doherty

Chelsea LittleSeptember 8, 2011

(Note: This is the first in a series of interviews with athletes who will be competing at the first-ever winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria this winter.) The North American Rollerski Biathlon Championships, held in Jericho, Vermont last month, were the last in a series of qualifying races for U.S. athletes hoping to compete at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in January. While YOG as a whole includes athletes ranging from 14 to 19...

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U.S. Biathletes Shine in European Training Camp; Women’s Team Attends for the First Time
BiathlonGeneralWorld Cup

U.S. Biathletes Shine in European Training Camp; Women’s Team Attends for the First Time

Chelsea LittleAugust 31, 2011

Last year, the U.S. Biathlon Association (USBA) took eight men to Europe for a summer training camp, leaving the women’s team to train by themselves in Lake Placid. Since then, a dedicated women’s coach (Jonne Kahkonen) has been hired, so the women are in some ways more than ever their own team. But this summer three of them were invited to the camp in Germany and are training alongside the men. “For us, it’s definitely...

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Canadian biathlete Bédard reflects on Spartan win
BiathlonGeneralNews

Canadian biathlete Bédard reflects on Spartan win

Alex KochonAugust 18, 2011

In early July, Marc-André Bédard’s brother called him up, urging him to try a Spartan Race. Simon Bédard, of Montreal, had just finished one the 5 k trail challenges in Ottawa. He had heard of a $20,000 reward for outrunning the series’ reigning champ, Hobie Call, and figured his brother, Biathlon Canada’s 2008 athlete of the year, could beat him. While training with the national team in Canmore, Alberta, the 2010 Olympian looked into it....

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BiathlonXCFeeds

The Jericho Experience

SusanDAugust 17, 2011

Snowflake Photographs by Snowflake Bentley Jericho: a small Vermont town made famous by “Snowflake” Bentley, the first man to photograph snowflakes back in 1885 and discover that no two are ever alike.   Over 125 years later, Jericho’s winter heritage is still going strong, even in the summer.  Every August, I travel to [...]

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BiathlonXCFeeds

The Jericho Experience

SusanDAugust 17, 2011

Snowflake Photographs by Snowflake Bentley Jericho: a small Vermont town made famous by “Snowflake” Bentley, the first man to photograph snowflakes back in 1885 and discover that no two are ever alike.   Over 125 years later, Jericho’s winter heritage is still going strong, even in the summer.  Every August, I travel to [...]

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BiathlonXCFeeds

The Jericho Experience

SusanDAugust 17, 2011

Snowflake Photographs by Snowflake Bentley Jericho: a small Vermont town made famous by “Snowflake” Bentley, the first man to photograph snowflakes back in 1885 and discover that no two are ever alike.   Over 125 years later, Jericho’s winter heritage is still going strong, even in the summer.  Every August, I travel to [...]

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Retired Ukrainian Biathlete Oksana Khvostenko Handed One-Year Ban for Accidental Ephedrine Violation
BiathlonGeneralWorld Cup

Retired Ukrainian Biathlete Oksana Khvostenko Handed One-Year Ban for Accidental Ephedrine Violation

Chelsea LittleAugust 15, 2011

wrote in June, the Ukranian biathlete Oksana Khvostenko, who anchored her country’s relay team to silver at World Championships this winter, tested positive for the banned substance ephedrine. Khvostenko’s hearing with the International Biathlon Union (IBU) took place on June 1st, but it took them until last week to issue their verdict on the embattled veteran. With both the A- and B-samples testing positive for greater than ten micrograms per milliliter of ephedrine, they had...

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Bailey Wins Twice at North American Rollerski Biathlon Championships (updated)
BiathlonGeneralResults

Bailey Wins Twice at North American Rollerski Biathlon Championships (updated)

Chelsea LittleAugust 8, 2011

The United States Biathlon Association (USBA) held their biggest summer event in Jericho, Vermont this weekend: the North American Rollerski Biathlon Championships, which crowned men’s and women’s champions in four different age categories as well as the masters men’s division. “Things went wonderfully,” said John Madigan, president of the Ethan Allen Biathlon Club, which hosted the races. “It is such a close and fabulous community in biathlon and it is always special when we can...

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BiathlonWorld CupXCFeeds

The Hot Hand (con’t)

JoranAugust 5, 2011

In a previous post I raised the question of whether biathletes might be more likely to shoot clean (i.e. hit all five targets) if they have just shot clean at their most recent trip through the shooting range. I left off with some numbers that suggested this was the case, but they were aggregated over [...] Related posts:

  1. Career Retrospective: Kati Wilhelm
  2. US Biathlon Preview: Women
  3. Biathlon Briefs: Lowell Bailey and Laura Spector

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BiathlonXCFeeds

The Hot Hand

JoranAugust 3, 2011

The concept of a “hot hand” is a popular one in various sports, and has been variously bunked, debunked and rebunked in numerous contexts.  A common manifestation of this idea comes from basketball, where fans routinely feel that players will get “hot” during a stretch of a game during which they make a much higher [...] Related posts:

  1. Biathlon Shooting Accuracy
  2. Career Retrospective: Martina Beck
  3. Career Retrospective: Sandrine Bailly

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Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Carin Zidek Retires
BiathlonOlympicsWorld Cup

Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Carin Zidek Retires

Chelsea LittleJuly 22, 2011

After a long spring of indecision, Anna Carin Zidek of Sweden finally announced her retirement from biathlon last week. “I no longer have any desire, my motivation has disappeared, and so I will stop,” the 2006 Olympic gold medalist told an Ostersund newspaper. The announcement came after months of deliberation. “Oh yes, there are many who wonder if I should continue or not next season,” Zidek had written on her blog in late April. “And...

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BiathlonInterviewsOlympicsWorld Cup

Burke is Back!

Chelsea LittleJuly 20, 2011

Tim Burke is one of the best biathletes in North America. The Paul Smiths, New York native finished on the World Cup podium three times during the 2009-2010 season, and even donned the yellow overall leader’s bib. But in 2011, he had a disappointing year, with his best finish 18th place in the opening World Cup sprint in Ostersund, Sweden. In April Alter-G, and it allows you to run with whatever percent of your body...

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