Friday marked the final competition day for US Biathlon team trials taking place this week at Soldier Hollow (SoHo) in Midway, Utah. Biathletes hit the pavement on Friday for a men’s and women’s mass start roller ski race. A total of 24 senior athletes competed; 12 women and 12 men. At stake for many U.S. biathletes competing this week are are starting spots for US Biathlon’s 2018/2019 World Cup and IBU Cup teams. Coming out...
Athletes competing in the US Biathlon team trial competitions at Soldier Hollow (SoHo) in Midway, Utah, returned to the venue on Wednesday for a second roller ski sprint race. Trials had kicked off on Tuesday with a men’s and women’s sprint. On Wednesday, 12 biathletes competed in the senior women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint, with veteran Susan Dunklee once again coming out on top. Dunklee completed the course in a time of 22:23, after missing two shots,...
US Biathlon team trials kicked off on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, with a total of 47 athletes in attendance. On the line for senior competitors racing this week are starting spots for US Biathlon’s 2018/2019 World Cup and IBU Cup teams. The first race of the week involved a men’s 10-kilometer and women’s 7.5 k sprint, with 12 senior women and 14 senior men racing. A junior men’s sprint and...
The past year certainly has not been an easy one for the International Biathlon Union (IBU), the governing body in the sport of biathlon for the past 25 years. The sports federation had to take the unusual measure of suspending the Russian Biathlon Union, historically one of the core countries for biathlon, to a provisional member status. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned several prominent athletes, including biathletes, from that nation from participating in the 2018...
police investigation related to accepting Russian bribes in exchange for concealing Russian biathlon doping cases. Secretary General Nicole Resch was suspended as a result of the scandal as well, but both have denied any wrongdoing, according to Inside The Games. The IBU’s board and committee elections will be conducted Sept. 5-9 at the 13th Regular IBU Congress in Porec, Croatia. Two current North American board members, Dr. Jim Carrabre of Biathlon Canada (who according to...
The first time I contacted Russell Currier for a retirement interview, it was mid-April. I had asked him to share his story, and no more than 24 hours after my initial email to Currier, I received a response. “Yeah, let’s do that. I’m actually in Bozeman right meow,” he’d written. Digging through my memory bank, I recalled Currier having come to Bozeman one other time. Two Aprils ago, the Stockholm, Maine, native spent a...
Young and empowered. Twenty-three-old Maddie Phaneuf, a 2018 Olympic biathlete and member of the US Biathlon’s national team, has been finding her voice this short offseason as she lobbied members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., on April 25. Phaneuf, along with 2018 U.S. Winter Olympians High Performance Team. While continuing to train and race with the national team, she planned to move from Lake Placid, N.Y., to her new training...
(Press release) LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (May 1, 2018) — U.S. Biathlon is pleased to announce the addition of two new national team coaches. Armin Auchentaller returns to the U.S. team after coaching the Swiss women’s biathlon team for several years. The Italian comes from the Antholz valley famous for hosting a World Cup every year and being a major biathlon center. German Olympic champion Michael Greis also worked for the Swiss biathlon team and joins the U.S. Team as the...
The United States Biathlon Association has named a 10-member senior national team for the 2018-2019 season. For the first time in years, the roster features more women than men. Following 20-for-20 interview Lexie Madigan (Truckee, Calif./Auburn Ski Club) – 20-for-20 interview Grace Gilliland (Eagle River, Alaska/Alaska Biathlon Club) – 2017 20-for-20 interview Garrett Beckrich (Grand Rapids, Minn./Mt. Itasca Biathlon) – 20-for-20 interview Eli Nielsen (Stehekin, Wash./Methow Valley) –
b_eisenbichler@yahoo.de Invitations: will go out latest by May 15th Travel: Applicants are responsible for their own travel. Those arriving by air should plan to arrive in Albany, NY. Housing & Meals: The camp will take place at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY. Meals and lodging will be provided there free of charge.
With the 2017/2018 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil the last of its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to the North American Performances of the Year in cross-country, biathlon and nordic combined. Previous categories:...
Note: This article has been updated with information about bribes as reported by Le Monde on Wednesday. Austrian police raided the headquarters of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) in Salzburg on Tuesday night and into Wednesday. released a statement on Wednesday, revealing that the search was part of an investigation into President Anders Besseberg and Secretary General Nicole Resch. Resch has taken an immediate leave of absence, and Executive Director Martin Kuchenmeister has taken over as...
With the 2017/2018 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding North American biathletes on the international circuit. *** Rosanna Crawford, Biathlon Canada Rosanna Crawford had been close to...
With the 2017/2018 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding North American junior athletes across all nordic disciplines. *** Ben Loomis, U.S. Nordic Combined Team In late January,...
When Jonne Kähkönen was hired to be the women’s national team coach by the US Biathlon Association (USBA) in 2010, there wasn’t much of a playbook to follow. The Finn couldn’t mimic the footsteps of his predecessor, because there wasn’t one. For the first time, the women’s team was going to have a coach of their own. “The men’s program was on a really high level going into Vancouver [2010 Olympics],” USBA Chief of Sport...
2018 USBA Junior/Senior Nationals American biathletes officially wrapped up their race seasons at the 2018 US Biathlon Association (USBA) nationals last Thursday through Saturday at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. The event kicked off with Lowell Bailey edging his teammate and longtime training partner Tim Burke by 5 seconds in the men’s 10-kilometer sprint on Thursday, March 29. Bailey started 15th out of 17 men and skied a single penalty lap after his prone shooting...
With the 2018 Olympics come and gone, many of biathlon’s athletes are calling it quits. Here’s a roundup of who you won’t see on the World Cup next season – and who’s still on the fence about their future. USA 2017 Word Champion Lowell Bailey has long planned to retire after the 2018 season, and now that time has come. His first World Junior Championships was in 1999 and he got his first World Cup start...
Martin Fourcade didn’t have to do much at the final IBU World Cup weekend in Tyumen, Russia, in order to lock up the overall crystal globe. But the French biathlete came in guns blazing, so to speak, winning Thursday’s sprint by 33.2 seconds and claiming the Total Score title. His only close(ish) challenger in the overall score, Johannes Thingnes Bø of Norway, had finished just 14th in the sprint. He raced up to second in...
OSLO, Norway — In some ways, Sunday’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer men’s relay was very special for the U.S. biathlon team. Two stalwart members – World Championships gold medalist Lowell Bailey and silver medalist Tim Burke – were retiring. It would be the last race of their long international careers. In other ways, though, the team wanted it to just be a normal race. Their goal was to put together a good relay and a good...
OSLO, Norway—Eight World Cup weekends, a swing by Open European Championships, two weeks at the Olympics, and it all came down to this: Susan Dunklee’s last international race of the season was also her first podium of the season, and she’s heading back to the United States with a third-place finish in the 10 k pursuit. “I’m super happy,” Dunklee said. “I often start feeling stronger and stronger as the season goes on, and this...