At just twenty-one years of age, Leif Nordgren is the youngest member of the U.S. Biathlon Team. In the past few seasons, he has racked up some of the best American results ever at the World Junior Championships, snagging a bronze in the pursuit in 2008 in Rupholding – the first U.S. medal at the event since 2002. This year, he’s no longer in the junior ranks, so he’ll be fully exposed to the senior...
With just a few weeks at home in the county we are yet again preparing for travel, this time to Canmore, Alberta where the senior athletes have trials races for the December World Cups and IBU races. For the rest of the team it will serve as some solid on-snow (hopefully) training before heading to Minnesota in December for our first Nor-Am Cup races of the ’10-’11 season. October took us to Midway, Utah for...
For the nordic world, the highest profile issue on the agenda at the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) recent executive board meeting in late October was the inclusion of women’s ski jumping in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. But besides other events like the figure skating team event and a luge relay (FasterSkier isn’t sure how that works, but we want to see a hand-tag halfway down the luge track…), the IOC board also looked “favorably” towards...
Swede Bjorn Ferry won his first individual Olympic medal in Vancouver, capturing gold in the pursuit race. He has three career World Cup victories and two relay medals, both from mixed relay events: gold at the 2007 World Championships in Antholz, Italy, and bronze at the 2010 World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Ferry is also the only biathlete we know who is married to a world champion arm-wrestler. Can he continue his winning ways this...
Jonne Kahkonen was hired by the United States Biathlon Association this summer to be the new women’s head coach. Kahkonen, who hails from Finland, just finished a four-year stint as head coach of the biathlon program. Finland’s top performances last season came from Kaisa Makarainen, who finished the year ranked 22nd in the overall World Cup Standings. How did Kahkonen end up in the United States? U.S. Biathlon Association President Max Cobb said that he...
With only seven weeks until the first race of the World Cup season, biathletes around the world are making their final preparations and fine-tuning their training. For the Americans, this meant a two-week training camp in Soldier Hollow, Utah, which finished Friday. Coaches had two main goals for the camp: to take advantage of training at altitude, and to solidify shooting skills in “combination” workouts with rollerskiing. Coach Patrick Coffey said that the staff worked...
There is no mercy for the Russian biathletes who want to return to the World Cup after sitting out their doping suspensions. They can’t race before they repay prize money they earned while cheating.
Chalk one up for the biathletes. Just over halfway through Friday’s Climb to the Castle race on Whiteface Mountain, U.S. National Biathlon Team member Laura Spector went to the front of a five-strong women’s pack and left behind four of the country’s best cross-country skiers. Churning her way through fierce gusts of wind—which staff at the summit estimated at 60 miles per hour—the diminutive Spector crossed the line with a big gap on U.S. Ski...
Russian 2008 World Champion is warning of her comeback to biathlon.
Actovegin is not a new drug on the Eastern European arena. Former Norwegian biathlon team director Kjell Ove Oftedal, found a glass vial of Actovegin next to a Russian wax trailer during a World Cup race in 2006.
The National Guard, consisting of Army Soldiers and Air Force Airmen, sponsors a biathlon program that is headquartered at the Camp Ethan Allen Training Site (CEATS) in Jericho, VT. The “mission” of the program is to represent the National Guard and the United States Armed Services in national and international biathlon competitions, to include World Cup and Olympic events, while simultaneously developing the highest levels of skiing and rifle marksmanship necessary to improve the combat...
NEW GLOUCESTER, Maine – US Biathlon Team chairman, Larry Pugh announced today that Max Cobb has been named President and CEO of the Team. “We wanted to acknowledge the enormous contributions Max has made to biathlon in his over 20 years working for our sport,” said Pugh. “We believe Max is one of the most talented leaders within the US Olympic movement and this new title reflects that.” Cobb joined the US Biathlon Association in...
On July 1st, (otherwise known as Canada Day in the Great White North) Canmore, Alberta hosted its Canada Day Fun Run. Despite the title, it was, in fact, a race, as dozens of local skiers toed the start line. Canmore is home to both Canada’s National Cross Country Ski Team, National Biathlon Team, the Alberta World Cup Academy National Development Center, as well as several powerful Canadian clubs–and the nordic sports were well represented. The 8 k course...
Tim Burke became the first-ever American biathlete to pull on the yellow bib of the overall World Cup leader last winter, but first place still eludes him–he has never won a race outright. This year, he intends to change that. “I would love to win a World Cup, to know that on that day, I was the best biathlete in the world,” Burke said. Burke didn’t get any victories last year, but he came tantalizingly...
New York’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) has received $5.6 million in funding in a budget measure that passed in the New York state assembly on Friday and the state senate on Monday. ORDA manages Mount Van Hoevenberg, the site of the cross country, biathlon and nordic combined events during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid NY, and the other legacy venues from those Games. The appropriation is about 16 percent of ORDA’s approximately...
Lake Placid’s cross country, biathlon and ski jumping venues face the possibility of closure if the state does not appropriate money later this month. The Lake Placid Daily News reported in March that New York’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), was at risk of losing all of its state funding for the coming fiscal year. The aid, approximately $6.6 million last year, comprises some 20 percent of ORDA’s budget. A member of ORDA’s board of...
AUGUSTA, Maine – Presque Isle, Maine, will get a World Cup weekend of its own next winter, officials announced Wednesday morning. In a press conference at Maine Governor John Baldacci’s office, Nordic Heritage Sport Club Chairman Tim Vernon said that his organization would be stepping up to the plate to host a second World Cup weekend in Northern Maine, to go along with a previously-scheduled race in Fort Kent. The competition now set for Presque...
The West Yellowstone Ski Education Foundation (WYSEF) invites all mountain bikers and biathetes to register for the Mounatin Bike Biathlon at the Rendezvous Ski Trails on June 26, 2010. The race will consist of five biking laps totaling 12.5 kilometers and four shooting rounds. Everyone is welcome and no shooting experience is required. A safety clinic, practice session, loaner rifles, and ammunition will be available for novices. Experienced biathletes should bring their own rifles and...
