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.
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Every skier’s dream. Cross country skiing on it’s biggest stage.
Today’s the day. After two days of searching through the war-scarred mountains south of Sarajevo, I am finally going to locate the cross country ski venue from the 1984 Olympics. This theoretically simple quest has not been simple at all, requiring about a bronze medal effort in the detective work department. Of course, as I set off in the morning from my resort hotel in a rented Chevrolet Aveo with Hungarian plates and make the...
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.
Interview: After Four Olympic Appearances in Two Sports, Brazil’s Mourão Hopes For One More – In Biathlon
Chelsea LittleApril 18, 2012
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.
Canada’s Youth Olympians Hang Out With a Hero: Beckie Scott on her Chef de Mission Role
Chelsea LittleFebruary 10, 2012
When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held their first-ever winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria in January, they invited many of the best teenage athletes in the world to compete in 13 sports. But it wasn’t only the best young athletes who converged on the historic venue, which also hosted the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. The IOC invited some of the biggest stars in winter sports – many retired, but some still competing...
YOG: Capping an Outstanding Day for North America, Canadians Fly to Bronze in Team Jumping
David McCahillJanuary 22, 2012
SEEFELD IN TIROL, Austria— Despite significant recent snowfall, the Youth Olympic Games staff managed to polish the HS 75 meter jump in Seefeld Arena in time for Saturday’s Team Jumping event—the final Nordic event of the Games. The Canadian Team— consisting of female special jumper Taylor Henrich, male special jumper Dusty Korek and Nordic Combined skier Nathaniel Mah— managed to take advantage of the inconsistent conditions to secure a historic Bronze medal. The team...
SEEFELD IN TIROL, Austria— It’s been a week of memorable firsts here in Seefeld Stadium during these Winter Youth Olympic Games. The very Youth Games themselves, hosted by the Austrian city of Innsbruck, served as the winter debut for the International Olympic Committee’s latest concoction, thereby making Innsbruck— the two time host of the Olympic Games, in 1964 and 1976— the first city to host three Olympic Games. The Youth Games is a shiny new...
SEEFELD IN TIROL, Austria– Anna Kubek, Heather Mooney, Sean Doherty and Paddy Caldwell have some important news they’d like to share with you. History was made here in the storied Seefeld Arena during the Cross-Country/Biathlon Mixed Relay event, with Team USA crossing the line in 3rd to take the Bronze medal. A detailed report will follow shortly.
YOG Freestyle Sprints: Scandinavians Back on Top, Caldwell Wins ‘Biggest Loser’ Competition to take 5th
David McCahillJanuary 19, 2012
SEEFELD IN TIROL, Austria— Today’s evening sprints in Seefeld were big for the Scandinavians. Having walked away from the sole distance event of Games with nothing but a pair of clunky 4th place “wooden medals”, the Nordic powerhouse nations came out this evening with their guns blazin’. But the Americans, specifically members of the Caldwell family, have a history of turning heads in Seefeld. This time around it was young Paddy who made quite a...
While Standard and Poors may have recently downgraded Austria’s credit-worthiness to ‘AA’, no one is questioning Tyrol’s ability to put on world class ski races. Clear skies and cold temperatures delayed start times by one hour, but the resulting bomber tracks in Seefeld Stadium heated up quickly beneath the skis of the world’s fastest Junior racers during Tuesday’s YOG Classic races. Russian athletes took advantage of the familiar brisk conditions to steal the show—in the...
YOG Women’s Biathlon Pursuit: Perfect Conditions, Tricky Racing—Kubek Leads North Americans in 10th
David McCahillJanuary 16, 2012
SEEFELD IN TIROL, Austria– Every Nordic race director is well versed in Murphy’s Law. Today, Seefeld Stadium was more or less the Titanic—the unsinkable race venue. Temps were cold, the loops were covered with a meter and a half of perfectly groomed snow, thousands of cowbell clanging Tyroleans lined the course, and the IBU’s finest were on hand to supervise. The Women’s 7.5km Pursuit event at the Youth Olympic Games was to go off without...
YOG: Men’s Biathlon 10km Pursuit—Homberg delivers Gold for Germany, Bittersweet 7th for Canada’s Stuart Harden
David McCahillJanuary 16, 2012
SEEFELD IN TIROL, Austria In his address to the competitors and spectators who packed the bleachers of the Bergisel stadium during the Opening Ceremonies of the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, IOC President Jacques Rogge emphasized the importance of the Games with respect to the core Olympic values. “You have a chance to be true champions, not only by winning medals, but by conducting yourself like Olympians,” Rogge told the 1,078 Youth Olympians...
–SEEFELD IN TIROL, Austria It was a busy day for the double hitters today in Seefeld during the second day of competition at the Youth Olympic Games. Bluebird skies, calm winds, and perfect tracks delivered the type of conditions that race directors dream of. Nordic Combined Men’s Individual Competition Action kicked off Sunday morning with the Nordic Combined Men’s Individual competition. Competitors took part in one competitive round of jumping held on the HS...
SEEFELD IN TIROL, Austria– Beneath crisp blue skies, the world’s finest junior ski jumpers flew into the annals of Olympic history today in Seefeld, Austria. The individual ski jumping event marked the first competition event to be held at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games. As if to prove that world-class ski jumps are more prevalent in Austria than are Mini-Golf courses in Fort Lauderdale, Youth Olympic action shifted today across the Inn River valley...
Inaugural Youth Winter Olympic Games Underway: Herzlich Willkommen in Innsbruck!
David McCahillJanuary 13, 2012
INNSBRUCK, Ausria – Welcome to Innsbruck, Austria! After a 36 year hiatus, Olympic competition has now returned to the bustling university city of Innsbruck for a third time in the form of the Inaugural Youth Winter Olympic Games. The capital city of the alpine province of Tyrol in Austria’s western panhandle, Innsbruck twice hosted the world during the 1964 and 1976 Olympic Winter Games and now proudly bears the distinction of being the only city...
Two years ago, Austrian cross-country skier Christian Hoffmann removed himself from the international-racing scene by retiring. That didn’t keep him out of headlines. On Monday, Austria’s anti-doping agency, NADA, handed the world champion a six-year ban from the sport. The decision was retroactive from 2009, in which Hoffman had been suspended two years for being associated with a Vienna blood bank, Humanplasma. NADA most recently found the 36-year-old Hoffmann guilty of having his blood taken...
Interview: Bjørndalen Says “Nordic Skiing Is Terribly Boring, It Can’t Even Compare With Biathlon”
Chelsea LittleNovember 15, 2011
This interview originally appeared in
“Not Successful” in Oslo, Bauer Refocuses on Tour de Ski, Overall World Cup for 2012
Chelsea LittleNovember 8, 2011
At the age of 34, Lukas Bauer of has already done pretty much everything a skier can hope for. At the 2006 Olympics in Torino, he won silver in the 15 k classic. In Vancouver four years later, Bauer took home bronze in both the 15 k skate and the relay. He owns a silver medal from 2009 World Championships in the 15 k classic, and he has twice won the Tour de Ski; in...
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...
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...