The US Biathlon women came out with both a fire and a desire to enjoy themselves in their last race of the Sochi Olympics: the 4 x 6 k relay. It worked as Susan Dunklee, Hannah Dreissigacker, Sara Studebaker, and Annelies Cook captured seventh -- an Olympic record for their program.
After Susan Dunklee turned in the best-ever U.S. women's performance in an Olympic sprint, Sara Studebaker clocked in at 44th and Annelies Cook in 53rd, while Hannah Dreissigacker just missed the cutoff for Tuesday's pursuit in 65th. "So actually getting there, it’s a huge feeling for me," Cook said of her first Olympic finish.
For the second time this season, a women's World Cup biathlon competition was called off mid-race due to deteriorating conditions. On Sunday, it was fog that enveloped the stadium in Antholz, Italy, making it impossible to see the targets on the shooting range. Megan Imrie (CAN) and Annelies Cook (USA) were on course at the time, and talk about what happened.
Susan Dunklee had been here before: in Ruhpolding, in the 15 k, coming into the final shooting stage with a single penalty. Two years ago at World Championships, she cleaned the stage and placed fifth. Today she collected two more penalties, and wound up 41st. But that's okay - this practice for the Olympics, which she's already qualified for, was just as valuable as if she'd hit those shots.
Tim Burke would rather just forget about placing 61st in Friday's sprint; Annelies Cook was embarrassed to get lapped in the pursuit (to be fair, she had her work cut out for her starting last). Leif Nordgren called his results in the 40's "nothing special" and Lowell Bailey didn't even race because he had a cold. For the U.S., Susan Dunklee's finishes of 32nd and 25th were the bright spots.
Even if you have a wealth of international racing experience, the Olympics are a different thing entirely. Leif Nordgren and Annelies Cook, both of whom narrowly missed making the Vancouver teams, locked up their nominations for the U.S. biathlon squad based on results from the first period of World Cup racing this season.
The Canadians notched a national first of fourth place in the IBU World Cup women's relay on Thursday in Annency, France, and the Americans tied their collective career bests of eighth for the second-straight week.
USBA picked 11 athletes to send to Europe this fall, based on trials races this summer in Jericho and last week at Soldier Hollow. Some of them will be picked for Sochi - but who? We clarify the qualification process, as well as getting some comments from High Performance Director Bernd Eisenbichler about the performances he saw in Utah last week.
FasterSkier caught the US Biathlon team during one of their hardest workouts of the training season in Lake Placid, with the added bonus of watching German gold medalist Andrea Henkel rollerski around with them.
Liz Stephen and Tim Burke make skiing uphill for five miles look like a piece of cake. That's because there was nobody within about three minutes of either of them in their Climb to the Castle wins on Sunday.
U.S. Biathlon A-Teamer Annelies Cook catches us up on everything from a new strategy for shooting in races to time trialing against the German women and hiking with friends at home in upstate New York. Plus, women's coach Jonne Kahkonen weighs in on how his team fared in competition.
With nearly two dozen athletes, the MWSC in northeastern Maine is shaping up to be a national powerhouse in both cross-country and biathlon. "From my perspective as director, this group is more of a team than we've ever had," says director Will Sweetser. "There is no doubt that our program will have one of the best men's distance teams in U.S. XC."
With a bevvy of international podiums by North American men and a group of four U.S. and Canadian women who ended the season ranked in the 40's, it was tough to pick our biathletes of the year. But Americans Tim Burke and Annelies Cook stood out to snag top honors.
With the Olympics looming, the U.S. Biathlon Association cut its national team to the smallest it has been in years, with no new members and only one athlete under the age of 25; development was cut almost completely. President and CEO Max Cobb hopes that good performances in Sochi will be a rising tide that lifts all boats in his sport.
Former college skiers Susan Dunklee, Annelies Cook, and Hannah Dreissigacker decided not to go straight to vacation when their World Cup biathlon season ended. Instead, they're racing SuperTour finals - for most, the first classic races and first sprints of the season. After a collection of top-ten results, it looks like a good decision, but they're also keeping things fun with an intra-team "Biathlon Cup" competition.
At 7,000 feet and with a serious climb smack in the middle, the 3.3 k freestyle prologue will open up SuperTour Finals on Thursday with a bang. The Americans, Canadians, Europeans and biathletes in Truckee will quickly find out what they have left in the tank as the season begins to close.
As Gabriela Soukalova took her lead from the sprint and turned it into another victory in the 10 k pursuit, U.S. biathletes Annelies Cook and Susan Dunklee ended their World Cup seasons on a bitter note: after too many penalties, neither was able to qualify for the mass start. Dunklee added insult to injury by cross-firing on the wrong targets and receiving a time penalty. Still, though, she said it was a fun week.
Gabriela Soukalova didn't want to race Thursday morning. Who could blame her? It was freezing in Siberia and she was set to start a 7.5 k sprint that evening. The Czech overcame her dread and won the IBU World Cup race over Germany's Andrea Henkel and Miriam Gössner. Susan Dunklee led the Americans in 29th.
Annelies Cook finished 18th and Susan Dunklee 25th in the World Cup sprint in Sochi, Russia today. With only three women and no team for tomorrow's relay, the sprint and individual races were the only chances the U.S. women had to race on the Olympic course before next year; here's what they thought.
"It's beautiful and it's very strange," U.S. biathlete Annelies Cook said of the new Olympic venue in Sochi, which sits just next to the cross country trails on the slopes of a steep mountain chain. From racing to the athlete village, from unusual rules about rifles to pleasant surprises with washing machines, biathletes are learning what life will be like at next year's Games.