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Clare Egan

(Press Release) Egan and Dunklee Conclude Olympic Careers with 11th Place Relay

In the final Olympic race of their careers, Susan Dunklee (Craftsbury, Vt./Craftsbury Green Racing Project & USBA) and Clare Egan (Cape Elizabeth, Maine/Craftsbury Green Racing Project & USBA) helped guide the U.S. women to an 11th-place finish in Wednesday’s 4×6-kilometer relay at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. Three-time Olympian Dunklee was first out of the shooting range after prone, having cleaned all five targets. She also cleaned from the standing position but admittedly was sluggish on the skis and made...

The Chinese Ski Team’s Path to Beijing (Part 1)

Salmon for Skiing Over the last four years China has undertaken perhaps the grandest experiment in cross country skiing history: can hundreds of athletes cherry picked from other sports and given seemingly unlimited resources be turned into Olympic medalists in nordic events?  Chinese athletes have never medaled in any of the nordic disciplines, and their teams head into the Olympics as the darkest of dark horses. Success, in the form of medals, is key to...

(Press Release) In Race of Her Life, Deedra Irwin Posts Top Finish Ever by an American Biathlete

BEIJING, China (Feb. 5, 2022) – Things don’t always go according to plan, but occasionally someone can exceed even her wildest expectations. Such was the case for Deedra Irwin of Pulaski, Wisconsin, who on Monday turned in the best Olympic performance ever by an American biathlete, finishing seventh in the women’s 15-kilometer individual event at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre northwest of Beijing. “I was trying to focus on just working on everything I’ve worked on this week,”...

(Press Release) U.S. Equals Best Mixed Relay Finish at Olympics

BEIJING, China (Feb. 5, 2022) – The American quartet of Susan Dunklee Craftsbury, Vt./Craftsbury Green Racing Project & USBA), Clare Egan (Cape Elizabeth, Maine/Craftsbury Green Racing Project & USBA), Sean Doherty (Center Conway, N.H./National Guard Biathlon & USBA) and Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis./Team Crosscut & USABA) finished seventh in the mixed relay Saturday as the Beijing 2020 Winter Games biathlon competition got underway at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Center. The result tied the best-ever finish for Team USA in an Olympic mixed relay, equaling...

The Enigma of Zhangjiakou and the Kuyangshu Nordic Center

The ski trails at the Zhangjiakou Olympic venue – completed during the pandemic – will be seen with fresh eyes for most athletes and service staff as they arrive ahead of the 2022 Games. For service teams that often prepare years in advance of an Olympics, the uncertainty surrounding Zhangjiakou, from its weather to its snow, is a new phenomena. What is certain is that climatically, there is the potential for some very interesting conditions. ...

(Press release) U.S. Women’s Relay Heads into Beijing with Best Finish in 28 Years

In the final women’s relay competition before the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games, the 14th ranked U.S. Women’s Biathlon Team raced to a fifth-place finish in Saturday’s 4×6-kilometer event at the BMW IBU World Cup in Antholz. It marked the best relay finish for the women’s team in a World Cup since 1994 when the U.S. took the silver medal in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. However, today’s performance bettered that race 28 years ago in terms of time...

(Press Release) Clare Egan Fourth in Antholz

Antholz, ITA – US Biathlon Team and Craftsbury Green Racing Project athlete Clare Egan (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) grabbed the second-best finish of her career with a fourth place in Friday’s 15km Women’s Individual competition in Antholz, Italy. The result comes after Egan went home for Christmas and skipped the Oberhof World Cup to prepare for the Beijing Games. “The biggest challenge with my preparation has been staying positive and patient while I try to get my physical shape...

Sean Doherty Named to Third Olympic Team

Sean Doherty (Center Conway, N.H./National Guard Biathlon & USBA) became the fifth biathlete to qualify for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. The discretionary selection was announced by the U.S. Biathlon International Competition Committee on Monday following Doherty’s dominating performance in the sprint and pursuit races at the U.S. Biathlon Olympic Trials held in Arber, Germany, Jan. 2-3. “Sean performed really well and kept his focus during two really challenging races,” said U.S. Biathlon Director of High Performance Lowell...

Elite Team Preview: Craftsbury Green Racing Project

Team name and location: Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP, or Craftsbury); Craftsbury, Vermont Coaches: Pepa Miloucheva (head coach); Michael Gibson (biathlon coach); Nick Brown (assistant coach and wax tech); Ethan Dreissigacker (assistant biathlon coach) Current roster (skiing and biathlon): Braden Becker, Adam Martin, Akeo Maifeld-Carucci, Caitlin Patterson, Michaela Keller-Miller, Margie Freed, Annika Landis, Alex Lawson (skiing); Jake Brown (Luke’s brother), Raleigh Goessling, Hallie Grossman, Susan Dunklee, Kelsey Dickinson, Tara Geraghty-Moats, Clare Egan, Luke Brown (Jake’s...

(Press Release) US Biathlon Names Rosters for Early-Season Camp and Races

This press release, written by Bill Kellick, was originally posted at TeamUSA.org. Oct. 27, 2021, 8:47 a.m. (ET) (NEW GLOUCESTER, MAINE) – US Biathlon has announced the roster for the Pre-World Cup On-Snow Camp in Obertilliah, Austria, as well as the roster for the first two IBU Cup competitions of the 2021-22 season. The Pre-World Cup Camp will begin November 11 with athletes joining National Team Coaches Armin Auchentaller and Vegard Bitnes for on-snow training ahead of the first BMW IBU...

Egan Sweeps USBA Rollerski National Championships; Doherty and Schommer Lead Men’s Field

This post will be updated with men’s comments as available.  The 2021 U.S. Biathlon National Rollerski Championships were held this past weekend in Jericho, VT, hosted by the Ethan Allen Biathlon Club.  As the annual event was held in a virtual format in August 2020 due to COVID-19 safety restrictions, the weekend marks a welcome return to public national level biathlon competition. Participants from clubs throughout the U.S. made their way to Northern Vermont to...

U.S. Women’s Biathlon Races to Best Relay Finish Since 1994 (USBA Press Release)

NOVE MESTO, Czech Republic (March 4, 2021) – In the final women’s 4×6-kilometer relay of the BMW IBU World Cup season, Team USA turned in a performance for the ages. The team’s sixth-place finish in the field of 21 teams on Thursday was the best since 1994 and just 40.1 seconds off the winning time turned in by Sweden. The U.S. quartet’s time was also a mere 12.3 seconds from the bronze medal. By comparison, the...

U.S. Biathlon Team Heads to Italy for Final World Cup Before World Championships

Press Release from US Biathlon: By Bill Kellick After back-to-back IBU World Cup events in Oberhof, Germany, the U.S. Biathlon team and the rest of the world’s best biathletes are headed for Antholz, Italy, for the final World Cup races before the IBU Biathlon World Championships. This week’s BMW IBU World Cup event, running Jan. 21-24, will consist of individual races, mass starts and relays. Antholz played host to last year’s world championships and the...

Steady as She Goes this Season: Clare Egan on the IBU World Cup

Clare Egan of the U.S. Biathlon team has wowed this season. Through December and most of January, Egan popped steady and consistent reults on the IBU World Cup. Currently, she is ranked 19th on the IBU World Cup, ceding two spots to the top-ranked North American, Canada’s Emma Lunder in 17th.  Highlights of her season thus far are a 10th in a Hochfilzen, Austria sprint, 13th in a Hochfilzen pursuit followed by a ninth place...

US Biathlon Prepares for a New Look 2020-2021 Season

As coronavirus cases spike worldwide, biathletes are preparing for a modified start to the 2020-2021 World Cup season. The schedule emphasizes less travel than would be the norm on the IBU World Cup circuit. At the end of September, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced that the first four races of the winter would be held at two venues. Kontiolahti, Finland, will host the first two events on consecutive weekends, starting 27 November. Hochfilzen, Austria...

Nordic Nation: Clare Egan and Navigating the Pandemic

Thirty two years old and wise as wise can be. Clare Egan brings a calm intellect to the sport of biathlon. Speaker of many languages and head of the International Biathlon Union’s athlete committee, Egan is respected by her peers for on-snow performances as well as her leadership in the IBU board room. We spoke to Egan earlier this month as she was training in Antholz, Italy with U.S. women’s head coach Armin Auchentaller. The...

Weathering the Storm: Catching Up with Susan Dunklee

Success in biathlon can be fickle. With so many added variables, many outside an athlete’s control, the results page does not always align with the quality of the effort or performance. In an interview after a career best result in the 15k individual event in Pokljuka, Slovenia, Clare Egan explained that it is essential for a biathlete to differentiate between the two. “We learn early on in biathlon to distinguish between [results and performance] because...

Good day for U.S. at Junior Worlds

A compelling aspect of international biathlon is the diversity of nations represented at the highest level, the International Biathlon Union World Cup. Last week in Pokljuka, 25 five teams from 25 different nations were represented in the 4 x 7.5 k mixed relay. It speaks to the broadening global appeal for the sport. All those nations are tasked with developing athletes. Not to say there will be 25 different approaches, but each team espouses it’s own...

Pokljuka IBU World Cup Rundown (Day 3-4): Gow and Lunder 4th in Single Mixed Relay

Let’s catch up with the IBU World Cup and the action from Saturday and Sunday in Pokljuka, Slovenia.  First up, the single mixed relay, in which teams of two are paired with each skier racing two legs and shooting two stages per leg. France took the win in 38:33.4 minutes shooting 0+5. The big news from the relay for North America, was Canada’s fourth place result. Christian Gow and Emma Lunder were 16 seconds back...

Day 1-2 IBU World Cup Rundown from Pokljuka: Egan 6th, Lunder 10th in 15 k Individual (Includes audio interview with Egan)

The traveling IBU World Cup roadshow stops in Pokljuka, Slovenia this week and began the individual races. The women’s 15 k individual ran on Friday. The individual race format places a heightened premium on clean shooting; each missed shot amounts to an automatic minute penalty. Tiril Eckhoff of Norway had been dominating the circuit recently. Yet, Friday, she fell in the standings to place an uncharacteristic 18th. In first place was former German cross-country skier...