Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, WI/Army World Class Athlete Program) rounds out this season’s pursuit races with a stellar 12th place finish, just one of two athletes in the pool of 60 to shoot a perfect 20 for 20 in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. Irwin, jumping 14 places from bib 26, crossed the line in 12th, just +1:23.1 behind the pursuit victor Lisa Vittozzi of Italy, who shot 19 for 20. “It feels amazing to shoot clean in...
FasterSkier’s Coverage of the Biathlon World Championships is made possible through the generous support of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center: New England’s finest snowmaking, world class race venues and touring trails, healthy food in abundance, comfortable accommodations at Craftsbury: Sports, Sustainability, Stewardship. Twenty-eight nations started the Single-Mixed Relay on Thursday at Biathlon World Championships in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic. After just over 35 minutes of fast and furious racing, France claimed the gold,...
FasterSkier’s Coverage of the Biathlon World Championships is made possible through the generous support of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center: New England’s finest snowmaking, world class race venues and touring trails, healthy food in abundance, comfortable accommodations at Craftsbury: Sports, Sustainability, Stewardship. On a rainy Sunday afternoon in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic, 30,000 fans packed the Vysocina Arena for the women’s and men’s Pursuit competitions of the 2024 Biathlon World Championships. The weather...
FasterSkier’s Coverage of the Biathlon World Championships is made possible through the generous support of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center: New England’s finest snowmaking, world class race venues and touring trails, healthy food in abundance, comfortable accommodations at Craftsbury: Sports, Sustainability, Stewardship. Ever since France upset Norway to win the opening Mixed Relay of the 2024 Biathlon World Championships, their magnificent esprit de corps has been on display. After that race, the entire team gathered...
FasterSkier’s Coverage of the Biathlon World Championships is made possible through the generous support of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center: New England’s finest snowmaking, world class race venues and touring trails, healthy food in abundance, comfortable accommodations at Craftsbury: Sports, Sustainability, Stewardship. The 2024 Biathlon World Championships open on Wednesday, February 7 in the countryside town of Nove Mesto na Morave in the Czech Republic. While not widely known as a winter wonderland, Nove Mesto...
Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, WI/Army World Class Athlete Program) and Campbell Wright (Wanaka, NZL/U.S. Biathlon) skied to a ninth place finish in the single mixed relay at the sixth World Cup of the season in Antholz, Italy. Between the pair, both Irwin and Wright held top-10 ski times throughout the race, finishing only four seconds back from the eighth place Estonia and 30 seconds back from a top-five finish. “It felt good to ski with everyone...
The first trimester of the IBU World Cup concluded this past weekend in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Team USA’s Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, WI/Army World Class Athlete Program) stepped up and had the best weekend of her career, landing eighth in the sprint on Thursday. The last time U.S. Biathlon had an athlete in the top ten was in 2022 when Irwin skied to seventh place in the individual event at the Olympics in Beijing. Irwin, who shot...
After two solid days of racing in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, WI/Army World Class Athlete Program) found herself amongst the top 30 female biathletes in the world in the first mass start of the season. Adding to her list of World Cup personal bests, Irwin shot her first perfect 20/20. “Emil [Bormetti] and Armin [Auchentaller] gave me an amazing pep talk last night,” said Irwin. “We tried to focus on coming into this race with less...
Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, WI/Army World Class Athlete Program) raced to a World Cup-best eighth place in the women’s 7.5km sprint, kicking off the first-ever World Cup in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. She landed just one spot off her career-best seventh place from the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, an historic finish for U.S. Biathlon. “Emil and Armin really helped me put together a good ski plan for the race the past couple of days, and I really felt...
On a sunny October Saturday, the Path of the Annularity—the shadow of an eclipse—passed directly over Soldier Hollow, Utah. For nearly thirty minutes, the sky was shaded, the air cooled, and the valley got eerily quiet. But the action never stopped: races went on, heart rates remained high, sweat continued to drip, and finish lines were crossed while the solar/lunar show swirled in the heavens above. Something special was happening, that’s for sure . ....
Biathlon fans anticipated that the women’s 7.5km Sprint would be one of the most tightly-contested races of the BMW IBU World Championships, and it did not disappoint. In the end, only 2.2 seconds separated the new World Champion, Denise Herrmann-Wick of Germany, from the silver medalist, Hanna Oeberg of Sweden. Oeberg’s teammate, Linn Persson, finished third. These athletes will start at the front of Sunday’s 60-person Pursuit and try to stave off the chasers for...
The 2023 BMW IBU Biathlon World Championships kick off on Wednesday, February 8th in Oberhof, Germany. Let’s start with reasons why to watch: Why Watch? Watch because it’s free and easy. This winter, all biathlon World Championship, World Cup, Junior World Championship, and even IBU Cup (World Cup feeder circuit) races and are free to stream live with English commentary on Eurovision’s website. Watch because on the men’s side, Johannes Thignes Boe’s domination so far...
This article is part of a series based on an interview with Lowell Bailey. Mr. Bailey represented the United States in biathlon in four Olympic games, 11 World Championships, and 15 World Cup seasons. He is currently Director of High Performance for U.S. Biathlon. His World Championship gold medal race is one of the most thrilling races ever. If you haven’t seen it, the race is available on YouTube and is a great watch. His...
This article is Part One of an interview with Lowell Bailey who represented the United States in biathlon in four Olympic games, 11 World Championships, and 15 World Cup seasons. He is currently Director of High Performance for U.S. Biathlon. His World Championship gold medal race remains one of the most thrilling races ever. The race is available on YouTube, ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yguD6SEAAmw) and is a great watch. His enthusiasm for biathlon continues, and is contagious....
BEIJING, China (Feb. 18, 2022) – Competing in the first mass start of her career on the Olympic stage, Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, Wis./ National Guard Biathlon & USBA) went toe-to-toe with the world’s best biathletes to finish 23rd in the elite field of 30 on Friday as the Beijing 2022 Winter Games’ biathlon competition came to a close at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Center. Irwin was 3 minutes, 24.1 seconds back with six penalties. “This has just been...
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...
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,”...
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...
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...
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...