In another 20-something-question, fill-in-the-blanks series, we checked in with the world-class U.S. and Canadian biathletes that will be competing at 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships Feb. 22-28 in Osrblie (also known as Brezno-Osrblie), Slovakia. Here’s 19-year-old Cody Johnson, of the Outdoor Sports Institute, who will be representing the U.S. at his second Junior Worlds. On Thursday, Johnson was the top American in 50th in the
In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Ski Federation (FIS) 2017 USANA Nordic Junior World Championships and U23 Cross Country World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 19-year-old Kam Husain, of the Stratton Mountain School, who’s representing the U.S. at his first Junior Worlds. *** “My full name is Kamran...
After mulling it for over a year, Annelies Cook knew a few weeks ago: it was time to retire. She was able to go out on top after winning the mass start at NorAm Championships on Saturday. "It has been a really amazing adventure," she said. "I don’t think there’s a sport like it that makes you feel so much."
This week's workout comes from the eastern edge of the U.S. in Fort Kent, Maine. With plenty of snow ski on, the Maine Winter Sports Center biathlon program completed a head-to-head shooting workout that can be adapted to a non-shooting interval workout for cross-country skiers.
It happens all too often. Inexperienced skier takes off from the start of a distance race as though it is a sprint qualifier, only to struggle through several more kilometers. Will Sweetser, competitive programs director at the Maine Winter Sports Center, has a workout that encourages athletes to take an honest look at their individual ability and find a sustainable pace for every distance.
If you want to know about how biathlon travels from the trails onto television, the first thing you need to know about is cable. In Fort Kent, the site of Maine’s second biathlon World Cup in as many weeks, the stuff is everywhere. It’s mostly black, but also orange, blue, white, red, green, and yellow. It snakes along the sides of the trails, hangs neatly coiled from racks, and explodes into massive, spaghetti-like snarls when...
Magdalena Neuner is among the fastest skiers on the biathlon circuit—but that’s never been her problem. In the past, it has been her shooting that held her back. So when Neuner puts together a good performance on the range, she’s tough to beat. She did just that in Sunday’s 12.5 k mass start in Fort Kent, hitting 19 of 20 targets to capture a dominating 24-second win over her teammate Andrea Henkel. Belarus’s Darya Domracheva...
Lowell Bailey (USA) was so sure that he wouldn’t be racing in Sunday’s mass start in Fort Kent that he told his family to go home. His sister still stuck around. But when Bailey did luck into a start, skiing and shooting his way to a career-best ninth place, his mother wasn’t around to see it—she was driving back to New York. “I owe my mom a little bit of an apology, I guess,” he...
They were probably the biggest pair of hands ever to grasp a biathlon rifle. They belonged to Scottie Pippen, the 6’8” basketball Hall of Famer. And they made the gun look more like a pistol, as a dozen reporters and dignitaries looked on. After watching a pair of World Cup biathlon races on Saturday morning, Pippen had ambled out to point number 27 on the shooting range in Fort Kent, ME. There, he was handed...
Germany’s Andrea Henkel skied to her second straight World Cup win on Saturday in Fort Kent, besting her teammate Magdalena Neuner by 25 seconds in the 10 k pursuit. Neuner and Henkel came into the final shooting stage together, and Neuner, a stronger skier, looked to have the race wrapped up when she hit her first four targets. But her last round went awry, and she couldn’t overcome the 25-second deficit she accumulated in the...
A real crowd finally showed up on Saturday in Fort Kent, for the first time in three days of World Cup racing. They got exactly what they came for in the men’s 12.5 k pursuit: an exhilarating, back-and-forth battle culminating in a finishing sprint that was decided by inches—leaving fans and athletes alike unsure of who was the victor. Five minutes after he lunged with Frenchman Martin Fourcade, Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen finally learned that...
After some strong results in last weekend’s races in Presque Isle, Lowell Bailey appeared to be on his way to another solid finish in Fort Kent. Through two of four shooting stages in Saturday’s 12.5 k pursuit, the American had just one penalty, and had moved up substantially from his starting bib of 31. As he skied into the range for the third time, he unslung his rifle, and looked down for his next clip....
Northern Maine is best known for its ties to Scandinavia—both New Sweden and Stockhom are within striking distance of the biathlon venues in Fort Kent and Presque Isle. But in the raw conditions for Friday’s 7.5 k World Cup sprint, it was the German women who felt more at home in Fort Kent. Battling through frigid temperatures and a swirling breeze, Andrea Henkel led her country to a sweep of the top three, with Miriam...
Cold snow, Spartan living, and one wicked long, wicked steep hill—welcome to Fort Kent. “Reminds me of Russia,” said Norwegian biathlete Tarjei Boe, the leader of the men’s overall World Cup standings. After a week in the relative metropolis of Presque Isle, the biathlon World Cup circuit has now moved to the small town of Fort Kent, in Maine’s northern-most reaches, for three more races. Both women and men will race a sprint, a pursuit,...
There’s plenty of star power already in Fort Kent, in the form of the European athletes preparing for this weekend’s biathlon World Cup. But if everything goes according to plan, there will be at least one more celebrity on the sidelines on Friday and Saturday: former Chicago Bulls basketball player Scottie Pippen. “Right now, we’re planning for a visit from Scottie Pippen,” said Nancie Thibodeau, the event director for the Fort Kent World Cup. Pippen,...
For the U.S. Biathlon Association (USBA), the winter of 2010 was one of ups and downs. High points included Tim Burke’s podium performances in the early season, which culminated with his donning of the yellow bib of World Cup overall leader after a race in Slovenia. The Olympics were less successful, with Jeremy Teela’s ninth-place leading the way—but the team’s dissatisfaction with a single top-ten is a testament to how far the program has come...
Everyone’s excited about the three-day mini-tour at the 2010 SuperTour Finals, and why not? Featuring a mass start classic race, a classic sprint, and an uphill climb, the event has something for everyone: sprinters and distance specialists, climbers and all-rounders, fans, and the media. The only ones who might have reservations are the coaches, since they have to wax all the skis and tackle the logistics. But a survey of those here in Fort Kent...
Midway through the U.S. 50 k Championship race on Wednesday, Ivan Babikov was a nation of one. The lone Canadian in a group of five Americans, he was ineligible for the U.S. title. But that didn’t stop him from skiing away with the win, and the $1,200 check that goes with it. Nearing the end of the last of five ten kilometer laps, Babikov put the hammer down, dropping CXC’s Tad Elliot and APU’s Lars...
After four races and flying across half a dozen different time zones in the last week, Kikkan Randall probably had a tough time telling up from down and left from right on Wednesday. But in the U.S. 30 k National Championship, she could still do the one thing she does best: ski fast, and win. “My body really doesn’t know what to think,” she said. “But it’s in good shape, so we’ll just keep rolling.”...
Fort Kent and Madawaska may not be the most scintillating of towns, but there are, in fact, a handful of things to do aside from eat potatoes and chase moose around. We talked to a couple of locals to get the skinny on Fort Kent and Madawaska. Here are some suggestions. Fort Kent In terms of restaurants, there’s pretty much one game in town for dinner, and that’s The Swamp Buck, on Main Street. Nothing...