Lowell Bailey could go around telling people he won two national rollerski titles this weekend. But that’s not exactly the biggest deal for Bailey, a U.S. biathlon champion multiple times over who’s been competing at the sport’s highest level for more than a decade.
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.
Coming off the high of a top-five in Sochi, Russia, last weekend, U.S. Biathlon’s Tim Burke continued the momentum on Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk with a ninth-place finish in the 10 k sprint, the third-to-last race of the World Cup season. Lowell Bailey also had a strong finish in 11th place, two seconds behind Burke with perfect shooting.
In fourth place just seconds from the front after two legs of Sunday's 4 x 7.5 k relay, the U.S. men went on to place tenth after losing out on a photo finish with Slovakia. They appreciated the chance to preview the Olympic courses, but with dangerous crashes and complaints about the difficulty of the trails, they expect to see a different Sochi when they come back in a year's time for the Games.
The Canadian men's relay team placed 8th in the 4x7.5k relay, the best mark ever at a championship event. The U.S placed 12th.
Tim Burke’s silver medal-winning performance for the U.S. Biathlon team gave the Americans a big reason to celebrate on Thursday, but the team’s performance as a whole was worth noting, too. Three members finished in the top 30 — after Burke, Leif Nordgren took 22nd with two penalties and Lowell Bailey was 29th with three errors.
Nine American and Canadian athletes competed in the 10/12.5 k pursuits at IBU World Championships on Sunday. Here are some photos of the action.
Starting in the mid-30's, Lowell Bailey and Jean Philippe Le Guellec didn't let disappointing sprint results keep them down. Bailey cleaned a four-stage race for the first time in his career, placing 13th; Le Guellec had just one missed target to end up 15th.
Across both the men's and the women's teams, six of the eight Americans qualified for the 60-person pursuits on Sunday. Tim Burke was the lone man to make the top 30, while Annelies Cook led the women's squad in 45th. All six are ready to improve in the pursuit.
In the timespan of just two seasons, Nove Mesto has transformed itself from a ho-hum IBU Cup venue to an exhilarating superstadium for biathlon - one where, as several athletes claim, the fans are even louder and more enthusiastic than those at the traditional capitals of Ruhpolding and Oberhof in Germany.
Susan Dunklee's single spare round and third-fastest ski time combined to be the best race by any woman skiing the second leg of the mixed relay. But while it may have been a highlight of the U.S. team performance, each member skied a strong race, culminating in a historic eighth-place finish, their best ever at a World Championships.
US Biathlon's International Competition Committee has named four men and four women to the 2013 World Championship team. World Championships will be held in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, starting February 7th.
Tim Burke skied the third-fastest course time in the 12.5 k pursuit in Antholz, Italy, today, and placed 14th to lead the U.S.; Lowell Bailey was close behind in 16th. Comments from Burke and USBA High Performance Director Bernd Eisenbichler, plus Sara Studebaker (39th place) explains why the Antholz range is tough and JP Le Guellec (38th) checks in before World Championships.
Lowell Bailey led the U.S. with a seventh-place finish in the 10 k sprint in Antholz, with a time 40 seconds slower than that of race winner Anton Shipulin of Russia. Five North American men will start the pursuit on Saturday.
In the men's 4 x 7.5 k relay in Ruhpolding Martin Fourcade anchored France to a 9-second victory over Norway, redeeming themselves of their last memory of the venue. Lowell Bailey and Leif Nordgren put the U.S. in second at the halfway mark, but the Americans ended up 14th.
A strong team effort, where each racer skied among the fastest times of the day withstood the pressure of the notoriously loud and crazy Oberhof fans, gave the U.S. their best relay result in the era of modern biathlon.
On Thursday in Pokljuka, Slovenia, Burke turned in a season best fourth-place finish in the 10 k sprint even though he never reached his top speed. Lowell Bailey finished 36th on a broken toe.
Just like last year at this competition, Lowell Bailey had a good thing going. Today, though, he was able to clean his final stage and stay into the top ten; USBA President Max Cobb called the perfect late-race shooting a big accomplishment, and something that Bailey has been working on. Plus, more from the other North American biathletes.
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden – For two guys who were aiming for the medals last year and ended 2012 ranked in the top 20 of the World Cup, the biathlon season doesn’t, by outward appearance, seem to be off to a great start. Neither Lowell Bailey nor Tim Burke made a strong impression in Wednesday’s 20 k individual (they placed in the mid-30’s), then Burke skied from 18th to 15th in today’s pursuit and Bailey from 30th...
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden - U.S. biathletes take windy shooting conditions in in stride Östersund, Sweden and are looking ahead to the pursuit.