The first time I contacted Russell Currier for a retirement interview, it was mid-April. I had asked him to share his story, and no more than 24 hours after my initial email to Currier, I received a response. “Yeah, let’s do that. I’m actually in Bozeman right meow,” he’d written. Digging through my memory bank, I recalled Currier having come to Bozeman one other time. Two Aprils ago, the Stockholm, Maine, native spent a...
Two and a half years ago, Kelsey Dickinson automatically landed a spot on the U.S. World Cup squad for December. “Our goal for her this year is to make that Olympic team, for sure, but she’s really four years ahead of schedule with it,” Dickinson’s ski coach at Saint Scholastica, Maria Stuber, said. “Nothing about what’s going on right now is what I expected to happen,” Dickinson, a double-major in philosophy and natural science, said....
After coming back from a devastating combination of injuries from a 2015 crash, former U.S. national team member Casey Smith realized that he was treating biathlon like a job, not like fun. He'll re-enroll at Montana State University this fall and say goodbye to elite skiing.
For many years the Maine Winter Sports Center (MWSC) was a staple of cultivating domestic biathlon and cross-country talent at the elite level. There's been a name change; MWSC is now OSI, Outdoor Sport Institute, and its focus is on fostering long-term healthy living across the state.
After making the US Biathlon team and later coaching in Bozeman, Mont., Corrine Malcolm has broken out as a trail runner. While earning her master's degree, she won USATF's 50-mile trail running championship in May and earned a trip to 2016 Trail World Championships.
While TSS can stand for a lot of things in a training plan (i.e. Top Secret Strength, Totally Stupid Strength), the bottom line is it's an uphill workout that reinforces good ski technique and power. All you need is a short, steep hill.
After working alongside Will Sweetser last season, 25-year-old Justin Fereshetian now has the experience and confidence to take on head coaching duties of Maine Winter Sports Center's junior skiers, who are coming off one of their best seasons ever.
Russell Currier, Kelsey Dickinson, and Brian Halligan admit that they didn't have great results this season - so they understand why they weren't re-named to U.S. Biathlon Association training groups. But along with Casey Smith, who was also cut from the 'B' team, they have few options to improve their results and get back now that Maine Winter Sports Center is defunding travel and competition for senior athletes.
Earlier this month came the news that Will Sweetser was parting ways with the Maine Winter Sports Center and leaving his post as competitive sports director. Meanwhile, the MWSC is restructuring its Olympic Development Team, which means less money for top-tier athletes and more toward the junior and postgrad programs.
When Casey Smith went flying off the race course in Canmore, Alberta, he was knocked unconscious; he later found he had broken many ribs, a shoulder blade, and bones in his back, as well as puncturing a lung. The U.S. biathlete is recovering at home, a process which will be long but which he's approaching optimistically.
(Maine Winter Sports Center (MWSC) new life, has given a $2,000,000 gift and an additional $3,000,000 matching gift to kick off MWSC’s $20-million-dollar endowment campaign. Fully matched, Smith’s gift will represent $8 million dollars in endowment contribution. When it was announced in February of 2014 that the MWSC would be losing its funding in April of that year, the future of the organization was in serious doubt. The MWSC immediately launched a campaign intended to...
The U.S. Biathlon Association will reduce its World Cup team to just three men and three women in the beginning of January, ruling out relays in Oberhof, but it's only temporary - seven men and women will race on the IBU Cup and potentially earn promotions to the top circuit.
This interview with 19-year-old Austin Huneck gives a glimpse of what it's like to be a postgraduate skier and make the transition to full-time training and racing after high school. Huneck liked it so much, he's onboard with the MWSC for the second-straight year.
It was shaping up to be another battle between the newest star of the Gross family, biathlon royalty from Germany, and upstart Sean Doherty from the United States. But a Russian swept in to take gold in the youth men's individual race. Nevertheless, two Canadians also made the flower ceremony and two American women were top ten in their own individual competition.
Two Northeastern U.S. biathletes are already off to outstanding starts in the first day of the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Presque Isle, Maine, where Sean Doherty racked up gold and Maddie Grace Phaneuf placed fourth as the only racer to clean all day.
Merry Christmas! On the rare chance that you can sneak out for a workout during the busy holiday season, try the following 45-60 minute workout from Sam Tarling of the Maine Winter Sports Center.
In his third season of skiing, Omar Bermejo is striving for the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. The 31-year-old U.S. Paralympics Development Team member joined the Maine Winter Sports Center this summer in an effort to make that happen and trained with teammates like Kris Freeman in Italy.
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.
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."