“I’m un-retiring for six months,” 34-year-old Zina Kocher said with a laugh on the phone earlier this week. Kocher, who lives in Canmore, Alberta, announced via Instagram on Oct. 2 that she was returning to elite-level racing with the one-and-done hope of making the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. As she referenced in her social-media post, Kocher’s return to the trails will be “4k” (kilograms) lighter — her current run at the Olympics...
Few nordic ski racing and biathlon venues are as awe-inspiring as the Canmore Nordic Centre in Alberta, Canada. Just south of the venue, amidst the geologic upheaval that is the Canadian Rockies, punches the Zina Kocher, a three-time Canadian Olympic biathlete, fostered a deep connection to Boruta as she emerged onto the Canadian biathlon radar. Kocher told FasterSkier on the phone that she qualified for the national championships in 12th grade at age 17. To...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Megan Bankes.) Just to review: 2004: Jean-Philippe “JP” Le Guellec becomes first Canadian to win an International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth World Championships title (in the youth men’s sprint). 2009: Kurtis Wenzel becomes second Canadian to win at IBU Youth Worlds, with a gold medal in the youth men’s sprint. 2012: Wenzel does it again as a junior, winning the 15-kilometer individual at IBU Junior...
On Tuesday, Biathlon Canada posted its final roster for the first trimester of the IBU World Cup, IBU Cup and Jr. IBU Cup. Two women, Megan Tandy and Sarah Beaudry, recently secured their spots on the World Cup team.
Carsen Campbell, a stalwart on Canada's youth and junior biathlon squads, has moved into the senior ranks and got his first World Cup start last season. What's the first thing he packs for a European race tour? "My Hammock! Never know when you'll have to sleep in an airport."
After notching a World Cup top 20 last season, Canadian national-team member Julia Ransom is feeling more ready than ever for the upcoming season. On top of racing, she also volunteers with a local youth biathlon program in Canmore and is working toward a management degree.
On the final day of IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania, the Norwegian women and Russian men bested the field in the junior relays, while the U.S. women placed 12th and Canadian men finished 14th.
The Canadian biathletes are on a roll at IBU Youth World Championships with three athletes in the top 21 on Friday in the youth men's and women's sprints. Teo Sanchez led the team in 17th, Nadia Moser broke through in 19th, Adam Runnalls was 21st, and Megan Bankes 26th for Canada.
Stepping up from youth to junior racing is supposed to be hard - but in doing so, Canmore's Aidan Millar turned in his best result ever in international championship racing. "I’m finding it hard to believe that I was actually able to get that result," he wrote of finishing 8th in the 10 k sprint in Belarus.
Emma Lunder placed 30th in her World Cup debut last season. The Canadian biathlete has since gained funding, training partners, and motivation: "Anytime I'm doing a really brutal workout, I just think to myself, if you can get through this, you're one step closer to racing in Pokljuka again!"
After graduating from high school and joining the Biathlon Alberta Training Centre for her first season of full-time training, Sarah Beaudry wanted more from her third Youth World Championships appearance than a couple more finishes in the 20's and 30's. On Tuesday, she got it - a fifth-place result that was just 20 seconds from the podium.
While Julia Ransom collected her second top-20 result in as many days, four other Canadian women improved in the youth and junior pursuits in Obertilliach, Austria. The lone American woman to make the pursuits, Anna Kubek moved up to 25th in the youth women's race.
Christian Gow and Stuart Harden continued solid Championships racing that was nonetheless not quite what they were hoping for, finishing 16th and 18th in the junior and youth pursuits. For America, Casey Smith turned in one of the more impressive pursuit performances of the day, missing a single shot and climbing 20 places to 23rd.
Despite the presence of several former champions in the field, a new gold medalist rose to the top at biathlon’s World Youth and Junior Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland on Saturday: Elena Ankudinova. The diminutive Russian was perfect on the range and collected an eight-second victory in the junior women’s 7.5 k sprint. She bested, among others, Tuesday’s individual champion, Chardine Sloof of the Netherlands; last year’s youth individual champion, Thekla Brun-Lie of Norway; and teammates...
On Friday, Julia Ransom came thisclose to picking up Canada’s second medal of the week at biathlon World Youth and Junior Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. Thisclose, it turns out, means four and a half seconds over six kilometers and two shooting stages. That’s the margin that separated Ransom, who wound up fifth in the youth women’s sprint, from third-place Lisa Theresa Hauser of Austria. If she had any regrets about missing the podium, Ransom kept...
In the opening junior men’s race of biathlon’s World Youth and Junior Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland, Canada’s Kurtis Wenzel used near-perfect shooting to demolish the field and collect his second world championship title. His teammates, however, were less successful, shooting 80%, 60%, and 40%. “After the individual race I was a little bit down,” said Maxc Davies, who had missed 12 shots and placed 72nd. How things change. In Thursday’s junior 4 x 7.5 k...
On Wednesday, Kontiolahti, Finland, became a venue that was hospitable for biathlon for the first time in perhaps several weeks. After the bitter cold of the World Cup races two weeks ago, a general lack of sunlight, and a persistent wind that has dogged even the best shots at World Youth and Junior Championships this week, today’s balmy sunshine was a welcome reprieve. “Today was an amazing bluebird day and there was almost no wind,”...
Kontiolahti, Finland, didn’t seem like a logical place for either Canada’s Zina Kocher or U.S. biathlete Sara Studebaker to excel on Saturday. Kocher is traveling on her own, without the support of the Canadian team staff, while Studebaker raced in Friday’s mixed relay, unlike most of the top female competitors. And in fact, on Saturday morning, it almost seemed like none of the women would get a chance to do their best. “There was so...
When two-time Olympian Zina Kocher was left off of Biathlon Canada’s “A” team this spring, she was surprised. “Criteria was never set before the season started,” Kocher told FasterSkier in an interview; it wasn’t until after the season was over that athletes learned whether their results were good enough for a nomination. Instead of simply adjusting and continuing on with the national team, Kocher turned down the “B” team nomination altogether and joined another squad,...