Back Up

A lot has happened since I last updated this blog on May 4^th. I moved to Craftsbury Common, Vermont, joined the Craftsbury Green Racing Project team, gained new coaches and teammates, added the backing of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, and made a plethora of other changes to my sporting and personal life.

Being a supported professional biathlete on the best private team in North America is a privilege I am grateful for every day.  

The training year has whizzed by and I am now in the thick of the competition season. Here is a brief summary of the training year and the first trimester of the race season.

Spring 2018

I arrived in Craftsbury and began training in earnest. The most difficult parts where adopting a new style of skiing and adjusting to the sheer volume and intensity of the training. I took each challenge in stride and improved with every workout.

Summer 2018

The most intense period of summer training was punctuated, as it is every year, by rollerski races in Jericho, Vermont. These races would play a role in selecting who raced in Europe in December. I realize this seems like an odd way to select athletes for a winter sport, but this is how US Biathlon likes it, for some reason… I produced flashes of quality during the competitions but was left frustrated and off the pace of my peers.

Fall 2018

I continued to make incremental gains both skiing and shooting. I got the opportunity to attend a training camp with the National team which was a huge boost to my training because it allowed me to get new perspectives on shooting and skiing, while exposing the areas I needed to improve most.

The focal point of the fall was a 3-week training and competition trip to Soldier Hollow, Utah. The purpose of the trip was to spend time training at high altitude and qualify for the first period of European Competition via rollerski competitions.

I trained well in Utah but came up just short of making a team for December. I was very disappointed in myself, and this feeling was compounded by all my GRP teammates qualifying to race in Europe. I was happy to share in their success but felt like I was letting the team and myself down by not making the cut.   

November 2018

In November my GRP teammates and I traveled to Foret Montmorency, Quebec for two early snow camps. Each a week long these skiing focused periods where very helpful for me. After Foret, I focused on preparing for December IBU Cup Trials which took place in Soldier Hollow, Utah, this time on snow. I tried to keep focused and realize that most of the season was yet to come.

December 2018

December brought the defining moments of the season in the form of IBU Cup Trials. These races ran in conjunction with US World Junior Championship Trials. The coming together of different age groups and biathletes from around the country was very cool, the passive behavior of the organizers was not. Huge thanks to the heroic efforts of the few individuals to made the races happen. The races where very challenging for me, but I overcame some bad shooting and poor ski selection adversity with a renewed belief in my ability and good ski form.

My efforts earned me a place on the January IBU Cup team. Qualifying for these races was the culmination of my career to date.

January 2019

I raced IBU Cups 4, 5 and 6. In Poland, Germany and Switzerland. During the trip I had the opportunity to be promoted to the World Cup, but I was not able to perform at that level. I enjoyed the trip immensely.

Even on days when I did not perform well, I was grateful for the opportunity to race in Europe and improve my biathlon. My best result was 40^th place in Germany, which qualified me to race at the Open European Championships in Minsk, Belarus this February.

The journey back to the international level of biathlon has tested me far more than I expected, but the feeling of finally breaking through was well worth the effort. By qualifying to race at the senior level in Europe I feel like a weight has been lifted from my athletic conscious. The duration of my absence was notable enough for two IBU officials to question if I was eligible to race, “Is it possible that your last race was 7 years ago??” In fact, it has been 7 years since I last raced in an IBU race, it was January 2012 at World Junior Championships.

It took longer, and was much harder than I expected in 2012, but I’m back to the international level, and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.