Team for Tomorrow Sends Aid to Haitian Olympic Committee!

One of the neat things about this year is the opportunity to become a part efforts that are not focused on a result, a qualification, a record, but rather on helping others around us in greater need.

I am a part of Team for Tomorrow, and will work among other Olympians to promote the ideals of the Olympics and as ambassador's of the the USOC's humanitarian relief fund. I just recently found out that this team will be sending donations to Haiti through its Olympic Committee as soon as possible after this week's devastating earthquake: teamusa.org press release.

Here is the email that I sent out to all of my sponsors and family earlier this week announcing my part of this new team:

Peace-Understanding-Tolerance-Harmony

USOC’S Team for Tomorrow Early this fall I was among 10 Winter Olympic athletes elected on to USOC’s Team for Tomorrow. I am an ambassador for this humanitarian relief fund and the Olympic ideals. This year the fund has sent aid in the form of clothes and sporting equipment to Afghanistan and Africa. I will do my part in my own community by helping out with a Habitat for Humanity project in the Adirondacks later in the spring or summer. The Team for Tomorrow is a humanitarian relief fund created just before the Bejing Olympics to help athletes further their own Olympic legacy by providing a way for us to give assistance to those in need and to give back to those communities that supported us along the way.

USOC teamusa.org press release http://www.teamusa.org/news/article/29951

Before Christmas, Team for Tomorrow and USBA donated digital cameras and laptops to high school journalism classes in Grand Rapids, Minnesota on behalf of me being selected to this team. Our European Team Trials and the first phase of the Olympic Trials were held there in December and Minnesota’s biathlon clubs have been important places for biathlon development over the years. One of men’s Olympic team members, Wynn, is from one of these influential programs in Minnesota. I was racing in Slovenia at the time of the donation, but was glad the USBA was able to give something back to one of the communities that have been so important to US Biathlon.

I am still new to this Team, but am anticipating the Team will gather during the Olympics. Our work complements the way in which Vancouver has gone about preparing for the Games, so please check out the work they’ve done with sustainability and social inclusion at www.2010Vancouver.com .

My Team for Tomorrow Statement

As member of Team for Tomorrow, I am honored to be an ambassador of the Olympic ideals and to represent US Biathlon.

Sport has enriched my life. Giving me opportunities to challenge my mind and body, teaching me values and ideals inherit to the Olympic spirit, and connecting me to life long mentors are among its many benefits; for me, it is a key. Through Team for Tomorrow, I am exciting about helping others find their own “keys” to success by overcoming financial, social, personal and even environmental challenges and enjoying life.

Fellow Team for Tomorrow athletes:

o Tony Benshoof, Luge

o John Benton, Curling

o Caitlin Cahow, Ice Hockey

o Rachael Flatt, Figure Skating

o Haley Johnson, Biathlon

o Augusto Perez, Paralympic Curling

o Noelle Pikus-Pace, Skeleton

o Katherine Reutter, Speedskating

o Liz Stephen, Cross Country Skiing

o Curt Tomasevicz, Bobsled

Oberhof

Some of the many thousands of biathlon fans in Oberhof.

As for me, this week included a two week training block which is the foundation to my Olympic Games preparation. I've changed my technique dramatically, rebuilt my base, and today, took a much needed day of rest to let it all soak in.

After changing conditions throughout the first three World Cups, Oberhof's solid tracks were very nice to train and race on. It is like a winter wonderland up here, except when the fog, wind and snow rolls in, and it makes you yearn for places like Antholz and sun, and the wonder has frozen.

Oberhof is a hot spot for biathlon, and thousands of people flocked here this week to watch the races and relish in the success and defeat of biathlon. From a spectators view, watching the skill of the circuit's best aim for barely visible targets in howling wind definitely ups the excitement level as you keep your fingers crossed that your favorite biathlete will hit most of their targets.

One of my favorite things about Europe is Eurosport. And this was not a bad day to catch a few hours of it: Lindsey Vonn (alpine) won another World Cup, our Tim Burke was 2nd and regained the Yellow Leader's bib, hometown friend, Bill Demong won an extremely demanding World Cup with Steamboat's Todd Lodwick just behind, and I think I saw that Erin Hamlin (she also trains out of the LP Training Center) was 3rd in a luge World Cup. Not a bad weekend for the Americans!

Congrats to our Olympic Team!

Our 2010 US Olympic Biathlon Team has been named! I extend my congrats and respect to our team:

Sara Studebaker, Lanny Barnes, and Laura Spector

Tim Burke, Jeremy Teela, Jay Hakkinen, Lowell Bailey and Wynn Roberts

And, after an impressive Mass Start in the infamous Oberhof fog and wind, Tim was 2nd and reclaimed the Yellow Bid, and the number one spot! The latest press releases have been posted on www.biathlon.teamusa.org

We will join in Ruhpolding tomorrow for the start of the 5th World Cup, which marks 5 weeks out from our first races of the Games. Ruhpolding, being a mecca for biathlon in Germany, is quite an exciting place to race, and it is going to be a lot of fun to finally race in a Relay on Friday. Thousands of fans will come out to watch and celebrate during this weeks races, which can only rival the 25,000 fans that showed for the Oberhof races this week. Watch our Olympic team, LIVE this week:

1.13 Wednesday - Women's SPRINT 11:20amEST

1.14 Thursday - Men's SPRINT 11:20amEST

1.15 Friday - Women's RELAY 11:20amEST - our first of the year, and our personal best is 10th

1.16 Saturday - Men's Mass Start 9:15amEST

1.7 Sunday - Men's Relay 9:15amEST - Last year our men's relay team was 5th at this WC!

Watch us live in OBERHOF!

We race in the afternoon again during this next block of World Cups, which means watching online is not a middle of the night affair - but rather something to watch during breakfast:)

Tim, Jay, Jeremy and I will be competing in the Sprint on Friday, and Tim will lead off in the Men's Mass Start (Top-30 and he's #1). Here are the EST race times:

1/8 8:30am 7.5km Sprint - Women

1/9 6:45am 10km Sprint - Men

1/10 5:00am 12.5km Mass Start - Women

1/10 7:20am 15km Mass - Start Men

Check out www.biathlonworld.com to watch LIVE and www.biathlon.teamusa.org for follow-up press releases from the World Cup and from our US Olympic Team Trials held in Altenberg, Germany. After this week of racing, our full Olympic Team roster will re-join in Ruhpolding for the next series of World Cup races.

Dear 4th Grade: Happy New Year!

So, you must all be back in school now? How was your holiday break? How are things in Lake Placid? All is quite well here. And I too had a great time with family during Christmas. But, I am back on the road again. For this week I am in Antholz in the South Tyrolian region of Italy. I am staying at the top of the valley right next to the nordic and biathlon center; I can walk out the door of my hotel right on to the ski trail! Again, I am staying on another lake - but this one a bit smaller and frozen, so I can ski on it.

A trail behind the hotel rises above the lake towards a pass which is on the border of Italy and Austria. A local's favorite is to hike up this trail, enjoy a hot drink and some cake at a small restaurant at the top, then rent a sled to take you all the way back down to the lake. Today, I just classic skied up to enjoy the view:

Looking back towards my "home" for the week - Hotel Seehaus:

This week I am back to a normal training schedule - a session in the morning, some good pasta for lunch, a nap and then another training session in the afternoon. It has been good to rebuild my strength and stamina after racing and traveling a lot this past month. The gains I make in these current weeks will help me race faster over the next month and are a part of the step process towards racing well in February.

After our full Olympic Team re-assembles at the Ruhpolding World Cup [see my schedule in the right hand column] we will be back here for the 6th World Cup. It will be exciting to have our whole team and staff together again, especially for the women since there has only been a few of us racing over here. And looking ahead towards Ruhpolding, we will enter our first women's relay before the Olympics. All the races are in the afternoon and evening that week, which makes it much more enjoyable to watch online back in the US without missing a good night of sleep.

Ciao!

Holidays - happy and spent in Colorado

I spent a week at home with family in Colorado. Dave and I spent Christmas in Steamboat with my sister Kara - now an avid skate skiing fan.

And, thanks to a great Christmas present, Dave and I made homemade pasta.

Relaxed and refreshed I returned back to Europe for a training camp with one of our head coaches in Antholz Rasen, Italy.

Dear 4th grade: And now, I am in Bled, Slovenia

Does this not look like Lake Placid at night on Mirror Lake?

I really enjoyed getting to see a new country. Slovenia has a very neat and different feel to it, even though I was only mere hours from Austria and Germany. We arrived in the evening, which is always fun, because the morning brings such suprise about the surrounding area, town and nature.

Looking down towards the shooting range and stadium in Pokljuka, were the races were held.

A "small town" of wax cabins for all of the countries is the place where our skis are made to be fast!
Our poles are all lines up and ready to go:
And here are all of our training skis:
All week, every week, we spend a lot of time in the above places, so each week I make sure I get out to enjoy the town I am staying in. The town of Bled is on a lake similar in size to Mirror Lake, but with an island and castle in the middle!

Local legend has it that this castle has been a popular wedding spot for a long time and before the wedding the groom must carry the bride of these 99 steps. I think my fiance could hack that:)

I ran around the lake on my last day before heading back home. It is a quite place, but bustling with visitors taking pictures as the stroll around the lake as I did. I was also quite taken by the "villas" and old estates that peppered the shoreline. I remember visiting old "camps" and even the Lake Placid Club when I was young - there is a similar "old" feel to this place.

When I arrived - I new this place had a good feel to it. Training went well, racing went okay, better and better than even I expected after a challenging start to my season. In the Individual race I hit 19 for 20 targets and placed 21st - a personal best for the World Cup and a result which also pre-qualified me for the 2010 Olympic Team. It happened so much faster than I expected, but now in retrospect I believe it all came at the right time. I have worked hard, and am prepared to work even harder. After this next block of World Cups (Germany and Italy) its the home stretch towards the games - both periods will offer me time to train and race with new goals and achievements so that in February I can be at or closer to my peak performance.

In 2007, when still with the Maine Winter Sports Center, I was on the Potato Picker's Special at 4am up in the County during potato harvest with John Farra (who is now head of the Nordic Sports for the US) and I told them the revelation I had when buying a can of beans that was marked with "Best by 2010." At that point, I new I was on the road to also be "Best by 2010."

Thank you to all have helped me get this far!

Dear 4th grade: Hochfilzen, Austria and Race Preparation

My second week of racing was spent in Hochfilzen, Austria. We stayed in a hotel at the bottom of the valley beneath tall mountains such as this one shown below.

The venue is up at the top of the valley, and when it poured rain down below it snowed wet, big, heavy flakes on the ski trails.
This is the view of the orange "start" house, next to the shooting range. The stands rise just to the left of this photo in this very spectator friendly venue. All of the trails are out in the open and weave throughout numerous spectator sections.

Race day begins right here at the start. First, I need to zero my rifle. Do you remember the paper targets that I showed you during my visits? In the photo below, you can see the target numbers and 10 black dots below - those are the paper targets I brought in. On the left you can see a scope, which a coach uses to watch each athletes shots. We check our rifles each day we shoot to adjust for wind, light and a new range. It is very important to be as accurate as possible.

Next, skis are tested. We have a staff of wax technicians who test our skis and the best ski wax for the day. Usually, our skis are quite fast and that makes racing quite fun. Just as we need to be accurate with shooting, we also need to pay close attention to how accurate our skis are for the day. There are many different snow conditions that we can encounter during the race season. For each condition we have a certain pair of skis; one for wet snowball snow, one for dry new snow, for example. Our wax technicians help us determine the best pair for race day.

After ski testing and zero, it is time to warm up my body and mind. I spend one or two more loops inspecting the course so that I know which technique to use where, or where to ski hard and where to relax. I make a mental check of what I want to focus on during the race, make sure I have my race bib on and head to the start.

Inspecting even means noticing the unique scenes along the course; someone had fun building this cheering snowman.

The crowd too is getting excited and ready for the start, flags wave and horns are blown.

On Sunday, I got to watch the women's relay. Here is a photo just before the start, as the 23 teams leading woman prepares to get into the starting line-up.

Here, spectators line the hill on the course and cheer exuberantly as the racers go by.

I had to head back down for lunch, so I didn't get to see the first shooting stage. It was an exciting race to watch because the leaders continued to change with each leg. In the relay there are 4 legs, each skiing 6km and shooting twice. The bonus of a relay is that you get three extra rounds for each shooting stage. So, if you miss you get a few extra chances. For the men's relay, they also have 4 legs, but they ski 7.5km each.

I competed in the Sprint race this week (7.km, 2 shooting stages, penalty loops for missed shots) and was happy with some better shooting. I skied the course well, but still do not feel like I am up to my race speed yet. But, that's okay. I have three more races in Slovenia in the following week.