Biathlon as a Cross Country Skier

Written by Margie Freed, GRP Skier

Margie racing an IBU Cup in Canmore, Canada

Photo Credit: Lucas Smith

One of my goals as a member of the Green Racing Project is to maximize opportunities. Of course I want to have strong results in competitions, but I also want to learn and grow as a person during my time on the GRP. 

Craftsbury is a unique place where four elite sports form one team, which has really opened my eyes to how each sport develops and achieves success. To truly get an understanding for what my teammates go through and take advantage of an opportunity right in front of me, I made it a goal to try each GRP sport.

Part of my ski training includes running multiple times a week, so that sport is easily checked off the list. However, seeing the speed at which the GRP Run trains made me realize that Susan Dunklee won’t be inviting me to join her team anytime soon!

Thanks to the CommRow program at Craftsbury and patient GRP Row members, I have been able to attempt sculling. After learning the basic stroke pattern I have been able to make it through the narrows and back on Lake Hosmer. Docking, going in a straight line, and stability could still use some work, but I at least understand the basics. 

Margie Training in Craftsbury

Photo Credit: Phil Belena

The last sport left for me to try was biathlon. Cross country ski and biathlon races are never held at the same venue at the same time so there isn’t much crossover between the two communities. The skiing fundamentals are similar but I knew nothing about shooting prior to joining the GRP. My interest piqued after meeting my GRP teammates and seeing them train. I saw how they could match skiers during intervals, did the same strength routines, and had similar training goals. So with some encouragement from my teammates, I hopped into the occasional afternoon shooting practices when I wanted something fun to do. There was no pressure for me to do well so it was easy to relax and just learn the steps of being on the range. Thanks to all my teammates and the GRP coaches for making these sessions fun and convenient, and for helping me to learn a new skill. 

Yes, it is fun to learn all the GRP sports, but my goals for the season were still to compete in the SuperTour circuit and have success in skiing. I found out the US biathlon international trials were to be held in Craftsbury and I would be in town during an off week from ski racing so I devised a way to use these races as intensity training, and to be able to say I’ve tried a biathlon race. They ended up going well, and I was offered a spot to compete in Europe at the IBU cups early in the year. I was a little surprised at receiving this offer, but excited about the opportunity- especially as it wouldn’t overlap with my scheduled SuperTour racing (so I wouldn’t have to completely switch sports mid-season).

The whole experience of being a biathlete was equal parts fun and overwhelming. Coming out of the racing I am happy to have learned many new things.

Cross country ski racing is pretty straight forward. Line up and ski fast. It’s pretty hard, but the process is simple. Now add in precision marksmanship throughout. It takes something that is hard and makes it complicated. Skiing fast is the goal of both sports but there are times within a race where biathletes need to mentally and physically check out of skiing, and change focus to shooting. During my international biathlon racing stint I competed in four sets of races. Through these races I have 3 main takeaways- 1. Remember to compartmentalize the many parts of biathlon racing, 2) It is fun to learn new skills, and 3) Remember to have confidence in my ski ability. 

Margie at her first international event, IBU Open European Championships in Lenzerhide, Switzerland

To compete in a biathlon race there are so many things to worry about. My schedule at the race venue started almost two hours before race start, as opposed to the one hour before a ski race. I still ski tested, and warmed up, but also had to go through rifle check and zeroing. As a rookie all of these extra procedures were pretty overwhelming, but I was thankful to have teammates around to help me. The process went a lot smoother after doing it a couple times, though still time consuming. With a different order of events each race, I learned to be flexible during the warmup process. 

Then comes the racing part. I’ve broken up races into four parts- skiing, range process, prone shooting, and standing shooting. Even though it can be devastating to execute one part poorly, there is usually another that was done well. Skiing well can balance out a poor shooting stage. Similarly, having a good range process can make up for missing a few targets in the grand scheme of learning and trying to get better. Compartmentalizing the parts of biathlon helps me to see success in each attempt of racing and warmup, without getting hung up on one area.

Since I have been skiing for so many years, the increments of getting better are small compared to improvements possible in biathlon which is exciting. New skills are rewarding and refreshing, and after having similar sport goals for many years it feels extra nice to have some variety. Goals don’t have to always have to be physical or result oriented.

This leads into the third takeaway I found in biathlon- confidence in my ski ability. As I stated before, though I still have improvements to be made here, it is my strength in biathlon. So even though it felt a little weird to ski with a rifle and ‘stop’ during a race, I could always count on the skiing part of my races for something familiar.  Of course it's easy to find ways to pick apart little things here, but that wouldn’t do much for my overall experience. Even though I’m not the best skier out there, I know every race I can try my hardest and it will be good for me.

It’s been a great learning experience to compete in biathlon as a cross country skier, and my three takeaways of remembering to compartmentalize the many parts of biathlon, having fun learning a new skill, and remembering to have confidence in my ski ability transfer well between the two sports and in life. I also feel very accomplished in my GRP goal of maximizing opportunities.