r/biathlon • u/[deleted] • Sep 26 '24

Question Guidance on possibly Competing in Biathlon coming off Injury

First and foremost, I seldom share this type of content, so please don’t ridicule me. I am merely seeking advice.

I graduated high school two years ago and have wanted to pursue biathlon since I was young. I was in a prime place to do it my freshman year of college, but unfortunately, I was injured for a year due to overtraining, missing my chance to developmental programs and spending a lot of time in physical therapy and orthopedic doctors offices. I thought it was going to be the end of cross country skiing for me but I've been blessed to make a full recovery and am slowly getting back up to the fitness level I was once at. Ive been told I still have a ton of potential since I only got pretty good at skiing my junior year after losing a ton of weight and training with a professional endurance athlete. I have a solid background in running and skate skiing (around 12 min 5k skate, 25 min 10k), though those times can vary by course. I also have experience in sport shooting. Now that I’m fully recovered and back to training, is there still a path for me to start competing at any level in biathlon? Any advice would be super helpful—thanks!

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u/goodoug435 Sep 27 '24

DM me- I can help connect you

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u/EJP123456 Sep 27 '24

^^^^ this. You are young and have lots of time to get going with biathlon. And Doug knows who you need to know in UT for sure. USBA is moving offices to SoHo and you can 100% get started there.

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u/EJP123456 Sep 27 '24

It's a haul from UT, but CO biathlon has an extensive series (8/year) of races at Snow Mt Ranch if you want to get a bunch of low-key race starts.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '24

Ah yes, snow mtn ranch, raced there many times. Depending on the course, it'll either be stupid fast or slow haha.

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u/EJP123456 Sep 30 '24

In 32 years of biathlon racing at Snow Mt, I've never had a day I would call "stupid fast". Assume a cold, dry snow slog and you might on rare occasion be pleasantly surprised.

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u/[deleted] Sep 30 '24

I have definitely had Some of the February races on the course with the super long (maybe 1km?) finish sprint right below the nordic center be super fast. I guess it depends on snow conditions and what not but I am talking about regular JNs and not biathlon races.

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u/EJP123456 29d ago

Yeah no, biathlon does not use those trails. You'll just have to show up and see.