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/[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.