U.S. Biathlon Team Youth and Junior World Championships, Junior IBU Cup/Junior Open European Championships, and World University Games Trials. Yes, it is a long name! Although, very fitting for the amount time, effort, stress, and ski distance that everyone put in to participate in the week of racing.

It was inspiring to have such a large number of serious biathletes from out of town and across the nation skiing and training at my local biathlon range. Some of them even arrived before the holidays to train in advance of the event! I had a great opportunity to make some new friends and acquaintances who share my passion for biathlon.

As expected, the local race series that we hold is not even close the same caliber as the races that happened last week. My range suddenly felt like a big, scary, and unfamiliar racing venue. Even the trails where I learned to ski, transformed into a serious race course within an instant of arriving to the first unofficial training day.

With that said, I don’t believe that any other circumstances or mindset could have changed the ultimate placement of my races. Even though I did not reach my goal of making the Youth National Team this year, I gained valuable insight and experience, and I know that I tried my absolute best.

I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to race with the best biathletes in the country. In addition to a whole week of racing, recovering, eating, sleeping, and repeating, I also learned an exponential amount about this complex sport that can can only happen through the actual process of racing. Now, I’m letting all of the wise knowledge that I learned sink in during a hard-earned recovery week before continuing the rest of a long, yet fun-filled race season!

Congratulations to everyone who made the team, and to all who gave their 100% last week! I look forward to racing with familiar faces at Nationals in a few months, and again at this same event next year!

I have personally seen some of the work that went prepping, planning, and executing this event over the last few months. I realize that so many people in the local and national biathlon community worked many hours to make these races possible. Thank you to NSAA, USBA, ABA, local clubs, sponsors, and volunteers who made the Youth and Junior World Trials in Anchorage possible.