From Lake Placid to Vancouver

Tim Burke was surrounded by the traditional Winter Olympics sports as a youngster growing up near Lake Placid in Paul Smiths, N.Y.

As a result, Burke tried many of the sports in his youth.

"Growing up around Lake Placid, I had access to all the 1980 Olympic venues," Burke said. "As a kid, I tried all sorts of things."

Ski jumping was one early option, but Burke also enjoyed other Nordic sports like cross-country skiing and Nordic combined, which combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing into a single competition.

His experience on cross-country skis allowed Burke to make a smooth transition into biathlon, the sport in which he made the 2006 Torino Olympics. Nowadays, he is busy preparing for another Olympic opportunity in the 2010 Games in Vancouver.

After competing in cross-country skiing from the time he was 10, Burke started to make the switch to biathlon when he was about 15.

Biathlon combines the sports of cross country skiing and rifle shooting. In biathlon, competitors carry a rifle and ammunition while skiing. At four points throughout the course, they stop, fire five shots at targets, and continue on their way. There are 10 biathlon events, each varying in length as well as format (sprint, relay or pursuit) and start style (mass or individual).  When an athlete misses a target he or she is penalized with extra time added.

"I was training at the Olympic complex in cross country and I'd ski by the biathlon complex every day," Burke said. "I would always see the people there. It looked interesting."

The sport, which has Scandinavian roots, was added to the Winter Olympics in 1960.

"It added a whole new aspect to the Nordic sports for me," Burke said of the shooting portion of biathlon.

It takes trying the sport to understand the time it takes to become proficient, Burke said.

Cross-country skiers seek to combine speed with the technique and physical fitness necessary to handle the distances. The rifle shooting requires the calm necessary to produce accuracy and consistency. The transition from skiing, which increases heart rate and has athletes breathing heavier, to the stillness needed to hit small targets creates the unique challenge that can be difficult to master.

"It takes a long time," Burke said. "I'm still trying to do it. It's not something that comes naturally."

Burke's results show that his proficiency has improved more than he lets on. He reached the World Cup level for the first time in 2004 and got a chance to compete in front of the hometown crowd at Lake Placid in pursuit.

The Olympic team spot was earned with a first-place and two second-place finishes at the TD Banknorth Festival in Fort Kent, Maine, where Burke spent three years training.

After fulfilling his dream of reaching the Olympics, Burke competed in four events at the 2006 Winter Games in Italy. He was the second leg of a relay team that finished ninth, was 37th in the 10K sprint, was 38th in the 12.5K pursuit, and 58th in the 20K individual.

Jay Hakkinen's strong first leg in the Olympic relay put Burke in position to be leading the field coming out of the stadium, creating a lasting memory from the Games.

Following the Olympics, Burke was seventh in individual and ninth in the relay at the 2007 World Championships. He had a sixth-place finish in the mass start at the World Cup event in Pokljuka that same year.

Training and World Cup competition keeps Burke out of the country for much of the year.

"I spend more time in Europe than in the states," he said during a May phone interview after returning to the United States. "We're there all winter for the World Cup and most of our staff is European.

"We get great training over there. That's where the best guys in the world live and train."

The most recent World Cup season got off to a difficult start for Burke, who missed the first race. The illness that cost him that race lingered for two weeks, disrupting training.

Burke bounced back and was part of a best-ever fifth-place team finish for the United States at a World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany.

Results that would have been an accomplishment for Burke in previous seasons are treated as no longer enough for an athlete who strives to continue his improvement to the point of reaching the podium. More experienced as a skier, Burke keeps working on improving his shooting eye.

On the blog that he writes throughout the season, Burke takes responsibility when he falls short and points to a goal of letting go of bad performances to move on quickly.

That goal appears to have been accomplished in the 2008-09 season. After the illness created havoc with the start of the season, Burke steadily climbed up the rankings, improving his finishes and capping his season on a high note.

Burke finished the World Cup season ranked 25th in the world. The success of the season prequalified him for the next Olympics, relieving some of the stress as he gets into his training preparation for the games. The World Cup ended with two straight top-10 finishes, including an eighth-place in Pursuit at Chanty-Mansijsk, Russia in which he missed just one target while moving up from 23rd place.

Following the World Cup, Burke rested up in April before resuming his concentration on the biathlon. He headed to Colorado for some specific shooting training then joined the rest of Team USA for the first team camp of what will be the 2009-10 season with intense training in Whistler, B.C. on some of the same trails that will be used for the Olympics.

The experiences Burke has built up in recent seasons leave him looking forward to his next shot at the Olympics.

"The shock factor of being at the Olympics is gone," he said. "I hope I've learned how to deal with that.

"I know what to expect now. It's not going to be the exact same, but it helps to have been there and experienced the Olympics."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Tom Robinson is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.