Are You Ready for Korea? The U.S. Biathletes Are!

It has been almost ten weeks now that some of the U.S. biathletes have been traveling around and competing in various places all over Europe. Now it is time for a change – at least for the ten athletes selected into the World Championships team. On Sunday evening the team arrived in Pyeongchang, Korea where over the next two weeks this year’s World Champs will take place.

In Korea it’s all about the food

While being in Europe there are some things the U.S. athletes have to get used to every single season all over again. “I forget every time that they are allowed to smoke in restaurants and then it just hits me…” points out Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK). Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) however doesn’t like the fact that he has to pay for the internet all the time. “In the U.S. you have free wireless everywhere. So we really have to get used to that.” Now being in Korea at least the latter shouldn’t be a problem anymore with wireless-access everywhere.  With the races starting late in the evening the athletes should have plenty of distraction thanks to a working internet connection. What they might also need distraction from is the food which is nowhere near European or American meals. “Jeremy is a good cooker. He is quite picky when it comes to food!” explains roommate Bailey.

The food is also one of the major concerns of the girls. Haley Johnson (Lake Placid, NY) has been the only one to travel to a World Cup in Korea before so while still enjoying a hot chocolate in “Good Old Europe” together she talked about all the different vegetables, spices and fish they will have in Asia. Landing in Korea yesterday evening after a long flight the team will now have enough time till leaving on the 23^rd of February to try all the food Haley mentioned.

Final preparation took place in Ruhpolding

The last ten days before heading to Pyeongchang they spent in Ruhpolding, Germany for “some last minute prep and fine tuning our ski shape and shooting skills so we are in top form for the World Championships”, as Lanny and Tracy Barnes (Durango, CO) explain.

Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK) who is at this moment the best U.S. biathlete ranking 32^nd in the Overall World Cup even felt some exhaustion after doing every World Cup race except one this season. But thanks to the preparation in Ruhpolding he also could work on some weaknesses that he identified over the last couple of weeks. Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) on the contrary managed to take a good motivation out of his last races in Antholz where he finished 15^th and 11^th: “I am healthy, confident and ready to give it my best in Korea!”

Right now everybody feels ready for the upcoming highlight. There will be eleven competitions that will span over a nine day period starting on February 14 with the sprint races.

See the schedule here.