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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: Jeremy Teela

Snow Wreaks Havoc on Olympic Biathlon Races

Snow falling hard as Magnus Jonsson gets underway.

American hopes for a medal in the men’s 10k biathlon sprint fell about as hard as the snow did in the middle of today’s race.

25 minutes into the event, the steady drizzle that came down throughout the morning morphed into a wild snow squall, slowing the skiing drastically and effectively squashing the chances of anyone still on course.

The medalists in the race—France’s Vincent Jay, Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen, and Croatia’s Jakov Fak—all were among the first ten starters, the winners of what U.S. Head Coach Per Nilsson called a “lottery.”

“Independent of what wax you had, you had no chance,” Nilsson told FasterSkier. “Wet, aggressive, new fallen snow—that’s the slowest you can get.”

Snow falls on the hat of this biathlon spectator.

Most of the top men were seeded at the front of the race, but anyone who had to ski through more than a couple of minutes of the heavy snow had an insurmountable task before them.

American Jeremy Teela, in bib number thirteen, was probably the last one to escape: despite two penalties, he still placed ninth.

Tim Burke (USA) – 47th place.

Burke was not so lucky. He had clean tracks for his first of three 3.3k laps, and looked to be in decent position after a single penalty in the prone stage. But by the time he came back around for the standing, the squall had set in with full force. He missed two more shots, and ended up in 47^th—barely qualifying for Tuesday’s pursuit.

The effect of the snow was epitomized by Jay Hakkinen’s performance. Despite not missing a single shot, the Alaskan had to set out in the worst of it, and ended up over three minutes back from the French winner.

“It’s just mountain weather,” he said. “I just went out to fight as hard as I can. It’s frustrating, but the good thing is I held it together in the shooting.”

Bailey chasing Vladimir Iliev.

Lowell Bailey, the fourth American starter, faced the same brutal conditions. He also shot clean, but still finished back in 36^th. All four Americans made it into the top-60, guaranteeing themselves positions in Tuesday’s pursuit.

Canada’s lone competitor, Jean Philippe Leguellec, got lucky by drawing the eighth starting spot, then maximized the opportunity by missing just one shot, in the standing. He actually led the race after the first shooting stage, but slowed by the penalty loop, ended in sixth.

After a week of hype, the weather at Whistler Olympic Park finally delivered today, with a huge impact on the outcome of the race. But Nilsson still didn’t see a problem with hosting such important races at a venue known for its erratic weather.

“This was, unfortunately, pretty extreme,” he said. But still, “it can happen everywhere.”

Some excited fans in the stadium.

February 14, 2010
USBA Announces Athlete Nominations to the U.S. Olympic Committee

NEW GLOUCESTER, Maine – The International Competition Committee of the U.S. Biathlon Association conducted a final review of results from the IBU Cup races in Altenberg, Germany this morning.  As a result, the U.S Biathlon Association will forward the following list of athletes to the United States Olympic Committee.

Men’s Olympic Team Nominations:

1) Tim Burke, Paul Smith’s, NY- prequalification from 2008-2009 season (2 top 15 results at WC)

2) Jay Hakkinen, Kasilof, AK- prequalification from 2008-2009 season (2 top 15 results at WC)

3) Jeremy Teela, Park City, UT – qualification from Dec 2009 WC (1 top 30 at WC)

4) Lowell Bailey, Lake Placid, NY – overall points winner, Altenberg

5) Wynn Roberts, Battle Lake, MN – discretionary selection. Roberts was 2nd overall (behind Bailey) based on the Percent Back Points from the Altenberg races and lead the Trials races held in Minnesota in December.

The Women’ selection was more complex because of the cancellation of today’s Women’s Pursuit at Altenberg.  Contingency “C” from the Olympic Team Selection Procedures was required and is stated below:

Contingencies: In the event one or more of the competitions in a series are cancelled the following will apply as appropriate to the situation:

a. If four races are held the best three of four will be scored.

b. If three races are held, the best two of three races will be scored.

c. If less than three races are held; the top American in each race, not already nominated to the respective team, will be nominated to the IBU Cup team or the Olympic team, respectively, and the ICC in accordance with the USBA Principles of Discretion (see Section II.B.), will determine the remaining nominations.

Contingency “c” requires winners of the two races (Time Trial and IBU Cup Sprint) to be nominated to the team, with the remaining athlete named by discretionary selection of the ICC.

Women’s Olympic Team Nominations:

1) Haley Johnson, Lake Placid, NY- qualification from Dec 2009 WC (1 top 30 result)

2) Sara Studebaker, Boise, ID- winner Time Trial, Altenberg, Germany

3) Lanny Barnes, Durango, CO- winner Sprint Event, Altenberg, Germany

4) Laura Spector, Lennox, MA- discretionary selection, Altenberg, Germany.  Laura was ranked 2nd based on the Altenberg Percent Back points list.

Below is the Altenberg Percent Back points list:

The International Competition Committee would like to congratulate the nominees for the Olympic Team and wish them luck at the upcoming World Cup races in Rupholding, Germany and Antholz, Italy.   Also, best wishes for the IBU Cup team athletes who will move on to racing at the IBU Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech, where the U-26 Team Selection process will continue.

January 11, 2010
Burke has chance at Yellow Bib, Today a “Best” for Team Result; Amazing Awaits. . .

Tim Burke (photo USBA/Nordicfocus.com)

“I guess that’s the best team result I’ve seen so far”, head coach Per Nilsson couldn’t help smiling after today’s sprint competition in Pokljuka, Slovenia. With three US athletes starting in tomorrow’s pursuit there are plenty of things to be happy about – or to even pray for.

Burke has Chance on Yellow Bib

Tim Burke’s eighth place in the sprint competition would already be amazing without the fact that he has a great chance to take over the yellow bib as the World Cup leader tomorrow. A thing that never has happened before for a US biathlete. While the current man in yellow, Christoph Sumann of Austria shot himself out of the pursuit competition with eight penalties today, Burke stayed focused on the shooting range and showed one of the better shooting results with just two mistakes. “The conditions weren’t easy at all. In prone I was just laying there waiting to finally start with my first shot. But the rifle was just dancing around in the wind.” Still, the Lake Placid based athlete just missed one target in prone, a fact that was not as easy as it looked like. “I am really impressed how Tim handled the situation. He stayed calm and did not get all distracted by the windy circumstances at the range. That shows how much he worked on himself and how much he learned those past months!”, Nilsson stated.

Again the only problem Burke experienced was the cold. With -14°C and the strong wind blowing skiing in the woods once more became a nightmare. “I felt strong and I had good skis but nevertheless, it was just really, really hard to ski through the cold!” Still, he skied the tenth best time of today.

Now the most important thing is to stay focused and calm before tomorrow’s pursuit. Fact is that Burke can easily overtake the yellow bib from Sumann who won’t start in the pursuit. The only serious competitor for that will be Simon Fourcade from France who currently is in an amazing shape. Fourcade ranks on third place in the overall World Cup, one point behind Burke who is right now the second best biathlete there is.

Great performances by Teela and Bailey

Although there is a lot of excitement about Burke’s race there is yet another reason for the US team to celebrate: With his 26th place today Jeremy Teela met the Olympic Qualification criteria. Although he had to go 300m extra in the penalty loop he came out strong on the track and finished just +1:26.6 minutes behind the winner Ivan Tcherezov from Russia. “My skiing performance felt really great today and I had just amazing skis. But that was not the only thing. Even more I have to thank our sports psychologist Ross Flowers. I felt that I need to talk with him just because there are so many thoughts in my head before the Olympics. And he did a great job. For the first time this season I was really focused during shooting. I was right there with absolutely nothing to distract me!” Although he also knows that he has not reached his best shape yet Teela is certain that he’s making progress step by step until the Olympics in February.

Lowell Bailey also will have the chance to directly qualify for the Olympic team tomorrow. He finished his race on a 38th place. That means that he will start his race just +1:52.8minutes after Tcherezov in tomorrow’s pursuit. “With that time everything is possible in biathlon. They are really on fire!”, Per Nilsson is sure.

So there is plenty to look forward to. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s result. Maybe it’s time for Tim Burke’s biggest Christmas present ever…

No American has ever had the Yellow Bib – not ever. Amazing Awaits…

MEN’S WORLD CUP TOTAL SCORE
POS NAME    NAT SCORE
1   SUMANN Christoph    AUT 225
2   BURKE Tim   USA 215
3   FOURCADE Simon FRA 214
4   SVENDSEN Emil Hegle NOR 206
5   BJOERNDALEN Ole Einar   NOR 168
6   USTYUGOV Evgeny RUS 163
7   GREIS Michael   GER 154
8   EDER Simon AUT 149
9   FERRY Björn SWE 144
10 LANDERTINGER Dominik    AUT 140
11 OS Alexander    NOR 133
12 PEIFFER Arnd    GER 127
13 FOURCADE Martin FRA 126
14 BERGER Lars NOR 123
15 TCHEREZOV Ivan RUS 121

article posted on biathlon.teamusa.org/ by Victoria Frank 12-19-09

December 19, 2009
Tim Burke 8th, Teela 26th in IBU World Cup, Zina Kocher (CAN) 10th

Today’s sprint was the second of a three-race IBU World Cup event in Pokljuka, Slovenia.

Russia swept the day in both women’s and men’s events, as Svetlana Sleptsova and Ivan Tcherezov won their respective fields.

Tcherezov shot cleanly in both stages and took the win over Domi Landertinger (AUT) by 11 seconds. In third by 42 seconds was Thomas Frei (SUI) with one penalty.

Tim Burke of the U.S. had another stellar result, placing 8th with two penalties and finishing 1:00.7 behind first. Burke was the only racer in the top ten with 2 penalties and he was just 18 seconds outside the podium. Teammate Jeremy Teela had a strong result today as well, tying for 26th place, just 19.4 seconds out of the top 10. Lowell Bailey had two penalties and finished 38th.

The top Canadian biathlete today was Jean Phillipe Leguelec, who placed 35th.

In the women’s 7.5km race Russia claimed the top two spots, as Svetlana Sleptsova and Anna Bogaliy-Titovets finished first and second. Sleptsova, who shot clean in both stages, had a 43 second lead over her teammate who had one penalty and finished 43 seconds back. In third, with two penalties, was Germany’s Magdalena Neuner.

Canada’s Zina Kocher, who has had a terrific season so far with several top-30 results, posted her best World Cup finish today in 10th place. Despite 3 penalites Kocher was just 1:43 off the winning pace.

Mens Results

Womens Results

December 19, 2009
Jeremy Teela Third at Whistler World Cup

Whistler, British Columbia, Canada – Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK) turned in the best result of his career with a third place finish in the 20K Individual competition today.

Teela’s third place is the best US result in a World Cup level competition since Josh Thompson finished second in the Canmore, Canada World Cup in 1992, in ironically the same event, the 20K.

Teela, whose best ever 20K previously was 14th place in the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City found some magic at this venue that will host the 2010 Olympic Winter Games next February. From the outset, Teela was having a great day. At the first split on the course, he was in the fastest of the fifty plus competitors at that point.

He cleaned the first prone stage very deliberately, and was in the top 10. After a single miss in the first standing stage, he was in seventh position and skiing very fast. Every time a message came over the US radios, his fast skiing was the number one topic. The second prone stage was clean and suddenly, he was in fifth position going into the final standing stage. Coach Per Nilsson called out his final five shots over the radio and ended with, “Teela cleaned!” he left the shooting range in third and moved up to second position by the finish. A later finisher Daniel Bohm of Germany just nipped Teela for second place, by 4.4 seconds.

Teela finished 23.3 seconds behind Vincent Jay of France, who won in 49:53.9, with clean shooting. Bohm with one penalty, as if Teela was second, 19 seconds back.

He commented, “For sure this is a special result in a special place for me, as I have family that lives just across the border in Washington State. This was definitely unexpected for me. I do not know when the last time was that I shot 19-for-20 in an Individual competition. I am pretty happy to be on the podium right now.”

His big result came after a big break from biathlon after the World Championships in Korea, where his best result was 44th in the 20K, with four penalties. He explained, “After World Championships, I went home and did some telemark skiing for a week, then did some easy cross-country training. I did not pick up my rifle until this week. Nevertheless, I felt very good the past couple of days. I followed my race plan to shoot deliberately and that worked. My coaches kept telling me during the race that I was skiing among the top seven throughout the race, but it did not feel that fast.”

He continued, “I felt really good the past couple of days. You know that you get those false feelings sometimes. However, in the race, I actually felt powerful and strong, after the good break. I have been at altitude for two weeks and lost about 6 pounds in that time. I had a game plan for shooting and knew where I wanted to slow down in the approach. I did not think I was skiing that fast. It was just a normal day for me. I did not do anything different. I spent about two hours on the computer, went for a run, and dry fired. It was just another day at the office. I cannot control what other people do. Others shot badly and I did not. This is a little bit of both skill and luck.”

He commented, “For sure this is a special result in a special place for me, as I have family that lives just across the border in Washington State. This was definitely unexpected for me. I do not know when the last time was that I shot 19-for-20 in an Individual competition. I am pretty happy to be on the podium right now.”

In closing, he added, “Today was a very special day. I have not seen my parents in about two years. They were here today to watch the competition. That was nice. They have supported me in every way for the past 15 years and never pushed me. My mom and dad are just psyched to be here. They would have been as happy if I was third or 40th today, but being third with them here is something else.”

Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) finished 23rd, with three penalties, 2:39.9 back, while Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK) was 43rd, with two penalties, 3:53.3 back and Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), with four penalties, was 50th , 4:23 back.

Source: USBA

March 12, 2009
Americans find the targets in Oberhof

Oberhof, Germany – Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK) could have been happier, but not much. Hitting nine out of ten targets in world class time, Hakkinen finished 17th in the ultra competitive Oberhof World Cup Sprint, with a time of 26:55.8, one second behind 15th place and just ten seconds out of tenth. The result moves Hakkinen into 26th place in the overall World Cup ranking and qualifies him for the Mass Start competition on Sunday. Just six seconds back was teammate Tim Burke (Lake Placid, NY) 22nd in 27:01.8 followed by Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) 39th in 27:26.8. All had just one penalty on the day. Jeremy Teela (Heber, UT) had two misses in prone and but cleaned his standing and finished 46th out of 113 competitors in 27:42.4.

“The Oberhof sprint is the toughest on the World Cup,” said High Performance Director Bernd Eisenbichler. “The boys handled the transitions in the course really well and this showed in their good times on the second loop, It was impressive to see all of them manage the long uphill approach to the range and shoot clean standing.”

Running through the performance of the team Head Coach Per Nilsson was clearly pleased with the results of his boys. “Jay promised himself he would master his concentration on the range and he did a great job – clean [no penalties] and the 4th fastest time in standing, prone was a little low and his miss was at 6 o’clock.” Commenting on Tim Burke who was ill in December he said “Tim’s not 100% yet but he is coming – he knows he’ll b ready for World Championships.” Lowell Bailey was satisfied with his performance on his least favorite World Cup course and Teela’s standing shooting “was really outstanding,” said Nilsson.

“The team spirit was pretty low after the relay where we struggled with our equipment and missed too many targets but today we started to see what we can do when things go our way,” said Eisenbichler. “The form is coming better and better.”

Complete Results | Photo Gallery

Hakkinen’s top 30 World Cup ranking earns him a place in the Mass Start competition at 10:00 AM Eastern Time Sunday. Watch streaming video of the race live at www.usbiathlon.org. The next stop on the World Cup tour is Ruhpolding Germany where the men will start in the relay on Thursday at 11:40 AM Eastern Time.

Source: USBA

Jay Hakkinen, photo courtesy of Max Cobb, USBA

Tim Burke, photo courtesy of Max Cobb, USBA

Lowell Bailey, photo courtesy of Max Cobb, USBA

January 11, 2009