February 2023

Biathlon Recap

February was a fairly quiet month for the biathlon crew this year. With the lack of natural snow, the quality of our biathlon sessions declined a bit, but our athletes did what they could with what we had! Just like the xc junior race team, February was definitely a month of patience for our crew.

PG Athlete Tim C spent most of February in Europe racing on the IBU Cup circuit and at European Championships. We also had some of our Paul Smith’s College biathletes racing internationally this past month; Dolcie T. and NYSEF Alum Van L. joined Paul Smith’s College biathlete Kaisa B. in Europe for some Junior IBU Cups, Junior European Championships, and Junior World Championships These types of events are highly competitive and it is a huge accomplishment for our athletes to be competing in them!

Following FISU World University Games, Empire State Winter Games took place and we had one sole biathlete toeing the line! River G found success (1st and 2nd), with some awesome shooting on the range. A huge thanks go to NYSEF supporter, Andrea Henkel-Burke, for stepping in while Head Coach Maddie Phaneuf was in Europe coaching with the US Women's Biathlon Team February wraps up, our biathletes are preparing for their final biathlon races of the season, and hoping for some more podium finishes!

Coach Maddie in Europe!

NYSEF’s Head Biathlon Coach Maddie Phaneuf spent a week in Switzerland this February waxing skis and loving every minute of it Well, maybe not every minute of it

Last fall, Maddie threw her hat in the ring as a potential pick for an unpaid fellowship with U S Biathlon that offers two weeks of coaching experience on an international circuit She was picked to join the team during the Biathlon Open European Championships in Lenzerheide and the IBU Cup in Obertilliach; handy since NYSEF PG athlete Tim Cunningham, who Maddie coaches, would be competing in both race series

Landing in Lenzerheide

Behind every Nordic athlete out on the course racing, there’s a team of wax techs behind them who have spent several days testing out and skiing on different waxes and grinds against the course conditions This typically amounts to 100k of skiing During her week as a wax tech, Maddie skied more than 130 kilometers

“I never realized how much those wax techs skied when I was an athlete,” she said. “It was a really cool opportunity to figure out what makes skis fast ”