Skating and Shooting

Steamboat a breeding ground for biathlon

Imgine skate-skiing full-speed with a rifle on your back. You stop, try to calm a pounding heart, and rapidly fire at five small targets. Instantly, you resume an all-out sprint. Welcome to winter biathlon, whose local practitioners might not have Olympic aspirations yet, but are heading in the right direction.    “You have to be a rabbit and a rock,” says Gary Osteen, coach of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club biathlon development team. Athletes must simultaneously develop endurance, skating technique, focus and marksmanship. “We develop fast Nordic skiers here and biathlon throws another twist into the race,” he says.    Now in its seventh season, Steamboat’s biathlon program currently includes six multi-sport athletes with individual strengths, some of whom hope to make the Junior National Team. Gary says Max Scrimgeour, 15, probably has the best chance. “He is developing into a consistent shooter and he’s a really fast skier.” Biathlon is typically not most team members’ primary sport, says Gary. Fourteen-year-old Katie Cooper, the team’s only girl, is also an alpine skier and tennis player. Asher Rohde, a top high school cross-country runner, brings his stamina to biathlon, while his brother Aiden, a telemark skier, excels as a sprinter on skate skis.    The team sometimes faces unexpected adversity. Evan Weinman, 14, suffered a serious injury to his right eye last summer, and is learning to shoot left-handed. Marty Smith, 21, is taking a break from the U.S. Development team to recover from a back injury. Yet Gary says Marty shows great promise, noting most biathletes mature in their late 20s. “It takes a long time to develop your endurance and your shooting,” he says. However, the biggest challenge facing the team is finding a permanent training facility.    In the past, athletes performed target practice at the Routt County Shooting Club, which “has been very supportive,” says Gary, “but we can’t ski there.” Biathlon supporters are attempting to work out bureaucratic and environmental obstacles to a training site at Saddle Ridge west of town. The combination of on-site trackgrooming capability, beautiful rolling terrain and an established shooting range would give local biathlon development a major boost. “When this comes through at Saddle Ridge,” Gary says, “it will be a huge asset and change the future of the sport here.”

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