Biography

A basic rundown of my life is this. I was born and raised in Kasilof, Alaska which is on the Kenai Peninsula about 160 miles south of Anchorage. I grew up there with my parents and two older brothers, Collin and Jared. My parents raised us very healthy. We were all very active as kids, and always had a gourmet dinner waiting for us at the end of the day. We were not allowed to watch very much television and absolutely no candy was allowed in the house. We did find a loophole in those policies, though. By biking to our Grandma’s house, which was 20 miles away, we could sit in front of the television eating a large assortment of sweets. Probably not too many people can credit candy for launching their athletic career.

My main sport growing up was hockey. Our house is next to a small lake, so I began skating at a young age. I played left defense, and enjoyed the intensity of the game, but not really the team aspect. My philosophy was that if everyone played their best as an individual we should theoretically win as a team. The highlight of my hockey career came when my team, the Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association, won the State Championships. The impressive part was that in the previous season we lost every game we played in. I stopped playing hockey after my Freshman year in High School, with a rather spectacular play where I saved a goal from being scored, but broke my collar bone.

High School was a transition time for choosing a sport. My Sophmore year I focused on Cross Country Skiing, and surprised everybody by winning the Junior National Championships in my first year of skiing. A headline described it as: “A hockey player becomes ski champ”.

I kept transitioning though, because I spent my Junior year of High School in Vingrom, Norway on a foreign exchange. There, my host parents, Kari and Bjorn, signed me up for the biathlon club. I found some success again in biathlon, qualifying for the World Junior Team, and having the best result by an American, and the best result for my club in Vingrom at the World Junior Championships. Immediately after the World Junior Championships, the Olympics began in Lillehammer, just 10 kilometers away from where I was living.

It was at that point I decided to focus on biathlon and began pursuing results. I competed in four World Junior Championships, finally winning at the 1997 World Junior Championship in the Sprint competition.

I kept the momentum continuing, qualifying for my first Olympics in 1998, at the age of 20, and had the best American result. Then for four years the focus turned to preparing for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. I missed the medal, coming closest in the Pursuit competition, where I had the third fastest time (which I call my paper medal), but since the pursuit includes the time back from the sprint competition I actually finished in 13th place. The 13th place was very significant though, because it was the best finish ever by an American, but even more significant, five Americans had previously placed 14th, which made it seem like the US Biathlon Team carried a curse that they could not do better than 14th. I felt like I broke that curse, which freed the way to winning Olympic medals in the future.

After years of travelling around Europe, I found the best reason to keep coming back. Shortly before the 2002 Olympics, I met a German girl, Kristin, who was watching a World Cup race in Oberhof where I was competing.
We kept in contact throughout the season, and after the season ended I decided to train independently from the team which allowed me to visit Kristin, and her to visit me, enough that I could call her my girlfriend.
This meant more training camps in Germany, and that allowed me to learn from some of the best biathletes in the world.

With the help from the Germans, I raised my ability to a new level. At the 2006 Olympics I placed 10th, and a medal worthy performance in the relay where I tagged in first place. This proved to me, as well as everyone else, that I am capable of winning an Olympic medal.

Now, I am facing four more years towards 2010. However, I do not expect to wait four years to get on the podium. I am hoping for some glory at the World Cups and World Championships. If I do not win the medal in 2010, life will go on, but at the same time it will be like a story without the last page torn out. I need it to complete this part of my life.