Summary of the 2007 World Championships - 21.02.2007

When I look back at the 2007 World Championships, I sigh. My sigh is mostly in relief since I was able to pull off some pretty good results.

Going into the World Championships I had been struggling to get my skiing shape off the ground, and was not as consistent with my shooting as I would have liked. The final weeks of preparation was a furious amount of work which paid off.

My performance in the sprint competition was lackluster. Three penalties incurred from my hesitation over how to adjust for the wind, and average skiing put me down to 38th. However, calm clear skies during the pursuit gave me the opportunity to show off some fine tuning to my shooting. Fast shooting and only one penalty was the key to the 7th fastest time, moving me up to 18th place.

18th place turned out to be lucky. After some problems with my standing position in the Individual race, and tired legs, I was pushed out of the points to 31st place. My disappointment was sugar coated because it turned out my 18th place gave me enough points to qualify for the Mass start (sigh of relief), which only includes the top 30 athletes.

Since I did not do the mixed relay, I had a short break to prepare for the relay and mass start. Unfortunately I had to use most of that time trying to keep a cold which spread through the entire team, from getting too bad.
When the time came to do the relay, I was very pleased with my performance.

Fast, accurate shooting kept me in podium position. Just one shot gave me problems, refusing to go down. I was tempted to run down the range and kick it down, but it finally broke free with my final extra round, and I tagged off in fourth place competing for 2nd place.
The Mass start competition was very tough, even before the race started. I was not the only one exhausted from the race schedule and fighting sickness, but it is the World Champs, and it was time to push for a good result.
Again my shooting was strong, except a very close prone miss on my first shot and a standing miss in my last standing. I maintained a strategy of skiing a smart pace so I could shoot better, and my strategy kept me in contact with the podium throughout the entire race which made me realize that shooting is perhaps even more important in biathlon than I realized in the past. After the final shooting I was in place 5, just ahead of biathlon legend Ole Einar Bjorndalen going into the last lap, but did not have the energy left to hold off a charge from some of the top skiers and placed 9th, still a great result, tied for third best ever by an American, and my best World Championship performance.
Overall, I feel I maintained the progress I made at the 2006 Olympics, even improving parts of my performance. My goal was to win a medal, but although I did not, I am closer to it.

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