KOCHER TAKING NEW OLYMPIC SHOT
Former biathlete drops the gun and turns her attention toward cross-country skiing
Zina Kocher was done. She sold her rifle. The roller skis went, too.
“I loved sport and I loved biathlon, I loved the uniqueness of biathlon, but I was done racing. In my mind at that time I was done.”
She loved it and she left it after 15 years, three Olympics including Sochi and 12 world championships. In March 2016, she was officially a former biathlete and by January 2017, a full-time student of massage therapy at Mount Royal University in Calgary, not too far from her home in Canmore.
There was a wedding to plan, too, after she proposed on an Alberta mountain top to boyfriend Alex Lawson.
Her life was full. Well, almost. “When I started full-time school in January, I was just kind of missing racing as most athletes probably do,” she said. “Then
I saw that the cross-country national championships would be in Canmore, so I decided to sign up and just do it for fun.”
The 34-year-old native of Red Deer had always been a great skate-style cross-country skier; it was shooting that acted as a drag on her results in biathlon.
So the thought of skiing without having to stop and shoot — or do a penalty lap for every missed target — was sweet relief.
“I had had enough of the shooting stress, to be honest. All I have to do is start at a start line and end at a finish line.”
And sure enough, it was indeed fun to ski without that four-kilogram rifle on her back, without having to slow the heart rate, drop to the snow, aim and hit an impossibly small target.
It was fun finishing first in the five-kilometre sprint and second in the 30-kilometre marathon against members of the national ski team. She had trained only part-time and was excited by the results and the possibilities.
“So yeah, I kind of entered it pretty relaxed, just wanting to do a race again. It went pretty well. But I had no intentions of returning to full-time training or racing.”
Not until she mulled it over with her former biathlon coach Richard Boruta.
“It was going to be a funny challenge, as he had written to me. I think he meant fun. We were going to do it together.”
Tragically, Boruta died in a climbing accident near Canmore on Aug. 9. The 49-year-old Czech native had been Kocher’s coach for more than a decade. She was reeling from the loss.
“He was like a rock. Someone who was always there,” she said, her voice quivering with emotion. “He always had a lot of patience and passion for the athletes he coached. I just wasn’t sure that I really wanted to do it anymore. It took me a little bit to contemplate that in August.”
She spoke at his memorial, recounting the glorious day he ran all over a World Cup course in Europe, encouraging her through her first pursuit race. She finished 10th.
It was a big day for her and he made it even more memorable.
Telling that story and consulting with friends helped her make a decision to continue.
“I decided I still really wanted to challenge myself. I could do it for myself but at the same time honour Richard in doing so.”
She’ll count on those memories to get her through some solitary training. While the national team is on the World Cup circuit, she will train in Canmore and race locally through November and December. All the while she will be targeting the Olympic team trials in Quebec.
“If I make the Olympic team, awesome. And if I don’t, I don’t, that’s fine, too. This was just something I wanted to give a shot to see if I could do it. I still have my other life. I just got married and I really love what I’m doing in school. I’ve put school partially on hold. This was just an added challenge.”
At trials she will ski in a 10-kilometre skate race and the skiathlon, which combines 7.5-kilometre stints in both the skating and classic styles. She calls herself a “distance skate specialist” so the classic skiing will be tough. She has no idea how it’s going to turn out, but win or lose this is it.
“This is for sure the final year that I will do racing,” said Kocher.
“I really struggled with thinking about retirement in 2014 because I didn’t quite know what direction I wanted to go in. I didn’t feel quite done in biathlon, but I also didn’t have something else. So I ended up staying for two more years. I feel I’m in a much better spot now.”
I decided I still really wanted to challenge myself. I could do it for myself but at the same time honour Richard in doing so.