Red, white & blueprint: US forms plan to close gap
The leader of the U.S. biathlon program sat down for a recent dinner at a bar in Park City, Utah, when he happened to glance at the television.
There, on the screen, was a biathlon competition . On TV. In a bar. In the U.S.
“I’ve waited,” CEO Max Cobb said, “30 years for that moment.”
One day soon, Cobb envisions something even greater: The U. S. leading the charge in a sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.
To achieve that, Cobb, who’s been with the program since 1989, and his staff initiated a blueprint aimed at capturing the country’s first Olympic biathlon medal. The model includes bringing in coaches from Europe, contracting with a machine shop to enhance glide performance on skis and partnering with a university professor to analyze shooting mechanics.
“I believe the day an American wins its first Olympic medal in the biathlon, is the day our country discovers the drama and beauty of the biathlon,” said Cobb, whose squad will compete at the world championships beginning this week in Sweden. “It will be a beautiful moment.”
In a sport long dominated by nations such as Norway, Germany and Russia, the Americans remain an “economic underdog,” Cobb said, with an annual budget of about $2.6 million. That’s fractions of what their counterparts spend.
So they need creative ways to close the gap.
Like working with a machine shop technician in Austria, who’s experimenting with different sharpening blades to make unique grooves in the base of the skis. The goal is to reduce surface friction for better glide. So far, they’ve tried out 150 different metal blades.
Anything to help the athletes glide faster while skiing.
In addition, they’ve been working with Gerold Sattlecker from the University of Salzburg to analyze shooting mechanics. They’ve developed a re- mote trigger pressure sensor that allows them to see how much pressure an athlete is putting on the trigger
Anything to help them shoot straighter at the targets under pressure.
“One of those things that I see as a competitive advantage for us is, we innovate and collaborate better than our competitors,” Cobb said. “The fact we know we’re being outspent and have this clear goal of trying to achieve America’s first Olympic biathlon medal, those are really unifying goals that keep us all focused.”
The organization began to revamp the business model in early 2016. It was a way to spring forward after a 2014 Sochi Games in which Susan Dunklee came within one missed shot of capturing an elusive medal. The team had breakout performances at the 2017 world championships, with Lowell Bailey earning gold in the 20-kilometer individual race and Dunklee taking silver in the women’s mass start.
It was proof that things were trending in the right direction. Then, at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , South Korea last winter, something that couldn’t be predicted — sickness. Dunklee got the flu that week. Bailey, who’s now retired, fought an illness leading into the Olympics.