Unalakleet biathletes compete in Norway
Alaskans know how to play on snow. Our passion to sled, ski or ride over the frozen landscape is rivaled by few regions on Earth, with one obvious exception: Norway. When Unalakleet teenagers Cedar Busk and Ayuu Roesch were invited to compete for Team USA at the Liatoppen Biathlon Festival in Ål, Norway, it was a no-brainer to accept. “I was surprised and excited,” Cedar said about getting the invitation. “I couldn’t believe it.” Cedar and Ayuu joined 10 youth athletes from Anchorage Biathlon Club and eight others from the Lower 48 for a week of training and biathlon races, April 10-16. Decked out in the red, white and blue Team USA jackets and hats and race suits, the girls competed alongside more than 1,000 youth from Norway, Sweden, Germany, and elsewhere. “Sometimes I couldn’t find my own teammates there were so many people,” Ayuu said. The Liatoppen biathlon course sits atop a mountain in the heart of the Scandinavian Range, nearly 1,500 feet above the small ski town Ål. During the three-day festival, fog and rain and snow intermittently obscured the targets, groomed trails, vendor tents, sponsor banners, and the promotional Teslas parked inside the penalty loops. The biathlon races for 11- to 18year-olds lasted all day in a seemingly chaotic, revolving door of starts and target shoots and finishes. Each age group skied a one to two kilometer lap, then entered the range where they shot in the prone position at Oreo-sized targets 50 meters from the mat, then repeated with another lap and shoot, followed by one final lap. It was the same type of races, same sized targets, and the same rifles that Cedar and Ayuu train on in Unalakleet. Despite the massive numbers of athletes and fans, and the Norwegian broadcasting over the intercom, Cedar focused on what she knew: “The range felt familiar.” Racing began Friday with team relays, where Ayuu Roesch was the anchor leg for a three-person mixed USA team of fourteen-year-olds, placing seventh out of 28 teams. Saturday and Sunday were individual races. Cedar Busk skied to season-best performances, shooting 8/10 on Saturday and 7/10 on Sunday, making her the second-highest finisher out of the five U.S. fifteenyear-old females, placing 43rd Saturday and 38th on Sunday. “It was really fun to race in a big competition,” she said. Ayuu Roesch, in the fourteen-year-old category, hit one less target each day than her Unalakleet teammate and skied to 31st place on Saturday and 23rd place on Sunday out of 59 competitors. Coach Jean Paquet from Anchorage—a former Olympian and national team coach—was one of five USA coaches in Liatoppen. Jean has coached Cedar and Ayuu at summer and fall camps and was very impressed with the Unalakleet girls’ year to year improvement. “They really outperformed in Norway, showing great discipline and maturity.” Cedar and Ayuu returned last week to a wintry Unalakleet. After recovering from jet lag and catching up on homework, the girls immediately reassembled their skis and rifles and spent an entire Sunday afternoon on Unalakleet’s biathlon course. Asked about their plans for the future, Ayuu said, “I want to go back to Norway next year and win.”