Thursday, December 4th - last day in Sweden

We slept in late today and barely made it to breakfast. The sun is out. The first time in days. We'll go out and ski this afternoon and help with the Women's 15km race. Off to homework! More updates and pictures later.

Wednesday, December 3rd

We got up early this am and went for a ski with Bernd, Per and Patrick, the coaches on the 20km loop. It had snowed the night before and they had freshly groomed the tracks. We were the first ones to ski! We skied for over 1.5 hrs. We then went back for lunch, reading and homework and a nap. Later in the afternoon we went out to get ready for the evening race at 5:15pm. We prepped skis with the Ski technicians and hung out with the athletes. I delivered skis to the start line and my Dad and I went up on the ski course. I did all the video of our athletes and some from other countries during their race. My Dad gave them sport drink for feeds during the 20km race. We had a great time. Lowell Bailey, one of our athletes placed 15th (out of 120). Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, ate a late dinner at 8pm and went to bed. Here are some pictures of me on the course. The entire course is lit by bright lights.

Biathlon | BEST from Eurovision

Biathlon BEST from Eurovision


Use this link to watch the International Biathlon Union Men's World Cup on Wednesday and Women's on Thursday at about 11:00 AM.

Monday

We got up earlier today, had breakfast (cornflakes, yogurt, eggs and swedish meatballs!) and went out to the venue. There was a wonderful 'ice fog' or dimma in Swedish, covering the trees in a white crust. The 22km course had not yet been rolled (maybe tomorrow?) as they are getting the courses and stadium perfect. We skied over an hour on the 15km and other trails.

We went back for lunch, homework, a trip to the store (the COOP! just like home) . I got my official International Biathlon Union (IBU) credentials.


Later we returned to the venue where the men were having offical practice. I worked with the coaches in the range and Dad did video up on the course while the men did their time trial. It was cold, but thankfully the coaches like to stop and have coffee (and tea!).

After the time trial we went back and had dinner (salads, vegetable soup, fish, rice and warm sweet bread and butter.
I was sent off to homework land while dad went to team meetings.
Here I am back in the room.

Sunday

Alas, a little slow getting yesterday's post up as it's been busy and we moved from Camp Sodergren to the Hotell Ett farther from the venue. We got at least 6 inches of fresh snow last night. We returned to the venue for a ski in the snow.

Petr Garabik('Gara'), one of the wax technicians and a 20 year veteran of the Czech team was working in the wax cabin with me. Yes I am doing my own skis!