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Heartbeat takes you inside the world of the unique Olympic sport of biathlon - a sport that combines the heart-pumping aerobics of cross country skiing combined with the precision element of marksmanship. The US Biathlon podcast brings you close to the athletes to dissect one of the most popularity of Olympic Winter Games sports.
S4 Ep7 - Grace Castonguay - TRANSCRIPT_mixdown.wav
Tom Kelly: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Heartbeat, everybody. Toda, we have a great guest, Grace Castonguay, who's joining us from her home in Jackson, New Hampshire. And Grace, I should say welcome home.
Grace Castonguay: [00:00:11] Thank you so much. Yeah, it's been not quite the warm welcome I was hoping for. Um, we had gotten a huge dumping of snow right before I came back to the US. And then the day that I got home, we got four inches of rain and straight flooding everywhere. So [00:00:30] it's still good to be home, but not as great skiing as I had hoped for.
Tom Kelly: [00:00:34] And I know this was while you were gone, but Vermont and New Hampshire got quite a bit of snow. And is that and I should tell, uh, listeners, we're recording this just prior to Christmas, but that snow is gone now.
Grace Castonguay: [00:00:46] There's nothing left. Uh, I don't know if you saw. It's kind of been all over Instagram, but Jackson Nordic Center, which is my hometown Nordic Center, just got absolutely flooded. The Jackson Falls were raging. Um, so it's looking pretty [00:01:00] bleak right now. And I think there's a little bit of a base left at Craftsbury, but I think that's the only skiing right now in New England.
Tom Kelly: [00:01:08] Boy, that is just crazy. Uh, we're going to dive into this in more detail later, but I'm just kind of curious. Uh, you've just gotten home from training and competition, but how long was this road trip for you?
Grace Castonguay: [00:01:20] This was my longest, um, one span of time, um, in the in Europe. Um, my longest time away from home [00:01:30] forever. Since ever. Um, I went to Finland. November. 10th, I think. And I just got home, uh, like two days ago. So it was about a month and a half on the road, which is the longest I've been away.
Tom Kelly: [00:01:47] Did you get a chance to go home between the camp and Soldier Hollow? And by the time you went to Europe?
Grace Castonguay: [00:01:53] Yeah, I had a nice little three-week period. Um, I live on campus at Saint Mike's [00:02:00] currently, so I got to go home for three weeks, be with my Saint Mike's team, see some friends, and then I was back on the road three weeks later.
Tom Kelly: [00:02:09] The life of an athlete.
Grace Castonguay: [00:02:11] Yeah. It's always go, go, go.
Tom Kelly: [00:02:14] Let's dive into your past, grace, uh, give us a little bit of some Intel on how you got involved. And we'll start with. How did you get involved with cross country skiing going back in time when you were younger?
Grace Castonguay: [00:02:25] Yeah. Um, so the punchline of this story is [00:02:30] that I actually did not learn to ski or step foot on skis until four years ago. So I am, uh, pretty much a baby in this sport. Um, I grew up playing soccer and running cross country, and when I was 14, I broke my leg playing soccer, and that kind of switched me fully into the endurance mode, um, lifestyle. So I ran high school, cross country and was really [00:03:00] into running. I wanted to run Division one in college. That was my big goal. And then, um, because of the long-standing, the lasting, um, effects that my broken leg had caused, I broke my tibia, tibia and fibula, which caused my growth plates to close. Running just really did not suit my body. I broke down a lot. Um, and so my junior year of high school, my brother has been skiing for a lot longer than me. [00:03:30] His name is Theo. He's about three years younger than me. He, uh, he had just started high school, and the high school that I went to for my freshman through junior year was in Durham, New Hampshire, so near Unh.
Grace Castonguay: [00:03:45] And there is not a lot of Nordic skiing around there, like, actually none. Um, but Theo had, uh, been skiing a lot longer, and there was a really fun high school circuit in New Hampshire. So my mom actually became [00:04:00] the high school Nordic coach for our team so that my brother could enter in races. And my indoor track season ended a little early. And she was like, come on. Like, don't you want to join the team? It will look good on college resumes. And I figured, hey, why not? And I entered my first Nordic ski race about three weeks after I, uh, quote, learned to ski. I should say, quote, because I looked like Bambi on ice skates. Love it. And [00:04:30] I finished that first race with just the hugest smile on my face. It was just the most fun I had had competing in sport in my whole, uh, whole lifetime of athletics up to that point. So yeah, that was that was kind of the start of it all.
Tom Kelly: [00:04:47] Just just a question on that. Had you alpine skied cross country skied, had you done anything on skis before?
Grace Castonguay: [00:04:53] I grew up alpine skiing. Um, my family was big on alpine skiing and I just [00:05:00] had absolutely no interest in Nordic skiing. I, I thought it was I thought it was so silly. Um, sounded like a lot of work and, yeah, I just, I had no interest in, like, pulling on a tiny spandex race suit. So. Yeah, that I hadn't I hadn't tried Nordic skiing up until that point.
Tom Kelly: [00:05:20] And were you competing in US Ski and Snowboard events? High school events? What level?
Grace Castonguay: [00:05:27] Um, so when I started Nordic skiing, I was just [00:05:30] racing, um, the New Hampshire high school race series. So after my junior year of, um, my junior year of high school, we decided to transfer high school as my brother and I to Kennett High School, um, up in Jackson, which is where I live now, and that is actually, um, the same high school that Sean Doherty graduated from. So we are both alumnis from the same high school. And luckily there was a really good ski program, high school ski program. [00:06:00] Um, and I got I think that's where my, my skiing really picked up. I was just got to go out on skis every day. Jackson has 150 K of trails. So, um, a lot of opportunities for skiing at my fingertips. And I raced high school races. I entered in my first J and cuz got absolutely throttled in them, but still was having a lot of fun with it and I just decided to keep going [00:06:30] with it.
Tom Kelly: [00:06:31] You know, one of the things that I'm interested in, in order to be a good cross-country skier, you've got to have the engine. You got to have the heart and the the ability to really, uh, compete at that level. You had that from running. I mean, was that a was that part of it a relatively easy transition for you?
Grace Castonguay: [00:06:48] I think that the running really made a huge difference for me. Um, but one of the reasons that I enjoyed Nordic so much when I started it was, um, I have a much more [00:07:00] muscular build than the typical runner. And so I really enjoyed how cross-country skiing was also the intersection of, um, power and strength and, um, like race, mental mind strategy, um, all on top of the cardiovascular aspect. So that was kind of really what drew me in.
Tom Kelly: [00:07:21] How? No, no. When you're in your formative years, I mean, as you actually still are, but in those early days, did you look to any other athletes or was [00:07:30] there a way that you started to develop your strategic approach to the sport?
Grace Castonguay: [00:07:36] Hmm'hmm my strategic approach to the sport. Um, I really enjoyed watching Jessie Diggins once I got into Nordic skiing. I mean, she's kind of the first, first celebrity that you see when you get introduced to the sport. And I really loved the message that she was sending about, like being strong and having these race tactics and just going out there [00:08:00] and like really grinding through it. Um, so I really enjoyed the the grind aspect of the sport.
Tom Kelly: [00:08:08] That's an interesting aspect, because I think a lot of people might say, man, I just I just don't want to get into the trenches and really get down there and dig in. But that seems to really interest you.
Grace Castonguay: [00:08:19] Yeah, definitely. Um, there's there's this place that has. It's a really fun place to go, and I. I don't get it very [00:08:30] often. It kind of happens. You can only kind of capture it for a couple of races a season, I think, where you're just like, you have this moment and you're like, I need to dig deeper than I've ever dug before. And, um. I mean, you can see it like I was never passing out at the finish line, like laying on the ground after a cross country running race. But you push yourself so hard in Nordic skiing, and I really enjoyed that.
Tom Kelly: [00:08:54] Did you watch videos?
Grace Castonguay: [00:08:57] Oh, yeah. Yeah. I, uh, YouTube [00:09:00] basically taught me how to ski. Um, yeah. There I my dad, um, he had not grown up Nordic skiing. He had gone into it right around my brother did. So just like a year or two before me. And it was really a it was a shoestring operation because there are not a lot of ski clubs around where I live. Um, there's lots and lots of skiing, but there are not a lot of ski clubs. I think the nearest ski club was Ford Sayer, so not a whole lot of access to coaching. So, [00:09:30] um, YouTube. YouTube was my best friend. I just would watch technique videos religiously and then try to capture that image in my brain and then replicate it on skis the next day.
Tom Kelly: [00:09:42] Was there anyone other than Jessie Diggins that you watched back then?
Grace Castonguay: [00:09:47] I don't think so. Um, no, not that I can think of.
Tom Kelly: [00:09:51] Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty good, pretty good role model to to watch.
Grace Castonguay: [00:09:55] Yeah.
Tom Kelly: [00:09:56] Grace. So you're into cross country skiing. You're thinking about where to [00:10:00] go after high school. How did you make the connection that ultimately landed you at Saint Michael's?
Grace Castonguay: [00:10:06] So going into the grad, uh, going into graduating my senior year of high school, um, when I was applying to colleges, Nordic skiing and skiing collegiately was not really a high priority. Uh, it actually wasn't even on my radar. I hadn't done a full Nordic season at that point. And, yeah, it just it wasn't it wasn't in the forefront of my goals. [00:10:30] So I applied to colleges and I got accepted and decided to go to the University of Vermont, actually. Um, but then the spring of my senior year, right before graduation, is when Covid hit. And so things got a little topsy turvy. And I ended up doing my freshman year at UVM completely online. And so because I was completely online, this gave me a lot of flexibility to travel and do what I wanted. And, um, [00:11:00] I decided to go to Utah with my brother in October of 2020 for, um, right around the time of the ski festival, because my brother was a biathlete already and he was going to compete. And I figured, I'll just go be good training. Um, at that point, my only goals were to qualify for junior nationals. And so, yeah, I went to Soldier Hollow, and there was one day where I was skiing around, and, um, this actually kind of gets into [00:11:30] the start of how I got into biathlon, but it all connects and ends up leading me to Saint Mike's. But I was skiing around Soldier Hollow one day and Zach Hall, the former Soldier Hollow head coach, pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to join biathlon practice.
Grace Castonguay: [00:11:44] And I had shot a biathlon rifle before, um, because my brother was had been a biathlete, but I hadn't really caught the biathlon bug at that point. Um, so I figured, okay, why not? I'll go [00:12:00] to this practice. I'm here. Something to do. And I went to that practice that day and things really clicked for me. Um, and I really started to see why people love this sport. Um, one of the big things was that Zach identified that I am left-eye dominant despite being right-handed. And when I had shot a biathlon rifle before I was shooting righty and I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. So once we figured out that I was left-eye dominant, that made [00:12:30] a huge difference to how I felt about the sport. And I also just really enjoyed the way he explained the process. Zach is a really phenomenal coach in a multitude of ways. But, um, he's really great at the mental aspect of sport. Um, and so I remember going home that day from practice, and I said to myself, I want to be really good at this. And I remember watching videos of Dorothy Wierer [00:13:00] in her extremely fast standing shooting time. And I was like, I want to be this good someday. So from that point, my goal is kind of shifted gears all in towards biathlon. Um, there was no operating biathlon range in Jackson at that point, so my brother and I built a little range in our backyard because we live kind of in a pretty remote place, and I would just shoot.
Grace Castonguay: [00:13:29] Didn't really know what I was [00:13:30] doing. I mean, I had done like the safety clinic, but I didn't really I didn't have any coaching. Um, and then I raced my first Biathlon Nationals that March, and suddenly my goal became making Junior Worlds. So going into my sophomore year at the University of Vermont, I was all in on biathlon, and I realized that if I wanted to become a good biathlete, I needed to start skiing faster. And I realized that one of the easiest ways to [00:14:00] ski faster and be around really fast ski racers was to ski collegiately. And so I was in person at University of Vermont. I was training full-time by myself. I wasn't good enough. I hadn't posted good enough results at that point to ski for the University of Vermont team, and I would go to Ethan Allen biathlon practice twice a week. And I realized that ski training by yourself is [00:14:30] really hard to do, um, especially with no coach. And there's not nearly enough races. So I met with Molly Peters, the Saint Michael's Nordic coach, and we it just really clicked. Um, she was looking to kind of start rebuilding the team in some aspects. And, um, she was super supportive of my biathlon goals and, um, yeah. So I found myself at Saint Mike's [00:15:00] the next semester, my second semester of sophomore year. And that the rest is history.
Tom Kelly: [00:15:08] You know, going back to those that first year or so. I mean, first of all, you were, what, 18 years old maybe when you came out to Soldier Hollow.
Grace Castonguay: [00:15:16] Yeah, I just turned 19 that weekend.
Tom Kelly: [00:15:19] Were there others in biathlon that kind of helped you along the way? I know that you were living in an area that didn't have a range, but was there anybody else who kind of started [00:15:30] to give you that roadmap to how you could find your pathway?
Grace Castonguay: [00:15:36] Yeah. Um, my my brother was a really huge resource for me. He had started biathlon with Jackson Biathlon Club, which unfortunately shut down right as I was getting into the sport. But he was a really huge resource for me. Um, he had a lot of knowledge already under his belt, so that was really great. Um, and. Zach [00:16:00] Hall and Garrett of Soldier Hollow were really influential, um, coaches at that point. For me, they. I really admire and appreciate their belief in me because when I started biathlon, I was very not good. I like my ski speed was just not. It was not even close to where it was, where it needed to be. Um, I felt like I was pretty late in the game. A lot of my peers in the sport, I feel like, [00:16:30] had been shooting for at least a couple years more, and. But I had these big goals, and, um, they believed in me. So I lived in Utah, um, the summer before and after my sophomore year of college, and I worked really closely with Zach and Garrett, and they just kind of helped me along the way. So that was really awesome. [00:17:00] Um, I also got a lot of insight from Sara Studebaker, um, because she is married to Zach Hall. And so it was really great having her perspective and. Hearing her story actually, because she I her story really resonated with me, particularly because, um, she had skied collegiately but hadn't made the A team until, I think, her junior, senior year of college. Um, and then later [00:17:30] on obviously went to be a great biathlete. So her story really resonated with me. And I kind of looked towards that as my model for my goal.
Tom Kelly: [00:17:40] Let's talk a little bit more about Utah. I happen to live out here in Utah, so I know the opportunities that exist here. Uh, but there, you know, from the time that you spent out here, there's really quite a culture around sport here, isn't there?
Grace Castonguay: [00:17:55] Oh, absolutely. Um, it's just so I was [00:18:00] really fortunate to live in the Utah Olympic Park residences when I lived there. So it was a great melting pot of all different winter sport athletes. We even got a couple of triathletes, uh, every few weeks in the summer. So really awesome place to cultivate, um, high-level sports, and what an amazing facility. Um, and they really have done a lot of great work there in the last few years, and I've heard some tentative plans for the coming years, which make me really excited. [00:18:30] So yeah, it was a great place to train. I think that Park City and and that area is still my favorite place to train.
Tom Kelly: [00:18:38] Well, if you really if you really look far enough ahead in your career, you could potentially be back here for the 2034 Olympics.
Grace Castonguay: [00:18:46] Yeah. Yeah, it's really exciting. Um, we'll we're taking it one day at a time, but it's it's really it would be a full circle moment to make it back there for the Olympics.
Tom Kelly: [00:18:56] It is a long way off. So let's go to the 2223 [00:19:00] season. So that's a year ago. You had only been in the sport for essentially two years. And you all of a sudden you barely and all of a sudden you're traveling the world. What was that year like?
Grace Castonguay: [00:19:14] Yeah, that year was really crazy. Um, so I went to Craftsbury Senior Trials, actually, with absolutely no intention of qualifying for the IBU Cup. My huge goals for that year were to qualify for Junior Worlds. It was my [00:19:30] last year as a junior, and because the Craftsbury races were so close, I figured, hey, I'll do them. It'll be good. Practice run for junior trials, which were going to be in Alaska that year, and up until that point, I had not had any success in the sport. Um, the mental aspect of biathlon was a really difficult barrier for me to overcome for a really long time. Um, I would shoot great in practice, and then I would get to competition and [00:20:00] just any, any shooting capacity I had would fly out the window. So I hadn't had a good race up until that point. But I figured, hey, this would be good practice. Um, and I remember walking up to the results that first day, and I, um, they told us that our results because they were taking the top three people to, uh, USADA testing. And I told them my name and they said, Grace Castonguay first place. [00:20:30] And my jaw hit the ground. I kid you not. Um, I was like, are you sure? Really? And then my, um, my chaperone for my water chaperone, she kept saying that she was like, uh, do I have the right person? Are you actually Grace Caatingae? Like, you're kind of freaking me out. You don't think that you won? And I was like, no, I am Grace Castonguay I just can't believe that I won the race today because I haven't, like, this is this is a new feeling for me. Um, so [00:21:00] I raced the sprint that day, I won, and then I had a decent individual the next day, and I remember, um.
Grace Castonguay: [00:21:10] Uh, I was talking to. So at that point, Sarah Leto was my, um, my coach for biathlon, and she's a phenomenal woman. Um, and so I had been talking to her and I had been talking to Zach Hall because he kind of also would help me from the sidelines, even when I was back in the East. And [00:21:30] I went into that third day of competition realizing that I was a bubble athlete and I just I had to pull things together and I could possibly be going to Europe. And so, um, I did and the next week and a half was a crazy whirlwind of trying to get everything together. Um, I was still doing classes at Saint Mike's, and those are in-person classes fully. So I had to contact all my teachers over the holiday break and [00:22:00] explain to them, hey, I'm actually going to be missing class for, uh, anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks. Um, is there some way that we can work together so that I can still take classes? And luckily, I had a lot of teachers that were really supportive. And, um, yeah, I hopped on the flight and it was just the start of a really incredible journey. Um, and I remember talking to, uh, Susan Dunklee, actually, right after I had qualified, [00:22:30] we were standing in the Craftsbury parking lot, and she told me to just soak it all in. She was like, you have plenty of time to worry about your place, um, your placements and your results. But just this year is all about experience. So just take it all in. Enjoy it. Um, and I really took that advice to heart and had a really phenomenal winter.
Tom Kelly: [00:22:57] Did you what was your first destination [00:23:00] when you went to Europe?
Grace Castonguay: [00:23:03] My first destination was Osrblie, Slovakia, and I actually had a really horrible time getting over there because first off, I was flying with, um, Tim Cunningham, who's a good friend of mine, and we had possibly the worst. Travel day in the history of travel days. Our flight got rerouted through Dublin, Ireland, and then we got stuck on the tarmac for three hours in the middle of the night because, uh, the [00:23:30] airport didn't open until 6 a.m. and they only had one de-icing machine. And then we missed our connecting flight in Frankfurt. And then, um, we had to go through TSA again, and they found a, uh, biathlon bullet in one of our bags. And there was a there was a hot second there where I thought Tim was going to be stuck in German prison. But we ended up we we made it in the end. And yeah, my first races were in Osrblie, Slovakia, [00:24:00] which is definitely not the most. It's not the most glamorous or, um. Yeah, it's not the most glamorous venue I've been to, but of all the places I've raised during biathlon. But I was just I was just awestruck. I was so happy to be there. Um, yeah.
Tom Kelly: [00:24:20] Now, you eventually made it to Junior Worlds, but had you qualified at that point, or were you still looking to see how you're going to do to see if you'd make [00:24:30] that team that went to Kazakhstan?
Grace Castonguay: [00:24:33] So the nice thing about qualifying for the IBU cups in the Craftsbury trials was that year, the criteria for Junior Worlds team actually was written in that, um, if there were. Junior athletes that qualified for senior IBU Cup, they would take up to two junior athletes and just auto-qualify them for Junior Worlds. So in qualifying for senior IBU [00:25:00] Cup, I auto qualified for Junior Worlds that year. So I didn't have to go to Alaska and I could really just focus on racing the IBU cups, getting my feet under me with the international racing thing. And then, um. I could look towards Junior worlds as kind of the place where I would really take all the things that I was learning at IBU Cups and try to harness them into a couple of really solid races in the junior field.
Tom Kelly: [00:25:27] What did you know about Kazakhstan before you went there?
Grace Castonguay: [00:25:31] I [00:25:30] did not know, uh, really? Anything? Um, yeah. Nothing I didn't know. I didn't even know how to pronounce. Shush shush shush, since I apparently still can't pronounce it. Um. Yeah. I didn't know anything.
What was the bggest takeaway from Junior Worlds?
The biggest thing I took away from competing at Junior Worlds was just how amazing the IBU sport family is. It was my first Junior Worlds. It just felt so wonderful to be part of such a rich and large group of really high-level junior athletes. I remember going to the opening ceremony and it was it was just really cool to be there.
Tom Kelly: [00:26:44] Yeah, a great experience. Grace, we're going to take a short break here on Heartbeat. When we return, we're going to talk to Grace about her World Cup debut coming just really just a few weeks ago. We'll be right back on Heartbeat. We're [00:27:00] back on Heartbeat with Grace Cassidy. I'm gonna do that again. And we're back on Heartbeat with Grace Castonguay today. And Grace, let's let's kind of rewind. We have to rewind that far. But just the last weeks and months, six weeks or so. Uh, you've had another whirlwind in Europe. I know you went over to the camp in Finland, and then things just kind of evolved. Tell us about your experience [00:27:30] in November and December.
Grace Castonguay: [00:27:33] Yeah. Um, so I went over to Vercotti, uh, early November for the pre-season camp, and, uh, they were also, I knew that they were going to be selecting the IBU Cup and World Cup team from that camp, and I didn't really have any expectations on myself. Um, no pressures. Um, I really was. I was just thrilled to be going to camp. I hadn't raced a full IBU Cup season at that point because I had just done [00:28:00] trimesters two and three last year. So I went into the camp just excited to get on snow early and see where see where my skiing was at. And, um, unfortunately, I had a pretty, pretty unideal, uh, time trial in Zuccotti, which was the primary test race to select the World Cup team. Um, because, yeah, I just my I think it took I [00:28:30] was taking me a little bit longer to get my ski snow legs back. And because I'm still in school, I went, uh, about a week later than everybody else. So I had a particularly uninspiring race that day, but was still, um, super content when I got named to the IBU Cup team and was really looking forward to racing in Kontiolahti the following week and getting some biathlon races under my belt.
Tom Kelly: [00:28:57] And how did you do in those races, and how did that [00:29:00] then set the stage for the next couple of weeks?
Grace Castonguay: [00:29:04] Um, so those races. I finally got my ski legs back under me. I am really happy with where my ski speed was at. And then, um, but my shooting had really it had been a little bit. It hadn't been what I had been looking for. Um, I had pretty bad shooting in the individual that that, uh, that race and the sprint was really nothing particularly special. Shooting 70% [00:29:30] wasn't really what I was looking for, but going into the final race races of that weekend was I was doing the single mixed relay with Vincent. And, um. My experiences with relays was that most of the time, um. All the realize I had done on the senior IBU Cup, I had gotten lapped out. So. I went into the single mixed relay, just not with [00:30:00] not with any huge goals in in mind. Um, but shortly after, after finishing my first leg and watching Vincent start his first leg, I realized, okay, hey, we could actually finish this relay and we actually might do pretty well. And, um, going into my second leg of the relay, I, I had, I think I went zero plus one, and then I cleaned my standing, which was a really big deal for me because I had been having a particularly bad, lucky bout [00:30:30] of standing shooting, and Vincent just performed really phenomenally. Um, as he does so often. And we actually finished that day in ninth place, beating our bib. So that was a really special moment for the both of us. Um, and then later that evening, we got a call from Lowell saying that the next day we were going to be getting on a flight to Austria.
Tom Kelly: [00:30:52] And you probably didn't have any idea that was going to be how your day would turn out, did you?
Grace Castonguay: [00:31:00] Yeah. [00:31:00] It was I had I knew that Margie Freed was vacating her spot. Um, on the World Cup, but I hadn't been having particularly great races. Um, not not up to my standards, but. So when I received that call. Yeah, it was really I had a hard time processing it. There was a lot of mixed emotions going on.
Tom Kelly: [00:31:24] So you get to Hochfilzen. This is one of the truly great venues in biathlon. [00:31:30] This is a whole new level. I mean, I imagine your eyes were big and you're looking around and just trying to figure out, wow, what should I do here? What was that experience like to be on the biggest stage of your life at Hochfilzen?
Grace Castonguay: [00:31:45] Yeah. Um, so going into the races, I mean, uh, going into the training day. I. I showed up and I. I was just, like, [00:32:00] star-studded. Um. There are so many cameras, there are so many superstars, and it was really hard to not get distracted on the range. Just like following in awe of some of the greats like Ingrid and Doro and Lisa Vittozzi. Um, so yeah, I was it was really it was really a super cool experience. Um, and then getting to the race day. I [00:32:30] just the noise. Oh my gosh, the noise is so incredibly loud. And the, um, the start pen there is below directly below the range seat stadium. And so the sound just kind of envelops you and it's hard to hear your own thoughts. And I remember like, uh, getting ready right before my race start, like five minutes before kind of shaking out my legs. And I turned to Yanni, our team physio, and I just was like, it's so loud. Um, [00:33:00] but yeah. And also another really surprising thing is how many USA fans there were. I was I remember warming up on the course and just hearing USA, USA and people knew my name and um, that was really special, especially coming from like such a, um, one of the smaller nations in biathlon. Like, obviously we're not like France or Italy or Germany. Um, so it was really cool to have supporters. Uh, yeah.
Tom Kelly: [00:33:28] And then did you carry some of that [00:33:30] enthusiasm into the next weekend at Lenzerheide?
Grace Castonguay: [00:33:34] Definitely. Um, so we didn't get to race the relay, uh, on Sunday because we had a sickness on the team, but I finished. I remember finishing the race and my my only goal going into my first World Cup start was I wanted to recapture the feeling of pure joy that I had felt in my very first Nordic ski race four years prior, and [00:34:00] I remember finishing this. I finished the race and my whole body was just shaking with, uh, from the energy and the noise and the thrill of like, having this huge, huge accomplishment under my belt. Um, I mean. World. Making the World Cup has been. That's been the dream since I started. Um, and so it was really a huge culmination of emotions crossing [00:34:30] that finish line. Um. Thinking back to crossing the finish line on my first ski race four years prior. Um, it was also really special because my mom flew out to watch the race. Um, I told I gave her a call as soon as I got the call from Lowell and I said, hey, if you want to come fly over here and watch me race my first World Cup, like, now's the time to do it. And so she booked the first plane ticket. She could and I actually could hear her yelling for me above all the fans, which is really impressive because it was really [00:35:00] loud.
Tom Kelly: [00:35:00] Was that Hochfilzen or Lenzerheide?
Grace Castonguay: [00:35:02] Yeah, that was in Pilsen. So. I finished that race and I was just addicted. I wanted that feeling again. I wanted the energy again. Um, and so going into Lenzerheide, I was super, super excited because I had raced that course before at open Giro's the year prior. Um, it's a really beautiful venue and, um. Yeah, [00:35:30] I was just craving that energy again. So I was super, super excited to for that sprint race in Lenzerheide.
Tom Kelly: [00:35:36] Well, let's bring it back into the present. We're in the holiday period right now. You're trying to map out what the rest of your season will look like. You've got a season. I think you're a senior now at Saint Michael's. Uh, uh, you have a carnival season coming up. You also have biathlon opportunities. How are you looking to juggle this? Uh, January, February and into March?
Grace Castonguay: [00:36:00] If [00:36:00] I think about it all at once, it is far too much to to deal with. So my, uh, my, my plan right now is I kind of take things day-by-day. Um, I was recently just named to the World Cup in Oberhof, so I will be flying over there, uh, January 1st, and then from there, it's a bit of a whirlwind. I'm going to race, um, the [00:36:30] first half of the second trimester. Uh, for IBU either, whether it's World Cup or IBU Cup. I'm not sure where I'll get sent, but I'm just happy to be wherever. And then I, um, I do ski for Saint Michael's College still, and I am contracted to ski there, so I am going to fly over to the US and raise the majority of my carnival season. Luckily, things kind of work out where the IBU break [00:37:00] happens right around when the college carnival season is in full swing and then after college carnival season ends. It's a little bit of a question mark where I'll go in March. Um, a big goal of mine is to qualify for NCAAs because it is my senior year of college skiing, and those are in Steamboat Springs this year. Um, but also there's the Soldier Hollow World Cup on the [00:37:30] docket for this year. So those are two really huge goals. It would be really incredible to race a World Cup at the venue. That kind of is where everything started for me. Um, so I have a I have a whole platter of possible goals laid out in front of me, and I'm just going to kind of pick and choose as I see what I qualify for. But it's going to be a really busy race season and it's I'm already I'm already a month into it and I've got a couple of more big months ahead. So I'm [00:38:00] really taking this two week break at home to just kind of recharge and gear up for what's going to be a long but exciting winter.
Tom Kelly: [00:38:08] Gracie, if you go back four years ago, did you ever think that four years later you'd be sitting here trying to figure out, am I going to go to the NCAA ski Championships, or am I going to go to the IBU World Cup in Soldier Hollow?
Grace Castonguay: [00:38:25] Yeah. Uh, it's. I don't even have to like, think back to four [00:38:30] years ago. It still sounds crazy to me right now. Um, it's really it's it's hard to. It's hard to wrap my head around. Um, when I first started skiing, I. I was told by a lot of coaches that I wouldn't even be able to ski. I was told by one, yeah, I was told by coaches that I wouldn't be able to ski collegiately. Um, I just was too late in the game and I part of me believed them, [00:39:00] but other parts of me just wanted to see how far I could go and get with these, uh, get with skiing. Um. And so I'm really glad that I, I forged kind of my own path. Um. I have a notebook of my of my sports, all my sports journals, and I remember writing my goals. And things have happened a lot faster than I anticipated. Um, which is a good thing. So [00:39:30] yeah, it's it's really hard to wrap my head around, and I don't really think it will ever quite set in grace.
Tom Kelly: [00:39:36] One final question before we get to our little lightning round to wrap things up on Heartbeat, uh, there's one of the things that's interesting about biathlon is that athletes have come from all sorts of different backgrounds, but one of the things that I'm sensing in the last year or two is we're starting to see much more diversity in where athletes come from. We had Margie Friede on the podcast a few weeks ago, and, you know, her story is really [00:40:00] fascinating as well. But you're new to the sport. You didn't. You came in very late to the sport into cross country skiing. You've picked up biathlon very, very quickly. You're starting to see some success in it. You're still flipping back and forth a little bit from biathlon to cross country, and I think it's really pretty cool. You know what you're able to do. What advice and counsel would you give to other athletes who are maybe in cross country right now about trying biathlon and how you can do both of them before you really find that pathway [00:40:30] that works for you?
Grace Castonguay: [00:40:32] Yeah, I think the two sports really complement each other in very nice ways. Um, there's the obvious fact that cross country ski training and biathlon training really are the same. Um, from a cardiovascular and endurance standpoint. Um, and for me, it's been really nice to have kind of these two worlds of racing to flip flop back and forth between the last two years. Um, I [00:41:00] really enjoyed last year getting to come back and race a couple of college carnivals for a few weeks after racing a bunch of IBU Cup races, because it was really nice to kind of turn my biathlon brain off and just give it a break. It's really fun to just go out and ski really hard sometimes, and not have to worry about pacing yourself and coming into the range and, uh, worrying about how you're going to shoot. So it's really it's really a nice way to, uh, kind of break things up and give yourself a [00:41:30] mental refresh. Um, my advice is. That there is a certain point where you do have to pick one. Um, and I, I picked biathlon as my main sport. Years ago. Um, and cross country skiing has really helped me excel in get to where I am in this sport. But if there's anything that I've seen is. Biathlon [00:42:00] is it is a it is a very two dimensional two sport. Two, two factors, two aspects of sport. Um, you really can't get by just on fast skiing or just on good shooting. And so, um, I'm really looking forward to my transition towards only biathlon next year. Um, because I think that it's going to give me a lot of. I think I'm going to see a lot of gains, [00:42:30] um, from focusing on just one. But I think when you're just getting started, it's a really, really beneficial thing to kind of dip toes in both both waters.
Tom Kelly: [00:42:41] Well, Grace, I admire the strategy that you have, the roadmap that you've plotted out. And thank you so much for sharing your story with us here. Today we're going to wrap up Heartbeat with a segment we call On Target a little bit of a lightning round. And I want to first just find out. And we did talk about this a little bit earlier. But did you have [00:43:00] a particular athlete role model when you were growing up?
Grace Castonguay: [00:43:05] The earliest the the first real athlete role model I can really think of is Jessie Diggins. Um, so that's I mean, I guess not super long ago. Um, but I remember reading her book, and a lot of her story really resonated with me, and I just enjoyed her, her attitude towards sport and life. So, yeah, I'd say she was the first big one.
Tom Kelly: [00:43:28] Have you met her yet?
Grace Castonguay: [00:43:30] Um, [00:43:30] I have sort of met her. Yes, I have. We, uh, I met her in Utah a few years ago, and she was in Bend this year when I was also in Bend. But I haven't met her really formally at that.
Tom Kelly: [00:43:45] Time will come. How about a favorite biathlete today?
Grace Castonguay: [00:43:50] Uh, anybody who knows me knows that I am kind of a super fan of Ingrid tangibles. Um, I just I [00:44:00] just adore her. I want to be her. Uh, she's also a lefty, and. Yeah. So I'm a huge Ingrid Handbold fan.
Tom Kelly: [00:44:09] Have you met her?
Grace Castonguay: [00:44:11] No, not in person. But I remember seeing her in person in Hochfilzen, and I was driving in the van with Vincent and I, like, almost lost it. He was like, that's your girl. We should go say hi over there. And I was like, no, no, no, I can't do that.
Tom Kelly: [00:44:28] By the way. You can do that. Don't worry about [00:44:30] that. Um, what's on what's on your playlist these days?
Grace Castonguay: [00:44:35] Um, I really enjoy Bailey Zimmerman. I'm a big country music fan. Um, but also Noah Kahn, a classic Vermont artist staple.
Tom Kelly: [00:44:46] Beautiful. Country music is changing, isn't it?
Grace Castonguay: [00:44:50] It is changing. Yeah. There's a lot. It's a it's actually I think it's becoming quite more like diverse and it's not, it's a lot there's a lot of different genres within [00:45:00] country now.
Tom Kelly: [00:45:01] There really is. Here's a good one for you. What's your what's your biggest memory your best memory of junior worlds in Kazakhstan outside of the event itself?
Grace Castonguay: [00:45:12] Um, on the last the last evening after the last race had wrapped up, um, there was this really cool observation tower in the hotel we were staying at. So a couple of us, um, went up to the observation tower and you could open one of the windows and get out on the roof. And so [00:45:30] a couple of us went out and sat on the roof and watched the sunset in Kazakhstan. And kind of just celebrated and took in, took in the moments that had all just came about.
Tom Kelly: [00:45:42] Beautiful. How about your favorite biathlon venue worldwide?
Grace Castonguay: [00:45:48] Lenzerheide is definitely the most beautiful biathlon venue I have ever been to, so that's definitely up there for me, but it's a really hard course so it's not my favorite in that aspect. [00:46:00] I really enjoy racing at Soldier Hollow. Um, I think it's a really well-done course.
Tom Kelly: [00:46:05] Yeah, the mountains in Lenzerheide are just spectacular, aren't they?
Grace Castonguay: [00:46:09] So beautiful.
Tom Kelly: [00:46:11] How about your favorite fun activity outside of skiing?
Grace Castonguay: [00:46:16] Um. I really enjoy sailing. I grew up sailing. I don't get to do it quite as often now, uh, just with training and where I am. But, um. Yeah, sailing is a big one.
Tom Kelly: [00:46:27] Finally, in just one word, [00:46:30] what does biathlon mean to you?
Grace Castonguay: [00:46:34] Rewarding. Good one. I think that because I think because it's such a hard sport to, uh, have success in, uh, it takes a really perfect culmination of events to have a good race. And also it takes a lot of hard work to train your mind and body. It's the most rewarding feeling to have, uh, those moments of success.
Tom Kelly: [00:46:59] Grace Castonguay, [00:47:00] I know that the listeners are going to really enjoy your story. We're going to all be following you this season, whether that's with Saint Michael's or on the IBU World Cup. Thank you so much for joining us on Heartbeat.
Grace Castonguay: [00:47:13] Thank you.