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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 Ep12 - Vincent Bonacci
Tom Kelly: [00:00:00] We are nearing the end of a long season and a great season it's been for US Biathlon. And we're joined right now with Vincent Bonacci, who is coming to us from Duluth, Minnesota on the eve of the Super Tour cross country finals. Vincent, thanks for joining us.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:00:15] Well, thank you for having me.
Tom Kelly: [00:00:16] You were on the podcast a little bit over a year ago, February of 2023, I believe. A lot has happened since then for you, and we're going to talk a little bit about that. But you chose to go to the Super Tour finals, get a little cross country action in. Tell us about that and how that helps your training and preparation as an athlete.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:00:37] Um, honestly, I, um, I, I would love to say it's mostly for like ski preparation and ability, but for me this year, a lot of it was logistics. And it was it was a lot harder for me to get to get home from Fort Kent than it was from here. But I also did a few of the national championship Nordic races over my Christmas break and got kind of hooked back into Nordic ski racing, and I think it helped me a lot with the biathlon skiing side, because I really think it helps you learn to push that little bit extra that sometimes is you forget in biathlon because it's a little more of a mental game. So, um, I think it's really fun to be here. It's super. It's a good set of races for me as someone who skates more since there is a, um, the skate team sprint and the skate marathon to end it off. And yeah, it's just it's a fun community and I hope there's more and more overlap in the coming years between the Nordic and the biathlon communities in the US.
Tom Kelly: [00:01:38] Let's talk a little bit about ski speed and how important that is in biathlon. You improved your ski speed this year. How does cross-country help you with that? If you're able to go to specialty races like that, the Super Tour finals, how does that help you increase your ski speed?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:01:55] Uh, I think it just it reminds you that there is a, a very high, high ceiling for it and that there's a lot more that can be done. And it's fun to talk to these guys who are just focused on skiing and hear what they have to say, what they're working on because they have a lot of really good insights that we might miss because we also have the shooting side of it. And I think it's also just like in biathlon, most of it is skiing. Like it doesn't matter how well you shoot if you can't ski at a certain level. So if you look at pretty much everyone on the team, um, if you ask them if they could improve their skiing by like three seconds per k or improve their shooting by 5% over the season, I bet every single person on the team is going to take the skiing improvement. So I think it's, uh, it's it's a really cool, um, balance we have. But of course, like, it is still a Nordic ski racing sport. We just have rifles. So ski speed is still pretty much the most important thing.
Tom Kelly: [00:03:01] Vincent, I'm curious when when you go to a cross country race, everyone knows you're a biathlete coming over there to race against the cross country skiers. Do they ask you about biathlon? Do they wonder what that's like? What it's like to add in the marksmanship?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:03:16] Um, a lot of my friends do, but, uh, I would say less so with kind of the general population. Um, I think just with the prevalence of college skiing in the country, it is very difficult to, uh, market biathlon to people my age or a little bit younger. So definitely I get a lot of, um, a lot of questions from people who are like, already either regulars on the Super Tour podium or people who have raced World Cups for Nordic, wondering how it's different, but not a lot of interest from like, uh, collegiate racers who are looking to try to pick it up, which I think is, um, that's who we would really like to be interested in it from US biathlon perspective. But I think we'll get there. It does, I think, help a lot, having someone like Margie who shows up and kind of cleans up at Super Tours, who's also doing some biathlon, but, um, for me, I think I, uh, I need to pull myself together and maybe get a decent result or two at one of these races, and then I'll, uh, have a bit more of a platform to speak from.
Tom Kelly: [00:04:22] Yeah, it was fun to watch Margie this year. She was on the podcast earlier this season, as was Grace Castonguay, and both have crossed over a little bit. Margie actually, uh, got to compete in the Minneapolis World Cup for those who might not have been following that. Scored World Cup points this year. So really good season for her. Uh, Vincent, we had you on the podcast a year ago, but maybe give us a little 411 refresher on your background in the sport growing up in Utah.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:04:46] Yeah. So I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Um, I really made a huge step, though in progression from biathlon when Covid hit and I decided to take a little break from going to school and move to Bozeman for a few years to really pursue the sport full time. Um, from there, I was able to make my first IBU Cup team, spent the season racing in Europe, and it just kind of snowballed from there. And now I get to live at the Olympic Training Center in Lake. And trained full-time with a good group of guys and it's super fun.
Tom Kelly: [00:05:19] Cool. I want to come back to the Lake Placid connection, but just to go back to Utah and particularly Soldier Hollow. How advantageous was it for you as a young boy coming up in the sport to have the facility at Soldier Hollow, to have the coaching and the others in the sport to really help you to push your way through and into biathlon?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:05:39] I think for me, um, Soldier Hollow was mostly, uh, a source of inspiration and less of, like a great facility to train at. They've done a ton, a ton of improvements over the last five years. But really growing up there, it was a bit it was a bit decrepit for most of my life and most of the time I spent in Utah. But I did always love going there because it was like the Olympics happened here. There was still a lot of Olympic stuff around, so it was always that source of like inspiration and that sort of made the Olympics and that high level of sport seemed very accessible. I think that that is how it mainly helped me.
Tom Kelly: [00:06:16] Was your family around for the Olympics in 2002?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:06:20] Yeah, my parents were my sister was three and a half years old and I was two. Um, but my parents were around the Olympic torch parade went, um, went. I think it might have gone past my house, or it might have gone down a road a block away from my house. But either way, I was like, yeah. The opening ceremonies were a ten-minute walk from where I from my childhood home. So it was definitely like, that was always a big thing for us.
Tom Kelly: [00:06:46] Well, the Olympic spirit is alive and well in Utah. The Olympics in 2034, hopefully coming back to Salt Lake City, Utah and to Soldier Hollow for biathlon. Uh, you're now living in Lake Placid and a town that held the Olympics in 1980 quite a bit longer ago. But that Olympic spirit, it still pervades that community in the Adirondacks.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:07:07] Yeah. So it's fun to live in Lake Placid because they are really kind of rabidly holding on to the Olympics because, um, um, I don't know if it's because they truly love them that much or because there's that in the horse show, but it's, uh, it's a fun place to live, and it's fun to have all these Olympic venues because, like anyone who's driven there, you know, the first thing that you see is these big ski jumps right before you make it into town. And it is great that they do have this kind of Olympic athlete culture around, which is definitely nice when you're training, because people, people will respect what you're doing for training a little bit more. I think, even if they aren't sure what's going on.
Tom Kelly: [00:07:48] What is life like at the Olympic Training Center? I imagine that you mix it up with athletes from a variety of different sports. But what's a day in the life at the Olympic Training Center like in Lake Placid?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:07:58] I think, um, the biggest thing that the being at the Olympic Training Center does, is it it helps to simplify, uh, the life of training a lot. So I get to wake up and then walk to breakfast. I have my own espresso machine in my room, which is a good, good hobby. Keeps me a little bit distracted, but. So I'll make myself a coffee. I'll head to breakfast, eat breakfast, come back, get ready for training, usually do the morning training session until about noon. Then you come back to the center and lunch is already ready for you. So you get to eat lunch. Go take a little nap, scroll through the phone, read a book, whatever, and then usually a light afternoon workout. A lot of the times it'll be, uh, something in the gym, which is nice because it's just down the hall and then just kind of eat dinner, rinse, dry, repeat, uh, the next day. So it's very much, um, a very simple life. But that's the whole point. It gives us a lot more time to rest and recover, and allows us to focus a lot more on the actual training. So although it is maybe a little bit of a boring environment to live in, it is, I think, the best environment to train in.
Tom Kelly: [00:09:09] How important is it to have some of your other teammates from us biathlon there to train with you?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:09:15] I think it's like it's it's of the highest importance. It's great to have friends that really push you and it keeps the focus much higher because of course, like they're they're good friends. But you got to love that little bit of competition in training where you want to be the best at training and everyone else wants to be the best at training. And if you're just training alone, you you don't have that nearly as much. So having a few guys there that all want to be the best really helps us all kind of strive for excellence every day. And we're not just going through the motions.
Tom Kelly: [00:09:47] I know the athlete base does revolve a little bit there, but do you have much engagement with athletes from other Olympic sports?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:09:54] Um, yeah. So part one of the perks of living there is getting to make friends with all the other athletes that come through. Some of my favorites, though, are the, uh, the resident athletes there for like bobsled and skeleton. So it's it's a little bit funny, but the athletes that live at the training center are biathlon, bobsled, skeleton and luge. And we end up spending a lot of time with the bobsled skeleton athletes, which is hilarious. Being a biathlete because I this summer was one of the biggest biathletes in US biathlon. I think at my heaviest I was the biggest guy in US Biathlon, and I'm still tiny compared to a skeleton athlete who's tiny compared to a bobsled athlete. So it's hilarious that we've made friends and we get to kind of, we'll be in the gym next to we won't be training with these like ex-university football player, um, bobsled pushers that are just these huge strength power athletes. But it's really fun to hear how they train and how different it is to how we train.
Tom Kelly: [00:10:53] Have you gone down the sliding track yet?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:10:56] I have not and I don't. I think I'll eventually make it down there, but I'm not, not necessarily looking forward to it.
Tom Kelly: [00:11:04] Okay. If you were to go down, would you go down in a bobsled, a luge sled or a skeleton sled?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:11:10] I think being a passenger in a bobsled is how I'd like to do it.
Tom Kelly: [00:11:15] No one's just a passenger. You got to push. Yeah. It's it's. You should try it. I mean, you're you have a great opportunity there and you've got the friends. But but you know, you're right. I mean, the body makeup is completely different. The training regiment has got to be different.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:11:28] Oh, yeah. I mean, those guys like, if you're a skeleton athlete because they, they have weight for the sled and weight for them. And that's a huge part of like going down the track fast. If you're if you're a skeleton athlete, you want to weigh £200. And if you're pushing a bobsled, you got to be like 250. And they have to weigh this much and still be super, super fast. And it's hilarious watching these guys who are way bigger than us also just jump higher and run faster than we can. But of course we can go out and run ten miles, and those guys would absolutely wilt if they tried to do that. So it's it's a very different set of skills. Like we can go run uphill for an hour, totally fine. And those guys would die after ten minutes. But if you put us on a 50 meter running track and had to, we had to push a £100 sled. We would get absolutely smoked by these guys.
Tom Kelly: [00:12:18] Yeah, it's it's just fun to watch. Vince, when we had you on the podcast a year ago, you had just completed your first world championship. You've got another season under your belt and it was a pretty good one. You had a couple of sixth place finishes in the IBU Cup, a couple of stunning relay finishes. If you look back on your season that you're just wrapping up right now, how would you characterize it and how far have you come from a year ago?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:12:43] Um, honestly, I think the biggest thing I that is standing out to me is improving this season is I think I've just maintained my fitness a lot better. Last year I hit kind of the after Open European Championships block and really didn't feel great in a race after the end of, um, mid-February. So, at least this year, I did a little bit more training over Christmas and before that, and I think I've just felt a lot better and a lot happier in races from there. And at least once every trimester, I managed to have a race that I am that I'm very proud of. So, of course, I started out with the sixth place in the in the first race I did of the winter and the IBU Cup in Finland, so that was awesome. And moving from there. I had a couple of rough World Cups, but I did make my first pursuit in Lenzerheide and then went home, came back, and had a pretty standout open European championships, a couple races into the uh, to the middle of the season. And so that was a super fun flower ceremony to be in.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:13:52] Just me and five Norwegians. So that was a big standout. But, um, and of course, having a couple of good relays with the team just it's a crazy feeling. It's it's one of those things that I think it's a little bit American to watch relays and be like, ah, but winning a relay is like less of a personal victory. And then all of a sudden you do it and it's like, oh, doing well in a relay is almost like more of a victory because you get to share it with all your friends. And doing well means that everyone did good. So it's almost it's more rare and more special because for a relay to do well, everyone has to do well and to do badly. Only one person has to do badly. So it's it's nice. It's a crazy feeling to put it all together. And there's so much pride in the team and you can be proud of your own leg and just yeah, the nervousness watching everyone else is just crazy, but it's super fun feeling.
Tom Kelly: [00:14:49] The I love the way you described it and it really is the case that it's it's kind of not the sexy thing on your list, but all of a sudden when you have that success, it really means something for all the reasons you outlined. Let's first go through the world Championship relay, kind of walk us through that day and how it came together for your team to post at that point. The best result ever for the US men?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:15:11] Yeah. Um, I mean, honestly, that day is, uh, it it was a bit of a it's a bit of a blur, just like it's another day in the season. But, uh, um, the real standout things I remember is it was, uh, it was really tight between Maxime and I for who was going to be in that men's relay. And then I was picked, I think, because I had shown that I had a decent, um, relay leg after the mixed relay in the very beginning of the week. And so I was out there like, hey, you know, if Max can't be in this relay, I need to, I need to do something well here. And really went out that first leg. And I remember noticing on the downhill of the first lap, like, okay, we have good skis today. This is going to be good. And I just tried to hang with the pack. I had two misses in prone, so I was still very much just in the middle of the group. And then luckily in standing I hit all the targets. And I forget who I skied out with, but it was just a bonkers last lap and I was just thinking that whole time, like, I need to go as hard as I can everywhere. And coming in, it really wasn't it wasn't anything special. But for me, I'm very proud of it. It was a solid relay performance. I managed to tag to Sean right in the mix. I think he was 40s off of the lead and we were just right in it with all the other teams and managed to kind of maintain that. And it was a yeah, I remember when that race was over, it was like, oh, wow. We just like, we just did something kind of cool. We can all be really proud of that.
Tom Kelly: [00:16:55] When you go into a race like that, and I know that every time you go out, you're going to give your all. But was it in your minds, as the four of you went to the start, that you could finish fifth or better?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:17:08] Yeah, a lot of people had talked about us having like a top five relay team. Even Claire Egan mentioned it earlier that week that like we have a top five relay team this year. But it's funny because if you look at the relay results of our of our men's relay team over the year, we had some incredibly inconsistent results, like had some very bad positions, got lapped out in the third leg a couple of times. Um, so like, I don't know how many relay teams in one season have been on the start line feeling like they could get a top five and then getting like 21st or 22nd, almost dead last out of all the relay teams. So finally putting it together and just having a solid race. Campbell had an exceptional race, but the rest of us had just very, very solid, um, relay legs and bringing it home for fifth. It was almost like this huge relief of like, okay, we actually aren't bad at biathlon because there is always that kind of preseason, like, I hope I'm good, but I have no idea where I'm going to be. And then we had just gotten stomped in every relay before that, pretty much with the exception of showing some promise in Ruhpolding. So it was really cool to just to finally have that all come together.
Tom Kelly: [00:18:24] Well, that's where I was going to go next, because you have that fifth place, it's easy for people to look at that and say, well, that's just what happened on that day, but what are they going to do next time out? So you come home, you come to Soldier Hollow, and in the World Cup you beat it and you finish fourth. I mean, that was I mean, did you got well and we'll break the race down in a little bit. But did you guys have this sense now that, wow, this thing is real?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:18:50] Um, I, I don't know, I, I would, I would say I don't I don't think so just because like, yeah, there is always that bit you don't want to count on it because it could have been a fluke. And like we don't know how the other teams did. We also had exceptional skis in the Czech Republic. So there are a whole there are a lot of factors going into it. And because of the, uh, like the way they did the points for, uh, World champs, we were still in bib 14 on the start line in, um, in Soldier Hollow. So that's always I think that was nice. It kind of took the pressure off. It's like, okay, we're in bib 14, we can just beat the bib and be happy with it. Um, for me, because it was my home World Cup, I was like, I have to just I have to go hard here. This is the only start I get. So I'm going to have to really try to do something here. But that was more of a personal motivation. It was less of a for the team. It was more just, I'm here, all my friends are here. I want to put on a good show.
Tom Kelly: [00:19:53] And you did put on a good show. Talk about your leg.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:19:57] Um, it was a bit of a madhouse the first lap. As usual. Everyone is going for positions, and I do think that there was a lot of home course advantage there for me. Just having skied this loop over and over and knowing how it flows and whatnot. So I think that really kicked in after the prone where everyone the second lap is really where the race starts, the first lap, you're not not really going so hard because everyone is together. Nobody wants to make a crazy move because then you'll just get drafted and the person behind you won't be working as hard. So coming out of the prone is when the race really starts. And I knew that if I was going to try to make up time on other teams, I had to do it in the first half of the lap. Because if you go really hard up the last hill before the downhill into the range, you'll come into the range and just be dying. So I left the range and I was like, okay, I got to catch the Italian and I forget who other guy was, but I was like, I just have to catch these guys.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:21:02] And so I was just absolutely killing myself for the first three kind of punchy, small hills of the loop. And then I caught up to them and I was like, I can't go all in on this hill quite yet because I need to shoot standing and we're at altitude. I. Already know it's going to be hard. So came through and luckily I managed to hit all the targets standing in one of the probably loosest standing stages I have ever had. Felt like I was standing on top of like a waterbed or a mini trampoline or whatnot, or a galloping horse, but managed to put them all down and then leaving for that last lap, I was just telling myself that I had to go fast, like if there was any time, any reason to go as hard as I could. It was that day and I just, I just went for it and ended up coming through to tag in third. Only 10s off the lead. So yeah, I'm super happy with that. I would say that's probably my best race of the year.
Tom Kelly: [00:21:56] I want to go back to shooting standing and the pressure that's on. I mean, it's I love your example of just kind of bouncing around like you're on a water, water bed, but man, that's pressure-packed.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:22:11] Uh, to be honest, I was just like along for the ride at that point. Um, it wasn't I didn't come into the shooting and be like, oh, boy, who knows? I came into that shooting like, hey, I am like, I'm the weakest person on this team. I will, uh, I there really isn't that much pressure. I would love to do well in front of my home crowd, and we'll see how this goes. And just tried to follow my process, managed to put down all the targets and I had some definite lucky. Lucky flinches there. But it wasn't, um, it wasn't necessarily a super high pressure shooting for me, I don't think. Not like, uh. Yeah. It wasn't it wasn't wasn't terribly nerve wracking, which is lucky.
Tom Kelly: [00:22:59] I love the term: lucky flinches.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:23:03] Yeah, I would definitely say with the amount my barrel was moving, I had to have a few of those to put it onto the target when I pulled the trigger.
Tom Kelly: [00:23:11] Oh, that is a good one. We're going to take a short break and when we return, we're going to talk about the hometown advantage and all the fans that were out at Soldier Hollow. We'll be right back on Heartbeat.
Tom Kelly: We're back on Heartbeat now with Vincent Bonacci as the season winds to a close. Talking about the World Cup in Soldier Hollow in early March. What an amazing event it was. Vincent. The fans were just remarkable. It just was so much fun to be out there for three days. Huge crowds, a lot of your friends and family out there. What was the sensation like of skiing in that stadium and knowing so many people had come out to support your team?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:23:56] Oh, it was awesome. It was really cool to finally be the team that had the loudest cheering. We spend our whole season in Europe most years, where no matter where we are the loudest, cheering is always for someone else. Usually the Germans, sometimes the Italians, sometimes Austrians, sometimes the Czech team. But to be at an event with a decent amount of people, where the cheering was the loudest for us because we're in our USA gear was amazing. So it was really cool to be like doing the shooting and people are yelling for my target. And it was it was a new feeling, but it was a great feeling. And now I'm a little jealous of all the Germans all the time.
Tom Kelly: [00:24:37] It really is something. And I think in biathlon in particular the uh, uh, the fans following the shooting stage. And as a fan, I think we all like to think that we're motivating the athletes on. But as an athlete, when you're out on the track, how does it impact you? I have to think that you hear it, but how does it really impact you out on the track?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:25:00] Uh, I think you hear it, but it doesn't really impact you that much. I don't think it's fun. It definitely adds to the atmosphere. But in terms of actual performance, I, I don't think the sort of like impersonal crowd cheering is really like getting people going or not necessarily. As an athlete, we have to be very self-driven to have made it to that level at all. And I'm not particularly at a high level for the World Cup yet. But still, you have to do a lot of races in dead silence, a lot of time trials, a lot of this, that and the other. So it definitely sometimes makes it easier to go hard because you can kind of ignore your thoughts if it's loud, loud, but otherwise I think it just it makes it more fun to have. The cheering is the biggest part.
Tom Kelly: [00:25:50] Let's go to the finish line. After the fourth leg, you ended up fourth. It was the the best-ever relay finish for the US. What did you and your teammates do in the finish? What did you talk about? How did you congratulate each other?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:26:04] Oh, we were all just super happy. All of us were a bit thrashed. It was hot. We were dehydrated. I know Jake really put it all out there. He, uh, he had to spend some time leaning against the fence, deciding whether or not he was or trying to figure out whether or not he had to puke. So, uh, it took him a while to walk out of there, but I think we were all just relieved, super happy, because, of course, if we had only had the one good result at World Champs, then yeah, it was a fluke. But to do it twice in a row, it was one of those where like, okay, we've got some good momentum and we'll be ready for next year because we can do this. So that was really fun.
Tom Kelly: [00:26:44] Does it, does it kind of, you know, as you wrap up the season, you look ahead to next year. And I know that everybody is looking forward to taking a break. But, are those finishes going to give the men's team a little bit of a boost as you get into summer training? Looking ahead to next year.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:26:59] I think for sure, for sure, because now that we know that we're capable of doing that and that because we did it twice, all of a sudden it's it's not a fluke and we think we can do better. And if we do better than that, we end up with a medal. I think we'll all be working hard because every single one of us wants to be on that relay team and wants to do well. So I think that's going to be, um, in everyone's mind. And it's it's great to have everyone working toward this kind of shared goal.
Tom Kelly: [00:27:30] Depth is really a fascinating thing. And you mentioned, you know, everybody wants to be on that relay team. You have more guys challenging for spots than you have spots. So so that's really a good thing. You've got that depth now. But it is pretty intense just making that relay team.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:27:46] Yeah, exactly. So um I, I think the best part is though that although we have all this depth and it may seem like we are competing with each other, the camaraderie we have on the men's team, with everyone down to the IBU Cup level and even the domestic level is excellent. So that helps a ton because it's it doesn't feel like I'm competing against someone like Maxime for these World Cup starts or these, um, relay starts. I'm just trying to ski as fast as I can on the race days that I'm given, and so are they. And it's great to have those guys together to train with, to push me to be my best. And hopefully I can help them be their best. And it's it's no one really is working against anyone else because we all know if we're all better, then the team will be better. We can end up with more World Cup starts in the upcoming years, and it's just fun to try to build that momentum.
Tom Kelly: [00:28:43] One more serious question before we get to some fun stuff. To wrap it up here on heartbeat, uh, you are now a couple of years into the World Cup. You've been to a couple of World Championships right now. You've had a little bit of success. How do you analyze where your career is right now and where do you see it going over the next few years?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:29:03] I don't know where I see it going, but for now, I think I was looking back a little bit. What I need to do is just train harder, be a little more fit and be able to ski faster for next year. So that's going to be my main goal. Of course, I'd like to improve the shooting, but that's more of a ethereal. It comes and goes and uh, so building the consistency there I think just comes with time. So for me, my big goals for improvement based on this past season or just to get my balance and ski technique a bit better, I know I have huge gains to be. Made there and to just be a little bit more fit. And that's that's the main focus is for the upcoming training season. So I think, um, looking back at it, that is that's going to be the biggest ones. And of course I was faster this year than I was last year, but I know that I can still make a few more big steps forward because I'm still nowhere near the top.
Tom Kelly: [00:29:57] Well, I know the fans are going to enjoy watching you. We're going to close it out with our on target section. Just a few fun questions. I know you've been working at High Peaks Cyclery in Lake Placid. Uh, uh, in your residency there. What's the craziest thing that you've seen in that job? Maybe a crazy experience with a customer or a rental or a repair. Anything that comes to mind.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:30:20] Oh, uh, probably the craziest thing was, um, this guy, he. I'm sure you guys have seen the, like, electric scooter craze as a commute vehicle.
Speaker3: [00:30:30] Yeah, I love them. Yeah.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:30:32] Of course you get people who have bought their own crazy electric scooters, and someone brought one in, and it was like he had the wrong parts to replace the tire or the motor that broke in the back of it. The thing weighed probably £80. And, um, one of the reasons I like working there is because the owner really is not afraid to stick up for his employees. And this guy wheels in this electric scooter that's looking pretty worn out. And, um, he has what he claims to be the proper replacement part. He walks it in and he's like, hey, can you guys do this? And I'm like, yeah, we don't really work on like, electric motor vehicles. It doesn't really resemble a bicycle at all. And the guy's like, oh, come on, it'll be so easy. And uh, one of the other guys just looks him in the eyes and goes so easy that you had to bring it here for us to do it. And, that's probably the the craziest experience I was there for. But it's awesome to work at a place where, where we have each other's backs. If there is a situation like that, because it's fun, it's fun to have that. And it's good to have good employee camaraderie.
Tom Kelly: [00:31:37] I know you rent kayaks there. Have you been in the water?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:31:39] Um, I have, but not not in a kayak or canoe yet. That's that's something I'd like to do next summer. But this summer it was kind of cold all year. So all the, all the days we could go swimming, we kind of just went to the beach and went swimming, and there wasn't that much opportunity to go canoe around. Maybe if, uh, if Tim Burke will come give me a little kayak or canoe tour of Paul Smith's where he grew up, I'd do that.
Speaker3: [00:32:06] Okay.
Tom Kelly: [00:32:07] Tim, challenges on you. Uh, tell us, how good are you at Wordle?
Vincent Bonacci: [00:32:12] Um, I am okay at Wordle. I usually get it in 4 or 5. Most of the time I get it in four, but then five and three have little. I get it in five more often than I get it in three. So, uh, I'm not that great at it, but the mini crossword, that's my pride and joy right there. The New York Times mini crossword is the word game. I'm the best at.
Tom Kelly: [00:32:35] What makes it great.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:32:37] Uh, I don't know. My brain just works that way. So it's, uh, it's fun. And because they give the leaderboard and it's timed, it can be a little competitive. So that's that's my favorite part.
Tom Kelly: [00:32:47] Okay. Last one, tell us about your latte art.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:32:52] Oh, boy., so I've got an espresso machine. When I moved to the Olympic Training Center because I knew I'd need a new hobby. And then Campbell has worked as a barista before in New Zealand, so he showed me briefly how to do latte art, and then it just has snowballed from there. But because I would make myself two cappuccinos a day, I'd have two opportunities to practice. And so I've become decent at it. But maybe, maybe next year I'll I'll try to get good at it. But it's it's just fun and it's a fun little skill. So it's. Yeah. Just got to add that to my bag of tricks.
Tom Kelly: [00:33:25] Well, Vincent, it's been fun to catch up with you again. It's been a year and we congratulate you for the success that you and the team have had this year. Look forward to having you back on Hartbeat in another season. Vincent Bonacci, thanks for joining us.
Vincent Bonacci: [00:33:38] Thank you for having me.