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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.
S6 Ep8 - Lowell Bailey
[00:00:00] Tom Kelly: It's springtime in Vermont. Lowell Bailey, thank you so much for joining us on Heartbeat.
[00:00:06] Lowell Bailey: Great to be here, Tom. And yeah, it's, uh, things are greening up and, and, uh, looking very spring-like. So. Biathlon training season has started.
[00:00:16] Tom Kelly: So what are you doing this time of year? Just personally up in Vermont.
[00:00:20] Lowell Bailey: So, um, you know, I think this time of year is it's all about, uh, getting ready for the training season. And, uh, so I don't know, personally, personally, it's, uh, it's about just getting outside as much as possible because professionally, it's a lot of, it's a lot of planning and a lot of desk time this time of year, just getting the, the season underway.
[00:00:46] Tom Kelly: Well, I know that it's nice to be able to take a breather after the busy season that you've had the Olympics and so forth. We're going to do a recap of the season. We're going to talk about the World Cup season. We're going to talk about the Olympics in athletes. And you know, some of the high points, some of the learnings. I want to though, just to throw a shout-out, you have a couple of athletes who are retiring after great careers with U.S. biathlon, and I wonder if you could just recap them a little bit.
[00:01:11] Lowell Bailey: Yeah, I think, um, both Jake Brown and Paul Schommer are, are, uh, are retiring or have retired. Uh, and they're moving on to exciting new chapters in their own lives. And, um, I think they'll both be, be in the biathlon, uh, family for, for a long time going forward. And I know their hearts are still in it. Um, but yeah, they both of them have, you know, very long, impressive careers, careers, uh, in the sport. And, um, you know, starting with Jake. Uh, Jake just brought a, a level of intensity and focus to both the training environment and the competition environment. He was truly all in as an athlete, uh, from the get go when he came on to the team as a, uh, really as a, as an ex team, as we say, a talent transfer, uh, athlete. And, uh, he just brought such a positivity to the group and he always, you know, something about his, um, his presence always pushed his teammates to be their, their best because, uh, when Jake was, was training, um, you just didn't have a choice. You had to be at your best. And then, um, Paul also had an incredibly positive presence on the team. He, um, you know, he, he was as important as Jake, just an important sort of bridge between the veteran generation and this new generation that's now, um, you know, coming to center stage. Uh, and Paul was really adept at, uh, you know, whatever teammate, whatever team he was on, he was able to, to really integrate well. And, and, um, not only for himself, for his own, uh, uh, improvement, but also to the improvement and benefit of, of his teammates. So, um, both just great guys, great competitors. And, um, definitely they'll be, they'll be missed.
[00:03:18] Tom Kelly: One of the things you talked about here, Lowell, that I don't think we talk enough about is the impact that individual athletes have on the rest of the team. And these are two really good examples, aren't they?
[00:03:29] Lowell Bailey: Yeah. I think one thing I would point to is, um, we've taken a really intentional approach or we, we started to take a more intentional approach to, uh, to building team culture, uh, over the last quad in the last, in the previous quad. And, you know, buy in and trust are, are really things that you're, you're looking for in a team when, when you embark on something like that And Paul and Jake both were really supportive and bought in right at the right at the get go, and saw it as a real benefit to the whole team. And I think that made such a huge difference to have to have athletes buy in right at the right, at the front end of an initiative like that.
[00:04:16] Tom Kelly: Cool. I know, too, that you have a few coaching transitions as well as we leave the Olympic season and move up to the future. What are some of those you can talk about?
[00:04:26] Lowell Bailey: Yeah, we're doing a bit of a of a restructuring. And I think it's um, really in every what I've experienced is every, every quad, every Olympic quad is different. There's different team members, there's different team, um, there's different athletes, different staff. And, um, I feel like, you know, this is the natural progression, uh, is one way to look at it. And, um, we really benefited from the coaches that were involved in the last quad. I mean, specifically Armen Auchentaller, our head coach for the last for the previous years, who's now moved on to Slovenia. Um, he, he was a great coach and really helped, uh, helped the athletes that he worked with in, um, in, in some really challenging transitions. Um, coming out of the Beijing games, we were definitely in a, in a very much rebuilding phase and a very different phase than we are currently. Um, and Armen was able to really, uh, meet the team where they were at at the time and bring them forward. And now we're moving into an exciting new chapter. Um, there's going to be, um, a little bit of a new new structure, a little bit of an adjustment will move from one, uh, one head coach to a head coach for each gender. I think that's probably the biggest change. Uh, and then just Really, uh, restructuring some of the other supporting coaching roles. And I would say it's just an evolution based on our strategic plan, uh, the so-called 2030 plan. Um, this was an eight year plan we put forward back in 2022. And, um, one of the main tenets of, of that strategy and is, um, building a program that has sustained competitive excellence and you don't do that overnight.
[00:06:28] Lowell Bailey: Uh, and so this is sort of a, the next phase in, in that plan. And so where we were focusing a lot of attention on building some of the, uh, development pathways, uh, like what we call our project X pathway, which is a talent transfer pathway, uh, building some of our, um, grassroots, um, programming. All of that is with that that that mission and and focus of sustained competitive excellence in the long term. And so in the last quad, we were really focused at the top end of the pipeline. Now we're we're slowly but surely pushing our, our support and our coaching and our staffing to reach more levels of that development pipeline. So what that looks like is I mentioned the two head coaches on the national team level, but now adding a development head coach and that development head coach would be more focused on the development senior athletes. So those athletes that are bridging from juniors to the seniors, the young senior class, um, and, and then, uh, keeping our focus on, you know, the two, the two main elements of biathlon, which are shooting and physiology. Uh, so skiing fast and shooting straight is another way to put it. Uh, and really, uh, the final two elements of the staffing for the whole program. This is program wide, not just national team, but making sure we have a shooting specific expert and making sure we have a physiology expert that is looking at the overall picture, um, both specific to specific athletes, but with that focus of, you know, someone who's just focused on the shooting side and someone who's just focused on the, the ski side. So that's a little bit about the newness.
[00:08:28] Tom Kelly: Before we get into talking about this past season, I just want to kind of take a 30,000 foot view for those who maybe are not familiar with what a quad is. Talk a little bit about the four year Olympic quad. And then how does that roll up to the strategic plan that you have looking out to 2030?
[00:08:47] Lowell Bailey: Yeah. So I mean, I think this is this can sound like a foreign language to, to the uninitiated, but, uh, we in the Olympic world, in the world of Olympic sport, that is, we tend to think of the world in four year intervals, which is the gap between each Olympics. And so it's it's a pretty natural way to divide the the sort of eras of us biathlon. So so when I say looking back at the last quad, it's really the time from when we left the Beijing Olympics to, uh, to present day where we've just gone through the Milan-cortina Olympics.
[00:09:28] Tom Kelly: So let's, let's take a look now at this past season and we're going to save the Olympics till the end. But you have a World Cup every year. And this is where your elite athletes are out and doing their best and, and, and pursuing their their goals. There are so many different highlights from this past season. I'm going to let you decide where you want to start, but can you go through some of the key highlights and performance markers for some of your top athletes in this past World Cup season?
[00:09:56] Lowell Bailey: Sure. Um, you know, I think we had a lot of really exciting. I'm glad you used the term highlights because I think, you know, a highlight can be something like the really, you know, very flashy podium that Campbell. Right. Uh, achieved in the Nové Mesto mass start. I mean, that was an incredible performance. Uh, and really, you know, everything came together and it's, you know, for an athlete like Campbell really last season was, uh, confirmation that he's here to stay. I think everyone, I'm sure who's who's tuned in to the biathlon world, remembers his twin world championship medals from from last year in Lenzerheide. And, um, what we saw this season was Campbell continuing that, uh, that trajectory and really, you know, showing that he's he's among the world's best now. And now in this next quad, really the focus for him is taking that next step, which is going from an occasional podium to a more consistent podium. Um, but really the highlights you can look at, you know, down the whole roster and really point out, uh, what I see as a, as an incredibly competitive team with a noticeable significant increase in competitive depth. And so what I mean by that is we no longer are in a, in a situation as a, as a program where we have, you know, one or maybe two athletes that are, uh, up there on the results list. We now have an entire team that is capable of, uh, of stepping on a podium. And quite literally, I think the best example of that is the mixed relay podium in Otepää.
[00:11:49] Lowell Bailey: Um, I think there's no other event that really can show competitive depth. And what I mean by that is if you're combining in a mixed relay, you're combining two men and two women from basically from two different national teams, two different World Cup teams, you're combining them as a country and going up against all the rest of the best of the world. And, um, to come away with a podium, I think, is that's something, you know, back in 2022, in the last Olympics, you know, that was nothing. We were, we were, uh, that wasn't even on the radar. And so now we're at a point where, um, we have a program where athletes are capable of, uh, multiple athletes are capable of, uh, of stepping on a podium. And that mixed relay was probably the most satisfying, uh, podium of all the podiums that we've seen over the last few years. Um, so that's a, you know, huge, huge highlight, huge milestone for the program. And, um, and just, it was a, it was a great day for, for everyone at US Biathlon and definitely the athletes. Um, I think some of the other highlights I would point to, um, really less specifically, but more of just the X Team program. So athletes that are coming from the world of cross-country skiing and trying to make that jump to biathlon, and this is what we call our X team or our Project X program. Um, what we saw this year was really the next chapter of success in that program.
[00:13:33] Lowell Bailey: We saw those, those athletes, an athlete like Margie Freed, uh, even Deedra Irwin, who back in the day came into, uh, us biathlon through that X program. These were the athletes that were representing us all year long on the World Cup stage and hitting powers left and right. Um, I think, you know, just some of the highlights are, you know, Lucy Anderson coming into the season in, uh, with less than two years of biathlon under her belt, uh, and coming to Östersund and posting, you know, one of the fastest ski times of the event. Um, and so right away the rest of the world is saying, oh, wow, who's that? And, uh, and then looking at, um, you know, Deedra having arguably the best season of her career, super consistent across the whole season, especially in the middle and the end of the season. Margie Freed, um, again, very new to the sport, shooting 90% on average for all the sprints of the entire season, making the mass start in the last World Cup of the season. These are huge, huge milestones for these athletes. And it's it's not easy. It's not easy in the fields that that they're racing in right now. This is the most competitive era of biathlon that we've ever seen. And so to, to make it into a mass start is a, is a big deal, especially for an athlete that's, you know, comparatively new to the, to the sport.
[00:15:14] Tom Kelly: Well, these are great highlights. And I want to pursue a couple of them a little bit further. And the first one I want to go back to Campbell. Uh, he's the real deal. You've talked about that. We saw it at the World Championships a year ago. We saw it in the incremental results this year. When you have an athlete like that in your program and you're working together as a team and you've got a strong culture. How can an athlete like that help to elevate the others on his team?
[00:15:43] Lowell Bailey: Yeah, I mean, that's a that's a great question. And I think, you know, I think. It's incredibly motivating to be a teammate and watch, uh, to watch your teammate break those barriers and step on a mass start podium, for example. Um, it's really, really inspiring. And it definitely lifts it lifts the other athletes up. Uh, and then the other just sort of obvious one is, I think when you start seeing an athlete, a teammate, um, start to achieve that level of success, you start to pay attention to like, well, what, what are they doing in the training season? What's, what are they doing in May? What are they doing in June? Um, just a little more attention to how, uh, a successful athlete is, uh, approaching their process and that benefits the whole team. Um, I mean, in contrast, if you don't have that, uh, opportunity and then you're left as a team, you know, taking your best, your best shot at it. And your coach is is doing their best to, to help you through it. But it's a different thing altogether to, to actually see someone executing on that and, and seeing what it really takes. So I think that's it. Definitely. There's some, some, uh, I don't know if you call it glass ceilings that are, are broken when the first podium comes into a team, but it does seem to be a huge momentum builder where that first podium is the hardest. And then all of a sudden you start to see, I mean, we saw the, the, uh, the mixed relay podium, I think is the best example of that. It's just, it's inspiring. It lifts the team. It helps, it helps the other athletes believe that it's possible because they've been there day in and day out, uh, doing the same things, doing the same training. And so it might be Campbell one day, but the next day it's going to be me. That kind of mentality.
[00:17:54] Tom Kelly: Yeah. We haven't talked about Maxime so much yet, but he also had a great season.
[00:18:00] Lowell Bailey: Yeah yeah. I think Maxime put together a really solid season and continues to have an upward trajectory uh, internationally. And you know he's I think with Maxime, it's, uh, it's, it's really, he's a lot closer, uh, to the flashy success that, that we were just talking about. He's a lot closer than a lot of people think he's, he's been, in some ways flying under the radar. But when you look at when you pull apart some of the stats and you start looking at where his ski speed is at and what he's done with consistency there, um, what he's done with shooting accuracy and consistency, like all of those trend lines are, are really pointed in a really exciting direction.
[00:18:51] Tom Kelly: Lowell, we talked a lot about that great mixed relay result, but both the men and the women also had their own results in the relays this year. Can you recap those?
[00:19:03] Lowell Bailey: Yeah, I mean, I think our our relay teams were um, yeah, just I mean that I think you can't, uh, you can't talk about relays without talking about the men's relay and their, uh, trajectory, you know, starting out in the Beijing year. Um, I can't remember exactly, but they were, you know, well, in the teens ranking wise. And then just over the last four years, making steady jumps every year to the point where, you know, they ended the year as the fifth-ranked team in the world. Uh, and definitely we all hoped for a podium. We came close so many times. But biathlon is a game of numbers, right? You gotta you gotta show up and you gotta establish consistency first, and then the results come. And so I think that's what we saw this year was, you know, a big, big jump in relay performance. And we don't need that much more of a jump to see, uh, multiple podiums in these next years. So that's pretty, um, pretty cool to see. And again, going back to the competitive depth, like you can't be that you can't compete in the relay field without, uh, without having four team members that can put it together.
[00:20:34] Lowell Bailey: You, you just to have three out of four, it just doesn't work. You got to have four athletes that can really put down solid legs for each of those legs. And if you can do that, um, generally you're fighting for a podium. So, um, so yeah, I think that's one of the clearest indicators of, um, of the program really building strength over these last few years. Um, and then also you can say on the, on the women's side, uh, you know, they've, they've made huge progress, especially when you consider that half of the team now is made up of athletes crossing over within the last 2 to 3 years. Um, so they've improved their Nation Cup status status. Um, went from 19th to 13th this year. And they did that with, you know, sort of half and half, half, half experienced veterans and half really new athletes that are very new to the sport and, and still have a long way to go on their performance trajectories.
[00:21:49] Tom Kelly: You know, as we talk about the relay, the need for having a strong and deep team. One of the areas we haven't talked about a lot in past seasons is the Nations Cup and World Cup total points. But now all of a sudden those are starting to become very meaningful indicators for you.
[00:22:08] Lowell Bailey: Yeah, I think Nation Cup is probably the biggest, the biggest sort of metric that you can look at. And because, you know, when you think about what is the Nation Cup, it's, it's the compilation, it's, it's not just one athlete's ranking. Um, it's the aggregate, you could say ranking of an entire team's efforts over the entire season. And so I think that's a huge, You know, the men being seventh and the women being 13th is just it's where they've come from. That's so exciting, you know. It's it's not that oh, the men have been at seventh for five years and it's just like a flat, you know, a flat plateau. Both teams are making big, big jumps. If you look year over year. And so that's when you couple that with what I was just speaking about like that this team is is relatively new to the world stage. So they're making these big jumps and they're relatively new to say that a different way. They have a long way to go. Um, those two things are just very, uh, very good, um, harbingers of things to come.
[00:23:33] Tom Kelly: Let's move on to Antholz now, a great Olympics, a great showcase for the sport of biathlon. You were in your sport's biggest venue, and we're going to talk more about that in just a minute. But I know you went into ant holes with hopes of a medal. You didn't get the medal, but you had some good promising results. So let's just start it out and talk about what were the learnings and the takeaways that you're kind of tucking away that says, hey, we're going to get there.
[00:24:00] Lowell Bailey: Yeah. I mean, I think you can, you can point to. Just, I think performances that were personal bests. Um, and so you can look at, uh, Margie's race there, you can look at, uh, Campbell's, uh, eighth place in the pursuit. I think that was our, from the, um, single athletes, uh, markers. That was, that was, uh, the high point for him and the high point for Usba in terms of rank. But I think when you pull apart that race, for example, um, it was a pursuit race and he moved up a tremendous amount of spots. And really, that day was a podium-contending athlete in terms of where he was, uh, in the, in the, uh, what we would call the net time. And so. Like podium level performances, but just with biathlon, these incremental, um, differences make the difference. And so we didn't, as you say, you know, we didn't come away with a medal, but we came away with some really, you know, top performances and some very encouraging performances that point to, uh, future success for sure.
[00:25:29] Tom Kelly: Like the men's relay.
[00:25:31] Lowell Bailey: Yeah. And, uh, I think the men's relay is a great example of that. Um, you know, we had, it wasn't our best relay for sure. Uh, we had, You know, we did miss some shots. We didn't have the perfect day, and yet we still ended up in fifth and, um, and not that far away from the medals. So, uh, I think when you get to a point as a program where you don't necessarily have to have a perfect day, you just have to have a good day to get on the podium. That's a, that's a much better place to be than. And I think it's a place that we've never been before. Um, when I look back at some of the previous teams and where they were at, um, I think we're getting to a point where a relay podium will no longer mean the mixed relay was not a perfect day. It was a really good day, but it was not a perfect day. Um, and so we're, we're getting to a point now as a program where you have to have a really good day, but not a perfect day to get on the podium. And that is where you want to be. That's where the top nations are always at. And so if you have a team of six athletes that are always capable of stepping on a podium, that's why you see the, the, the top programs consistently. It's not the same athlete every week to week. It's, it's maybe for a few athletes in the world it is. But other than that, it's this, uh, you know, it's a cycle of different phases, but, um, but you typically see a Norwegian uniform up there. You typically see a French uniform up there, but it's not always the same face.
[00:27:17] Tom Kelly: Yeah. Lowell as a high-performance director, I know that your job is to really dissect things. You're going to certainly celebrate the success, but you and your coaches are going to dive in and you're going to look at what are the learnings from the places where we didn't do as well as we had hoped? Are there any learnings that you've taken away from analyzing the results in Antholz?
[00:27:39] Lowell Bailey: Yeah, I think we're doing a lot of interesting work. Um, still actually, uh, pulling apart the, the performance data, um, not only from the Olympics, but across the whole season. Um, we do a ton of work with, uh, wearable technology and, um, now in, in the new era of AI-driven, uh, performance analytics, there's, there is a mountain of findings and insights that you can draw from the existing performance data. And, uh, so, you know, when you look at what are the takeaways, um, I think the encouraging thing is that there is, there is, there is plenty of areas to look at that we can work on whether that's technical, uh, whether that's tactical, uh, that's a big, a big area that we're, uh, we have been working on, but we see as a huge, um, opportunity in the next quad. And that is to say that you could call it tactical optimization, but we have tools now that we've never had that can really give us clarity on what are the best tactics, where are the places that we're losing time that isn't necessarily tied to, um, the, the, the fitness level, but it's tied to the tactics used. Um, and so I think it's a great, it's a great point in time because, um, on one hand, you can't even start to talk about tactics unless you have athletes that are at a certain talent level and a certain fitness level, you got to get those in place first, and then you can start talking about tactics. And that's, and that's where we're at. And I think the other big opportunity and the other big thing we see as a central focus, not surprisingly, is ski service, uh, or ski preparation. And so, um, you know, coming out of last season and looking forward to the next four years in the next quad, that's a huge ongoing, I should say, you know, this is not nothing, nothing to new in the thinking here, but some of the approaches are um, are a bit new and refocused energy based on um, our learnings from the last season.
[00:30:04] Tom Kelly: Cool. You know, this is the first time that AI has really come up in these discussions. I'm not going to dive into it now, but that's one for for future use. But my mind is spinning into the opportunities that are out there. Right?
[00:30:17] Lowell Bailey: Yeah. It's, uh, it is incredible. And I think we're just scratching the surface, to be honest. I think there's a lot more, um, uh, a lot more to come. And I think the next four years are going to, are going to be a, a new chapter for sure in us biathlon. But I think just globally, the sport is going to change a lot because of AI.
[00:30:41] Tom Kelly: Let's talk about ant holds the place, and I think we all knew going in that this was going to be a spectacular showcase for the sport of biathlon and the feedback that I'm hearing from the people who went there, who had never seen the sport of biathlon before, were just blown away by the place, the experience and what the sport is all about. I would imagine that you, having been there many, many times, that you probably took a lot of pride away from your sport being showcased to the world the way that it was in adults.
[00:31:16] Lowell Bailey: Yeah. I think, um, you know, a lot of credit goes to the venue, um, the, you know, the people there, they know the sport better than anyone in the, in the world. And so to have them in charge of putting together the Olympic course and putting together the Olympic Games, you know, from my standpoint, it was a foregone conclusion that it was going to be a success. And I think, um, so in many ways it wasn't surprising to me. I've always known not to be, uh, just an incredibly, uh, well run event. Um, they just, they do such a good job there, but it was great to see that, that, you know, when you put our sport up against the rest of the world because we're used to just living in our biathlon world and our World Cup tour and, and it's, uh, it's well received it as an international brand. It's very popular, but when you put it, throw it into the mix with the whole bucket of different Olympic sports, that is the Olympic Games. Uh, and you saw what happened where in the American market, biathlon was all of a sudden a really a favorite sport. I think that was maybe the most surprising thing for me and encouraging thing was that, okay, this is a universally appealing sport. Um, that yes, we know that the Europeans love the sport because they've grown up with it. It's been on TV their whole lives. Um, so it's a household name for them, but to see it in these other markets start to really gain traction. Uh, that was, that was super exciting.
[00:33:03] Tom Kelly: Yeah, it was a great show. Uh, we're recording this in mid-May. You have a big summer prep coming up. Give us a little rundown on what we can expect to see over the next few months. When is the team going to be named? What are your summer camp plans and so forth?
[00:33:18] Lowell Bailey: Yeah. So the team is, uh, we're, we're close to, you know, everyone's waiting on with bated breath, but, uh, we're very close to naming, announcing the team, uh, and announcing our new staffing. I would say we're a week or two away from, uh, from the public facing, uh, uh, announcements and, uh, and then we're moving into the first national team camp in June, uh, at, in Lake Placid at the Olympic training center there. And, um, from there we have a really, uh, packed summer of training. Uh, it'll take us to Craftsbury, Vermont, uh, Europe, uh, Utah. Um, so we'll be training at, I would say some of the world's best venues. You could say.
[00:34:14] Tom Kelly: Well, we look forward to it. The season is some months out yet, but it won't be that long. Uh, Lowell, thank you so much. I want to wrap it up with a little bit of our on target section. I got a couple of quick questions for you. And just looking back over the whole season, is there something that you can point to that you would call maybe your biggest surprise of the season?
[00:34:36] Lowell Bailey: Mm. I mean, so from a general sense, I think one of the biggest surprises was how quickly some of the X Team or talent transfer athletes were able to translate their relatively small amount of training into World Cup competitiveness. I think that was a big positive surprise in terms of like validating that the program is working and, and really hats off to the athletes. That in my mind, when I think back on like how long, you know, as an athlete, it took me to get to some of these, the places that they're at, it's pretty astounding. Um, and then I think another great, great, again, to use the word surprise, I don't know if it's a surprise or more confirmation of like, yes, the work is paying off, but I think that would be the oh to pay. Mixed relay. That was really, uh, I think confirming and rewarding for all parties, uh, that. Hey, our program is on track.
[00:35:48] Tom Kelly: Cool. Let's go to Antholz now. And can you share one memorable experience that you had in Antholz during the games? Could be anything. Could be a pizza. It could be a celebration, whatever it is. Yeah.
[00:36:03] Lowell Bailey: Yeah. I mean, I think there was tons of memorable, uh, biathlon experiences that were, were really, um, yeah, just you can't recreate it anywhere. It was the Olympics in adults. Uh, and so that was, that was really it for me of just seeing a venue that's hosted so many World Cups, so many world championships, and then finally hosting the Olympics. And I think, you know, for those that don't follow the sport, so much Biathlon in the Olympics. A lot of a lot of the time, or at least in recent history, has resulted in, you know, a venue that has never been seen before. Beijing, we literally had never stepped foot there before the Olympics, uh, except for a few of our ski technicians. Um, and so to have the, uh, have the competitions that on, on familiar, it almost felt like home course, uh, was, was just really each competition was just very memorable. Um, and then I think, you know, the outside of the sport, I think a lot of the, a lot of the experience was surrounding just how different the games were than, than previous games and to, I guess to be more specific, um, we were as many people know, we were in a cluster that was just biathlon. And for the first time we weren't in an Olympic village.
[00:37:40] Lowell Bailey: We were staying in private houses. We had a great sort of central house where the athletes were and some of the coaches and then our our ski ski technicians were up the road about a kilometer up, and they were in a in another house. And then, um, and then we had a third like, uh, I guess set of apartments where we had a physio and our, our doctor were there. Um, and so it was very different than that classic what we think of as the Olympic Games where you have, you know, the big cafeteria where everyone, um, congregates and this huge Olympic village, uh, that we've grown accustomed to. But I think, you know, as much as that's its own thing. Uh, I think it was also really nice to have, um, our own private space because that's the thing that's missing from the Olympic village. You don't feel like you have any privacy. You're pretty much like on display almost. It feels like. So, um, it was really nice to have, you know, more of a family vibe. And the athletes, I think, appreciated the, the opportunity to really have their own home for the, for the three weeks that they were there.
[00:39:01] Tom Kelly: Yeah. Good stuff. You know, um, just thinking of athletes and the familiarity that you all had with it. Uh, I know that in 2034 we will be at Soldier Hollow, another venue that you train at, in fact, the headquarters of U.S. Biathlon. But what's the plan for French Alps 2030 for the biathlon venue?
[00:39:22] Lowell Bailey: Yeah. I think, you know, the plan is, is pretty I don't want to say similar because they're all different, but, uh, but it's a venue that we will have been to several times. We've already been there many, many times. Um, and so in it will be, I would say on the spectrum of on, on one side and Beijing on the other, I would say that it's going to be a lot closer to a non games than a Beijing games.
[00:39:49] Tom Kelly: Yeah. What is the venue in France.
[00:39:52] Lowell Bailey: Uh, it's a little town called Le Grand-Bornand. And um, it's, you know, basically, uh, in the French kind of quintessential French Alps.
[00:40:03] Tom Kelly: And the French are passionate about biathlon, right?
[00:40:07] Lowell Bailey: Yes. Yeah. I mean, I mean, they're among the world's best now. And, uh, they're, they've just, over the years become a titan in the sport as a country. So yeah, it's, it's, uh, I think we, we think, we tend to think, oh, the Germany's and the, you know, the Norway's are like the, the big biathlon nations, but now we have France, Sweden, Czech Republic, like there's so many nations now where the you know, it's the number one sport, uh, that people watch in those countries. So it's really cool to see the sport growing like that.
[00:40:47] Tom Kelly: One last question for you, Lowell. As you look back over the past season, what's one fun thing that you did that had nothing to do with biathlon?
[00:40:57] Lowell Bailey: Um. Let's see. Well, I mean, in season, you're pretty much, uh, pretty much doing all biathlon. So I, I would point to there was a point in the preseason where we had just arrived, uh, in Obertilliach, Austria, which is a pretty iconic, uh, biathlon venue. Tiny little town. And, um, we were at just arriving at the hotel or I think we'd been there a few days, but, um, this is just something about these European hosts that we, that we find ourselves with, um, at these different hotels, like it's hosting in Europe, they take it very seriously. And it, it oftentimes our team feels like they're taken in as a family member by the time we leave. And this was one of those cases. So the owners of the hotel they put together, they asked, hey, can we have like a, you know, a welcome night? Sure. Yeah, let's, let's, let's do that. That'll be fun. So they put together this welcome night and, uh, the sort of like the key part of the evening was they invited, uh, I think the translation was the town fire watcher. And, um, this is a role that has been around for like a thousand years. And it started out as a very critical role.
[00:42:26] Lowell Bailey: And this is a person that would be hired by the town and entrusted with the role of walking the streets at night and making sure that, you know, spotting for fires, essentially. And, uh, but over all of these years, they've continued to keep this role going. And, um, so they assembled the whole team. Uh, and it was not our, it was not only our team, I think the Canadians were, were staying at the hotel at the time, maybe some other athletes. And the fire watcher, you know, gives us his, his take on his role and gives us some of the history and then says, so now you're all going to come with me on the fire watch. And so all of the World Cup athletes and our coaches and staff basically trundle through the streets of Obertilliach and, you know, walk through and he stops at time to times and says, oh, this, you know, this house was built 800 years ago or something. And, um, it was, it was cool to get a little dose of, of history. And, and you definitely realize how old that part of the world is when you when you do something like that.
[00:43:39] Tom Kelly: You know, I love that region. I've spent a lot of time in Lyons, which is kind of the big city down in the Valley. And I've been up to Obertilliach. And one of the things that's always struck me in that area, you know, here in America, we just kind of all of our towns end up running together. And the respect that they have of the space between villages and, and really maintaining the integrity of these little towns that have existed for so many centuries. It's, it's just amazing. I love this concept of the fire watch. That was fun.
[00:44:09] Lowell Bailey: Yeah, yeah, it was great.
[00:44:12] Tom Kelly: Lowell Bailey, thank you so much for joining us. It was a wonderful season. I know that your mind is looking ahead now and there's a lot of good times to come. Thanks, Lowell, for joining us on Heartbeat.
[00:44:23] Lowell Bailey: All right. Thanks, Tom. Great to be here.