Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
S5 Ep3 - John Farra
Tom Kelly: Welcome back to Heartbeat and we are back at Soldier Hollow again today. Today we're with John Farra, the sport development director for US Biathlon. We're recording this at the end of October. I think we're on the 29th today. Something like that. But there's snow up in the mountains. They've got the snow guns in place. Winter is pretty much here. It's beautiful. It is, isn't it? Beautiful morning. Yes. Still have the green or the. We still have the yellow leaves on the trees. So it's a beautiful scene out here. John, thanks a lot for joining us. You have been with US Biathlon now for a couple of years. A lot of programs have been put in place since you started your tenure here. We're going to talk more about those. But just to give a little bit of background, can you give the listeners a little background on your growing up in New York and eventually becoming an Olympic cross country skier?
John Farra: Yeah. Wow. Some people will know the name Tracy Lamb, but as a cross-country skier in Lake Placid, I remember Tracy Lamb would always say to me, hey buddy, you got, you got to be a biathlete. And he'd always try to get me to do more. But I grew up in Saratoga Springs. The Olympic torch came running through my town in 1980 on its way up to Lake Placid. My parents were in a running club at the time, and so we got the opportunity to run with that torch as it came through Saratoga Springs, and that was pretty impactful for me. My parents got us up to the Olympics. We got to watch some of the events, and that just hooked me on my pathway. I needed to be a skier and I needed to find my way to the Olympic Games someday.
Tom Kelly: Were you a skier at that point?
John Farra: I was. My family ran a cross country ski center when I was a little kid at the Saratoga Springs State Park. And while everybody in the family had to contribute to the business in some way, mounting skis or what have you, I was the baby of the family, and most of the time I just spent goofing around on skis. My first job at our ski touring center was to coach the kids. So when mom and dad would get instruction from my parents, they would give me the five, six, or seven-year-olds, and I would go tool around on skis. We'd play hide and seek, we'd play soccer on skis and just goof around. So, that was my first official job. So, coaching eventually was a no-brainer.
Tom Kelly: Let's it seems to me, and I think to you too, that 1992 Albertville was just like yesterday, but it was a couple of years ago. What was your experience in Albertville skiing up at Lacey? I think you were at the same venue as biathlon.
John Farra: Yes, correct. What an honor that was. A long pathway to get there and and what a thrill to to be there and represent my country. I'll remember in the opening ceremony somehow, some way, my mom and dad and my sister found their way into the opening ceremonies, and they were sitting just, I don't know, 25m behind me, behind the US delegation. And it was such a hoot to have them there. It was great to have that experience.
Tom Kelly: I have to say I was working for U.S. Ski Association. U.S. Ski Team at the time. I loved your parents. They were they were really the first parents that I met who were the quintessential fans. They were just fans of sport.
John Farra: That's right. My dad served as the president of the New York State Ski Racing Association for many years so that he could help keep the sport alive in the state of New York. Um, and they were always such advocates for the sport and found biathlon at a young age. My parents, my brother actually was in the 80s, took to biathlon for a period of time. So, I've always dibbled and dabbled around biathlon. Actually, my dad had a license plate in New York that said biathlon, and so it was always part of my family. Maybe if I'd slowed down and maybe had a little bit of coaching, I might have been able to hit some shots, but I wasn't all that great on the range. Tom.
Tom Kelly: But you did shoot well.
John Farra: Absolutely. I did some biathlon. Racing for sure. Just wasn't all that great on the range.
Tom Kelly: Well it's so yeah, you got to be good. You got to be good in both areas. It's a tough sport. You made a decision after 92 to change your pathway. You started coaching, and your career has really been spent on high performance. Just to kick it off, how did you make that first transition to get into coaching?
John Farra: Yeah. That was. It was pretty organic, actually. I had started my college degree at the University of Utah, had skied for the Utes, and I had taken some time, taken a pause during those World Championship years and Olympic years. So when I was ready to, to get back into my education and went back to the university, and I got an opportunity to be an assistant coach with Kevin Sweeney for the University of Utah Nordic Ski Team, which was an awesome opportunity to learn my coaching craft. And that's where it started for me.
Tom Kelly: So we want to get into current times, but just to kind of briefly go over your career, you've touched a lot of places. You were at US Paralympics, you were at USA Triathlon. What are some of the other stops you made along the way, and what was the common thread that kept your passion for sport going?
John Farra: Yeah, that's a that's a good question. We ended up after finishing up college, went back to work at the National Sports Academy in Lake Placid, then found our way to Main Water Sports Center. And that was really my first real coaching job with kids fell in love with with that experience. Was up in northern Maine for seven years and then got a phone call from Luke Bodensteiner about a Nordic director position at the US skiing skiing organization U.S. Ski Team. So I ended up coming to Utah. Obviously, I loved Utah. I had spent time here in college. Um, and that was an easy transition. I was with the US team through the years of, you know, keeping winning her first Silver first World Championship victories for Lindsey Vonn. Lindsey Vonn off the ski jump. And really starting to see some really great Nordic combined team was fabulous. As you know in 2010 Vancouver then the U.S. Paralympics was looking for a Nordic director. And at first I said, you know, I can't add value to Paralympics. I don't know anything about adaptive athletes or Paralympic athletes. And luckily they said, hey, just just realize the fact that Paralympic athletes are just like Olympic athletes. They need the same high-performance strategies. So luckily I listened long enough and I had a really I took the opportunity to to go to the US Para Nordic team as the high-performance director there. I believe I was there also for about seven years and what an amazing opportunity to.
John Farra: I learned a lot and they were right. Our Paralympic athletes need the same strategies. There may be some different challenges, but that was a great opportunity for me. And then, triathlon came calling and said they were looking for a high-performance director. That was the biggest leap of faith I needed to take because I didn't know the sport of triathlon, of course. Um, but Eileen Carey at the time, who was the head coach for our para program, was really ready and didn't need me anymore. In some ways, and it was a great opportunity for her to take over the program and for me to challenge myself with us. Para excuse me, US triathlon, both Olympic and Paralympic program. So I went from winter sport, uh, into Olympic and Para sport to triathlon. I was there for five seasons, went through a Covid games in Tokyo, had really some great success. Incredible athletes. I have great friends and colleagues still over there, but it was time for me. After 15 years of traveling a lot and being at the high end of sport, the high-performance sport, I was ready for a break. And that's when Max Cobb heard that I was thinking about taking a different path and said, John, I'm going to make a ... let's talk, because they had been thinking about investing in development in biathlon and thought that it could be a good fit for me. So that's when we started talking just two years ago.
Tom Kelly: So what was that common thread through all of this?
John Farra: Yeah, the common thread for me has always been the athletes. It really is a fantastic experience for me to find ways to add value, to allow athletes to create the best performance they can create and to be, you know, team behind the team is thrown out. But it's real. When you know that you're adding value and you know you're doing the little things. I think of this job as well is pieces to the puzzle. I am not involved in high performance at US biathlon, but I know that the pieces that I'm working with and the pieces that I'm putting on the on the in the puzzle are an important piece to the overall foundation for the sport, and that gives me great pleasure and what's driven all of my relationships with all of these high-performance sports and and Olympic and Paralympic sports.
Tom Kelly: When you came over to U.S. Biathlon a few years ago, you were out of the gates running. You were fast-paced, and it's never really stopped. What are the responsibilities that you have in your sport development role?
John Farra: Yeah, that's it's still pretty much the same as it was two years ago when we chatted. I would say I'd start with club development and club support as well as coaches education and coach development. We need incredible coaches in this sport and then also talent transfer, talent identification, you know, finding those cross-country skiers that don't know they're supposed to be biathletes yet. And so those are the really the three areas that I spend most of my time and, and gives me a lot of pleasure.
Tom Kelly: Let's talk about clubs. And I know that clubs are really the core of any development program in a big nation like the United States. And I'll kick it off with a story. You have 44 clubs, I think, right now, but I was up at the Birkebeiner race in northern Wisconsin, where I spent many years of my life. And one of the things that really stood out to me is how excited they are to show off where the biathlon range is going and the new biathlon club that they have, they're just using that as a starting point. How important are the clubs and what have you done to really jumpstart that? Because there's this great enthusiasm around the country now.
John Farra: Yeah, the first thing, start with the clubs that have already been around for many years. And one of the things we've tried to do is, is get them communicating and sharing best practices, helping the clubs that are already exist, think about ways to continue to improve and continue to grow their membership and their club activities. So that's where it starts. But in addition, Telemark is a great example. There's one of the ten or even 15 communities that I'm in conversations with that are excited to add biathlon and some of them are at different levels of reaching that fulfillment. Right? Building a range is a big challenge in some communities. It's a terrible challenge and others not as much. But we're talking many years of planning and and going through the right process. But in the meantime, my job is to figure out what we can do now. And those are really fun conversations to say, okay, great, let's make a 3 to 5 year plan for where that range can be someday a live fire 22 biathlon range. But in the meanwhile, what can we do to to start to bring some biathlon energy into the communities where there's a lot of already cross-country skiing happening in many of these towns? So that is one of the really exciting pieces to be able to, you know, see the growth of the sport continue. And there's some key towns I can speak to that, that really highlight that.
Tom Kelly: If you have 44 clubs right now, how many additional communities are you tracking right now?
John Farra: Yeah, my yellow pad right now. I think I counted 14 that I'm having active conversations, emails, visits and such with. And of that, there are 4 or 5 that are at a higher level that are moving faster than others. But yeah, there's some real excitement out there. And I think some of where that comes from is some of the things we've been doing that I'm maybe we'll get to is in terms of our laser rifle program, which has created a new, um, you know, it's kind of infected the kids with the biathlon energy. And then when the way I envision it is, they're going home sharing with their parents what they did that day. And then oftentimes, you know, parents want what the kids want. And so if a kid wants biathlon, parents then start looking, okay, well, how do I how do I help my kid get biathlon. And that's, that's a good problem to have, right. That's what we want.
Tom Kelly: The numbers in this program are really astounding to me. What did you have like 2400 kids last year who tried the sport through the laser program.
John Farra: Yeah. That's correct. So this is one of the biggest highlights that I like to think about in the last couple of years. The IBU gave us a grant providing us ten laser rifles. Two years ago. With those ten laser rifles, we were able to create a strategy. The strategy was where this group of young people would be most impacted by having an opportunity to to shoot a laser biathlon rifle. And that's easy. Let's go to the Bill Koch Festival that happens in March. Let's go to the Intermountain Youth Ski Festival, the XC Youth Ski Festival and such, and go to these events where there's many hundreds of young kids that already have skis, boots and poles. They're already committed to this Nordic lifestyle. They know how to suffer on skis because they're doing cross-country ski races. And yet if they look over to their right after their race is over and they see some flags that say US biathlon, try it and they see laser rifles, they tend to want to come over and say, what's going on over here? And we were effective that first year, as you said, we had 800 kids in the first winter that had an experience with our our laser rifles.
John Farra: We track those numbers to be able to brag back to the EBU, to say thank you for your support. Here's what we're doing with that. And then this past winter, they gave us another ten laser rifles, and we were able to get to 2400 kids this past winter that had an experience with these laser rifles at generally at these cross-country skiing events. And of that, actually we had another thousand on top of that of parents. And I don't I don't brag those numbers to the EBU as much because that's not the focus. But when there's an opportunity to tell a parent, yeah, you can try it too. We want the parents to experience that joy and the fun and the challenge that it creates by trying to hit those five targets. So they had that program has been a real highlight for us. And it is creating this groundswell, this energy, this excitement that I am hearing from these communities that are calling me saying, hey, I'm getting pressure to add biathlon. What can we do? And that's exactly what we want.
Tom Kelly: So if a community does want to get involved, what are the steps? How can they reach out to you and find some form of engagement in biathlon?
John Farra: Yeah. So, the first thing I would say, and I've sent this request out to our club leadership recently and reminded them of this. We have a Google Form that we've created to be able to try to get, um, clubs and others that want to host a laser rifle biathlon, try out this opportunity for kids to try it at some other cross-country event in their community or some club building activity that they're hosting. Um, reach out to us. They can also email us at try it at us. Biathlon.org. Um, just like it sounds. Try it at USbiathlon.org. And what that allows us to do is look at the schedule and say, okay, where can we move these laser rifles around? We do not want them sitting here gathering dust at the, at our at our headquarters here in Utah. We want them out on the road. We want them being utilized. So we have a very vibrant schedule. You can imagine what it's like to move. We're up to now 22 laser rifles that we have in cases, and we ship via UPS all over the country, including Alaska, for events that that achieve that, that can help us achieve that goal of just increasing the number of people that understand what it means to be a biathlon biathlete.
Tom Kelly: John, you have 44 clubs in the program right now. You have another 14 on your radar. Do you have any goals or targets that you're looking at as you head up to? I know 2030 is a really big strategic date for U.S. Biathlon. Where do you think this could get to in the country?
John Farra: I think less about the sheer number of clubs that we want, and just more about quality programming that's sustainable, that allows more and more kids to reach it. Now at one level, if if the only thing we can do is send laser rifles for a weekend program in Juneau, Alaska. But that's the best weekend. They have to try to entice these cross-country skiers to, or at least experience the sport. Great. Then that's what we can do in Juneau that weekend. If there's another program we can create that's a little more in-depth, and they can have them for a little longer and they can reach out to the different, you know, U-12s and U14 and U16 and create a different and maybe have a, a fun biathlon laser competition on the weekend, which, by the way, Telluride was the first club to do that. Last year they actually held an event where they had ten laser rifles. They did them in waves of ten. They taught everyone how to use them. They had a clinic, period. And then they had a competition and they said, all right, first 1010 wave is up. And they had five different waves, parents, kids. And they had the first-ever unofficial, I guess, a laser rifle biathlon event. And I give them great credit because that's what they could do. They had a weekend to use it, and they made it work.
Tom Kelly: And they figured this out on their own.
John Farra: Yeah, I provided them some instructions. We have instruction sheets on how to use the rifles. We spend plenty of time making sure that if we can't be there, we make sure that they have the information needed to be confident running these. They're not that complicated. We can walk somebody through it pretty easily.
Tom Kelly: Yeah, but the wave start concept that's kind of brilliant.
John Farra: It was pretty impressive. It was a fun. I got some great pictures and video coming out of that. It was the weekend of the World Cup here in Soldier Hollow. And so I wasn't able to be there in person myself. But I expect we'll see more and more of those kinds of impromptu events and fun events around the country.
Tom Kelly: John, you have the clubs, but for the clubs to really function, you need to have coaches. You've definitely amped things up in the last couple of years. Talk to us about coaches, education opportunities that are now provided through US Biathlon.
John Farra: Yeah, we have a great tradition of holding a very high level coaches conference every year. It happens in the spring. Tim Burke and Lowell, and the rest of our national coaches all contribute. We've gotten really incredible speakers over those years and get great reviews from those who make the time to be there. So I'll start with that. To say, our Coaches conference has been a real sort of foundation for those who call themselves a coach in the sport. I'm proud to say that this past year we moved that around. Typically, it's in Lake Placid because we have access to the Olympic Training Center there and the housing and such. This year we went to Brillion, Wisconsin, to our National Training Center at the Ariens Nordic Center, and we had our largest group of coaches come together. That was 30 total coaches. And I'll tell you, that was a combination of high-performance coaches, club coaches, and some parents who really wanted to, you know, up their game for the benefit of the athletes. So really proud of that. That will continue to happen. Um, one of the things that we invested in two years ago with the help of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee was the USBA Center, and many of the listeners probably know of it because we have upwards of 1,200 people who have created a profile on the USBA Center. Essentially, it's a learning management system, and we really started with we have got this, we had this Foundations of Biathlon coaching manual that was created a few years ago. That was really astounding. But it was old school in the sense that it was in a spiral-bound book.
John Farra: And that's not the way people learn these days. So with this opportunity, we took this book, we were able to transfer it into a digital format. We created two different courses from this book, and now we have these online courses that people can go in on the USB-A center. It actually has an app as well. So they can do Android or iPhone and you can go in there and get educated. And I have to say, one story about this, because I was really excited when we were able to, you know, do this process of converting this hard book into online courses. And I, of course, had us biathlon coaches testing it for me, which was great. But in the first weekend that it launched, I had somebody take both courses in record time, and I couldn't believe it was possible because this was a lot of time it would have taken this individual and I didn't recognize the name. So I reached out and I said, wow, congratulations. If you have any, you're one of the first to finish both of these courses. Please give me feedback if you have any. And B, who the heck are you, and what community are you from? What club do you work with? And it was great. This was a parent who, who wanted to volunteer and feel confident and feel more educated about helping out because the coaches at Massachusetts Biathlon have an incredible program. Coach Stephanie and Coach Chris run a program of up to 16 to 20 kids and they can't handle it all by themselves. So the parents want to help. And so I give this this parent a ton of credit going out there.
John Farra: And I hadn't we hadn't designed it for that. We hadn't imagined that that could be a resource. But what we understand is that these clubs all around the country do need help. They are growing. And one coach cannot effectively manage a range with 14 to 20 kids. But these parents, if they're willing, can and they can be assistant coaches, they can be real educated helpers and feel more confident in that role. So that's a little byproduct. So that's our USB-A center. I encourage everybody to go. There's an incredible amount of content. It's not just courses. There's content there that we have that's under US skiing title. We have EBU content in there. We have some of our own content and the course area is growing quite substantially. So I'm really excited about what we're doing on the coaches. And we've also got some initiatives with our young, um, our young people who have retired from the sport. Recently, they're hearing from me often, hey, would you ever be interested in being a coach? And we're providing a free pathways for coming and attending the coaches conference or subsidized pathways. I would say to be able to encourage these former athletes who, by the way, are experts in the sport of biathlon, and we could use as many coaches in the sport as possible. So that's a new initiative that I'm very excited. A donor has helped us to to be able to do so, doing a lot of things on coaches education, and I encourage everybody to go check out the center to see what's there.
Tom Kelly: So, has that situation with the brilliant parent who really just wanted to get engaged? Has that caused you to really think about how, hey, we really need to think about this whole group of parents and volunteers and how we can educate them to help coaches?
John Farra: Yes. And I do think that this serves as an example, and it should be for all of us that that volunteer on biathlon ranges or volunteer in your communities around the sport of biathlon that in the end, it's not that complicated. A little bit of education will boost parents and your volunteers so that they feel more confident. And we have to do a better job. I believe in many of our clubs is pulling someone from the sideline who's been standing there for two different sessions, not doing anything but watching Johnny, Johnny perform, uh, and, and getting them involved and say, hey, could you help reset targets or could you help paint the targets on a break? And I think people are willing to help. And I think that's going to be really important because our sport is growing and that means our clubs are growing, and that means the number of kids that are trying to do the sport are growing, and we need more help. And so volunteers will take them. And parents. Absolutely.
Tom Kelly: One of the elements of biathlon that is probably unique across most sports is the element of safety. You're dealing with rifles. So, you didn't face this probably as much with triathlon or some of the other sports where you worked. But what initiatives do you have to educate parents, volunteers, and most of all, participants in rifle safety?
John Farra: Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate you, uh, pulling on that string because we've had a quite incredible safety record in our history. But it was time. It was time for us to upgrade our old Redbook program, which many of the listeners will probably have, have had a red book in their drawer of their desk somewhere from back in the day. Now, thanks to the use of the center, we were able to create an online basic rifle safety course. This is not a time-intensive investment, but it's really important because it gets everybody using the same, um, same language and understanding the same principles that are really important to continuing that great safety record. So, so far in just 6 or 7 months, we've got 1100 people who have taken the basic rifle safety course. I'll point out that the USBA center is not. It is not mandatory to have a US biathlon membership and that was important to us. We want to expand the sport and sometimes we don't want people to feel they have to be a member immediately to be able to take advantage of that content and to take a basic rifle safety course. So a lot of folks that are going to a range in Colorado up at CBC, for instance, and want to shoot, are being encouraged to take the online course, and then you can come to the range and get an in-person assessment.
John Farra: So step one is taking the safety course. Step two is showing up to a club and finding one of our 50 safety assessors around the country who can confirm that you understand the rules. It doesn't take long. If you're an experienced person around a biathlon rifle and a biathlon range, that should be a 5 to 10-minute process. And then we get that list and then we send we confirm in the center that they are now certified as basic rifle safety. So that's a new initiative started this past winter. I'm excited. We have 1,100 people that have taken it as of, I think, this week, and about half of those have become fully certified. So that's that's that's step one. And step two is going to be launched early November here, which is going to be a range safety officer course. We've got so many ranges around the country, and we have so many people that are helping to open these ranges and close these ranges and make sure that they're safe. But there has been a call for a consistency in approach and again, language. And so I think it's going to be a relatively painless process, painless for those who've been doing it. But I think it will provide credibility and professionalism to that really important role. That, again, helps support the development of the sport by opening these ranges as much as possible.
Tom Kelly: John, with the rifle safety certification, is this something that needs to be refreshed every few years?
John Farra: Yeah I think right now Our understanding. You know, you got me on the spot. I'm trying to think. I think we set it at five years. It might be ten. Um, I think at five years, we're going to do a refresher. And so it'll be a shorter course. Um, but because I have four and a half years to worry about that. Tom, I haven't thought about it yet, but we will create some kind of refresher so that our membership can stay up to speed on those kinds of things.
Tom Kelly: But you can get all the information on the website, right? Absolutely.
John Farra: It's easy. Go to USBiathloncenter.org, and you can go to education. And under education you'll see all kinds of different buckets. And one of them is going to be US biathlon courses. And in there if you are 13 years or older you take the basic rifle safety course. If you are 12 or younger you can take the U13 safety course. That's an important differentiation, but I think it's pretty clear when you get on there. Um, kids that are under age of 13 are not allowed by internet standards to have their own profile. So we had to create a special course for them. It's basically the same.
Tom Kelly: We're talking today to John for the sport development director for US biathlon. We're going to take a short break and when we come back we're going to talk about events on Heartbeat.
Tom Kelly: We're back on Heartbeat with John Farrow today at the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, the headquarters of U.S. Biathlon. John, let's talk about events. We're going to talk about everything from things you did this past summer up to some really great things you've got planned this winter.
John Farra: Yeah. Thank you. You know, one of the things that's important, if you're going to be a biathlete, if you're going to define yourself as a biathlete, you need to be able to do the sport of biathlon. And we are always looking for opportunities to increase competition opportunities, and I think this summer was a good chance for us to take a take a chance as a small NGB, what could we do to move the needle on that is very, very difficult to create more density of racing in the winter time when a lot of our athletes are conflicted with junior national qualifiers or NCAA races that they've committed to, or even IBU and World Cup racing overseas, obviously. But in the summer, we're not conflicted. There are far fewer challenges. So this conversation started with Garrett at Soldier Hollow and with Sean Becker at the Ariens Nordic, the national training Center there in Brillion. And we had a placeholder, which is Jericho, which has become our traditional summer championship national championship event in August. And it is such because and a real highlight of the summer because the national team is able to attend that. It aligns really nicely with their national team training camps, which happened back east in Lake Placid area. So we took a chance and we created a summer biathlon championship series. It started in Utah, went to Berlin three weeks later, and then three weeks later we were in Jericho and it was a success. We've got upwards of 400 starts. More than 200 athletes from around the country that participated in at least one of those events, and we had multiple people who did all three events, which I was quite surprised by. I got to give credit to the National Guard for encouraging their athletes to be there, and it was it was really a good, successful pilot, and I'm hoping that we can continue that because there's there's real benefit to having more competitions when you're a biathlete.
Tom Kelly: Did you have national team athletes at some of these?
John Farra: We did. Yeah, it was fantastic.
Tom Kelly: So for the kids, it was an amazing opportunity.
John Farra: Yeah, absolutely. We also aligned some training camps with these competitions. So one of the big development camps happened just the week before in Utah. So all the kids in the camp were prepared to race in those races. And the same thing happened in Berlin. They held a high-performance camp would encourage those athletes to participate. And we had masters participate, which we'll get into. But, you know, masters are an important element of our community. And and we want to make sure they have as many opportunities as possible to, to feel as such.
Tom Kelly: Looking ahead to on snow this winter, your youth and junior national championships have started to become a really popular event.
John Farra: Yeah, that's another big highlight for us. I think historically, you know, some of our youth and junior trials events have hovered around 40 or 50 athletes. Last year, 80 young people showed up to Mount Itasca in Minnesota for that youth and junior trials event. And so we're really seeing that is a great sign for us. And we're seeing some great energy with that age group. And yes, this year we are moving that event to the Intermountain West here to Soldier Hollow, the site of our this last World Cup. And, you know, it's exciting to imagine these young people getting the opportunity to to race here on the same trails that the World Cup racers did, as well as an Olympics nine years away from when they'll be here. So and a lot of these young athletes will be the ones that will be on those Olympic teams. Mark my words.
Tom Kelly: It really is a thing for athletes to come here to the Olympic venue, isn't it?
John Farra: Oh it's fantastic. You just feel the Olympic energy and and know the history of this place. And it's also a really challenging environment. Um, but it's absolutely beautiful and we're looking forward to hosting that event here December 26th through 31. If you're a coach or a club leader or a parent out there with a young youth or junior athlete that's ready, uh, come join. It's going to be the largest gathering of young people. And I think it's important in a smaller sport like ours to have these kinds of gatherings where the young people understand that there is a community in this, right, that it's and this is a great opportunity for that. We're hoping it's going to be great racing and also a good, fun time for the young people.
Tom Kelly: John, you mentioned earlier with the summer series how you did have masters athletes as well. Masters is a category in biathlon that's really booming, isn't it? And I love what you have in plan in store for this winter.
John Farra: Yeah, this is a this has been a fun little project. I right away started hearing from some of the clubs that I was visiting that, you know, masters don't always feel a part of the a part of it. We don't always build things around their needs and we pulled together a master's advisory panel a little over a year ago that's been helping me sort of feed through and work through some ideas, and they get ideas from their communities. And one of them was, let's try this again. We're a small NB, we can try things and and we're going to pilot this concept of a US master's championship. And along with that, we got Canada on the phone and they said, well, heck, if you're going to do that, we'll join you. And we'd love to have the Canadian Masters Championships at the same time. So that, of course, creates a North American championship Masters opportunity. And all of a sudden, you go, okay, this could be the real deal. And then Erin's Nordic Center, our national training center, says, hey, we're available the week, the weekend before the birkie. And you can imagine if you're a masters biathlete. Many of them also circled the birkie on their calendars and dream of doing the Birkie.
John Farra: If not every year, they try to do it. And so now you've got this really interesting opportunity for someone to circle those two weekends on their calendar and say, you know what? I'm going all in. I'm going to go be a part of this master's celebration and master's championship and brilliant. And then, you know, a couple days later, I'm going to roll up to Cable Hayward and go do the Birkie. So we're really hoping that this pulls the maximum number of master athletes around the country who are encouraged to come. Yes, there will be racing, but there will also be social events. This is meant to be a party and a celebration of the sport for those who are past their youth and junior years but are hooked on the sport because it's cool. And so we're I'm going to be there. I'm hoping many of your listeners will join us at that event. We're not just looking for participants, we're looking for volunteers that want to help. I think this is going to be a great time, and I look forward to seeing everybody in brilliant in the middle weekend of February.
Tom Kelly: I know there's always been masters in biathlon, but is it really? Is it? It's building just like everything else right now. Oh, it absolutely is.
John Farra: It absolutely is. And you know, you can just look at the contingent from the United States that has been going to the World Championships in Finland and went to the World Games in Italy this past year, and they have a hoot. Um, and, you know, it was important for us not just to have an event, but we created a page on our website that specific to masters with the idea that, hey, let's put some information when we learn of it, of where these international events are and show our masters community that we want to be helpful in them finding what they want, which is more competition and more race opportunities. Which is why this summer event was open to Masters. Right. And the more we can do that, I think we're going to continue to earn, you know, that credibility that we are actually, uh, you know, an organization that wants all biathletes to feel a part of of the organization. So but let's do this first. Right. Let's keep doing these small steps. Let's keep highlighting that great group. Have a great party and a great competition and and brilliant this year. And we'll go from there and see if it works.
Tom Kelly: John. The US Biathlon Senior National Championships have become also a really important, usually end of season event. What's in store coming up in 2025?
John Farra: Yeah this is great. This is another great highlight this many of you hopefully have heard of Crosscut Mountain Sports Center up in Bozeman, Montana. They've invested an incredible amount into a great venue up in the up in the mountains, the scenic area around this beautiful 30-point range that they've put together in the courses they have are just extraordinary. And we've been excited for this moment that they would be ready to host this event. So yes, the US National Championships for our seniors will also serve as the US national championships for our collegiate nationals for the second time in a row. And all of the other classes, of course, will have opportunities for racing. Masters are highly encouraged, as is all youth and juniors. This is historically this time of year is the is the largest gathering of biathletes in the country ever and for us annually. And so we're looking forward to that. And I really think that cross-cut with their leadership and their innovative approach to this is going to lead to some, um, some great memories. They are starting the event on a Thursday instead of a Friday. It's Thursday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday competitions with the with the specific benefit of having that Sunday available to go alpine skiing at Bridger, or go backcountry skiing, or go cross skiing because you're talking to the Mountain West here. The sun's going to be shining, there's going to be incredible snow. This is going to and they're going to have some really fun social and party activities that I think is going to raise the level. Um, I'm really pumped. I will be there as well, I hope. I hope you all will join us and make this a great cap off of the season with competition and fun.
Tom Kelly: You have a good history of attracting national team athletes to that too.
John Farra: We do every once in a while. It conflicts with some things. Sometimes the our National Guard athletes struggle with this because the games will happen at the same at a similar time. But yes, and last year I'm quite proud that US biathlon put up prize money for the seniors because we recognize that they're tired and they've been in Europe all winter long. And sometimes it's, you know, probably not as sexy to to then come to our national championships. But I think there was a really resounding support for the prize money that we put up for those senior divisions. And I know it motivated a few extra people to say, okay, I'm going. And so we'll do that again this year and we'll build on that energy. And I'm really hoping it's going to be a great event.
Tom Kelly: John, before we wrap it up, we talked about laser biathlon programs earlier, but you have a pilot program you're introducing to really introduce young cross-country skiers to all of the necessary skills. Talk about that pilot program using laser rifles.
John Farra: This is brand new, and we're still working on the details of this, but we had a donor approach that was really interested in this laser concept. And the approach is how can we get kids to stay outside and on skis longer? And, you know, one of the one of the concepts is that not every kid is going to get on the podium on a cross-country ski race. And so giving them an extra opportunity to feel connected to Nordic sport by getting involved in biathlon could give them something to to stay involved longer instead of losing them forever from our Nordic sports. And so this concept is to take the try-it laser program, where you just get to try shooting a laser biathlon rifle to build out a laser biathlon training program where young people can actually learn all the necessary skills to be a biathlete over. Let's say we have four or 6 or 8 sessions, depending on how much time we have with these young cross-country skiers. Teach them body position, sight picture, natural point of aim, how to harness and unharness the rifle, shooting with a heart rate. All that can be done with these laser rifles. Some are very low key laser rifles, but we have some that have harnessed sling hand stop. They have a virtual five shot clip. They're very impressive these days. And so we're building out this program.
John Farra: We are going to target some key communities that have been screaming for something that have hundreds of cross-country skiers in their programs, and we're going to work to develop a customized program for them if it's two weeks or if it's three weeks, teach them the skills, have them, you know, make sure that they make this an opportunity for these cross-country skiers in their program. So really excited about this. This is a this is definitely a pilot. It's going to take a lot of energy I was able to bring on Coach Alicia Dyer, who lives up in, um, up in Colorado now, was coaching with Carl up in Fort Kent at the Fort Kent Outdoor Center for a couple of years. She's a fabulous young coach in our program, and she's going to be helping to initiate this program. So very excited because I think this the whole goal, after you're a young person who learns all of these skills to be a biathlete. Again, we're hoping that after a few weeks with a laser rifle program where they feel like they just did biathlon training, not just goofing around, but training that they'll be ready to say, okay, what's next? And when Soldier Hollow and CBC and others offer summer camps next year, they're going to be ready to go and say, sign me up, John.
Tom Kelly: We had you on Heartbeat shortly after you started this role two years ago. It's been fun to see you hopscotch around the country in a little bit different manner than you had been previously, but as you look back on these last two years, I know you take a lot of pride in what you've brought to us biathlon, but I kind of summarize a little bit on how far biathlon has come in the last couple of years and where we're going from here.
John Farra: Two things come to mind. I think just sheer positivity everywhere I go and everyone I talk to is just excited about the energy and the positive, uh, positive direction we seem to be going. And the big part is that we're just seeing an increase in the number of people that want to call themselves biathletes, and that's the part that jazzes me up, whether it's a young person or whether it's a master's athlete who feels confident coming to Berlin and challenging themselves there. Um, I just think, think, you know, seeing the increase of biathletes around the country is the thing that gets me going. We see it in our membership numbers, and now we're seeing it. We're actually tracking participation numbers. We want to see at the end of the year are we actually getting more people starts to be a biathlete. And I think the answer is going to be absolutely yes. And that's that's what fires me up.
Tom Kelly: I know I see it, I live in Park City and I'm down here in Soldier Hollow a lot, and I really do see that. I mean, I think what you said it's cool to be a biathlete, right?
John Farra: Yeah, it absolutely is. It's it's growing. And I think breaking down some of that ignorance for those who, who just don't know. Right. They've never really had the opportunity to really try it in a, in a real way. And that's all we're doing. We're not trying to talk anybody into biathlon. We're not trying to recruit, you know, people into biathlon. We're just trying to get them to try it because I think the majority that try it and give themselves a fair shake at it, have a hard time. Stop thinking about it.
Tom Kelly: John, this is a great recap. We're going to finish it up with our On Target section. So I have just a few more questions for you. You have worked in both summer and winter sport. You've spent your career in high performance. I know like most of us, you were probably glued to the TV and watching NBC with the summer games from Paris. Is there one particular memory you have of watching the Summer games from Paris?
John Farra: Oh yeah, so many. And I really was incredible. But I do have to give a shout-out to my triathlon athletes, both Olympic and Para. They won the medal count overall between the Paralympic and Olympic sport, with eight Paralympic medals and one really valuable Olympic medal. Both the women and the men on the Olympic side did not perform particularly well or up to their standards. I would say in the individual event, which was a bummer, but they came back in the relay and it was spectacular to watch. Taylor Knibb and they all did an incredible job. But Taylor's last leg, getting him up into medal position and then out lunging Great Britain for a silver. This event has only happened twice. Tokyo and Paris, and both years that Olympic team has come up with a silver and that just still actually making me tingle right now. So proud of those athletes. They're just incredible people, incredible athletes on the Paralympic side. I've got to point out. Kendall Gretsch, who is a world champion biathlete and a Paralympic champion biathlete, once again medaled in the sport of triathlon. This time she came up with a silver, hard-fought silver, but really proud of her. And those. Those Paralympic athletes are incredible and still good friends today. I'm proud of them all.
Tom Kelly: John, as you look back on your career as an athlete, what was the pivotal point in your early development when you knew you wanted to be an Olympian?
John Farra: Yeah, it's two parts I mentioned a little bit earlier when that torch came through Saratoga Springs and I was ten years old, maybe I was nine and a half. That was impactful. And then I think about that one pivotal race in 1980, where Juha Mieto came up just hundredths short from Thomas Wassberg. And I remember that. And just remember those events there at Mount Van Hoevenberg as being really impactful. And then I got to grow up on those trails. At the age of 14, I was skiing on those trails and Empire State Games, skiing on those trails. So very pleased that I was able to have that.
Tom Kelly: I'm trying to quickly do the math. Were you there in Lake Placid?
John Farra: Absolutely. Yeah, it was ten.
Tom Kelly: Were you there for the Vosburgh Maito?
John Farra: To be honest, I was thinking about that. I don't think we were there for some races, but it's blurry, right? It's a long time ago. I can't say for sure I was at that event. I'd like to think I was, because that, to me, stands the test of time. And if you don't know the history, Google it. Look it up. Juha Mieto Thomas Wassberg. They became friends for life. By the way, it's the last time that races were measured down to the hundredth. They changed Nordic sport to go to the 10th. And that's important because after 45 minutes of suffering, these guys should have shared that medal. Later, Thomas cut the medal in half and gave it to his friend Juha Mieto. And, by the way, Thomas Wassberg is maybe five foot eight and 140 and Juha Mieto was 220 and six foot five, I think, massive human. So these two dichotomies, one from Sweden, one from Finland, It's a great story. Look it up if you haven't seen. There's some video still out there on the internet. It was a great, great Nordic story.
Tom Kelly: Well, I was there. I was the stadium announcer. Peter Graves and I were the stadium announcers. And I get emotional every time this comes up. But I got to tell you, it doesn't come up very often anymore. We haven't talked about this. We haven't. And I'm just so glad we stumbled on this, because I had known Thomas Wassberg and Juha Mieto, because they'd been coming to Telemark, where I worked. So, I actually knew the athletes. And, you know, we called that race and it was individual start, which, by the way, was so boring. But it's individual starts. And, you know, we knew that the clock was ticking. And my memory is that Mieto finished first and Wassberg came and we were watching the clock. And Mieto was standing right outside of our announce shack. And I just remember this image of him in the forest right behind our little announce building. And when Forsberg crossed the finish line, he just doubled over and he was sobbing. And it was it was just such an emotional story. But do go look it up, see if there's video out there, because it's an amazing story. Wow, I didn't know we were going to get there. That's great. You have worked in all forms of sport. You've worked in summer and you've worked in winter. Winter. You've worked with triathlon, skiing, para. What's a common thread, common element across all that you've done in your career?
John Farra: Incredible athletes, great humans, people that commit to these hard endurance sports whether it's cross country, biathlon, triathlon, the types of humans that make that commitment tend to be really good people. And there's nothing like working really hard for really good people who also happen to be some best athletes in the world. There's nothing like it. And I've been honored to be able to work for seven sports over, over the last, you know, almost 20 years now. And that's it. Incredible athletes.
Tom Kelly: Love it. Last thing. You have accomplished a lot for us. Biathlon for the athletes the last couple of years. Do you have one memory? Do you have one thing that stands out over the last two years that you like say, hey, that was really cool that we did this.
John Farra: The biggest thrill I get is being around the young youth athletes who are hooked on this sport. There's nothing like being at a youth development camp and just feeling the energy and working with those young, young athletes. The 80 athletes that showed up in Mount Itasca that I spoke of before, uh, hopefully that number increases this year right here at Soldier Hollow in a couple months, because just the energy of the young people that are fired up by it and hooked on it, that's what that's what gets me going and leaves me feeling really good about where we're at as an organization.
Tom Kelly: John Ferris, Sport Development Director thanks for joining us on Heartbeat. And thanks for all you're doing for the athletes at U.S. biathlon.
John Farra: It's a lot of fun. Thanks for having me.