The New Biathlon Facility

Up at the Grey Mountain Biathlon Range, athletes and volunteers alike were bustling in the chilly sun, the new Biathlon facility providing them with much needed warmth and a place to rest. This new venue has been ten years in the making, and now it’s apart of the Arctic Winter Games legacy.

Taking a look around the expansive location, you can't help but feel overwhelmed by the possibilities for the sport within the territory. This feeling is echoed by many of the athletes and coaches attending the events held there today. 

“Space, washrooms, running water, real toilets, these are luxuries for us” says one coach from Team Yukon. He hopes that the attention on the new facility bring in more future athletes to try out the sport “biathlon is a niche sport, I think it’s only going to grow.”

The athletes of Team Yukon were unable to speak on their feelings regarding the new building because they were out getting their well-deserved medals. However, the president of Biathlon Yukon, Bill Curtis, was able to expand on the impact that the facility will have on the Yukon.

“We’ve had so many people come through who are absolutely enthralled with the place” Curtis says in reference to the main building “we’re hoping to attract nationals.” When asked about how the venue will affect the sport in the territory, he sums it up with an old saying “build it and they will come” he then goes onto to speak about how the Yukon already has one biathlon olympian, Nadja Moser who grew up training in the local program, and that there are a couple prospective olympians already using the facility. 

Biathlon has grown from 50 participants in 2010, to more then 170 today and judging by the energy from the president and coaches, hopefully that number will continue to grow thanks to the new venue. 

The building will host both skiing and snowshoeing biathlon events throughout the Games, then turned into a long-term asset ran by the community to continue to support athletes. The Arctic Winter Games will potentially bring more traffic to the biathlon scene, and in turn include the venue within its own AWG history as a spot for future sporting events. 

And if you ever need anymore assurance in the luxuriousness of the building, take a look inside the washrooms, they make the average public restroom look like a porta-potty.

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