Tim Burke makes history books

A native Lake Placid friend of mine, Tim Burke, has made the history books as the first U.S. biathlete to reach the top of the World Cup rankings. HUGE! I know it has been a lot of years and a lot hard work.



Here an article about Tim's latest success that appeared in the NY Times.

He Shoots, He Skis, and Europe Takes Notice

By KATIE THOMAS

As an American in the biathlon, Tim Burke is used to being overlooked by the sport’s most passionate fans.

His German and Norwegian rivals are celebrities in their home countries, where biathlon is broadcast live on television and races draw up to 30,000 spectators. In Germany, he is perhaps best known as the boyfriend of Andrea Henkel, a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

So when Burke took first place in the World Cup standings last weekend — the first time an American has ever done so — his achievement stunned the sport’s mostly European fan base.

“They’ve always been at the top of these sports,” Burke said by telephone this week from Oberhof, Germany. “I think it would be like our Olympic basketball team getting beat by the Germans. I don’t think that would sit so well at home.”

Back in the United States, however, Burke’s achievement is being hailed as the culmination of a plan hatched four years ago to transform the Americans into world-class competitors. Aided by an infusion of cash from the United States Olympic Committee, U.S. Biathlon, the sport’s governing body, has made changes as momentous as hiring a new head coach, and as seemingly trivial as tinkering with the way that athletes hold their rifles.

Now, team leaders say they are hoping that Burke’s spectacular season will propel the team within reach of an even bigger milestone: becoming the first Americans to win Olympic medals in biathlon.

“The kind of consistent, strong performance that Tim has had this season really does give us more confidence than we’ve ever had,” said Max Cobb, executive director of U.S. Biathlon. “I think what we’re seeing now is the coming together of four years of really concentrated effort.”

The move to transform the program began after the close of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, where the Americans twice came tantalizingly close to winning a medal. Jay Hakkinen was in position to win a bronze in the 20-kilometer (about 12.4 miles) individual event but missed a target by a fraction and ended up in 10th place. Then, Hakkinen briefly held first place in the team relay, but his teammates lost ground and the Americans finished ninth.

Despite the disappointing performance, the team showed promise, said Mike English, the chief of sport performance at the U.S.O.C.

“We could see they were going through some much-needed change and they had a good, credible plan,” he said.

Since 2006, the Olympic committee has increased its financing of U.S. Biathlon from about $250,000 in the year leading up to the Turin Games to $1 million this year, Cobb said. The governing body’s total revenue has increased from about $1 million to about $2 million over the same period.

One of Cobb’s first steps was to hire Per Nilsson of Sweden as head coach. Other Europeans soon joined the team, including ski technicians from Germany and the Czech Republic. Cobb also promoted Bernd Eisenbichler, a German who had been the team’s head ski technician, to high-performance director.

Nilsson said the Americans were not necessarily deficient in shooting or cross-country skiing, the sport’s two elements. “They were pretty good in both but not good enough in any of them to be up in the top,” Nilsson said. “We saw that we had some work to do, for sure.”

For Burke, the change represented a renewed opportunity to make a name for himself after a series of setbacks. In 2002, Burke had hip surgery to correct a degenerative condition that doctors warned might end his career. In 2004, he had mononucleosis and had to sit out the season. And at the Turin Games, he failed to finish in the top 30 in any of the three events in which he competed.

Burke, who is 27 and grew up outside Lake Placid, N.Y., has always excelled at skiing. But as with other members of the team, his shooting has sometimes suffered. So in April, team leaders made one final change: they hired Armin Auchentaller, the former coach of the Italian men’s team, as a shooting coach.

Auchentaller began by taking a fresh look at every movement the athletes made as they switched from cross-country skiing to shooting — a crucial moment in the race because the competitors must lower their heart rate and get into position to take five shots at a target that is 50 meters (about 164 feet) away.

Burke changed his transition routine and practiced the movements as if they were choreographed. “I practiced 100 times a day,” he said. “I was doing the transitions when I was in my apartment, with my eyes closed.”

Since Auchentaller’s arrival, the Americans have shaved off one to two seconds from each transition, an improvement that can trim as much as 15 seconds off the longest races. Those seconds can move a competitor ahead seven to eight positions.

Given the relatively simple fix, “I’m surprised the amount of teams that aren’t working on it,” Burke said. But given his success this season, he acknowledged that some teams may try to catch up. “In fact, maybe over the Christmas break,” he said.

Despite Burke’s recent success, Cobb and others caution that biathlon is a notoriously unpredictable sport. “It is akin to batting in baseball; people get on runs,” Cobb said. “It’s really not uncommon for someone to be on the podium one day and to be 35th the next day.”

That is what makes Burke’s lead in the standings so meaningful, said Eisenbichler, the high-performance director. “This was not happening after one or two races, but after seven races and after one-third of the whole World Cup season,” he said. “This was a very important step for Tim, to show that he’s a world-class biathlete.”

If you haven't seen biathlon before, try to watch it at the upcoming Olympics. With the real time graphics it can be pretty exciting to watch the shooting range action and skiing. You never know what might happen. I doubt the US coverage will show it much but who knows. Having Tim as current WC leader might change their minds to show it at 2am in the morning. HA! As always, I bet Canadian coverage on CBC will show some. If you are lucky enough to live near the border...can I come stay with you for two weeks so I can watch more than just figure skating and hockey.



Along with Tim, there are several other Lake Placid Olympic athletes I'm proud watch compete at the world class level. Watch for them! Lowell Bailey is on the biathlon team with Tim. Haley Jonhson is on the women's biathlon team. Nordic Combined World Champion Billy Demong will be there. Andrew Weibrecht in Alpine skiing. Crazy sliders Mark Grimmett and Brian Martin, Olympic silver and bronze medal winners along with six World Championship bronze medals, will compete in their fourth Olympics together, going back to 1998. It will be Grimmette’s fifth, adding Lillehammer in 1994.

Cheers,
DJB