After a tough start in her comeback season on the IBU Cup Biathlon tour, Megan Heinicke is ready to take on the world.
Heinicke, formerly Tandy, earned a bronze medal in Canmore at the IBU Cup Biathlon 7 in the women's 15 km individual event Wednesday and followed it up with a ninth-place finish Thursday in the 7.5 km sprint.
"In one way it was a huge relief because after my health struggles, this week showed me I have indeed made a comeback and have lots of energy left and I'm still improving," said Heinicke, who began her career with the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club in Prince George when she was 12. "I'm now extremely motivated for world championship."
The IBU world championship is in Ruhpolding, Germany from March 1 to 11.
"It was also cool because my parents were here last weekend and my grandparents are here with me now and I lived for a few years in Canmore so it was feeling like I had a lot of family support and it was feeling like home," added the 23 year old. "It was a cool time back in Canada to have my first post-baby podium."
Heinicke makes her home in Germany now with her husband and 15-month-old son Predo.
Not long after giving birth Heinicke said she was feeling great and had a ninth-place finish at an event in March 2011 and it seemed like she was in the best shape of her life in September. But then she returned to Canada for the Canadian Trials in Canmore - her first trip to her home country since Predo's birth a year earlier - where she had a "disastrous" performance on Nov. 14.
"About halfway through the 7.5 km course I felt so dizzy skiing that I stopped tucking on downhills in order to simply maintain balance on my skis," she wrote on her website blog Nov. 17 about the Canadian Trials where she placed seventh in the sprint. "The final loop of the race felt more like survival than racing and if the race had been any longer I think I would have had to have dropped out."
The former Prince George native made the decision not to race on Day 2 but was lucky enough to have the competition committee accept her onto the International Biathlon Union Cup team based on her previous experience, including competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Heinicke has no regrets about returning from her maternity leave to the biathlon circuit with the IBU Cup team rather than the World Cup team, which she termed "a good starting point" to prepare for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Socchi, Russia where a Top 10 finish is her goal.
"It's not fun for an athlete to start a World Cup race when you'll be placing 80th," she said. "It was not really my goal so it was better for me to start off small."
In 2010, Heinicke became the first Canadian women in Olympic history to qualify for a pursuit, which she skied to a 36th place finish. She was 44th in the sprint, 50th in the individual event and 15th in the relay in Whistler.
At the IBU biathlon event in Canmore this week, Heinicke captured the bronze medal after missing only one shot in four rounds of shooting in a time of 45 minutes and five-tenths of a second. (45:00:5) in the women's individual event.
In her second competition, the 7.5 km sprint, Heinicke finished ninth, missing two targets for a time of 22 minutes and 30.8 seconds. She was third among Canadians behind Rosanna Crawford, sixth, with a time of 22:12.2 and Melanie Schultz, seventh, 22:22.0.
"It was actually my best skiing day, unfortunately biathlon is skiing and shooting," laughed Heinicke. "I didn't quite have my act together in the shooting range. I hit all five of my targets my first trip into the range and was, I believe, in a position to fight for a sport on the podium when I came into standing - sometimes it comes naturally but sometimes you really have to fight for the shots. I had two misses and it was too much."
Biathletes shoot from either the prone or standing position.
Heinicke said what was really exciting was when she noticed her former Prince George teammate, Matt Neumann, placed 16th in the men's 20 km individual event, which made him the top Canadian.
"I thought it was cool because [Wednesday] when I had my bronze I was the top Canadian woman and Matthew had, what I believe was his best result this season, at 16th and he was the top Canadian man," said Heinicke. "I thought that was kind of cool that we're both from the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club in Prince George - Matt and I had our best day at the same time."
