Roddy Ward needs no introduction to the World Cup and Olympic athletes who competed at the Canadian biathlon championships this past week at Otway Nordic Centre.
He’s been around the national scene as a high-level coach for more than a decade and has overseen the development of the likes of Sarah Beaudry, Megan Bankes, Trevor Kiers and Aidan Millar, all of whom raced in Prince George at the five-day competition.
He knows what a grind it is competing in a sport considered to be one of the fringe sports of Canadian culture, where most of the races are half a world away in Europe. That’s because he’s been there.
Ward served as head coach of Canada senior biathlon national team from 2011-18 and was Biathlon Canada’s director of athlete development from 2018-21. He coached Beaudry for three years and he knows how high the odds are stacked against someone from Canada making it to an international medal podium or even into the top-25 who compete against the top Europeans, mostly on their home turf, where they have the backing of large, well-funded national programs.
“In general, biathlon is a sport that requires an incredible amount of resilience, there’s a lot of ups and downs in a career, some years where the shape is good and things go well and other years where the athletes struggle, and everyone goes through that,” said Ward.
“You have to have that resilience and mental toughness to keep pushing through when things aren’t going well and definitely celebrate your successes when things are going well. Plus, you’ve got to travel the world, spend the whole winter in Europe, so it’s a long time away from family and friends and your normal life, so that’s tough mentally.
“They’re often away for Christmas and now you throw COVID in and it’s multiplied by a hundred how hard it is. At the highest level on the World Cup they form a bubble so there’s a bit more socializing but still you’re isolated, subject to testing constantly and the worry about getting COVID and being in quarantine in some foreign country. That’s a worry every single week.”
So it was not a shock to Ward when he learned that Bankes, who last month combined with Beaudry, Emma Lunder of Vernon and Emily Dickson of Burns Lake for a 10th-place finish in the Olympic women’s relay, announced her retirement at age 24. That’s well below the age at which most biathletes reach their performance peak. Millar, 26, is also packing it in, a year after he was one of the four Canadian men competing full-time on the World Cup tour. He and Bankes plan to become full-time students this fall.
While Kiers, 25, has said he wants another shot at making it to the Olympics, the 27-year-old Beaudry, a two-time Olympian and seven-year veteran of biathlon’s top circuit with 99 World Cup starts on her resume, hasn’t made up her mind yet. After finishing her relay Thursday on her home trails at Otway, she’s going to take a month off before she makes that call. And if she does decide she’s fired her last bullet as a competitive athlete, Ward will certainly understand her reasoning.
“Sarah hasn’t outright said that yet, so there’s probably a little fire still inside of her,” said Ward.
“She struggled with her ski speed this year but her shooting has been exceptional, so there are positives. Some years Sarah has skied very fast, but this year it wasn’t to be. For sure, it’s a super-challenging career and a challenging thing to do for a long time as a Canadian, with so much travel.”
Even at the highest levels, Canadians have to pay to play. They have always had to pay their own travel costs and since Biathlon Canada’s budget was cut after 2018, they also have to pay World Cup fees. They do get Sport Canada funding, but it’s not enough to pay the bills.
The 40-year-old Ward was a CBC analyst providing colour commentary for biathlon at the Beijing Olympics and has started his own business, Canmore-based Remodic, where he coaches biathletes and cross-country skiers. He was in Prince George this past week for the Canadian biathlon championships coaching the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club and Canmore Nordic Ski Club.
Speaking for all the younger biathletes who got to watch some of the superstars of their sport compete in front of their eyes, that was hugely beneficial, said Ward. They saw firsthand what’s possible if they stick with the sport.
“The best thing Biathlon Canada can do is show up at nationals with the national biathlon team, because that’s when the kids from all over the country get to see their heroes who they watch on the World Cup all the time, and Sarah, for sure, is that,” said Ward.
“She’s so friendly. She has a wonderful personality and she’s always talking to the younger athletes. Sarah and Aiden have been with our team skiing the course with athletes, helping them with ski testing, we have Zoom calls for team meetings each day and they’re constantly sharing advice and the kids are learning lessons from them.”
After two years of having biathlon nationals and most other races cancelled because of the pandemic, momentum was lost and Ward admits some of the country’s top young athletes left the sport. But those who stuck it out and made it to Prince George for the five-day event left the city energized with the COVID veil finally lifted.
“It feels very liberating,” said Ward. “We all anticipated locked-down groups and smaller team bubbles but COVID kind of turned in the last month. We’re at the whim of provincial restrictions and all of a sudden those are changing and lifted and things are more open. We’ve had nationals luckily at this time and it’s felt like the normal race and the kids are loving it.
“We missed nationals for two years before this and it had devastating impacts on the young athletes. They get inspired here to do the sport and they’re socializing and they’re having great races and great competition and it makes them want to do the sport another year and takes them want to train. It is essential we run national championships every year, it’s such a huge motivating factor for them to stay in the sport and train to get better.”
