Emily Dickson's North American Cup biathlon race results speak for themselves.
Fourth and second one week, third and first the following week.
The 16-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club racer is making medal podium visits a habit. That happened on two consecutive weekends in late-November and early-December in Canmore, and that was before she had a chance to fire her rifle on her home range at Otway Nordic Centre. Saturday's official opening offered Dickson her first chance to shoot on the new range and despite the rain, it was a thrilling experience.
"I'm so excited to use it, it's a great facility, right up there with Canmore and Whistler now, so it's going to be a real treat to train here," said Dickson. "It's going to give me a lot better training on a 30-lane range. I'll be better prepared or the bigger races I attend and it will be a real big advantage."
Now in her eighth season in the sport, Dickson is among a group of 22 Caledonia biathletes. She's convinced the new range and its prominent location near the lodge at Otway will raise the profile of biathlon and trigger an onslaught of new athletes to the club.
"It's a bit late in the year to be bringing in more people but I can see next year we'll have a real big increase in population in the group here," she said. "It's a great move for Prince George."
The hiring of full-time racing coach Andrew Casey last year has had a major impact on Caledonia's racing race programs and now cross-country and biathlon racers train together. Casey develops the training plans and organizes the ski practice sessions for all the club racers. The only time the biathletes are on their own is during shooting practices.
"I think it's best we combine resources when it comes to ski training and we offer shooting practice on top of that," said Casey. "In other clubs there's potential conflict between the two groups, kind of like an us-versus-them, but here we don't have that. I think that's a real neat thing."
The number of Caledonia club racers has nearly doubled from 27 last year to the current 45. With the facilities now available only 20 minutes from the city centre and the addition of the new biathlon range, Casey figures that will only increase the appeal of ski racing and biathlon.
"A lot of clubs in B.C. have ranges but none at the calibre of this and I think the presence of it, so close to the parking lot and the lodge will give it a spotlight that biathlon doesn't typically have in Prince George," Casey said. "I see the program blossoming and exploding next year. When people see how many kids we have involved in it they will want to get their kids in the program."
Spurred by an influx of new coaches and a steady stream of athletes, Caledonia's biathlon program has reached a critical mass that is gathering momentum. Allie Dickson and Erica Erasmus oversee the senior athletes, and a group coaches, including former Olympic biathlete Tony Fiala, had taken charge of the junior (12-and-older) and Biathlon Bears (nine-12-year-olds) race programs. Pierre Beaudry is the biathlon program mentor and Ed Tandy is the program co-ordinator.
"We have 15 or 16 [biathlon and cross-country] coaches in total working with our Track Attack and Junior Racers programs,' said Casey. "We've divided the kids into groups of six or seven with a coach. The atmosphere is contagious and it's really neat to be around."
n Casey has meeting planned for tonight at 7:30 at the Otway lodge for parents of ski racers in the nine-to-12-year-old range to try and drum up interest in entering the Teck B.C. midget cross-country championships in Salmon Arm, Feb. 9-10. The club has 82 kids in that age category.
