By Gavin Kentch
Eight female coaches were selected to serve in the inaugural year of U.S. Biathlon’s Women’s Coaching Initiative, according to a late-June press release from USBA.
The women selected are Annelies Cook, Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, Kate Halligan, Naomi Kiekintveld, Annika Martell, Sydney Michalak, and Maddie Phaneuf. Each will serve as a coach and/or tech for U.S. Biathlon for a roughly two-week period during the 2024/2025 season, at levels ranging from the Biathlon World Cup and IBU Cup down to Junior Cup and U.S. Biathlon camps. All costs are covered by U.S. Biathlon; coaches also receive a “daily stipend,” per USBA.
“The U.S. Biathlon Women’s Coaching Initiative will provide female coaches from all Nordic backgrounds (biathlon AND cross-country coaches, wax technicians and former athletes) with opportunities throughout the season to integrate with U.S. Biathlon staff and teams on the ground at domestic and international U.S. Biathlon and IBU events,” notes USBA. “This is a career development opportunity, tailored specifically for each accepted applicant, designed to help women with serious interest in a career in coaching/biathlon improve their skills and learn from the best U.S. Biathlon coaches, wax technicians and support staff.”
If you have even a passing interest in American biathlon you likely recognize several women selected: Dunklee was on the national team for over a decade, starting at three Olympics and eight World Championships and earning two world champs silvers along the way; Egan joined Dunklee on two of those Olympic and five of those World Championships teams; Cook was on the national team for years, starting at both Olympics and world champs; Phaneuf made a handful of World Cup starts and dozens of IBU Cup starts, and was named to one Olympic and one world champs team.
Other names on the list may require a bit more memory jogging, depending on the extent of your biathlon fandom, but you can read more about all coaches selected here. On a personal note, as, currently, an inactive member of the Alaska Bar Association, shoutout to selectee Kate Halligan, whose day job is pursuing civil litigation for Sacramento-area law firm Herrig, Vogt & Hensley, LLP. You can, as they say, do a lot with a law degree.
[read more: Annika Martell: From Williams to the World Cup, via the Trail to Gold Fellowship]
The formal announcement of the Women’s Coaching Initiative follows a rough few years for women at the highest levels of U.S. biathlon. Longtime national team member Joanne Firesteel Reid left the sport last fall, alleging that she suffered years’ worth of sexual abuse and harassment from her wax tech. (The eventual SafeSport investigation, which confirmed these allegations, was reported by the Associated Press this January.)
Among selections for the current coaching initiative, Dunklee and Egan were active on the national team at the time of Reid’s mistreatment. The current High Performance Director for U.S. Biathlon, Lowell Bailey, also occupied that position in 2020. Reid told the A.P. that when she reported her wax tech’s pattern of inappropriate conduct to Bailey, he “responded that you can’t teach sexual harassment rules to a European.” Bailey told the A.P., in the article linked above, that Reid and Deedra Irwin’s recollection of this conversation was incorrect.
Event opportunities for this year’s Women’s Coaching Initiative participants start with team camps this summer, and extend through World Cup and IBU Cup racing in March 2025. Some coaches may also have the chance to work at 2025 World Championships, to be held in Lenzerheide in February.
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American nordic skiing. Last season’s GoFundMe is literally the only reason why I turned a profit in year one of Nordic Insights, and in turn the only reason why there is a year two of Nordic Insights for you to be reading now: I was okay with working for very little money to get this love letter to American cross-country skiing off the ground, but I didn’t want to lose money for the privilege of doing so. If you would like to support what remains a brutally shoestring operation, this season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
