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Written by Brian Olsen
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Saturday, 26 July 2008 00:00 |
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Location: Heber City, UT
Things have changed quite a bit as of late; in fact, a lot has changed in my life since the 2005/06 season. A brief recap:
2005/06
- Trained in Fort Kent, Maine and Heber City, Utah.
- Qualified for the Olympic Team.
- Didn’t race at the Olympics.
2006/07
- Named to National Team and trained with new Swedish coaches Per Nilsson and Mikael Lofgren.
- Trained somewhat in Utah and Vermont.
- Lived in Europe for five months: Sweden, Norway, Austria, back to the U.S., Sweden, Austria, back to the U.S., Italy, back to the U.S.
- Qualified for the World Championship Team.
- Declined WCH in order to…
- Enlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard and went to Basic Combat Training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Honor graduate.
2007/08
- Went back to college – online courses in the summer and then on-campus at The University of Vermont in Burlington
- Trained in the spring and summer between Utah and Vermont.
- Lived in one place (not counting Basic Training) for more than 4-8 weeks for the first time since May 2004, when I took my two-year leave from college
- Graduated from The University of Vermont with high honors in December
- Failed to qualify for even the European Cup under a new, overzealous qualification scheme by U.S. Biathlon, despite being the top U.S. athlete at the trials races in West Yellowstone, MT
- Short season again in order to complete Advanced Individual Training (AIT) for the Army at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where I served as an obsessive-compulsive student leader over 150 soldiers, nearly killing the Commander and First Sergeant with grief and new ideas. Honor graduate.
2008/09
- Training in Utah and Vermont
And that brings us to today...
Brian
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