Bjorn Westervelt, longtime CSC athlete, current UVM skier, and USBA Junior National Team member, competed at the Youth and Junior World Championships over the past 10 days in Midway, Utah. Over two hundred biathletes and their staff from more than 30 different national federations came to the Soldier Hollow venue, to vie for medals as well as race experience. On the geographic diversity of the field, Bjorn commented that his “favorite part was getting to race against athletes from 35 different countries and see the fact that we are all very similar and share a passion for biathlon regardless of where we come from and what colors we wear.” Soldier Hollow is roughly 5500 feet above sea level, adding the challenging element of altitude to the biathlon mix. The US sent a team of 16 athletes, including 4 year veteran Bjorn.

Bjorn at Summer Rollerski Nationals (Photo: Dave Priganc).

Bjorn graciously shared some thoughts with us about his racing experience. At this point, Bjorn’s quite the world traveler, but he was psyched with the simplicity of racing in the US. He said that, “Having the chance to do an international level biathlon race in the US was an amazing experience for all of the American athletes. Having junior worlds in the US was a chance for international races in a lower stress environment, everything from travel to food was much simpler.” He also believes that the “Euros” had a fun time too and enjoyed the venue and courses. One Slovenian athlete summed up Utah as “🤠".”

The racing kicked off February 23rd with Individual format races for the Youth athletes. The juniors raced the same format the following day. Junior boys raced 15k, with four shooting stages: prone, standing, prone, standing. Bjorn missed 10 targets and he finished 69th. After one day of rest, Bjorn hit the tracks again for the 7.5k Sprint competition. Sprints have two shooting stages: prone and standing. Bjorn missed 3 and was 30th place. This was good enough for him to earn a spot in the Pursuit race on the 27th. The top 60 athletes from the sprint race move on to the pursuit. Pursuits are started based on an athlete’s time back from the sprint winner. Again, there are four shooting stages: prone, prone, standing, standing. In the pursuit Bjorn only missed three targets, moving him up to a very solid 18th place! After several days of rest, the racing concluded with a 4X7.5k relay. Bjorn was the anchor leg. In a relay, each athlete has five shots per stage from the magazine and then 3 spare rounds to try to hit any remaining targets. Athletes then ski penalty loops for any remaining open targets. The shooting is prone, standing. In this race, Bjorn had two penalty loops in prone but then only used one spare in standing. He anchored the team to seventh place, moving up one spot from bib number eight.

The big races of the season have wrapped up now for Bjorn, but he’s excited for some lower-key spring races, as well as Biathlon Nationals. And when asked about what’s on the horizon for next year, Bjorn is “looking forward to a busy race schedule combining, college carnival races for UVM, and hopefully IBU Cup Races and my last year as a junior at Junior Worlds in Kazakhstan.”

Congrats to Bjorn and the rest of the Team USA on a great Youth and Junior World Champs! You can see all the results from the series here.

Updated! Westervelt at Biathlon Youth/Junior World Championships