Amanda Kautzer: Ski 'n Shoot: Wow, the ____

I know it has been over a month since Belarus, but in my defense school takes priority once you've missed 223 classes.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

Belarus was an incredible experience. I found myself saying, "Wow, the German girls are so fast!" or "Wow, the Norwegians shoot so well!" The level of competition was incredible, and it was fun to see how I stacked up against the best Juniors in the World!

Wow the Brazilian girls are so nice!

Team USA.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

I had four exciting and amazing races. The 2K course was one long uphill followed by a long downhill coming into the range (that part was great!). The 1.5K course went around the stadium building where all the fans watched the range (yes there were fans... they filled the stadium and lined the course!). It was mostly flat with two small hills going into a downhill into the range.

Luckily this was taken on the last day.

Photo: Maddie Phaneuf

Race 1: Individual 10K, 54th place- psps: 4112
Before I left, my coach said I should be psyched if I get out of the bottom third. I was just a few places out and was pumped to have an amazing first race. I felt super strong and my shooting was decent. I missed 4 shots the first loops because I didn't take the correct wind clicks.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Photo: Julie Kautzer

Race 2: Sprint 6K, 39th place- ps: 11
I was even more excited with this race. 39th place was my best individual result of the week, and the race was fun despite a rough start. When I went to get my chip and go into the starting pen the Russian official monitoring it started motioning at me and speaking Russian and I had no idea what he was saying... until someone motioned that I didn't have my skis! Definitely a rookie mistake but a coach brought them over for me thankfully!
The racing was great, and I broke into the top half!!!!

Spectating from the stadium with a couple thousand other people.

Race 3: Pursuit 7.5K, 46th- Shooting ppss: 0241
I loved this race, but I executed a little poorly. One of my goals for this week was to clean one stage, which I did. Let's just say I got really excited and skied my first two laps way to fast, and botched the first standing. I lost contact with the group ahead of me when I had to do 4 penalty laps. It was definitely a learning experience and still a ton of fun.

Taking advantage of the downhill into the range.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

My teammate Hannah Streinz leading me up a hill.

Photo: Jakob Ellingson

The starting pen. This was the first race I have been to

with so many sponsor signs everywhere!

Photo: Julie Kautzer

The view from the warmup look/1.5K loop. Not bad eh?

It was a pursuit so we were all pretty close together. Megan, Siena, Bryn, and I all came into the range together!

Photo: Julie Kautzer

Race 4: 3x6K Relay, 12th- I missed the last shot in both prone and standing but hit it with my first relay round.
I was very happy with my shooting, and the skiing was fun too. I had awesome relay partners: Chloe Levins and Siena Ellingson. They were one of the only teams that stayed around the finish pen to see me finish, which I really appreciated.

About to be lapped...

Photo: Jakob Ellingson

Team USA!

Photo: Julie Kautzer

Cheering for the Youth boys race. Go USA!

Photo: Jakob Ellingson

Some other fun/interesting things:

There were also these massive billboards around the city of Minsk advertising the races. The mascot was a squirrel!

One of the many posters. Usually the squirrel at the top was bigger.

Photo: Chloe Levins

Raubichi, the biathlon venue, had not one, nor two, but THREE ranges! One 30+ point outdoor range for races, a 10 point indoor range, and another 15 or so point back up/training range. I guess I don't really know what the third one was for but I was baffled that there were three ranges!

The indoor range, which has more working targets that Elk River.

Photo: Chloe Levins

We ate almost all our meals at the hotel, along with the other teams. One of my favorite experiences was watching the World Cup races during dinner in a room full of Nordic/biathlon athletes. It was like watching the Superbowl, but better.

See! Nordic on TV! This is actually one of the YJWC races! On TV!

Here's the boys posing for a fan picture in front of the stadium.

(That's right, we had fans!)

Photo: Chloe Levins

I also got to hear a lot of Russian (and French, Italian, Japanese, Finnish, German...). At one point I dropped a clip over the firing line, and had to ask one of the range officials to get it for me, but they didn't speak any English. That was quite an interesting, and embarrassing, experience. Also, when people cheered, the pronounced the USA more like "youu-esss-ahhh," but all in one syllable.