Amanda Kautzer: Ski 'n Shoot: When in Rome, I mean.... Romania

Here's the highlights of my week at the Youth and Junior World Championships in Cheile-Gradistei, Romania. There were 39 countries and nearly 400 athletes racing. Cheile-Gradistei is tucked right in the mountains of Transylvania at 1290 meters (which you could definitely feel walking up stairs). From the restaurant where we ate you could see Mount Buceg, and from my window Piatra Craiului.

The Races:

Photo: Ian Neuhaus

These are my results from the week:
10K Individual: 59th
6K Sprint: 52nd
7.5K Pursuit: 55th
3x6K Relay: 16th
It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but I raced hard against some really incredible athletes, so I am happy with how the week turned out, and that we had enough snow to race on by Monday. My shooting was there the first two days, but I was still sluggish from traveling. For the second two races, my shooting was not nearly as good as usual, although I felt better on skis. It's a good thing I have a week in Italy to recover and put the two together before the Youth Olympics in Norway.

The Youth Relay: Ari, me, and Chloe.

Shout out to Ari for cleaning (+1 relay round) her standing stage!!!

The start of the Sprint.

Photo: Ian Neuhaus

The view of the stadium. The range is behind the wall on the right.

The Adventure:

I've found that racing doesn't change a lot based on where you are. 2K is 2K and the targets don't get smaller or farther away once you get to an international race. The hills might be a little bigger, but guess what? What goes up must come down! What changes when you go to an international competition is exactly that, it's international. There are different people, languages, cultures, and even smells that can seem so foreign. I like to take advantage of every opportunity I can when I travel and experience as many parts of the culture that I can, whether it be trying some sketchy food or walking through a castle. Here's just a few of the highlights of the week:

Photo: Claire Waichler

There were a lot of stray dogs near the venue. One in particular was named Sheba, and lived right near the restaurant we ate at every day. We think she has 2 kids and is 9 years old, but the woman we talked to didn't speak English very well, so Sheba might be 2 and have 9 kids.

Having Sheba made being away from Louie a little easier.

We went into the village for lunch one day. In Romania, lemonade is literally lemon juice and water, and you get to add your own amount of honey or sugar. I had a great time with that...

Sweetening.

Photo: Claire Waichler

We toured Dracula's Castle, which is actually called the Bran Castle. Dracula came about because Vlad Dracul was the Romanian prince in the 15th century. Dracul signifies that he was part of the Order of the Dragons (Ordo Dracul) for protecting Christian Europe against the Ottoman Empire. His son's name was Vlad Dracula, which literally means son of Vlad Dracul. He got the reputation of being blood thirsty because of his nickname Vlad the Impaler, which was his chosen way of killing enemies. Add Bram Stoker's creative mind, and you have the legend of Dracula.

Just three Red Knights in a castle (Red Knights are my school mascot).

What? Only men can rule a country? We don't think so.

Rapunzel are you in there?

When we got to the venue it had been snowing or in the middle of a cloud for a few days (they postponed our first race 1.5 hours because of the fog!). All the trees were frosted white and gorgeous.

A winter wonderland.

I'm not sure what this guy's job was, but he looked official doing it.

I dyed the ends of my hair purple to match the USA suits. The Norwegian girl right next to me had blue hair, so I decided we needed a picture together.

Ari and I with Robi the event mascot (Romanian Biathlon).

Photo: Peter Carroll

One of the highlights of the week was Sean Dorherty's incredible results. He had bronze, silver, and GOLD! That makes 10 out of 12 possible medals in his career. Hearing our national anthem played in the ceremony was truly a moment to remember.