When I found out I was selected to the Youth Olympic Games I was excited but nervous. It is a huge honour to
be chosen to be part of such a select group. However I had never competed against such a high level of
competition before.

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Before the Games I went to an IBU Camp in Slovenia. That was very informative and I learned a huge amount. I
had my first International races following that camp – IBU Junior Cup races in Pokljuka Slovenia and Ridnaun
Italy. Those races were difficult but I really enjoyed the environment and improved a little bit with each race.

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I found out that I was selected for the Gangwon 2024 Team just before Christmas, and we were visiting family in
the United States. We had about 3 weeks before I was supposed to leave for Korea, and through Mary & Sam
Lee we made contact with Sally Jones at Tahoe Donner where I could ski. Sally was very welcoming and also put
me in contact with Auburn Ski Club, and they allowed me to train with their biathlon squad a few times a week.
The altitude (2200m) there made it hard, but the range was small and had cable-pull targets that reminded me of
Snow Farm. The group there included masters as well as one athlete getting ready to go to Europe as a part of
the US IBU Cup team and two other very talented Juniors. They were very welcoming and great training partners.

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I left for Korea directly from the US and took the long trip to the Gangwon Olympic Village. The NZ Team was
housed in the large Olympic Village with nearly all of the other athletes and coaches. Biathlon was one of the first
sports, so the Village was pretty empty at first, but filled up with the athletes by the time of the opening ceremony.
There were both NZ Team and other activities to get the athletes to meet each other, including my favourite
which was trading pins from the various countries. I collected over 30!

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The biathlon venue was about a 45 minute drive away, and we were bussed to the facility for our training
windows. The course was very hilly – probably comparable to the tough course in Pokljuka – although Snow
Farm is not easy either. The weather on my race days was extremely tough. For the Individual (12.5km) it was
snowing hard for the entire race, making the shooting difficult due to the wind and the skiing very slow. For the
Sprint (7.5 km) two days later the temperature was probably actually colder than the -18C allowable, and was the
first time I had to worry about frostbite in a race. My rifle was not shooting well in the cold of the Sprint, which
made that race difficult for me. However I was thrilled to take part in both of them and learned a great deal about
pushing through tough conditions.

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I am really looking forward to the coming season up at Snow Farm, and in trying to improve my skiing and
shooting. I am very grateful to everyone who helped make this experience possible for me, especially my coach
Jason Sklenar, the NZ Olympic Committee, Biathlon New Zealand, the people at Donner Tahoe and Auburn Ski
Club, and my family.