PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Members of the 2014 Presque Isle Youth and Junior World Biathlon Championships Organizing Committee recently traveled to Obertilliach, Austria to receive a ceremonial flag from the International Biathlon Union (IBU). The flag, presented to Presque Isle event director Jane Towle, event manager Steve Towle, and competition secretary Robert White, signifies the passing of the event from Obertilliach to Presque Isle.
“The flag presentation is a big moment for our event,” said Jane Towle. “It’s a reminder that in about a year, we’ll be welcoming the best young biathletes in the world to Presque Isle. We have a lot of work to do, but we’re off to a great start.”
The Youth and Junior World Championships are the most important event of the year for young biathletes. Hundreds of biathletes under the age of 21 gather from over 30 nations to participate in the annual event. The 2014 championships will take place in late February and early March at the Nordic Heritage Center.
Planning is already under way for the 2014 championships, and attending the Obertilliach event was an important step in the process for members of the Presque Isle organizing committee. The delegation met with IBU officials and the Obertilliach organizing committee and observed the competition. Towle said that they were able to learn several tips that will help with the planning of the 2014 event.
“It’s wonderful to see how they host these events over in Europe because they are the standard to which we try to achieve,” she said. “We learned a lot about how to save money, what to spend our money on, and where we don’t need to invest our resources in. It will help us use our budget wisely going forward.”
According to Towle, the meetings were very helpful, and the event provided a unique opportunity for biathlon organizers from the United States to build relationships with the IBU and others involved with the sport.
“The IBU is very comfortable with us hosting a world championship because they’ve seen the kind of events we’re able to produce with an unpaid volunteer workgroup,” she said. “We got to see what went right with their event, what went wrong, and hopefully we can learn from any mistakes that were made and just do it better.”
Biathlon is a very popular sport in Europe, and the biathlon venues are impressive. The facilities have lots of room for media, VIPs and event administrators. Like other venues in the region, Obertilliach has more buildings than the Nordic Heritage Center, but according to Towle, that’s not a concern.
“The European facilities have more bricks and mortar, but we know that we can do a lot of what we need to do without building additional structures,” she said. “Our very generous sponsors do a lot of things for us including providing temporary tents so we don’t have to spend additional money.”
In some ways, the Nordic Heritage Center is actually better positioned than the European venues to host a world-class biathlon event. Many of the European biathlon centers need to rent bleachers, but a permanent seating area is already in place at the Nordic Heritage Center. The Presque Isle venue also has an impressive course.
The Presque Isle delegation enjoyed watching the competitions in Obertilliach, and they were treated to an impressive and surprising performance by the U.S. team. The U.S. team came home with a gold medal and two silver medals, which is one of the greatest achievements in U.S. biathlon history.
In the coming weeks, the Presque Isle Organizing Committee will finalize leadership roles for the 2014 event. Over the summer, committee representatives will attend meetings in Sochi, Russia, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. A press conference is being planned for Feb. 28 to unveil a countdown clock that will be prominently placed at the Key Bank building in the heart of Presque Isle.
