March 28, 2019 (Oslo, Norway) – Four-time Olympian Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), has been named as U.S. Biathlon’s incoming high performance director. Longtime Chief of Sport Bernd Eisenbichler, who has been the architect of U.S. Biathlon’s growing athletic success, announced following the close of IBU World Championships in Sweden that he is leaving his 20-year tenure to work in the sport in his native Germany.

Lowell will join four-time Olympian Tim Burke (Lake Placid N.Y.), who takes on a new position as the U.S. Biathlon director of athlete development. The former teammates will now be working together to bolster U.S biathlon at all levels of the sport, from the youth/development through to the national and Olympic team levels. Throughout the past two decades, Bailey’s and Burke’s increasingly competitive international results ushered a new era of success for Team USA.

This transition marks an exciting new phase for U.S. Biathlon, with the staff leadership now including the country’s top two former biathletes.

“This is a remarkable period for U.S. Biathlon with a season of athletes making career bests happen, a very successful World Cup hosted in Utah, new team sponsors and growing TV exposure and enthusiasm for our sport,” said President and CEO Max Cobb. “Bernd has led our program brilliantly to new heights. He leaves us with a strong team and a great staff, which will help us with the transition. I know he will remain a great friend of U.S. Biathlon forever. With staff like Tim and Lowell leading our efforts, we’ll continue with the same level of enthusiasm and passion for supporting our athletes in the years to come.”

A native of the Olympic village of Lake Placid, Bailey capped his career by becoming America’s first World Champion in 2017 when he took gold in the 20 km Individual competition. He joined the IBU Biathlon World Cup tour in 2002, then took a break with a successful career as a college cross country ski racer at the University of Vermont. After college he made his first of four Olympic teams in 2006, spending more than a decade racing on the World Cup. During his tenure he was a highly respected athlete leader, serving committee or board roles with the International Biathlon Union and U.S. Biathlon. He is presently executive director of Crosscut Mountain Sports Center in Montana.

“With our dedicated athletes, an incredibly talented staff and a passionate and supportive board of directors, U.S. Biathlon has never been in a better position to build our sport in America, with the unwavering and collective goal of seeing an American atop a future Olympic podium,” said Bailey. “It was my privilege and good fortune to train and compete as a U.S. biathlete during Bernd’s 20-year tenure. Starting in 1999, he gradually built a culture of success and positivity that is now the central core of U.S. Biathlon. It is such an advantage to enter the high performance directorship at this high point and I hope that I can build upon Bernd’s impressive legacy.”

Burke put U.S. Biathlon in the international spotlight when he became the first and only American biathlete to ever lead the World Cup overall ranking in 2010. Three years later, he followed up that initial success with a World Championship silver medal in 2013. After four Olympics and more than a decade on the IBU World Cup Tour, Tim also retired in 2018 and started a new position as athlete development manager for U.S. Biathlon. He will now become the director of athlete development, a role which specifically focuses on building domestic programs, raising the quality and quantity of opportunities for participation in the sport.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to be in a position to help America’s next generation of biathletes. Biathlon and sport have played such a huge role in my life, and it’s a great privilege to share that passion with our up and coming athletes. I am also thrilled to have Lowell joining the team. We worked very well together as teammates and I know we both look forward to collaborating in our new positions. We are all sad to see Bernd go, but the impact that he had on this team will be felt for many years to come. It was an absolute honor to compete under Bernd as an athlete and to work with him as a colleague during the last year. He may wear a German hat in the future, but I know he will always be pulling for our team.”

Eisenbichler will leave the program having developed it at every level. He joined U.S. Biathlon in 1999 as a ski wax technician, working his way up the ranks. Highly respected by his athletes, he was named high performance director in 2007 and promoted to chief of sport in 2014.

“It was a real pleasure and an honor, I am really proud to have worked 20 years with US Biathlon” said Eisenbichler. “It was a very interesting and inspiring journey together, all the high points we had and all the great people I could work with, I will miss them all a lot. It was a very hard decision for me to take but I feel so good that Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey will be leading the sport operations for US Biathlon. They were great athletes and are great people. They will do an amazing job and build on the foundation that we all made together. I will always be cheering for the USA athletes.”