August 4, 2008 (Lake Placid, NY) – This past weekend the long-awaited roller loop / shooting range training facility opened adjacent to the Lake Placid Olympic Jumping Complex. Although some final landscaping remains, the facility was the site of time trials for several members of the US Biathlon Team last Thursday and Friday. Among those participating were Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid) and Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY).

The new facility, in planning for several years, is an important addition to the already excellent training facilities in Lake Placid, which include the US Olympic Training Center as well the trails and Biathlon Range at the Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg. In addition to Burke and Bailey, World Cup Biathlete Haley Johnson (Lake Placid), and members of the US Biathlon B and Development Teams currently live and train here.

US Biathlon Development Coach James Upham was ecstatic about the new range and roller loop. “This is a huge development for us. We now have a roller loop of 1.4K and shooting range that is easily accessible for us. The athletes can use the ski the one mile from the Olympic Training Center as a warm-up and we are ready to go. The shooting platform is covered; the range is heavily baffled, and very well protected from the wind. We can shoot in wet and windy weather, with very little change in the conditions on the range. The range has a hard uphill approach, which is great training for the tough range approaches the athletes face in Europe during the season.

We truly appreciate all of the work of ORDA (Olympic Region Development Agency) in building this new training site for our athletes, as well the ongoing support from US Olympic Committee that makes this such a great place to train.”

This week, most of the athletes training here as well as the National Junior Team will get their first taste of competition in several months with Sprint/Pursuit competitions at the Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, VT.