May 08, 2014 (Valcartier, QC) – The recent retirement of Jean-Philippe Le Guellec–Canada’s best-ever male biathlete – following the Sochi Winter Games – is causing confusion about the future of one of Canada’s top biathlon training sites. There was a report in a Quebec City daily that the biathlon training centre at Valcartier (near Quebec City) will be closing, but Biathlon Canada’s High Performance Director, Chris Lindsay insists that his organization has NOT decided to close the Valcartier facility, also known as the Centre de biathlon Myriam Bédard (CMB).

The confusion apparently stems from Biathlon Canada’s decision not to renew a contract for Jean Paquet, a national team coach based in Valcartier. Paquet was Le Guellec’s coach until the biathlete’s retirement. Biathlon Canada, which counts 12 national team members for the 2014-15 season, is now centralizing all national team operations around their facility in Canmore, AB.

“I don’t know of any imminent closing of the CMB,” Lindsay told us. “We need it. According to our grading system, Valcartier is able to accommodate all kinds of provincial, national, and international events up to and including World Cup events. When I visited Valcartier last in the summer of 2013, it was being used for training by some 50 kids from both Ontario and Quebec.”

“It is essential that we maintain such a facility in the eastern half of Canada; we encourage the Quebec federation to stage prestigious events there [in order to boost our sport]. I understand that the Winter World Masters Games will use Valcartier for their biathlon events in 2015. “

Lindsay adds that last winter there was one full-time athlete (Le Guellec) and one coach (Paquet) operating out of Valcartier. He drew a parallel to the Callaghan Valley biathlon range, used for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, “a top-notch facility” that is greatly under-utilized at present. “Some people would like to see a national training centre located there, too.  But with only a dozen athletes on the national team, we would not be doing the athletes any favours by splitting our scarce resources between two or three training centres.”

SkiTrax also attempted to contact the head coach at the Centre de biathlon Myriam Bédard, but did not hear back by press time. The Myriam Bédard Training Centre is located on the grounds of Canadian Forces Base Valcartier and is named after Myriam Bédard, a 1994 Olympic gold medalist biathlete from Quebec City. The biathlon range has 35km of trails and can be used by up to 500 competitors, including roller skiers in the summer according to information at Centre Plein Air Castor.

Plein Air Castor here.