Helen Wilson
Helen Wilson of Eagle River just had three hugely successful races at the national junior biathlon trials at Anchorage’s Kincaid Park.
That’s set her up for a busy rest of the winter competing at major events around the globe.
Wilson is a 2019 graduate of Eagle River High School who now attends Montana State University and represents the Crosscut Mountain Sports Center in Bozeman, Mont.
She started out the Youth Junior World Championship and World University Games team trials at Kincaid by winning the junior women’s division in a sprint race on Dec. 27, besting Dolcie Tanguay of Maine by 17 seconds in 26 minutes, 43 seconds.
Wilson, 21, followed that up with second place in a pursuit race on Dec. 28 before concluding the competition with a dominant two-minute sprint win on Dec. 30 after skiing well and connecting on 18 of 20 shots from the range.
Elias Soule
Those results qualified Wilson for the IBU Junior World Championships March 4-12 in Kazakhstan, her fourth straight time in that competition (to go along with three appearances at the youth world championships).
She’s also qualified for the World University Games January 14-21 in Lake Placid, N.Y., and the Junior Open European Championships February 15-19 in Latvia.
At world juniors, Wilson will look to improve on her previous best individual result of 38th in 2021.
Also set to make his first international appearance in the youth men’s division at the IBU Youth World Championships is Elias Soule of the Anchorage Biathlon Club. Soule, who currently attends Service High School, placed third, fourth and fifth in the youth races at the Kincaid trials to earn his spot in Kazakhstan.
Maxime Germain
One other Alaskan athlete pre-qualified for World Juniors. Maxime Germain, a 2019 graduate of West Anchorage High School, made his debut in 2022 at the IBU World Cup, the highest level of the sport, and has now achieved seven starts. Germain, 21, also placed 17th at the 2022 World Juniors sprint race in Utah and last month notched seventh and eighth at IBU Cup junior races in Austria.
U.S. Biathlon lauded the organizers of the Kincaid trials.
“I want to thank the Alaska Biathlon Association and the Nordic Ski Association of Anchorage for hosting a great event,” Tim Burke, the U.S. Biathlon Director of Athlete Development who retired as one of the most accomplished American biathletes ever, said in a media release. “The competitions were well organized, and the conditions were ideal. I also want to thank all the fantastic volunteers for making this event possible.”