{"id":81151,"date":"2022-01-26T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/hello-good-biathlon-olympian-serves-as-guest-coach-for-juneau-youths\/"},"modified":"2022-01-27T15:24:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T00:24:55","slug":"hello-good-biathlon-olympian-serves-as-guest-coach-for-juneau-youths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/hello-good-biathlon-olympian-serves-as-guest-coach-for-juneau-youths\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello, good biathlon: Olympian serves as guest coach for Juneau youths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

There may have been rain instead of snow falling, but foul weather didn’t wash out a chance for Juneau Nordic Ski teams<\/a> to learn from an Olympic-caliber athlete.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Maddie Phaneuf<\/a>, a Team USA biathlon member and 2018 Olympian, was in town late last week to coach up young skiers. Biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing with rifle marksmanship. <\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“It’s nice to get a new perspective,” said Kyle Dusenberry, a junior and a team captain for the high school team. “We don’t really get people from the outside that have the experience like that.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Mo Michels, head coach for the team, said outside perspectives from people who have competed at the highest levels of ski racing are something coaches try to import.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“I think one of the coolest opportunities afforded our athletes over the last few years is bringing in a guest coach,” Michels said. “You can’t substitute the interest and excitement of a pro.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

[Volunteers make winter cool for skiers<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Dusenberry said that while Juneau doesn’t necessarily offer many biathlon opportunities, it’s a sport that interests him. Plus there are biathlon skills that transfer well to Nordic skiing.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Phaneuf said she finds coaching work rewarding and a way to contribute to a sports community she cares about.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"Courtesy<\/a>

Courtesy Photo \/ Tristan Knutson-Lombardo \n Maddie Phaneuf, a Team USA biathlete, stands at the front of a line of skiers with her arms outstretched. Phaneuf was recently in town as a guest coach for Juneau Nordic Ski teams. Coaches said it’s excited to bring in professionals with outside perspective.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

Her pitch for why people in the area should consider getting involved in skiing was simple.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“If you live in Alaska, you should be skiing because you have plenty of mountains and snow,” Phaneuf said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

She said the ski racing community is generally accepting.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“No one is going to turn you down,” she said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Additionally, Phaneuf said people should be ready to tune in to the upcoming Olympic Winter Games slated to start next month in Beijing<\/a>. She said that she believes these could be the games that bring the U.S. a biathlon medal.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“This year might be the year,” Phaneuf said. “You don’t want to miss history.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

• Contact Ben Hohenstatt at (907)308-4895 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘If you live in Alaska, you should be skiing” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":474,"featured_media":81152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[240],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-81151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-sports","tag-high-school-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81151"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=81151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}