There’s a beautiful snow falling and I feel fortunate—a warm home, bread baking in the oven, a strong back for all the shoveling. Much to appreciate.
This post, the first I’ve written in some time, is background/context for an essay I wrote on biathlon, “Their Time,” published on February 4, 2022, the opening day of the Winter Games.
Most readers likely do not know that the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will be the 30th anniversary of the year women were first permitted to compete in biathlon, a sport that combines cross country skiing and target shooting. Prior to the 1992 Winter Olympic Games, only men had been allowed to compete.
I wrote a piece last winter about biathlon, profiling young female biathletes and their mentors, some of them women who took part in that groundbreaking 1992 effort. This is the story of powerful and tenacious athletes in an historic sport that gets very little attention here in the US though it is wildly popular in Europe.
I highlight Craftsbury Outdoor Center which has birthed Olympic biathletes. The COC is committed to sustainability, from its building design and programming, to its efforts to promote and nourish winter sports. Due to the impact of the global climate crisis on winter sports, places like Craftsbury and organizations such as “Protect Our Winters” are leading by example. It is up to us to take action so we have future snowy days to enjoy.
“Their Time” is also the story of my partner, Gillian Sharp, a biathlete who competed unsponsored at the Olympic Trials in 1992 and 1994, and how her history — and ours as a couple — have become a metaphor for seeing climate change for the crisis that it is.
May we have a future with snowy winters!