PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — With the 2014 IBU Youth/Junior Biathlon World Championships kicking off Friday at the Nordic Heritage Center and running through March 7, the Star City has — temporarily — become an international melting pot.
According to Jane Towle, event director, upwards of 430 biathletes, coaches and support staff — representing 30 countries — are in town for the biathlon competition.
“It’s amazing the diversity and international flair that’s floating around town right now,” she said.
In addition to the United States, countries represented at the biathlon include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.
“Both the Australian and Russian teams were the first to arrive,” said Towle. “They got here Feb. 11. Both Australia and Brazil are newcomers to our venue, so that should be exciting.”
Towle said the feedback she’s received to date has been wonderful.
“The athletes are really enjoying their hotels and the food; the hotels and the restaurants have been wonderful,” she said. “Some of the athletes and their coaches have even talked to the kitchen staff at some of the hotels about trying some new dishes. They’re having great communication talking about menus and different ideas, which is really cool.
“We’re hearing great comments about the venue itself. The course is in beautiful shape, the range is all set up, and they’ve been training out there daily. We’ve gotten rave reviews from everybody,” said Towle. “Other comments that I’ve heard are the athletes are so impressed with the level of hospitality here in The County; it’s not like that in most other places, but here everybody is ready with a warm smile and a helping hand, and they’ve just been thrilled with that.”
Jan Lucas, director of sales for the Hampton Inn, said 107 athletes, as well as some VIPs and officials, are staying at the facility.
“We have athletes from Kazakhstan, Taipei, Sweden, Great Britain, Norway, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Brazil,” she said. “They have been very polite and friendly. They are enjoying all our amenities and seem happy and ‘at home’ here.”
Lucas said the language barrier has caused some difficulties, but everyone’s working through it.
“We communicate via their interpreters, drawings and lots of arm waving,” she said. “We see very little of them during the day as they are at the course in-between meal times. We also have a young Russian member of our staff who works at night and she has been a great help with the teams so far.
“We enjoy having the biathletes here and wish them all good luck,” said Lucas.
Chad Gray, store manager at Walmart, said the Russian athletes have been by on more than one occasion.
“The Russian team was in the other day and they bought 19 iPads for teammates, family and coaches,” he said. “I guess they can’t get them in their country, so they bought them all. At $250 apiece, that was a nice transaction. If they’re doing it here, they’re doing it throughout town, so it’s definitely been good for business.”
Another popular item, Gray said, is soda.
“We weren’t aware that would be so popular,” he said. “One of the athletes said that soda tastes different over here. ‘The soda is much better [here],’ is how they phrased it. They bought 10-12 12-packs of soda to take back to their hotel rooms.”
Gray said there has been no influx of rubles at the cash registers, however.
“It’s just like our Canadian friends that come over and shop; most of them use their bank cards and credit cards, and they just pay the exchange rates through their banks,” he said. “It takes a couple more days for payment to go through, but the banks handle all of it and that way we’re not dealing with currency exchange.
“They’ve been having fun while they’re here. They stood in front of the store and took their picture in front of the sign,” said Gray. “It’s the same things we do when we travel the world. Things that we take for granted they find entertainment in and vice versa.”
With two days before the competition begins, Towle said the organizing committee is busy “putting the finishing touches on the opening ceremony,” which will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Gentile Hall.
“Our big push right now is the arrivals because they’re coming in pretty fast and furious now,” Towle said last Thursday. “To bring that many people into our airport and settled into the hotels is quite an undertaking. Transportation is a big, critical piece of this puzzle. We’ve been busy making sure that food and lodging is adequate and everybody’s comfortable before these competitions begin.”
As teams arrive at the Northern Maine Regional Airport, they are transported to area lodging establishments.
“We’ve arranged for transportation for everybody. If a small team arrives, we’ll provide a 15-passenger van for their belongings. If two or three large teams are coming in all at once, we have school buses that we’ve chartered to do this and bring everything and everyone to the hotels,” said Towle.
“We have equipment trucks going to Boston to bring their equipment up because they cannot possibly put everything they have on an airplane. We have set up equipment truck runs back and forth from Logan International Airport,” she said. “It’s not like a basketball team traveling where they need just their sneakers, uniforms and maybe some basketballs. This is an equipment-laden sport — skis, rifles, big boxes of all the supplies that they need for waxing, any luggage that won’t fit on the plane … tons of equipment.”
The equipment trucks, Towle said, could be anything from a “26-foot moving van to a bigger transport.”
“It depends on how many people are coming in on any given day,” she said, noting that about eight trips will be made transporting equipment from Boston. “The logistics behind hosting one of these events is enormous. There’s 1,000 moving parts that are moving really fast right now.
“We found out in 2012 that we would be hosting this event, and we’ve been hard at work for 18 months. Every big event that we get under our belt makes the next one that much easier because we’ve solved the issues and overcome the problems. It begins to run like a well-oiled machine,” said Towle. “It has been a privilege to work with the volunteers who have skillfully planned and executed this tremendous event, one which will showcase Aroostook County at its best to the world.”
Many of those volunteers will have another opportunity to assist in two more years as Presque Isle will host the World Cup in the winter of 2016.
The competition schedule is as follows:
Friday, Feb. 28
(Sprint Competition)
10 a.m. — Youth women
12:30 p.m. — Youth men
Saturday, March 1
(Sprint Competition)
10 a.m. — Junior women
12:30 p.m. — Junior men
Sunday, March 2
(Pursuit Competition)
10 a.m. — Youth women
11 a.m. — Junior women
1:30 p.m. — Youth men
2:30 p.m. — Junior men
Tuesday, March 4
(Individual Competition)
10 a.m. — Youth women
1 p.m. — Youth men
Wednesday, March 5
(Individual Competition)
10 a.m. — Junior women
1 p.m. — Junior men
Thursday, March 6
(Relay Competition)
10 a.m. — Youth women
12:30 p.m. — Youth men
Friday, March 7
(Relay Competition)
10 a.m. — Junior women
12:30 p.m. — Junior men
Note: All races will be held at the Nordic Heritage Center. Parking is restricted at the venue. All spectators should plan to park in the plowed field at Gallagher Farm, located approximately 500 yards east of the entrance of the Nordic Heritage Center. Shuttles will transport people back and forth from this “parking lot” and the venue during competition days. All competitions are free and open to the public.
