Grace Castonguay: A New Pathway to Biathlon

12/24/23 • 45 min

There are many routes into biathlon. Grace Castonguay is part of a new generation of athletes who are finding the sport and moving quickly up the ranks. A passionate runner, Castonguay only got into cross-country skiing when an injury curtailed her running. She loved it! Just a few years later, she made her World Cup debut in December 2023, racing in Hochfilzen and Lenzerheide.

When Castonguay first stepped onto skis during high school in 2019, she passionately embraced the sport. Together with her younger brother Theo, they traveled around the New Hampshire high school circuit. In her senior year, she helped the Kennett High School Eagles – Sean Doherty’s alma mater – win a state title.

The vital step in her storybook tale came when she accompanied Theo to a fall biathlon camp at Utah’s Soldier Hollow in October 2020. There, she caught the attention of coach Zach Hall, who invited her to the biathlon range. Now she was really hooked!

She progressed quickly. The next March (2021), she raced in her first biathlon event – U.S. Nationals at West Yellowstone. In October 2021, she was the second and third junior in races at the Soldier Hollow Schutzenski trials. While she failed to make the Junior Worlds team out of trials, she doubled down on cross-country, transferring mid-year to ski for St. Michael’s College.

That December (2022), she posted strong results again during trial races at Craftsbury, qualifying for the IBU Cup and eventually the IBU Youth and Junior World Championships in Kazakhstan, where she had the top U.S. women’s results in both sprint and pursuit.

Her success on the college carnival circuit and with biathlon has created a bit of a juggling act for Castonguay, which she is embracing. As the team captain for the Purple Knights, she’s committed to the college schedule in January and February. But she is also looking to take advantage of her biathlon opportunity, going to Europe for the first races of the second trimester before heading back to ski for St. Michael’s. In the back of her mind, she realizes that the NCAA Championships in Steamboat Springs overlap with the IBU World Cup in Soldier Hollow in early March.

Needless to say, it will be a busy season. But for a young athlete who only slid on a ski track four years ago, she’s anxious to embrace every single opportunity, be that as a member of the Ethan Allen Biathlon Club, the St. Michael’s Purple Knights, or the U.S. Biathlon Team.

Here’s a sampling of what you’ll learn in this episode of Heartbeat. This is a remarkable story of a young athlete’s passion for sport and the emotions that athletic success can bring.

So, Grace, that was a long road trip!

This was my longest span of time in Europe – my longest time away from home forever. It was about a month and a half on the road.

How did you originally get into skiing?

So the punchline of this story is that I actually did not learn to ski, or step foot on skis, until four years ago. So, I am pretty much a baby in this sport. I grew up playing soccer and running cross country. When I was 14, I broke my leg playing soccer, and that kind of switched me fully into the endurance mode or lifestyle. I ran high school cross country and was really into running. I wanted to run Division 1 in college. That was my big goal. And then, because of the lasting, effects of my broken leg – I broke my tibia and fibula, which caused my growth plates to close. – running just really did not suit my body. I broke down a lot. My mom became the high school Nordic coach for our team so my brother could enter races. My indoor track season ended a little early and she was like, ‘Come on. Like, don't you want to join the team? It will look good on college resumes.’ And I figured, hey, why not? I entered my first Nordic ski race about three weeks after I learned to ski. I looked like Bambi on ice skates.

What clicked for you when Zach Hall invited you to the range in Soldier Hollow?

I had shot a biathlon rifle before because my brother was a biathlete, but I hadn't really caught the biathlon bug at that point. So I figured, okay, why not? I'll go to this practice. I'm here. Something to do. And I went to that practice that day, and things clicked for me. I really started to see why people love this sport. One of the big things was that Zach identified that I am left-eye dominant despite being right-handed. And when I had shot a biathlon rifle before, I was shooting righty and I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. So once we figured out that I was left-eye dominant, that made a huge difference to how I felt about the sport. And I also just really enjoyed the way he explained the process. Zach is a really phenomenal coach in a multitude of ways. He's really great at the mental aspect of sport. I remember going home that day from practice, and I said to myself, ‘I want to be...

Here’s a sampling of what you’ll learn in this episode of Heartbeat. This is a remarkable story of a young athlete’s passion for sport and the emotions that athletic success can bring.

So, Grace, that was a long road trip!

This was my longest span of time in Europe – my longest time away from home forever. It was about a month and a half on the road.

How did you originally get into skiing?

What clicked for you when Zach Hall invited you to the range in Soldier Hollow?

Previous Episode

Margie Freed: From XC to Biathlon

In the long term plan for U.S. Biathlon, talent transfer is a big topic – cross country ski racers trying biathlon. How practical is it? Well, just look at the example of Margie Freed. Last season, the veteran Minnesota native and University of Vermont ski team alum, now part of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, borrowed a biathlon rifle, qualified in trials for the European Championships and ended up with the best USA IBU Cup finish of the year. And she’ll start off the 2023-24 season in U.S. Biathlon’s World Cup lineup for the opener in Östersund.

For sure, it’s not THAT easy! But Freed has shown the possibilities. This season she’ll switch back and forth, starting out with FIS Cup races in Muonio, Finland earlier in November, training with the biathlon team in Vuokatti, then off to Östersund for the IBU World Cup biathlon and after that winging her way to Alaska for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard SuperTour presented by National Nordic Foundation.

Freed grew up in the cultural hotbed of cross country skiing in Minneapolis, following her older sister into the sport. The noted Loppet Nordic program provided her a bridge from high school racing to U.S. Ski & Snowboard and eventually FIS racing. A four-year stint with the Catamounts, where she was an All America selection, led her to three NCAA Championships appearances. But it was her engagement with Craftsbury that sent her career onto a higher level.

Not only did she have the best U.S. Biathlon finish on the IBU Cup last year (19th in early February at Obertilliach, Austria), but she won a cross country national championship medal and her first SuperTour. Two years ago, she was sixth in the American Birkebeiner, just ahead of her mentor, Caitlin Gregg.

A well-spoken professional athlete, in this episode of Heartbeat, Freed talks succinctly about the value of each step of her pathway. She showcases the opportunity that presented itself through Craftsbury Green Racing Project and drills down into the details of what she learned as a first-year biathlete.

Through it all, you can feel the true enjoyment she’s taking from being an athlete competing in both cross country skiing and biathlon.

Here’s a sampling of what you’ll learn in this episode of Heartbeat.

Are you nervous for your first World Cup start?

I would say I'm a little more excited than nervous. I am really grateful to have my teammates, a lot of them along with me, so they can kind of show me the ropes. And I'm hoping to not embarrass myself too much on the shooting range compared to some of the really good sharpshooters out there.

What's the learning experience that you'll take away from competing in Östersund?

I think that being thrown in with people who are way better than you at whatever you're doing is a great way to make really strong improvements. I'm hoping to just kind of take it all in there and learn from what they're doing, see what everybody else is doing, and try and mimic that to lead me to success.

What motivated you to get into cross country skiing?

I started cross country skiing when I was about 13 years old. My older sister had joined the high school cross country ski team. I thought she was the coolest person in the world and I wanted to be just like her. So I also joined the cross country ski team. And then I went to Eastview High School and competed there, and my coach was great at introducing me to the junior national circuit, kind of so I could train with people in the greater Minneapolis area. And then I also got connected with Loppet Nordic Racing. From there I worked with Piotr Bednarski and Caitlin Gregg there, and they were great at showing me the ropes of national skiing and going to junior nationals. Then I realized I could ski in college and so I went to the University of Vermont and then to Craftsbury from there.

Once you settled into Craftsbury, it really was a remarkable experience for you, wasn't it?

It was – just seeing how dedicated all the athletes are, how understanding the coaches are, how willing they are to work with everybody's unique schedules and what works for them, and especially all of the data that they do, all the testing and all the opportunities that are offered with Craftsbury. I really appreciate it all.

How did your biathlon experience come about, and what have you learned so far?

I'm really grateful for the support and opportunities that Craftsbury provides, one of those being the opportunity to try biathlon as a cross country skier. There is a biathlon range, there is a biathlon team. And so it was very easy for me to get exposed to that sport. I was able to borrow a rifle for the first trials that I did, and that kind of led me into where I am now. Thankfully, all the coaches kind of worked with me to figure out a plan for shooting ...

Next Episode

Tim Burke: Development for the Future

If the recent U.S. Biathlon Trials event at Mt. Itasca Winter Sports Center is any indicator, athlete development is on the upswing. Record numbers of athletes were on hand seeking to qualify for major youth and junior events. In this episode of Heartbeat, U.S. Biathlon’s Director of Athlete Development Tim Burke, talks about sustained competitive excellence as the objective of U.S. Biathlon’s strategic plan and the progress that’s being made.

Burke, a longtime athlete who won silver at the World Championships in 2013, is part of a strong athletic program at U.S. Biathlon. He works alongside Director of Sport Development John Farra and a longtime biathlete now managing high-performance, Lowell Bailey. The three all have roots growing up in Lake Placid and competing at the highest level. Now Burke is finding gratification in helping nurture the next generation to success.

At Mt. Itasca in late December, 80 athletes showed up to race – a bump of 45% from previous years. Notably, too, the field included a record 31 women - a big focus for U.S. Biathlon.

The trials offered athletes an opportunity to vie for spots on a wide range of international teams, most notably the Youth Olympic Games in South Korea and the IBU’s Youth and Junior World Championships in Estonia.

This episode of Heartbeat takes you into the heart of athlete development, representing the next generation of biathletes who will represent Team USA in the coming years.

Tim, how do you describe your role with U.S. Biathlon?

My title is the director of athlete development. However, we're a very small organization, so titles are one thing, but all of us do a little bit of everything. I work very closely with Lowell in high performance and with John Farra in sport development. But my main role is kind of working in the middle of the U.S. Biathlon pipeline – really focusing on those athletes in the middle of our pipeline who are coming up, ensuring that they have the opportunities and what they need to succeed in this part of their career so they can make a smooth transition into the senior circuit.

How does your role fit into U.S. Biathlon’s strategic plan?

Our plan of sustained competitive excellence. So what does that mean? That means taking us from an organization that has occasionally had some success for sure, that we're all very proud of, but we want to have that more consistently. And to have that more consistently, we need to be more professional. We need more athletes in our pipeline, and ultimately, we need to be able to field teams on the World Cup, at World Championships, at the Olympics, where we can field a full team of athletes who are capable of stepping onto that podium. If we can do that, we will finally win that elusive Olympic medal. But it all starts at the bottom. It all starts with grassroots. It all starts at our clubs. It all starts down there building those numbers so that we have the athletes, enough athletes coming through our pipeline that can rise to the top.

What differences do you see in athlete development today versus a few years ago?

One of the biggest differences right now, as compared to when I came through the pipeline, is we're seeing a lot more of these crossover nordic athletes transitioning into biathlon. And it's not only true for our country, but it's true for others as well. You've seen other countries have a lot of success, like Sweden, like Germany, like Slovenia right now. And we want to be a part of that, and we have been a part of that. If you look at our national team right now, if you look at the World Cup that just happened this morning, many of those athletes racing for us, racing in that US uniform, are athletes that came over from cross country at a pretty late age. A lot of them came after they finished college. You know, they were successful collegiate skiers and they wanted to try something different. And we tried to provide those opportunities for them in biathlon. And that's one thing that we are continuing to really focus on and even double down on. Here at U.S. Biathlon is making sure that we have a really [00:06:00] well-developed pathway for these talented nordic skiers who want to give biathlon a chance.

How important are venues like Mt. Itasca?

Mt. Itasca is definitely an important venue for us. They've hosted a lot of trials events for us in the past, and we've also seen a ton of athletes from Mt. Itasca, from the Minnesota area, come on to our national teams and Olympic teams in the past. I certainly think that's something we're going to continue to see in the future.

You qualified a team of three men, three women to Youth Olympic Games. What do you want to see for them in South Korea?

My goal for those athletes, the biggest takeaway I want them to have from there, is I want them to leave the...