FORT KENT – By now, even novice spectators at the Ruhrgas IBU World Cup Biathlon have figured out at least one of the sport’s descriptive phrases.

The public address announcer has spent a lot of time educating the large crowds – Friday’s was the biggest throng yet, an estimated 4,500 – and fans seem to be catching on.

In biathlonese, shooting “clean” or “cleaning” a round means the same thing: A biathlete has successfully hit all five targets in a given round of shooting.

There are some other words they may not have heard, however.

Jerry Kokesh, the press offiicer of U.S. Biathlon, said there really isn’t a single word that means the opposite of “going clean.” And most athletes won’t utter those words in polite company.

“Other than four-letter words, [nothing comes to mind],” he said. “There are a lot of those that are said under the breath, for sure.”

U.S. biathlete Jeremy Teela says he tries to keep his language rated “PG,” but said there is a repeatable term that applies when a shooter finds he’s really, really struggling.

“Sometimes we refer to it as ‘dirtying a target’ when you miss all five,” he said. “Rarely do you see it, but it does happen on the World Cup circuit, and I think I’ve done it once or twice. That’s not a good thing.”

Another word that keeps cropping up is “running.” To a biathlete, “running” and “skiing” are synonymous. Around here, “running” is preferred, especially among the Europeans.

“It kind of mixed me up when I first heard them say it, but our wax techs are German, so they say all kinds of weird stuff and I don’t understand them,” Teela said.

And those trails that the biathletes “run” around during their races? It turns out they’re not trails at all.

“The trails are called ‘tracks,”‘ Kokesh said. “That’s a central European thing.”

To recap: Run the tracks as fast as you can. Shoot clean. And never, ever end up dirtying your target.

Voyageur, Waska meet masses

Visitors to Maine Winter Sports Center may have noticed a hairy-headed gent and his prickly pal wandering about the biathlon venue, making friends.

Those ambassadors are mascots Voyageur, a woodsman, and Waska, the porcupine.

Marc Chasse of Fort Kent, a volunteer at the World Cup who was involved in selecting the mascots, said several local organizations got together to talk about finding appropriate choices. Voyageur and Waska were eventually selected.

According to Chasse, Voyageur is a woodsman and fur trader who would have resided in the St. John Valley back in the 1600s or 1700s.

Chasse said communities in the West and Midwest have also adopted the Voyageur character, and he is more famous in those regions than he is in northern Maine.

“But he was here first,” Chasse said.

Chasse explained that the mascot Waska’s existence may be disputed by some.

“Waska is an Indian name for Land of the Porcupine,” Chasse said. “There’s a little controversy with that, too. Because some people say it means ‘Land of Two Rivers,’ because the Madawaska River empties into the St. John River in Edmundston.”

Either way, at the Maine Winter Sports Center, Waska is a porcupine … not a river … or two.

“The porcupine is our little pet,” Chasse said.

Owls groom grounds

The Madawaska ski team was picked to be forerunners for Friday’s pursuit races. Forerunners are skiers who complete the course before the race in order to pack down the snow and ice and inspect its condition.

Freshman Tyler Levesque said the Owls found out last week they would be serving in that capacity.

“We were pretty psyched to find out we were going to do this at such a big event,” he said.

It was a pretty big crowd for the student skiers. Levesque estimated high school skiing championships draw about 900 spectators, and there were about 4,500 in Fort Kent for Friday’s races.

“This is a big difference,” he said. “I think this is a good idea to have everybody see us and support Madawaska.”

There were about nine forerunners, including some from Fort Kent High. The skiers have been on the course before as they practice and train there as members of the Maine Winter Sports Center’s Aroostook County team.

Army supports athletes

U.S. Army recruiters Patrick Smith and Patten native Aaron Libby turned out for Friday’s races. Although the U.S. Army is a sponsor of the World Cup, the two had a natural curiosity about what was happening in Fort Kent because many biathletes serve in the military.

There’s no equivalent of the biathlon in Army training, but Smith, a South Carolina native, said they are familiar with the combination of all-out exertion and shooting accuracy in biathlon.

“We do a 40-mile march and then we do 40 rounds of shooting, 20 rounds prone and 20 rounds standing,” Smith said in between the women’s and men’s competitions Friday. “It’s pretty hard to do.”

Seen and Heard

Seen and heard on the path leading to the biathlon stadium at 8 a.m. on Friday – two hours before the first race of the day: “I’m so pumped to cheer.”

The speaker was a teenage girl wearing a Yarmouth Ski Team jacket, and with a quilt with a U.S. flag motif draped over her shoulders. Her similarly clad friends energetically agreed, hopping up and down excitedly.