Man gets best seat at biathlon in wheelchair

FORT KENT – Philip Jandreau of St. Francis had one of the best seats in the house Friday morning for the pursuit race of the Biathlon World Cup at the 10th Mountain Division Lodge.

Jandreau, 44, a paraplegic, couldn’t see the action from the spectators section. The fence in front of him was higher than his wheelchair, which had to be parked on the lowest level of the seating area.

It wasn’t long before his dilemma was spotted by a volunteer. In an even shorter time, Jandreau was moved.

Riding in a sled pulled by a four-wheeler, Jandreau was taken from the spectator area and situated on the VIP veranda of the lodge.

From that area, just over the shooting area of the range, he had one of the best views of the competition.

“It was a spur of the moment thing,” Jim Thibodeau of the Biathlon World Cup Organizing Committee said of moving Jandreau to the veranda. “It was the right thing to do.”

“I was looking through the fence when I was in the spectator area,” Jandreau said. “I just could not see.

“You can’t blame anyone. I may be the first one to come here in a wheelchair,” Jandreau continued. “I’ve actually had VIP treatment since I arrived on this mountain this morning.”

Jandreau was finding the biathlon competitions “very exciting.”

“We could not ask for better treatment than he’s been given here,” said Jandreau’s sister, Karen Plourde, who accompanied him.

Jandreau, a woodcutter, was working alone on Feb. 22, 1999, when he was injured by a falling tree. He was able to alert help by radio.

The tree, which he had cut, did not immediately fall, and when he approached it to bring it down, it suddenly fell. The top of the tree crushed him.