November 14, 2024
BIATHLON

Biathlon by the numbers

FORT KENT – The numbers of volunteers and spectators at the Biathlon World Cup last week are well-known by now:

. An estimated 17,000 spectators over four days, Wednesday to Saturday.

. Some 500 people who met athletes at the Northern Maine Regional Airport at Presque Isle last Sunday.

Here are some other numbers:

. Bouchard’s Family Farms used 70 pounds of ploye mix to create more than 3,450 6-inch ployes consumed by athletes, volunteers and VIPs. That’s in addition to the 50 pounds, 18 gallons of mix they used to re-create their world record 12-foot-wide ploye at a downtown site on Friday.

. In the stadium, during the four days of competition and practice, biathletes fired about half a million rounds of .22-caliber bullets. During the competition, 200 people skied some 3,000 kilometers a day on the Maine Winter Sports Center’s Fort Kent venue.

. Over in the volunteer, athlete and VIP tent, Lolita and Mike Collins said they went through 400 loaves of Celtic Farmhouse Bread made by Anne McCormack of New Gloucester, along with 100 loaves of other bread. Chef Eric Horvath of Curbside Lunch at Presque Isle made, on-site, 48 single-layer cakes per day, and 82,000 ounces of soup.

. They went through 200 dozen cookies, 750 pounds of sandwich meats, 450 pounds of cheese, 175 pounds of tomatoes, 114 heads of lettuce, 24 pounds of lobster meat, 8 pounds of shrimp, 6 pounds of scallops and 300 pounds of potatoes.

. That tent also went through 2,900 cases of beverages, not including 240 cases of water. A water vender, Frank Theriault of Acadian Springs, said he donated the equivalent of 42,000 half-liter containers of water in 5-gallon drums at the venue.

. A breakfast lunch counter in the tent went through 1,400 breakfast sandwiches, 12 cases of oranges and 18 cases of apples during the four days of competition. They also packed 120 lunches a day for those who did not have the time to come to the tent.

There was another tent, set up for spectators, and the University of Maine at Fort Kent also used its food services for various activities and to feed athletes staying on campus.

. Andy Shepard, president of the Maine Winter Sports Center, said four times more journalists were in Fort Kent than at any other World Cup in North America before. Germany alone had 30, and 80 were registered.


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