Success in biathlon academic for lefthander Lowell Bailey

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FORT KENT – Lowell Bailey attracts a lot of attention, especially on the shooting range. After all, it’s not often you see a lefthanded athlete at the highest level of biathlon competitions in the world. It’s believed he’s one of only three lefties on the World Cup circuit.

But doing things backward is normal for Bailey, a 24-year-old from Lake Placid, N.Y., who is competing in the U.S. Olympic biathlon trials. His decision to leave full-time biathlon training to attend college in 2002 was unusual in a sport where most of the top athletes finish their degrees after they retire.

Bailey is, in fact, the only member of the U.S. national team to have his college degree and is in what is likely one or two percent of top biathletes who have completed a college education, according to U.S. Biathlon development director Jerry Kokesh.

Bailey, who lives and trains in Fort Kent as a member of the Maine Winter Sports Center team, even has a hobby that sets him apart. Many of the U.S. biathletes list outdoor activities as a pastime outside of biathlon. Bailey is a member of a bluegrass music trio based in New York.

“I do a lot of things that, if there were such a thing as your typical biathlon stereotype, I wouldn’t fit into that mode,” Bailey said Saturday morning before heading out for a light ski.

Bailey’s decision to attend the University of Vermont full time definitely doesn’t fit the path of most biathletes. But he calls it the best decision of his life so far. Two events into the U.S. Olympic biathlon trials at the 10th Mountain Ski Center, it’s looking like a smart choice. Bailey won the 10-kilometer sprint race Friday and was fourth in Thursday’s 20K individual, with the 12.5K pursuit coming up this morning.

An up-and-coming member of the senior national team, Bailey just missed making the 2002 Olympic team. He competed in Europe that season, but the disappointment of not making the team stayed with him. Bailey did a semester at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., that spring, which opened his mind to the idea of going to school full time.

He started at the University of Vermont that fall. Vermont offered him a full scholarship for Nordic skiing and he also continued with biathlon, qualifying for the 2003 world championships while being named an NCAA cross country All-American.

But Bailey felt burned out with a full course load and two sports. Despite being ranked third in the country in biathlon, he decided to drop the sport entirely for the year.

“I came up with the idea, what’s the most fun? What am I feeling most positive about?” Bailey said. “And at that moment, I think [staying in school] was the best decision. It was an opportunity of a lifetime to go to a high-quality school like UVM. I wanted to make sure I had something else to focus on and that I could grow in other ways and not just be a biathlete.”

Bailey also earned All-America honors for cross country in 2004 and 2005. He graduated last spring with a degree in political science and environmental studies.

Bailey’s full-time return to biathlon meant moving into the Fort Kent home of U.S. national development coach and Farmington native James Upham, who was also hosting married biathletes Jeremy and Denise Teela.

Bailey and Upham live a bachelor’s lifestyle, complete with a somewhat messy house and the occasional beer. The two men, along with Teela and biathletes Tim Burke and Walt Shepard, who share an apartment in Fort Kent, developed a camaraderie that has translated to their training.

“People come up to me and say, you’re so lucky to have this group to train with,” said Bailey, who first raced against New York native Burke as a 7-year-old. “We all push each other in different ways. It’s just a whole lot of fun, no matter whether we’re tagging off to each other on the World Cup relay or we’re doing a time trial in the middle of nowhere.”

Bailey’s results this year have been promising. He had two career-best World Cup finishes at the first Cup of the season in Oestersund, Sweden, including an eye-popping 29th in the pursuit and a 40th in the sprint.

His season comes on the heels of workouts with Upham, who helped Bailey get back to a biathlon skating technique after competing in a classic style in college.

“He learned how to be a very good classic skier, but his skating suffered a little bit,” Upham said. “We had to really work hard last spring and summer trying to improve the way he moves.”

Bailey didn’t lose too much from his shooting, however. His coach at Vermont, Allan Serrano, is a former biathlon coach who encouraged Bailey to shoot as often as he liked. The Ethan Allen Firing Range is about 25 minutes from Burlington.

Neither his shooting nor his skiing are affected by his being lefthanded. As far as Bailey knows, the only other lefties competing at the World Cup level are Norway’s Alexander Os and Greenland’s Oeysten Slettemark. It’s such a rarity that German television recently did a piece about Bailey.

Being a lone lefty doesn’t present too many equipment challenges. Like most of the top-level biathletes, Bailey orders a custom-made stock for his rifle. When he gets the stock, which he orders from Antila, a stockmaker in Finland, he files the wood down so it’s the right height for his cheek.

Bailey turns to his music for relaxation. When he’s home in Lake Placid, he plays in a bluegrass band with his father, George Bailey, and musician John Doan.

Known as the George Bailey Trio, the band plays local gigs and recently put out a studio album of almost all original work called, “Gravity Dance.” Lowell Bailey sings, too.

He’s also been known to drag a guitar to biathlon competitions. During the 2003 world championships in Russia, he played at a hotel in front of a group he was certain included some Mafia members. Upham and Bailey occasionally jam together, too.

“It’s kind of a hassle to travel with a rifle and 15 pairs of skis and ski equipment and a guitar, but it’s worth it when you’re on the road for a couple of months at a time,” Bailey said.

This year, Bailey wouldn’t mind an extra trip to Italy for the Olympics. So far, Bailey’s totals in the first two races in Fort Kent have him in the top four – there are four spots open for the men’s Olympic team – but he only has to look back to 2002 to know he can’t rest easy. Four years ago, Bailey finished second in a sprint at the trials but wound up fifth overall.

His mindset this week? The North Carolina-born, lefthanded college graduate and part-time bluegrass guitarist just wants to be, well, normal.

“You just do what you know how to do, you have a high percentage of doing that, and I think that’s the route to success,” Bailey said. “It’s pretty simple, but that’s what I’m trying to do, just maintain normalcy. I’ve done enough trials to know that this is a crazy week and the people that can maintain their focus come out on top.”

Pursuit description

Today’s pursuit-format race will be one of the most exciting events of the Olympic trials because the leaders change frequently due to four shooting bouts. In the pursuit, athletes shoot five rounds in each of the four shooting stages, which will be in the order prone-prone-standing-standing. For each missed target, the athletes must ski a 150-meter penalty loop.

The women’s 10K race will start at 10 a.m., followed by the men’s 12.5K at 10:45. Athletes start at 30-second intervals.

In a true pursuit, the competitors would start in the same order and in the same time intervals by which they placed in the previous sprint.