Dominant trio Turin-bound

FORT KENT – Winters in upstate New York, summers at the 10th Mountain Ski Center.

Tim Burke, Jeremy Teela and Lowell Bailey have forged their unique bond over the last decade or so through training, racing together, and competing against each other.

The trio dominated the last three days of the U.S. Olympic biathlon trials. Now they’re headed to Turin, Italy, as members of the Olympic team.

Brian Olsen, a native of Bloomington, Minn., who now lives and trains in Fort Kent, will join Burke, Teela and Bailey, who claimed the top-three finishes in three of the last four days of trials, on the U.S. squad. Teela, a 2002 Olympian, sealed his berth on the team with a victory in the final competition, a 10-kilometer sprint.

Bailey, an alternate for the 2002 Olympic team, felt the fulfillment of a dream he’s had since he was 5.

“It’s the best day of my life,” said the 24-year-old Lake Placid, N.Y., native. “I’m so drained from the emotions and the stress of this week, but I’m having these moments of, I’m … going … to … the … Olympics. I can actually say that now. Yeah. I’m going. I made it.”

The top four in Fort Kent will join Alaskan Jay Hakkinen, who prequalified for the Olympic team based on his World Cup results from last season. Hakkinen, the top-ranked U.S. man and a member of the 1998 and 2002 Olympic teams, remained in Italy to train.

The Olympics will be held Feb. 10-26 in Turin at a venue called Cesara San Sicario.

“Our focus is obviously to do well in the individual competitions, but I think the three of us here and Jay are really focused on the relay race,” Bailey said. “We know we can hang with the top athletes in the world so we’re pretty excited about it. I think we can do really well.”

Teela, a 27-year-old from Anchorage, Alaska, is sponsored by the Army’s World Class Athlete Program but skis and trains with Burke and Bailey, who are Maine Winter Sports Center athletes. The three have spent long hours together, and Bailey and Burke grew up racing against each other in New York.

“I remember Tim and I racing at Dewey Mountain in Saranac Lake when we were probably 11 or 12 years old,” Bailey said. “We both had that Olympic dream.”

Jacob Beste, a national team member from Minneapolis, Minn., finished in fifth place, 4.28 points behind Olsen. Beste will serve as the Olympic team alternate.

Burke, a 22-year-old from Paul Smiths, N.Y., was the overall trials winner with 301.27 percentage points in his best three races. He went into Tuesday’s sprint in a very solid position, needing just another steady result after finishing second in both the individual race and Friday’s sprint, and winning Monday’s pursuit.

“Today was really a relaxed day for me after having three solid races … I came in today looking to have fun and just stay warm. I had fun out there,” said Burke, who like the rest of the field dealt with sub-zero temperatures.

Teela had the second-most points (300.5) and earned his first win of the trials here with a time of 27 minutes, 3 seconds. Like most of the top competitors, he struggled on the range with three penalties.

Burke missed two shots in each of the two shooting stages for four penalties. Bailey also had three penalties.

The fourth- and fifth-place finishers, Kevin Patzhold-Manbeck and Duncan Douglas, respectively, had just one apiece.

Teela was just 28 seconds ahead of Bailey and 48.6 seconds ahead of Burke.

“I felt good skiing but I knew it would be a lot easier if I hit my targets,” Teela said. “It wasn’t stressful but I wasn’t relaxed. I was just aware of my surroundings and I was kind of excited to get the week over with.”

The final spot came down to Olsen and Beste. Both were on the podium in Thursday’s individual race, in which Beste was first and Olsen was third. Neither made it back to the top three, but Olsen racked up some impressive finishes after that race. He was fourth in the first sprint, fifth in the pursuit and sixth Tuesday.

Beste couldn’t come close to his individual win. He finished in eighth place the rest of the way.

“On one hand it’s really the culmination of a lot of training, a lot of effort on my part and the coaches that have helped me,” Olsen said. “And I guess it’s been two years since I’ve made a team so I understand how it feels to not make it. … I just wanted to have four solid races, and I had four OK races. So I guess I’m satisfied.”

Walt Shepard of Yarmouth, 23, finished ninth in the final standings and was 10th Tuesday. His best race came in the first sprint, in which he was fifth.