Longtime skier braves cold to cheer athletes

FORT KENT – Ralph Ostlund, among 50 or so spectators at the 10th Mountain Division Lodge Tuesday, cheered and applauded every biathlon athlete who entered the shooting stadium or crossed the finish line.

A knitted hat kept his head warm, but his face was red from the frigid temperatures at the Maine Winter Sports Center venue where the last day of trials for the U.S. Biathlon Team were being held.

Ostlund, 82, a New Sweden cross-country skier for decades, encouraged each biathlete and clapped some more as they shot at the tiny black targets in the stadium before entering the trails for more kilometers of skiing before shooting again.

He encouraged every one of them as they entered the stadium for the final time on the way to the finish line and possibly a place in the 10-person U.S. Biathlon Team that will compete in the Winter Games at the Olympics in Turin, Italy, in February.

Ostlund, a lifelong cross-country skier and runner, is a survivor of the arsenic poisoning at New Sweden two years ago. Although he was left with a numb foot because of nerve damage, he just can’t sit around.

“This is good, real good,” Ostlund said of the competitions he was watching for the second day in a row. “I enjoyed the whole thing.

“These young people are good skiers, good shooters and good athletes,” he said. “The cold was the only bad thing.”

Ice sparkled on the branches of the hardwood trees dotting the ridge around the shooting stadium. Branches of evergreens bent toward the ground with the weight of the snow held in place by a covering of ice.

During the last eight days, the Fort Kent venue went from having hardly any snow to having 42 inches from a record blizzard. Rain followed, creating a half-inch crust of ice on trees and snow. Temperatures rose and fell and then settled below zero. More snow fell.

When the competition started Tuesday morning, it was still 5 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

“It was a lot of work, the 39 inches of snow, but it was a blessing for us,” Jeff Dubis of the 10th Mountain Division Lodge said Tuesday. “Preparations went really well, and we had a perfect course.”

With the year’s major competition done, Dubis was looking forward to the Fort Kent Citizens Race and Youth Races next Sunday at the 10th Mountain Division Lodge, a center Dubis described as a “community based ski center.”

They have many races and activities for youth and family, including a grueling 40-kilometer cross-country race which starts at noon.

Registration for those activities starts at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 8.

The 10th Mountain Division Lodge is one of five Maine Winter Sports Center facilities across the state, the result of a philosophy to re-establish cross-country skiing as a way of life and an economic development model started in 1999.

The USBA Olympic Team trials of the last week at Fort Kent have been successful, according to organizers.

“Everything went perfectly,” event organizer Nancy Thibodeau said Tuesday. “We had great volunteers and great community support both right there for us.”

Although spectator numbers were down from previous competitions held at Fort Kent, Thibodeau was pleased.

“We still had great cheering for each competitor, even if the numbers were down,” she said. “The spectators that were here encouraged all the athletes.”

Andy Shepard, CEO of the MWSC, was equally happy with the way the competitions went at Fort Kent.

“We had hoped this event would honor the competitors, and I believe everyone acknowledged these athletes that competed here,” he said Tuesday morning. “This was world class, as it has been.

“The conditions we had reflect the conditions these athletes train and compete under every day,” he said. “It isn’t as hard on the competitors as it is for the volunteers and spectators.”

He had hoped for more spectators. He said the weather may have kept some away.