3 P.E.I. athletes doubling up at Canada Games, tackling 2 sports apiece

It's going to be a busy two weeks of competition for three P.E.I. athletes who are competing in biathlon in week one and cross-country skiing in week two.

Fidel Wendt competed in cross-county skiing in the 2019 Canada Games at the age of 14, but will be doing both disciplines at this Games.

"They don't allow 14-year-olds to carry a gun around, so now I get to do that. So that's fun," Wendt said.

"It's a great opportunity. Both sports have different things to offer."

Wendt said the two sports are quite similar, but at the highest level, the athletes show different skill levels.

"When you see the top-level athletes like the future Olympians ski, they're so much different," Wendt said.

"The cross-country skiers, they can maintain a very equal pace throughout 15 kilometres, whereas biathletes they do two kilometres, and then they [lie] down.

"Biathlon is more stressful because you've got the shooting element, which is sort of like baseball — some days are good, some days are bad, very mental," Wendt said.

"Cross-country, you get there, you put your ski boots on, you warm up, you go, and then you're done, right? So it's a little simpler."

The other two athletes to tackle both sports for P.E.I. in the Games are Matthew MacNeill and Hudson Haltli. Team P.E.I. also has one athlete, Mava Gauthier, who is competing exclusively in biathlon.

Nine different races 

Long-time biathlon coach Judy Hale is the wax tech for the P.E.I. cross-country ski team for the 2023 Canada Games.

She said having athletes doubling up in the skiing events has challenges, but also a lot of benefits.

"Some of the challenges for the athletes is doing that many competitions within the span of the Canada Games. They'll be doing nine different races," Hale said.

"But certainly there's a lot of benefits too, because we're all skiers, and so having them participate in cross-country brings benefit to their biathlon, and and vice versa."

Hale said the coaches and support staff will help the three athletes to pace themselves through the two weeks of competition.

"All that work has been done for years now, ahead of time. It's not a matter of what you do during the Games. It's all about the hours you put in through the summer and the spring beforehand," Hale said.

"I think they've put in the work, and obviously we'll be paying really close attention to their nutrition, and their rest, knowing that recovery is the biggest part of being able to perform every time."

Dual sport

Caitlin Campbell, head coach of the biathlon team, competed to a top-10 finish for P.E.I. in 2015, which was a best-ever result for the sport.

She went on to compete for Canada at the World Junior Championships.

"Biathlon is already a dual sport with shooting and the skiing side of things. So now it's adding in a whole other layer with classic ski technique," Campbell said.

"It's been a lot of work, and a lot more logistics when it comes to races too — trying to figure out what races we're going to, and how are we going to fit in cross-country versus biathlon.There's a lot to it."

"I think it's great because we're both ski teams anyway. It doesn't take anything away from their biathlon training. It just adds to it."

Campbell raced at some cross-country races just as training events, but at the time, P.E.I. did not have a cross-country team at the Canada Games.

"Hopefully from now on, we can just keep growing that," she said. "Cross-country is a great way to get new people involved in the sport because you can do that without having to take on the whole aspect of shooting."

Home advantage

The cross-country and biathlon teams would have liked more snow than they had on the trails at Brookvale in January. Most of their time on the snow has been at competitions off-Island.

Even so, Hale said they will have an advantage over competitors from other provinces.

"They'll be able to put together some pretty good race plans, and they'll know the lines really well in terms of how to take this hill, how to take this corner," Hale said.

"I think they'll have an advantage, for sure."