Her Olympic Debut

Sunday, February 14, 2010 05:15 AM

World Cup race photo used with permission from www.megantandy.com

Prince George, B.C. - Local Biathlete Megan Tandy's strong showing in her Olympic debut, the Women's 7.5-km Sprint, truly epitomizes the spirit of the Games...

The 21-year-old was the first of four Canadians to cross the finish line in yesterday's race -- 46th out of a field of 88 -- and is the only one to have qualified for Tuesday's 10-km Pursuit.

She admits, as the youngest biathlete on the Canadian Team, "it feels pretty crazy" to find herself in this position. And she did so on a day when her body let her down...leaving her indomitable spirit to pick up the slack.

Tandy explains, "I was a little bit disappointed right from warm-up because I could feel that it wasn't going to be an absolutely amazing ski day...it was just kind of missing that 'snap'."

The biathlete suffered a setback in the run-up to the Olympics when she came down with whooping cough over the Christmas holidays and had to take almost four weeks off training. She had been feeling more energized in the past two weeks, but is matter-of-fact about her race-day predicament. "You're working with your body, right? It's not a machine. You have good days, you have bad days. I would say this was a mediocre day for skiing."

"(But) I think I paced myself well. I think I was mentally set up to give my best fight out there on-course and to make the time in the shooting range, which is what I needed to do."

Tandy dug deep and did just that, accomplishing a personal first -- going 10-for-10 on her targets, which meant no penalty loops. "It was actually the first time I hit 10-for-10 in a major event," she says, "So, definitely, if I was going to have a clean race, (Saturday) was the day to do it." (photo at left from a World cup event, used with permission)

On the whole, she feels it was a really good start to 'her' games.

And there are a number of factors powering her to a strong finish in Tuesday's Women's 10-km Pursuit:

- Tandy has spent the past year training with the B.C. High Performance Team and coach iLmar Heinicke in Squamish. She says she's used to the course in the Callaghan Valley, just south of Whistler, and used to the weather conditions.

- Unlike World Cup races, she has a huge support network with her: her parents, sister, two grandmas, her grandpa, her best friend, and her coach.

- And, an unexpected, is the volunteers. "It felt really personal because I know a ton of the volunteers that are up there (at the race site). The lady who I rent from in Squamish checked my skis in. The parent of one of my B.C. teammates, who's from Prince George, John Newman, was the volunteer who put my transponders on (Saturday)." Tandy says, "It was really cool and a really comfortable, familiar feeling to get to go through the race technicalities (with familiar faces in the crowd)."

Tandy's 46th place finish in the sprint means she'll head out in that spot in the staggered start of the pursuit race. She says she loves the pursuit. "The fun thing about it is: it really is a 'pursuit' and the first one across the line wins, so every time you pass someone on-course, you've moved up a position and you always know exactly where you're at in 'the game'."

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