Curtain Closes On Tandy's First Olympic Call

By 250 Sports

Prince George's Megan Tandy         photo used with permission

Prince George, B.C. -  She was not able to take part in the 2010 Opening Ceremony, but there is nothing that would keep Prince George's Megan Tandy away from today's closing events...

The 21-year-old biathlete is ending just the first chapter in what promises to be a lengthy career competing at the top level of her sport.  The 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Winter Olympics were her Games' debut, as she competed in the Women's biathlon 7.5-km Sprint, the 10-km Pursuit, the 15-km Individual, and the 4x6km relay race with her three Canadian teammates.  She was the top Canadian to finish the sprint in 46th spot and wrote herself into the national history books by being the only Canadian woman to qualify for the Pursuit race. (click here for previous story)

In these early days of reflection, Tandy sees competing at Whistler as one of the main highlights.  Because she has been training with the BC High Performance Team in Squamish, there were many familiar faces in the crowd - with her landlord checking in her skis, and the parent of a fellow teammate putting on her transponders.  "It's been, honestly, phenomenal and I totally underestimated that 'home feel' advantage."

But being 'at home' had its downside, in terms of pressure for Tandy and her three teammates on the Canadian Women's Biathlon Team.  "I think we all learned something about what it's like to perform under such intense pressure because it's unlikely we'll ever have a time again in our sports careers where it's quite the same pressure, the home pressure, that you would have at a home Olympics."

She says they probably each took something different from the situation.  "We all know where our potential is and I think we're all taking away a lot of motivation for future world championships and future Olympics because this is a very young team."

"Myself and Rosanna Crawford are first year seniors this year, we both competed in the junior category last year, so we're still improving so much every year that I think this was, in a way, a starting point for this team because there is a high possibility this could be the same team coming together for Sochi (the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia) and we have so much progress and development still to make that it is really cool to have set this starting point and experience here, and now, we just go from here."

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