
Dickinson steps up in biathlon
The fasterkier.com website reports that Methow Valley native and veteran biathlete Kelsey Dickinson, 26, a U.S. Biathlon Team member, recently had a breakout performance in Sjusjøen, Norway, with a second-place in the first IBU Cup race of the season: a 7.5K sprint. According to fasterskier.com, the IBU Cup ranks just below the World Cup for international caliber biathlon races. Her second place was 6.6 seconds back from the winning time posted by Norway’s Karoline Erdal. “This was Dickinson’s best IBU Cup result to date,” fasterskier.com reported.

Bjornsen off to fast World Cup start
Another Methow Valley native, two-time Olympian Nordic skier Sadie Maubet Bjornsen, kicked off the 2019-20 FIS Cross Country World Cup competition with a third-place photo-finish in the classic sprint opener in Ruka, Finland, according to a recent article on https://usskiandsnowboard.org.
According to the article, “In the finals, Sadie looked comfortable in the pack. However, she got caught up near the top of the second climb and dropped back to fifth. But she clawed her way back up to fourth and down the finish stretch, she nipped Norway’s Ane Appelkvist Stenseth for the final podium spot.”