by Chad Salmela
January 31, 2007 It’s that time of year again. Last winter it was Torino and the Olympics with NBC. This winter it is the Biathlon World Championships on Fox Sports Net (FSN). While I won’t be in a mini-suite downtown Torino with cool swag and the experience of a lifetime, I will be in a little part of the world called “Suedtirol” or South Tyrolia, where the mountains are spectacular, the food is incredible, and the people speak a dialect of German and Italian that’s pretty hard to figure out, even if you speak both languages fluently.
The Antholz valley is situated high in the Italian Alps just south of the Italian/Austrian border. You can actually ski to Austria from the biathlon venue. On good snow years, they get dumped on heavily, then the clouds clear and the place is a sun-soaked winter wonderland. I used to race World Cups here as an athlete, and it is one of my favorite places.
My brother, Cory, and I leave Duluth tomorrow a little before 1:00 p.m. for Munich. I go to Chicago and fly direct on United while he goes from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, then to Munich, so we’ll fly together to Minneapolis, and some 15 hours later we’ll meet back up in the Munich airport early Friday morning where we’ll pick up a car and drive the two hours south, through a thin slice of Austria, past the Olympic city of Innsbruck, Austria, over the Brenner Pass, and into Northern Italy. We will drink lots of Lavazza and try to stay awake Friday as jet lag sets in. We’ll try to stay awake for the opening ceremony, which the organizers have promised likes of which have never been seen for a biathlon worlds. Cory is on a dual mission: 1) to help the television production by communicating with our producer in New York City, tie up any loose ends, and make sure we have what we need for the shows to go seamlessly, and 2) serve as the cultural liaison and guide to a group of the United States Biathlon Association Board of Directors.
My role in this World Championships is to bring all the excitement of the sport to the American television audience. With Tim Burke and the rest of the American men’s squad, it could be a very exciting worlds for the Americans!
Early Saturday morning, we’ll take our spot in one of 30 stacked steel boxes next to the shooting range where we’ll bring the action to several portals in the American media. We will air over the next two weeks on Fox Sports Net in the northern tier, as well as on the New England Sports Network (NESN), and the World Championships Sports Network (WCSN), which is a new cable network focusing on Olympic sports in non-Olympic years. Right now, WCSN is mostly web-based but they are in 1 million households on cable, trying to build a viable market. Online, you can find the webcast for the IBU Biathlon World Championships under “Schedule” if you miss the shows on FSN.
Henrik Forsberg will join me in the booth the first few days. Henrik was one of the most consistent performers in cross country skiing from Sweden throughout the 1990s, and is wife of the greatest female biathlete in history, Magdalena. Henrik actually switched to biathlon for a few years and had several podium finishes on the World Cup. I’ve known Henrik and Magdalena for about 10-12 years and met Henrik at he and Magda’s all-night 30th birthday party in 1997 at their home in Sundsvall. Henrik speaks perfect English and already does commentary for FIS Cross Country Skiing and IBU Biathlon for Swedish television, but won’t be working in that capacity in Antholz. It appears as though he may be testing skis for the Swedish team, and when he’s done each morning, he’ll make his way to our sound booth. After the first few days, however, Henrik has to head back home to Sundsvall, and it looks like I’ll be speaking solo after that.
Below is the schedule of the shows. I hope you get a chance to watch all or at least some of the action.The FSN schedule for airing the IBU Biathlon World Championships
FSN North
February 8th, 12:00–2:00 p.m.
February 9th, 12:00–2:00 p.m.
February 12th, 12:00–2:00 p.m.
February 13th, 12:00–2:00 p.m.FSN Rockey Mountain
February 12th, 12:00–2:00 p.m.
February 13th, 12:00–2:00 p.m.