Competing overseas is something that has always exhilarated Steamboat Springs biathlete Tristan Thrasher. 

Next week, the 16-year-old will have the opportunity to test himself against the world’s best junior athletes at the Junior International Biathlon United Cup events in Poland. 

“I’m very excited,” Thrasher said of the new dose of stiff competition. “I have only done a very small amount of international racing… This is taking things to a much larger scale.”

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“A lot of other countries go to both semesters of the Junior Cup, unfortunately the U.S. only takes kids to the second semester. But, this is emulating what would be the IBU Cup and the World Cup. It is not the same as that, but they are trying to replicate that experience for younger athletes so they can build experience for when they make those bigger races and teams,” he added.

Thrasher earned the opportunity to compete in these European competitions after being selected by U.S. Biathlon based on results based on its youth and junior nationals and international team trials at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Utah from Dec. 28-31. 

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That competition brought together the top 62 youth and junior biathletes in the country to race at the 2034 Olympic Winter Games biathlon venue in Midway, Utah. 

Thrasher said the snow was pretty thin in certain spots but the race directors managed to change the course around a little bit to make for a great loop to compete on. Day one’s race was a 7.5-kilometer sprint with two shooting bouts. 

Thrasher said he skied well, but missing four of 10 targets led to an eighth place overall finish and fifth in the men’s youth category. 

Thrasher’s second day was a 12-kilometer mass start race where he settled in well among his opponents at the front. He missed just one target in each of his first two shooting bouts, but took a crossfire penalty in the third shooting stage resulting in two minutes being added to his final time. The time penalty pushed him out of the top-10 and into 11th place. 

In race three, Thrasher took off in the 10k sprint, cleaning his first shooting stage and skiing really well. He wound up missing four of five targets on stage two, resulting in another 11th place. 

Thrasher said he saw flashes of excellence from himself during the weekend, but said overall trials were not as great for him as he hoped. Despite the frustration, U.S. Biathlon elected to fill an open spot on the Junior Cup team with Thrasher who was incredibly grateful and excited to receive the honor. 

Thrasher’s spot opened up along with one other after two competitors declined their invitations due to academic commitments. 

“When those two declined, they started taking into consideration other athletes they would give the team spots to,” Thrasher explained. “When I spoke with the U.S. coach about getting the team spot, he said they took into consideration that I have great ski speed and the two-minute penalty which threw my week of racing for a loop.” 

Thrasher knows what the challenge that competing in Europe will present and said sometimes Junior National Team spots can be allocated based on performance in these races. While that is in the back of his mind, his main focus is on learning as much as possible in these high-end Junior races and putting together a strong race in both skiing and shooting. 

“Obviously at trials I had a pretty rocky shooting,” Thrasher said. “I am skiing where I want to be and that’s great so going into these Junior Cup races, I want to put a little more focus on my shooting. The Europeans not only ski fast, but they shoot well, so I’m hoping to put my shooting together a little bit more, and really take in as much information about what racing these big events in Europe is like. Gaining as much experience as possible.”