The last time Brendan Green was in a mass start biathlon race, it nearly ended his career.
Just to start the same race two years later at the 2014 Winter Olympics was a testament to his courage and determination. To crack the top 10 was an incredible way to exorcise the demons of injuries past.
Green led Team Canada with a ninth-place finish in the mass start on Tuesday (Feb. 18), where he shot 8/10 and finished 1:09 behind winner Emil Svendsen of Norway.
“It was a really good day today. I’m definitely happy with the result,” Green said.
The mass start is the toughest race in Biathlon, as it’s only open to the top 30 in the world. While other biathlon events have staggered starts, the frenzied atmosphere puts incredible stress on the athletes, who know exactly who is in podium position.
“Tuesday was already a historic day for Canada’s men’s team, which has never had three athletes in the prestigious race.”
Green started slowly, missing two shots early which sent him plummeting down the standings to 20th. He regrouped in the second half, shot clean and began picking off his competitors on the wet course, moving from 17th to 11th. He recorded the sixth-fastest lap time on the final ski leg, which moved him into ninth.
“I started with misses in my prone shooting, and slowly worked my way up the field. It was really heavy snow and quite slushy conditions, but I was able to perservere,” Green said.
Green had an incredibly stressful journey to the Games. After returning from a herniated disc injury which kept him away from the sport for an entire year, he had to re-qualify for the world cup circuit, where he just missed Olympic qualification criteria by a tenth of a second. He returned to Canmore and had to win back-to-back sprint races against hungry competition.
In Sochi, he finished three seconds ahead of teammate J.P. LeGuellec, who shot 9/10 and challenged for the lead for much of the race. Motivated by his crash in the pursuit, where he was on pace for a gold medal, the veteran sharpshooter stuck with the leaders in what he said was his last major individual race.
He was in second by the halfway mark, but a rookie mistake cost LeGuellec when he failed to flip his rifle barrel cover. On his third bout of shooting, he had to clean the heavy snow and ice from the barrel, which cost him between 10 and 20 seconds. He ended up 1:12 off of the lead.
LeGuellec won’t return to the world cup, but will finish his career at the Canadian National Championships in Charlo, New Brunswick. It will be an emotional week, he said, as the race venue is where his dreams began.
Nathan Smith also had a rough day, as he crashed with Simon Fourcade of France, which broke his binding, forcing him to drop out of the race.
Green said he was humbled to finish with his teammate.
“To finish next to J.P. in his last big race is an honour,” Green said.
The result bodes well for the team relay and mixed relay. Canada was the only nation to have two top 10 athletes in the mass start.
