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een following her career and that of her fellow TEAM
NFA members. If you’d like to pass along messages of
support you can contact Megan or Matt via their blogs or
drop Rob a note via Facebook.
Matt Neumann
Summer 2012 has been an especially busy time for our
favourite male biathlete. He’s still training at the Canmore
facility, but is kept hopping; attempting to balance his
training with a part-time work schedule, while also
dealing with a lack of motorized transportation (no car)
and training 12-25 hours a week. Ideally, he’d like to
spend 100% of his available time in training/recovery, but
such is the life of the talented amateur Canadian athlete.
Matt tells me that after getting home in the evening, his
usually routine is to fix dinner and then go straight to bed
for a 5AM start to his work day on the nearby golf course.
After work and during free periods, he concentrates on
road work and strength training, trying to keep his body in
peak physical condition.
Amazingly enough, Matt has somehow found the time to
compete in an impressive array of races and events so far
this summer including racking up a slew of top five and
top ten finishes, including:
• Banff Bike Fest (Banff AB June 14-17th) -
• 2nd in the 1.5km Prologue.
• 2nd in the 21km Time Trial.
• 3rd in the 30km Criterion Rundle Mountain Stage
Race (Canmore AB July 14-15th) -
• 3rd in the 4.5km Prologue.
• 6th in the 20km Criterion.
• 2nd 74.5km Road Race.
• 2nd overall in the stage race.
According to Matt he’s won more prize money in his
first year of road racing than all of last year in Biathlon.
He maintains his sense of humor, adding that given his
circumstances, it’s clear that athletes like himself are
certainly not racing biathlon for any financial benefits!
This is sad, but true, for most amateur athletes and even
Olympic hopefuls. However, Matt remains upbeat and
far from being bitter, quietly added that, “It’s because we
[athletes] have a deep passion for the sport and improving
ourselves that we keep doing it.”
Matt noted that while he loves cycling and has had a lot of
fun racing this year; his primary focus is still skiing faster
and hitting all the targets. Cycling has been an important
part of his training and he acknowledges that he has gained
invaluable race experience that can be directly translated to
biathlon competition as a result. The problems and trying
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situations he encountered while on the cycling race circuit
presented him with many new experiences and situations
that required him to observe, analyze and to develop a
solution for, - all while also learning to cope with the extra
stress such extreme situations create.
Perhaps the highest profile event Matt has participated in
this summer has been the annual “Biathlon National Team
Testival.” Every year the National team has a series of
shooting and physical tests in Canmore/Banff in the spring/
summer, which serves as a bench mark form year to year.
Matt’s schedule only permitted him to participate in two
events this year (The first uphill roller-ski being on his
birthday July 11th). The results:
• 6th - Uphill double pole Norquay 6km (July 11th).
• 3rd - Uphill roller-ski Norquay 6km (July 13th).
Matt had a solid time and race the second day and used the
first day as a “mental warm-up.” From his perspective it
was a good indication of where he stacked-up compared
to the top guys in Canada and allowed him to see how far
he needs to go to bridge that last gap. Overall, Matt was
pleased with his results and times and feels he’s in a good
place heading into next season. Of course, ne also noted that
he still had a long summer ahead with a lot of significant
training ahead of him. He finished our interview, wryly
commenting that, “a lot can happen in a couple of months
and I’m focused on making the most of it!”
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