Some people might become involved in coaching or administering local sports in part for the notoriety, but it’s a pretty safe bet that wasn’t the case for Alvin Punkkinen. After all, one would be hard-pressed to find a more obscure sporting passion than biathlon.
After spending a dozen or so years establishing what is now the premier civilian biathlon club in Ontario, Punkkinen is stepping back — somewhat. Looking back, his introduction to a sport where Myriam Bedard might be the only recognizable name for the average Canadian, was not substantially different than most parents.
The middle of five brothers who grew up in the Donovan, Punkkinen admitted to having some family background in sports, albeit not the all-consuming involvement of some who are exposed to a countless variety of athletic activities in their youth.
You can teach a person to shoot, but if they’re not an athlete to begin with, it’s a little tougher.
Alvin Punkkinen
His brother, Arvo (Punkkinen), was a Canadian boxing champion in the mid-1970s and with a family tie-in with the Voima Athletic Club, this Finlander was also quite comfortable on the Nordic ski trails and soccer fields.
But it was as a parent, following the dreams of youth, that Alvin Punkkinen found himself quickly immersed in the world of biathlons. “My son was a good skier, and he always liked hunting and shooting and the outdoors,” Punkkinen explained.
“We got involved in biathlon through the cadets program.”
This should hardly come as a surprise. The sport of biathlon, to a large extent, owes its very existence to a military background, as the combination of Nordic skiing and shooting gained a following in the mid 1700’s in the Scandanavian countries.
Assisting within the coaching ranks of the cadet program, Punkkinen found himself leading the way for three years as a civilian instructor. With a handful of young competitors who were looking for more from this exciting new pastime, he found himself, before long, joining forces with a small handful of parents who would take biathlon, in Sudbury, to the next step.
“We saw a real need for a civilian program, if the aspirations are to take it to the next level in biathlon — the Ontario Winter Games, Canada Winter Games, the Olympics,” he said.
Just prior to the turn of the millennium, Punkkinen and company formed the Sudbury Biathlon Club, later to become the Walden Biathlon Club, in recognition of the very close affiliation with the Nordic ski group that operates the Walden Cross-Country Fitness Club.
Success came quickly for the local biathletes, “simply because there are not a lot of biathletes in the province,” Punkkinen said. Throwing himself headfirst into the sport, the local coach was selected to manage Team Ontario at the 2003 Canada Winter Games in Bathurst/Campbellton, N.B.
From a modest starting point of some six athletes or so, the Sudbury/Walden Biathlon Club, under the leadership of Punkkinen, began to grow.
“We can usually qualify about half our athletes into the Ontario Winter Games.” With a base range established adjacent to the Naughton Trails, Punkkinen noted that the club attracts interest from newcomers, typically each and every fall.
And like every sport, the challenges and obstacles are ever-present. “Patience with the shooting just doesn’t come right away with some people,” the friendly coach cautioned. Still, he acknowledged that more often than not, a proficiency on skis will supersede the ability to handle an air rifle when is comes to developing elite level competitors.
“I’ll take an athlete any time over a shooter,” Punkkinen said, with a laugh. “You can teach a person to shoot, but if they’re not an athlete to begin with, it’s a little tougher.” Ironically, he said it is clearly the shooting aspect that tends to attract most youngsters to his sport — a fairly natural inclination with kids going back to the days of playing cowboys and Indians in the nearest backyard or playground.
Once that interest is sparked, it’s up to Punkkinen and his handful of coaches to mold the talent, achieving the type of success that speaks for itself. At the Ontario Winter Games this past March, the local contingent claimed more than half of the medals that were up for grabs in the biathlon competition.
“There are young athletes within the club who are getting into provincial training, heading to Canmore or Lake Placid,” Punkkinen said. While constantly acknowledging that safety is paramount in a sport such as this, Punkkinen knows that the next step, in terms of evolving the club, is to expose more of his young talent to the .22 rifles, rather than the air rifles, a transition that usually does not take place until the age of 14 or so.
With training facilities in the province at a bare-bones minimum, Punkkinen’s group has started the process of exploring the possibility of moving forward with the Windy Lake Nordic ski crew.
“They have excellent cross-country ski trails, they have gravel (easier to build a range), it’s privately owned and it’s outside of city limits,” he said.
And while his involvement might well shift to the background, rest assured that Punkkinen will gladly share the voice of experience.
A good thing indeed for those involved in biathlon, a sport just beginning to grow in Sudbury and across the province.
Randy Pascal is the founder of SudburySports.com.
