BY JASON
THOMPSON
It's not the Olympics, but for Dave Endleman and Destiny
Gratton, it's the next best thing.
The pair is travelling to the Yukon Feb. 22 to compete in the
Canada Winter Games. Endleman and Gratton are both competing in
the biathlon. There are 20 other events at the games, which
runs from Feb. 23 to March 10.
"It's kind of a once in a lifetime thing so it's pretty
exciting. There's a lot of hype about it. It's a bigger
experience than just competing in nationals for one event
because you get to go support Ontario as a whole," Gratton
said.
At the end of the event, the results for each province are
tallied and a grand champion is crowned.
"Ontario has done quite well in the past and we're hoping to do
well again. I think we've won more than any other province,"
Endleman said.
"It makes you feel happy for where you live because you've been working with the same team members for a long time to try and qualify. Going to the Olympics would be crazy insane, but just being able to represent your province when your skiing at that level is amazing," said Gratton.
Although they share a love for their sport, Endleman and
Gratton took different paths to get to where they are
today.
Endleman, 18, started as a cross-country skier with the Garson
ski club. About four years ago, he was given the chance to try
competing in a biathlon and has been involved in the sport ever
since. Endleman says he's been training seriously for the past
year and has one gold and three silver medals from the North
American Biathlon Championships a few weeks ago in Quebec to
prove it. He also won gold and silver at the 2004 Ontario
Winter Games.
"It's a lot of a ski training to build your physical fitness
and a lot of shooting training. There's also combination
training where you ski or run really hard, get tired, get your
heart rate really high and then try to shoot," said Endleman, a
student at Lockerby Composite School.
"It's not more difficult than learning either one of those
things to start with. Skiing with rifles especially wasn't as
big of an adjustment as I thought it would be and shooting with
skis, in some ways, is actually better because the size of the
skis helps you balance."
Gratton on the other hand, learned to shoot with the cadets
before she hopped on a pair of skis. It was also through the
cadet program that Gratton eventually learned to combine skiing
with shooting a gun.
Between cadet and non-cadet competitions, it's been a busy
season for Gratton. She's hoping to end the year on a high note
at the Winter Games.
"I want to go out and have a good time and ski strong and end
my season hard. I'm done after this, it's my last big race for
a little while," she said.
Gratton, a second-year student at Laurentian University, wants to take some time to finish her schooling. Balancing school, work, and 10 to 15 hours a week of biathlon hasn't been easy but it hasn't stopped her from achieving success on the slopes and at the range. Gratton is ranked third among women in Ontario, has a pair of third-place team relay finishes at the cadet level and won a silver medal at a summer biathlon event.
Because biathlon is a sport flying under the radar, Endleman
said it's tough to gauge the competition at an event like the
winter games.
"I don't know as much about the competition as I'd like to
know," Endleman said. He's familiar with racers from Quebec and
the Maritime provinces, but doesn't have much experience
against racers from western Canada.
While cross-country skiing and marksmanship may not seem that
difficult on their own, Endleman and Gratton say combining the
two disciplines and learning to control your heart rate is
tough to master.
Endleman explains that unless you slow down you heart rate
before shooting, your shots aren't likely to find their
targets.
"When I leave the range and I'm skiing, it's at a higher
intensity level and you're thinking fast. You're thinking speed
and intensity," Gratton said. "Once you're about 800 metres
away from the range, you start thinking about shooting.
 You switch your mindset because skiing is not important at the moment. You have to start thinking about it on your way into the range and you have to start lowering your heart rate. Deep breaths and the thought and the vision of me hitting my targets is what makes me shoot well."
The biathlon events run during the first week of the
competition but won't be broadcast live on television. Endleman
said replays will be shown on TSN, CBC, RDS or APTN.
