Accident started Albertan on path to top of biathlon's honour roll
By Kim Guttormson
for CBC Sports Online

For Yannick Letailleur, the road that led him to the biathlon was a painful one.

In August 2000, Letailleur was a 14-year-old competitive hockey player who had spent more than half his life playing the game. That summer he was reconsidering his chosen sport, starting to tire of hockey.

And then the choice was taken out of his hands.

Letailleur and a group of friends had just started across a crosswalk, when he was hit by a car. He broke his leg and injured his knee, shoulders and neck. Once he'd healed, after more than a month in a cast and braces, he realized he could no longer play hockey, the sport he'd grown up with.

Yannick Letailleur takes aim as part of his biathlon training

"I couldn't play hockey at all," he says. "I tried once, but I was back in physio for three weeks."

So Letailleur began looking around for a sport he could play, and biathlon -- with its combination of cross-country skiing and shooting -- fit.

"I really like being outdoors, and I like cross-country skiing in winter," says Letailleur, who will celebrate his 17th birthday while competing at the Games. "I knew some people who did it."

The sport also introduced a new skill – shooting -- which Letailleur says adds a physical and mental component to each race.

"Shooting adds a whole extra challenge," he says. "You really have to balance. You can make up time skiing, but if you (rush and) shoot really bad, you lose the time you made up."

At the national championships in Canmore at the end of February, Letailleur won silver in the sprint competition and placed fourth in the mass start.

The Grade 11 student at Ross Sheppard High School in Edmonton fits in an average of seven physical training sessions a week, usually doubling up one day so that he gets a day of rest. He primarily skate skis, which he does in competition, but mixes it with classic cross-country skiing to develop a range of muscles. He'll also throw in the occasional run, to mix it up.

On top of that, Letailleur, who is ranked in the top two in his age category in Alberta, fits in at least one shooting practice a week.

"We build strength with the rifle, do shooting and position work" he says. His home club, the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club, only recently raised enough money to build its own range. Letailleur says once lights are put in he should be able to practice shooting twice a week.

The teenager maintains a busy schedule between school, training and fundraising for the new range, but says it's worth the hectic pace.

The Canada Winter Games will be an exciting challenge, Letailleur says, and not only because he's racing in two categories. He's never competed in a bigger event, although he raced biathlon in the Alberta Winter Games and canoe and kayak at the Alberta Summer Games.

He's never been as far east as New Brunswick. And he's looking forward to meeting new people, who participate in different events.

Even though hockey took up such a large part of his life, for so long, Letailleur says he doesn't really miss it. Biathlon has managed to fill that gap.

"Team sports are really different, and I chose to try and individual sport. Then you're in control of yourself," he says. "I love it. It's really exciting."