Dear Biathlon Australia family,

Our biathlete of the month for February 2025 is Dave Miln - flag bearer and biathlon silver medalist at the 2025 Invictus Games, Whistler, Canada.  And if that's not enough he won 4 golds in the pool and was the joint 2nd highest medal winner.  Dave led the Australian team to a solid 3rd place in the medal tally.  Amazing results and amazing athletes.  

Special mentions to:

Julia Smusz for being invited to be an assistant club coach by the Polish Biathlon Association (Polski Związek Biathlonu).  And selected by the IBU to attend the upcoming Level 1 Coaching Course.  This international exposure is invaluable and a great step in Julia's career development.  This also highlights the invaluable benefit of developing strategic partnerships like the one we have with the tremendous Poles.   

We are indeed, extremely grateful to Poland and all the hard work they have done behind the scenes.  

Alberto Allan for finishing on top of the Austrian Cup rankings with a maximum possible 630 points earned across 7 gold medal performances in the 15 year old division; and a 94% shooting percentage (6 misses from 100 targets).

Rosie Franzke (0,1,0,2, +5:04.8) for finishing in the top 40% of the Youth 10km Individual at the IBU Youth / Junior World Championships in Östersund, Sweden.

Our female & male IBU Junior Cup Teams for each ranking 25th in the Junior Cup Nations Cup. 

Darcie Morton, Damika Morton, Isabella Moon & Rosie Franzke - Australia's first ever women's relay team at the Open European Championships.  A tremendous combination of seasoned experience and youthful exuberance.

Darcie Morton, Noah Bradford and Phoenix Sparke, coached by legendary Joe Oberlacherer and Damon Morton - for representing Australia at the 2025 BMW IBU World Championships in Lenzerheide.  

The Finnish Biathlon Federation (Suomen Ampumahiihtoliitto) for their outstanding support throughout the season, including hosting invaluable camps for our teams in Martel, Italy and Vuokatti, Finland in the lead up to the Open European Championships, World Championships and Youth Junior World Championships.  This is the first year of what we hope will be a long and fruitful IBU National Federation Partnership with Finland.  This builds on the success of our wonderful partnerships this year with Poland & Latvia; and our prior partnerships with Poland, Czechia, Germany & the USA.

Campbell Wright (NZ - think Phar Lap, Russel Crowe, pavlova and every other Kiwi we've claimed :) for back to back silver medals at the 2025 BMW IBU World Championships in Lenzerheide.  Early in his career, Campbell trained with BA at Hotham and under our then International Head Coach Luca Bormolini (who now coaches the Czechia Women's World Cup team).  Campbell is a friend to many and is an extended member of the Biathlon Australia family.  We're so excited to see his amazing success on his adopted Team USA.

David, Sandy, Brett, Libby, Katerina, Mark & Murray