Brian Halligan: Herb Was Right.

“Great moments are borne from great opportunity…” That of course is what Legendary Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks told his team right before the game that would become the greatest upset in Olympic history. “…and that’s what you have here tonight, gentlemen. That’s what you’ve earned here tonight.” Herb was right. You can’t have a great moment without the opportunity. When the opportunity presents itself you have to “Take it” for you may not get that opportunity again.

At these past races in Otepaa Estonia I was presented with a great opportunity to race against the best juniors in the world and I let it slip. I was not sleeping well, my technique would have made you believe I had never skied before and most importantly there was no mental focus on racing. I was severely jetlagged which is what I think was the problem with the sleep. But in all I felt as though I was not giving the races 100% of my attention.

I am not unhappy with my result, I am upset with myself for not doing everything I could have done to have a good race.

Fortunately I was able to realize this before it was too late. Through analysis of the first two races I realized there could have been more mental preparation, better warm up and better technique. This new approach helped me move up 8 places in the pursuit to 49th. And with one of the better shootings on the day, my isolated pursuit time was 32^nd. Despite this result being my best of the three it is still below where I want to be.

Every race, win or lose is a learning opportunity. You learn what works and what you need to improve on. What separates the best from the rest is what they do with the new found information. And that’s what I plan to do. Use all this information I learned from these races and prepare myself for Junior Worlds in about a week. Right now I am in Ruhpolding, Germany with tons of snow and a great attitude toward the upcoming races.

Sweet cars in the Munich airport.

A helpful reminder on the back of the door in the Estonian Airport

Tallin airport making sure you look ballin'

Tehvandi Stadium

The trail goes right in front of the stadium

The entrance to the biathlon stadium

The course goes right behind that wall behind the range

Casey Smith and I found a Washington licence plate. (he's from Washington)

One of 30 national geographic landmarks in Estonia. That St. Mary's Lutheran church was built in 1116. I don't have any up close pictures but it was huge! (yes there is a big yellow square in the middle of town)