HIGH ACHIEVERS: Rifle issues plague biathlete Ella Niedre in FISU World Winter University Games debut

By Martin Cleary

The expected experiment has evolved into the extraordinary experience for Ella Niedre of Kars, ON.

The Chelsea Nordiq biathlete was fully aware of the FISU World Winter University Games, which officially started on Monday in Turin, Italy. But her life has been a non-stop rollercoaster of ups and downs for the past year and she never thought she’d make Team Canada.

Niedre broke her right hand during a fall in a time trial last year and missed almost all the 2023-24 season.

She moved out west in late summer to attend the University of British Columbia Okanagan as a first-year health and exercise science student. Life was busy from the moment she arrived, getting familiar with her new environment, academic classes, living in a dormitory and following her biathlete training schedule.

Then she got COVID and then the flu, which complicated studying and athletic training.

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By the time the Biathlon Canada national team trials arrived in early November in Canmore, AB, to determine the six men and six women for the FISU Games, Niedre didn’t know what to expect in her three important tests.

But after the last metres were skied and the final rifle shots were sounded at the range, Niedre had made the grade for her first FISU Games as the sixth-place skier on the women’s team.

“I didn’t even expect to qualify for FISU. I told myself that this year would be an experiment,” Niedre said in a recent phone interview.

“I had moved across the country and was trying to figure out so many things. I was taking a full (academic) course load. I was living on campus and driving to training. I didn’t think I’d make the team.”

But her dedication to training saved her and was the driving force behind being nominated by Biathlon Canada to U Sports for the FISU Games, which are considered the Olympics for university student-athletes.

“I still trained as much as possible and basically all my summer and fall training got me there. I didn’t expect it. It was exciting and I was excited to qualify,” Niedre said.

“The amount of hours I have put in all my life pulled me through. I didn’t expect to qualify, but I was determined in the fall to do all I could.”

Niedre made her FISU Games debut on Tuesday and it had great similarities to the up-and-down path that brought her to Pragelato-Rua, Italy, for biathlon, but more on the downside.

In an email interview with High Achievers, Niedre called the 12.5-kilometre short individual “a very unfortunate first race.”

In the days leading up to her first race, she was having an unbelievable time mixing with athletes from around the world, but also realizing her first international racing experience was nerve wracking.

“It has been amazingly overwhelming,” she wrote, “and the butterflies have been here to stay, along with a ton of excitement. Super crazy feeling overall, but I tried to stay in the right mentality and focus on my own personal race.”

Niedre didn’t count on her .22-calibre rifle being damaged on the trip overseas, which left it fully non-functional (Tuesday) “when I went to test it before my race.”

She received a spare rifle for the race, but had previously never shot with it and found it was too big for her. She missed all five of her opening shots at the range in the prone position and it was a struggle for the next three stages – three misses in standing, three misses in prone and four misses in standing.

A total of 15 missed shots at 20 targets left her with 15 trips around the penalty loop, which added 11 minutes and 38.5 seconds to her overall time.

Niedre finished at the bottom of the standings in 47th place at 52:09.0, which was 14:31.9 behind gold-medallist Noemie Remonnay of France and the Claude Bernard University in Lyon.

If she was able to use her own rifle, she knew she would have had a better result. Entering the range for the first time for five prone shots, Niedre was in 19th place. By the time she left the range and penalty loop, she was 47th and unable to climb out of that hole.

“It has been a hard day, but hopefully I can figure out a plan for my next few races,” Niedre continued.

Niedre is familiar with multi-sport Games, having competed in the 2020 Ontario Winter Games (winning several gold medals) and the 2023 Canada Winter Games (earning a few top-five results).

If she can resolve her rifle issues and post some encouraging results for the remainder of the FISU Games, Niedre will have taken another significant step towards her goal of competing at a future Winter Olympic Games.

“It’s what I aspire to in the future,” Niedre explained. “It’s a slow and steady path, a long way away. I have to keep doing what I do, keep consistent, and I’ll get there eventually.”

Gatineau’s Isabelle Caza of CEGEP de l’Outaouais placed 34th in 46:26.0 and was 8:48.9 behind the winner. Caza shot well, hitting 14 of 20 targets and had a penalty time of 4:55.4.

In other action at the Games on Tuesday, Noah Royz of Lac Ste. Marie, PQ, and the University of Ottawa placed third in the snowboard cross small hill final at Bardonecchia to finish seventh overall. He needed to finish in the top two in his semifinal to reach the big final and race for the medals.

Royz didn’t complete his semifinal, but still advanced to the small hill final to determine positions five through eight. He qualified for the semifinals by posting two firsts and three seconds in heat racing on Monday.

Nordic skiers are scheduled to hit the trails on Wednesday for the 10-kilometre individual interval free start. Carleton University’s Sophia Giangrande of Whitehorse and the University of Calgary’s Sienna Brennan-Raab of Chelsea Nordiq are on the women’s start list, while the men’s field includes the University of Calgary’s Robin Mason of Ottawa and Université Laval’s Mats Halvorsen of Chelsea, PQ.

Defending champion Canada, 1-1, will aim for its second men’s hockey win, when it takes on Kazakhstan. The national team lineup includes goalkeepers Kai Edmonds of Toronto Metropolitan University and Ottawa and Francesco Lapenna of the University of Ottawa and Laval, PQ, and forwards Conor Frenette of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and Gatineau, plus Mathieu Gagnon of McGill University and Gatineau.