[00:00:00] Tom Kelly: It is the eve of the IBU World Cup schedule, and we're all getting excited to follow the US Biathlon Team on the tour and all the way to Antholz for the Olympic Winter Games. And with me today, from her home in Minnesota, and just getting ready to head over. Annika, how are you doing today?

[00:00:18] Annika Pasch: I'm doing great. I'm busy packing, and I'm getting ready to go.

[00:00:21] Tom Kelly: I think we all know that feeling. Excitement mixed with anxiety and tension as you get ready to head out. We're going to talk more about the partnership that US Biathlon has with UHealth – University of Utah Health. But give us a little background on yourself, growing up in the Midwest. I'm also a fellow midwesterner, so love to hear your story.

[00:00:43] Annika Pasch: Yeah. So I was born and raised in Minnesota. I grew up in Brooklyn Center, a suburb, just starts out in Minneapolis. My family is all from Minnesota as well. As a kid growing up, I tried just about everything I could with sports. I was drawn to it. You know, soccer, skiing, swimming, running. Everything I could do and sticking in that sports world, I think definitely helped put me on the track to what I'm doing now with the team.

[00:01:09] Tom Kelly: How did you, you know, take that passion for sport, particularly outdoor sport, Nordic sport, and convert that into your professional career?

[00:01:20] Annika Pasch: Yeah. I mean, it was a little bit of a struggle. I know when I was in school, learning to work with all these other different sports, that there wasn't a lot of presence of athletic trainers in those, you know, silent sports, as we call it, the endurance world. I worked a lot with cross country and track and field, and some of the first jobs I worked, and always just kind of had that solidarity with those athletes. I wanted to just try and help represent them as best I could. I would even look for jobs in the ski world. But nothing existed ten years ago. So it's been a … it's been a journey, but I'm glad it's something exists now.

[00:01:56] Tom Kelly: What were some of the sports you worked with over time?

[00:02:00] Annika Pasch: It's been a wide variety. I mean, full career path. I started out in a sports medicine orthopedics clinic, so I was just seeing, you know, your weekend warrior from your high school kid to the college athlete. I wanted to get back into working directly with sports. And so I was at a boarding school that focused in southern Minnesota. Shattuck-Saint Mary's focused a lot on hockey. And so I had a lot of ice hockey and soccer experience there. Went on to work then Division Two, Division One colleges, working cross country, track and field, some basketball. And then throughout that whole experience, I was working at different events with USA Hockey as well. A lot of hockey and endurance sports.

[00:02:42] Tom Kelly: How was that when you got behind the scenes and you know you're in a role to really help athletes as a trainer and help make a difference for them with their goals. How did that motivate you?

[00:02:53] Annika Pasch: Motivate me professionally?

[00:02:54] Tom Kelly: Yeah, yeah yeah, I.

[00:02:57] Annika Pasch: I think just being an athlete, kind of identifying as an athlete myself for so long that just seeing the passion and the hard work that those athletes put into what can essentially become their career. For some of them, I just want to do everything I could to let them be successful. And that's a huge part of my job, is just keeping that arrow pointed forward for someone to just keep on the track of success.

[00:03:22] Tom Kelly: So US Biathlon has forged this partnership with the University of Utah, which is not far from its headquarters in Soldier Hollow. Can you give us a little background on … I know you have one role in that partnership, but give us a little background, if you could, on the partnership itself, and then we'll talk about your specific role.

[00:03:43] Annika Pasch: Yeah. So the University of Utah has been involved with other Olympic sports for a while now, and that has existed obviously before this position as well. So I think it just made logical sense for them to partner with biathlon, especially with biathlon moving to the headquarters out to Soldier Hollow, and with the upcoming games in 2034. I think I have the date right, maybe it is. I think it's 2034, but, yeah, University of Utah, along with other medical groups across the country, are used as hubs for Olympic athletes that might need care as they're traveling around. So pretty sure, like University of Utah works with speedskating, has some USA connections. So they they want to help be an Olympic partner, not just with biathlon as well.

[00:04:27] Tom Kelly: Yeah. And your role is both an athletic trainer and also a medical coordinator. Can you talk a little bit about what that entails and how those things mesh together?

[00:04:37] Annika Pasch: Yeah. The medical coordinator title relates directly to working with the biathlon team. Obviously, I'm an athletic trainer. When I'm just a field … my title is like field athletic trainer. When I'm working with University of Utah, I just help fill in for sideline coverage, at different events or different locations in Salt Lake City in the off season. And then the medical coordination is essentially everything that could be medical that deals with the biathlon team. So speaking with our nutritionists, speaking with the sports psychology medications, our team physicians, the other physios we work with, just even events when we host events, just making sure that everything's running smoothly, that we have the full medical, you know, check all the boxes type of thing. So that coordination is a key part of what I'm doing with biathlon.

[00:05:26] Tom Kelly: How does your role fit in? Together with physios, doctors, and others who provide support services to athletes in this field?

[00:05:34] Annika Pasch: Yeah. So before my position was existed the what existed. Sorry. Excuse me. What existed before me was Doctor Brett and other physicians that have helped out with biathlon in the past were kind of the medical go-to, but they weren't on the ground with the team necessarily. They'd be there maybe a week at a time or world champs, and then the physios that we have that are European-based would be focused on the recovery and the massage. So there is kind of that element of in-between. There wasn't a lot of in-between medical care that could be provided. So if something happens with an athlete over in Europe now, I can at least get the first step started of what that athlete might need. And then I can consult with the doctors who are stateside of checking about progress, of timelines, of, you know, what medications we might be giving them, or what type of other diagnostic tools they might need to keep them going. So essentially, having me on the ground helps take away some of that time loss of just trying to coordinate something that an athlete might need when they're over in Europe.

[00:06:39] Tom Kelly: So you're really you're with the team and you're also constantly in touch with the doctors back home. Is that right?

[00:06:46] Annika Pasch: Yes. Correct. We communicate very often. We have meetings, you know, video meetings with the whole group with, If we do our medical meetings. It's me, the team doctors. We have the PTs that work out of the Lake Placid Training Center. We have our sports psychologists. We have our nutritionists. We always we come together every two weeks and we talk about whatever needs to be talked about, whatever planning needs to happen. And then a lot of times I'm the person that has to implement what that plan might be to get it directly facing with athletes over in Europe. And yeah, I'm there the whole season.

[00:07:16] Tom Kelly: And you joined the team last year. Talk about your first experience in going over to the World Cup and how that worked. You're meeting a whole new group of people in a completely different sport. How was that introduction for you?

[00:07:29] Annika Pasch: Oh, I mean, it was it was very nerve-wracking but super exciting. As a short little side note, I competed in cross country skiing in the Midwest in the Ccsa conference. And so there's other schools Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, those schools. So I knew some of the names of the athletes already, and I had met a few of them. So there was a small, you know, sense of familiarity of who I was going to be meeting, which was great because it kind of just helped me relax a little bit. But yeah, I went over the first week of January, in 2025 and Oberhof and my first race, I got just dumped four hours standing out in the rain. Just great experience. So yeah.

[00:08:14] Tom Kelly: Actually that's that's not an atypical experience in Oberhof actually.

[00:08:20] Annika Pasch: Right, that’s what I was told.

[00:08:21] Tom Kelly: What was the highlight last year? What are some of the other venues you went to?

[00:08:25] Annika Pasch: Oh gosh. We I mean, the Oberhof-Ruhpolding kind of mainstays. Those are there. And a lot of people told me that Nové Mesto, Czech Republic would, would be really awesome just because the fan turnout and I mean it was deafening. I had a radio and I could not hear people talking on the radio when I was out on the course or even in the start area. One that surprised me was when we went to Pokljuka in Slovenia. I just that's just a beautiful area. I've never been to Slovenia, and so that really surprised me. And then I think even just ending in Oslo, getting to see like a major international city, and just to kind of walk around and see, you know, see a historic venue as well. So lots of little highlights all mixed in. Right.

[00:09:05] Tom Kelly: So, so you were a new addition to the team. And I'm just curious, what were some of the typical questions that the athletes would ask you all of a sudden having this opportunity to have someone like you with them?

[00:09:16] Annika Pasch: I think honestly, what what what why are you here and what can you do for us was the biggest thing. I think I have been asked, what is an athletic trainer more in the last six months of my life than or ten months of my life than I have my entire career. Like no one knows what I do, which is just coming from working in the United States with NCAA, where it's just athletic trainers are ingrained in these systems of sport coverage and working with sports, and then going into a world where no one has ever seen an athletic trainer, and we don't exist in that world. I mean, it's it's great because I get to kind of be the first person to do it, I think. I mean, someone may be able to fact-check that for me, but it's it. Yeah. Just explaining over and over what I can do. And then also a few times when I have to say, no, I'm not a doctor. So.

[00:10:07] Tom Kelly: So so let's let's try out your pitch here. So if, if I'm Jake Brown or Deedra Irwin and I've just come up to you and asked, hey, what's a, what's a, what's an athletic trainer, what's your what's your what are your bullet points.

[00:10:19] Annika Pasch: Right. To be fair, Deedra knows what an athletic trainer is she. Yes she will she will say that. But yeah I the very quick thing that even when I tell family that still doesn't know what I do, is think of a physical therapist and an EMT like an emergency med tech, and kind of put those together and think of that person working in sports. So it's a lot of the education and focus is on first response and emergency cares for that sideline. I mean, athletic training was kind of born in the football world, you know, somebody goes down and breaks their leg. If we don't have a doctor there, we don't have an EMT who we need somebody that knows what to do in an emergency situation. So a lot of emergency medical training along with that. Then it's, higher focus on injury evaluation, treatment and prevention. So that's where that physical therapy, that rehab, uh, diagnostic piece comes into it. And then layered within all of that in the education is pharmacology, general medicine, sports psychology, nutrition. If we kind of get a little sprinkling of everything. So yeah.

[00:11:28] Tom Kelly: So I'm just kind of curious and this will be a little bit of a tangent. But do you get I mean do you manage sports psychology things a little bit or mental health issues. Is that maybe a part of the list of things you might look after in some way?

[00:11:43] Annika Pasch: Yeah, I would say, what's great about the USOPC is that we have a network for that. I … so with this team, specifically biathlon, I mean, I can really I can take a back seat to that more than I have in other jobs that I've had in the past. It all comes down to resources. I think that's why athletic trainers get so much education and exposure to all these different fields of medicine and sport is because you could have an athletic trainer working at a high school that doesn't necessarily have any type of mental health or psychology resources, and so that athletic trainer has to be cued in enough to know, like, what are the resources? What's the basic level of something I can do for this athlete? I know some of the colleges I worked at, maybe there was a little less support. So sometimes you kind of have to be that middleman or just that, that guide to the right person. But USOPC partnership with biathlon, as well has been great because there are resources and it's accessible for these athletes too.

[00:12:40] Tom Kelly: I'm sure that in your role, part of your role is injury prevention and part of it is injury management. How do you strike that balance?

[00:12:50] Annika Pasch: A lot of it. Another partnership that's great is with Montana State. You know, they do a lot of biomechanics work. So use and then again in Lake Placid, the training center there helps do some preseason screening. We do, you know, lots of data collection on the athletes. And then basically trying to identify something that could be problematic. A lot of times you don't want to just chase something if there isn't an issue there. I mean, everybody is going to have slight, you know, you're going to favor one side more than the other. But is it an actual performance issue or is it not? So there is a little bit of, you know, puzzle piecing here and there of knowing the history of the athlete if they have no prior history to any type of injury, and maybe they kind of favor one side more than the other, and there hasn't been a reason to, like, need to totally take apart their technique. You can kind of like let sleeping dogs lie. But there's other times where you're like, no, this is actually going to become problematic. So we need to make small tweaks here and there. And I think that's what's super interesting about Nordic skiing is that it's such a technique-focused sport that you don't want to, you know, reinvent the wheel just because you might see one little data point, but you need more to support it before you make these big changes. So yeah, it's it can be a little bit of feeling like you're in the dark with it, but it's great.

[00:14:12] Tom Kelly: It's interesting that you talk about data. We had Jim Becker on Heartbeat a few weeks ago, and, just a geek on this kind of stuff and all of the data analysis that he's done. But how do you, as an athletic trainer, take that data that Jim Becker and his students are doing and use that to really determine, maybe determine maybe a course of action or direction for athletes?

[00:14:34] Annika Pasch: I would say the even … just the first hand. So I'll be skiing around with the athletes, and I will sometimes just pay attention to how they're skiing. There is so much from Jim. I mean, that's still even as a conversation in progress of just what can be done. And I mean, I, I'm not a big, big data. I mean, data is very helpful. But in terms of like using Excel and like exploding data and just like, that's not my brain. That's not how it works. I think I definitely have more of that, like creative mindset of just like looking at it globally and trying to identify things that just look like what could be made a difference from this. And I don't I know personally, I don't like nitpicking one's very tiny, tiny detail unless it really feels like it needs to be done. So it's I mean, going through everything that Jim and those guys do is great, because then I do try to apply it with what, uh, testing that we do with Lake Placid, you know, how can it be applied to skiing? How can it not? So, I mean, yeah, it's a huge project in and of itself with all of that collection. Jim's the guy. Talk to Jim about it.

[00:15:41] Tom Kelly: Yeah. And Jim has students too. And they could. They can do all that work. So you've had an interesting background. You came from a Nordic skiing background. You still are an active Nordic skier. You've also worked in hockey. Two really completely different sports. And I would imagine as an athletic trainer, it's a world of difference working with hockey and biathlon. Right. What are the differences?

[00:16:04] Annika Pasch: I mean, the biggest thing is contact. So you know, biathlon is going to have accidental contact and hockey has intentional contact. So that and so that the education piece of having that first-hand emergency response is practiced and prepared and is so huge in hockey. And there's, I mean, you just have to approach it differently. It's a high-speed, anaerobic process. It's, you know, there's just the bodies of like how the actual athlete is built, those different types of things. There's way different considerations that go into hockey. And I, I mean, I find it fascinating. I love working hockey because it's just such a dynamic, exciting sport. And then plus, I think there's there's a small part of me that enjoys emergency situations. It's weird. I'm that type of person where if I see blood, I get excited. So it's like, you know, I'm like on I'm ready. I have my gloves on because I just am like, I don't know, there's like that weird rush of just like, something's going on, and I have to help right now, uh, versus biathlon, where everything is right. It's a lot more slow observation. I mean, that emergency response aspect is still a consideration. I probably overthink it when it comes to biathlon. Like, one of the main things that worried me was the fact that the team didn't have a defibrillator last year.

[00:17:23] Annika Pasch: We didn't have an AED traveling with us, and I even remember one of the athletes kind of tease me about it and was like, what do you think one of us is going to collapse and die? And in my head I was like, yes, I do think that someday it could happen. So if it could happen, I should be ready to respond to it. And that is my job. So he gave me a lot. He teased me a lot about that because I think he just thought I was being ridiculous, but it's what I was drilled into my head. And what I'm trained for is that you have to just be ready to respond when things go wrong. I'm the person that needs to be ready to do it. So I think where that hockey kind of got drilled into my head there with that, and I can still pull from that into biathlon. But yeah, at the end of the day, biathlon in terms of emergency risk is much, much lower. You're worrying more about the illness. You're worrying more about the chronic type injuries and just the well-being, the mental health of the athletes. Like it's just a long, grinding season.

[00:18:17] Tom Kelly: Yeah. Just out of curiosity, I would imagine that a hockey locker room after a game is a pretty busy area for an athletic trainer.

[00:18:25] Annika Pasch: Yes, yes, and I did two seasons of basketball as well. So basketball locker room, that type of stuff. So that pace and speed of having to tape people, get them ready. I mean, it's everybody's getting ready, you know, 25 athletes, whatever team size is all getting ready all at the same time, and they're all finishing at the same time, right? We don't have eight staggered starts, and you're standing around so that that kind of chaos is gone. With biathlon, it's totally different. But I think, just like you said, my experience of growing up as a Nordic skier and even working a lot of cross-country and track, I'm used to that world as well. So I definitely have a foot in each world of experience.

[00:19:06] Tom Kelly: Health and wellness is an area that's important not just to athletes, but really to all of us. And I want to talk about that area, not just in the context of the US Biathlon Team and the elite athletes, but something that I, I think our club athletes who listen to Heartbeat can also take away as well. So as you as an athletic trainer, trainer in the medical coordinator for US Biathlon. Now, can you give us an overall description on what is health and wellness and why is it important for all of us?

[00:19:33] Annika Pasch: It's exactly like you just said, it's important for everybody. And I think that extends to the staff of the team. I mean, health and wellness is what gets you through every day. And if you're not respecting your body and taking care of it 24 over seven, I mean, that's lost time. I mean, if you look at it as the athletes, it's their job. So it is their job, their body is their job. And you have to put in all of this extra work to keep it going. As for as long as they do, to be as successful as they do. And so like you said, just to talk to everyone to I mean, there's times where I find myself, I mean, what I say to the athletes or the information we give to the athletes, I follow myself because I know I'm out there to I have to be ready to go and do the job just as well, in a different capacity. But I also have to, you know, get enough sleep, eat the right things, stay hydrated, do all, do all the work. So it's huge, especially in this sport. Not to dig on other sports, but you know, if you have a basketball player that has a cold, they can sub out, they can sit on the bench for ten minutes. They don't have to play. They can have their own water bottle. And then that's kind of it. Whereas we know with this sport being such a cardiovascular-heavy sport with any types, any type of upper respiratory, anything that takes you out, and you have to just reset and recover from that and move on because it's going to happen. But it's so important to try to control what you can control.

[00:20:57] Tom Kelly: One of the things that I was reminded of recently is The Wall Street Journal had a story going into the Olympic year about athletes traveling on airplanes and just the whole process of traveling. And I know in Nordic skiing in particular, biathlon included, that's a real thing. So are there any tips and tricks for traveling on public transportation to get to our competitions?

[00:21:18] Annika Pasch: Yeah, I think the red, easy, accessible information that's been out there since kind of the post-COVID world is just wear the mask. I know they say that the air filtration on an airplane is actually better than the air. That would just be at the airport. But I still, you know, like, why risk it. Just wear the mask. We've seen that in certain capacity when worn correctly, it's going to help you. In preparation before you travel, there's always the key things that you can be doing. You can be boosting your supplementation of vitamin C, zinc, vitamin D, you can do probiotics, laying low before you go and travel in terms of don't go out and have a big dinner with friends and then leave right away. And then when you're in the airport, if you're waiting, you're trying to find those gates that are empty so there's less people around you. You just try to avoid those high population areas and then obviously touching things. You know, you're on a tram that you have to get from one area to the other of the airport. You know, if you're holding on to the railing, try to slip into a bathroom, wash your hands and you can hand sanitizer, those types of things. And now there's been more and more articles, research coming out about just where you actually sit on the plane can matter. Uh, they say the aisle is actually the highest, uh, contact point of illness because you have people walking by you and you're closer to the center of the plane where the ventilation might not be as good. So the window, if you have the and turning on the little fan, just getting air circulation, that's kind of a better spot to sit there. Starting to find two on the planes.

[00:22:46] Tom Kelly: Do you find that the athletes are understanding and receptive to these types of guidelines and protocols?

[00:22:54] Annika Pasch: Yeah, I would say so. It's I mean, we all had to go through it with Covid. So I think that in a way, as, as a twisted way as it sounds, helped in terms of like educating us more and more of just these other steps we can take. They're receptive because they, again, they don't want to get sick. There's definitely that. I mean, there's by the end of the season, there's fatigue of just being like, yep, okay, I got to do this again. I got to do this again. I got to do this again. And then I mean, the summer was great because then, you know, it's like everyone can kind of I mean, it drains on you mentally. It does to just be thinking about this constantly for five months straight for those guys. And I mean, I saw it last year too. I, I felt bad, like just constantly having to remind people to be like, well, we should wear a mask right now, or do you have your hand sanitizer or we got to do this, we got to do this. So yes, they do, because at the end of the day they know it's going to help them.

[00:23:40] Tom Kelly: So it's the little things that make a big difference, right?

[00:23:44] Annika Pasch: Yeah, yeah, it can be. It can be hard. But there's enough evidence and support out there that this stuff can help.

[00:23:52] Tom Kelly: We're with Annika Pasch as we get ready for the IBU World Cup season on Heartbeat. We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back. And when we come back, we're going to talk about life on the road with US Biathlon.

[00:24:10] Tom Kelly: We're back on Heartbeat with Annika Posch as we get ready for the kickoff of the IBU World Cup tour. Annika, you're heading out on life on the road for the next four months with the US Biathlon team. I want to give our listeners a little sense of, you know, what goes on. I mean, what's life like on the tour for you? And maybe if you could take us to, you're coming into a competition, you're a couple days out, you guys are on site. What's a day like for you as you work with the team to get ready for the weekend?

[00:24:42] Annika Pasch: Yeah, I think kind of looking at like a standard World Cup competition week. You know, we have it can range from travel or arrival to the venue Monday, Tuesday around there. And then they have the just the training days, you know, Monday through Wednesday whatever it could be in competitions could start, you know, Thursday through Sunday in any capacity. So those training days, they usually consist, you know, whatever time the venue has given us for preparation, I should rewind. We actually do a morning activation every morning at usually around eight, 839, depending on how late we get in. And it's, it's a half-hour session that myself and a physio, we usually go outside and the athletes come outside. They can they jog beforehand or jog after for 15 to 20 minutes if they want to. But in that activation, what we've tried to do is just incorporate different ways to wake the wake. They wake their bodies up. So whether that's just really light, dynamic movements start kind of slow. Get them moving, get their heart rates just above, get the body warm. And then we might end with a game or some sort of faster dynamic type action and some, some, you know, mixed in preventative exercises for a skier could be in there as well. So we usually that became kind of routine last year with some help of, you know, the team developed it a little bit before I got there as well. But something that, I mean, I really enjoyed doing with them. And then, heading into the training with, again, my background of skiing, If I was able to, I would ski with the athletes, being out just skiing around and kind of just hang out, check on them or otherwise.

[00:26:19] Annika Pasch: I would stand on the range and just, you know, observe what's going on. Occasionally, if anyone was doing any type of like lactate testing, I would be helping with the lactate testing. And then after that, it's checking in. If anybody does have any type of injury or if there is somebody that was sick of just making sure that that person has what they need or if they need to do in terms of injury wise, if there's any type of work soft tissue rehab, preventative exercises that I could be helping them with. But then there is also the physios that travel with us have the recovery massage schedule. So then, you know, coordinating if I'm working with them and they want to get massage, how does that look. What does that look like. How does that work. And throughout all of this, big, big kind of self, I've been I don't want to say project, but I just, I really wanted to help coordinate all of the medications and supplements that we get from USANA and all of the food, all of the partnerships with all the different brands, and foods that come along with us. And so kind of creating this general store, traveling general store for the athletes of like what they can come and get and use and hopefully time it out so it lasts throughout the road or on the road. So that's a big thing this year that I've been trying to work hard towards organizing and keeping track of, to bring in this with On the Road.

[00:27:42] Tom Kelly: I love the general store concept. Are you engaged in nutrition? And I know that you have limits as to what you can do when you're eating at hotels, but do you, as the athletic trainer, do you get involved in that aspect?

[00:27:56] Annika Pasch: I want to get more and more involved with it. I know what was kind of in place and existing before, athletes would maybe find their own partnerships for, you know, supplementation or nutrition as well. But even just the meals and how, okay, is the person who's coming, are they making enough food for us? Do we have enough carbohydrates? Sometimes athletes just want pasta. They don't, you know, they want, hey, can we just ask them to make a big thing of pasta on the side with whatever they've prepared? Do we have a food allergy? Do we have a food sensitivity? Those types of things. So I became more aware of that on the road and moving forward. Would like to, you know, just help be a bigger part of that voice for those athletes. If they're needing something specific with the food that we get on the road, which usually we're pretty lucky. I don't think it was. I don't think it's a huge struggle. But again, bringing product from the United States to have with us this year was a step of just trying to have those comfort things. I mean, I heard from athletes or other athletic trainers that I've traveled with in the past that they would bring pancake mix because they knew they were going to China, and they knew it was who knows what the food's going to be. So bring something familiar that your stomach is knows something that the person it's a comfort foo,d and those types of aspects. So in the nutrition world, we also have Kari, who is one of the USOPC sports dietitians. And so I talk with her all the time too, of just like advice and making sure that we are making the right steps with that as well.

[00:29:22] Tom Kelly: Does anybody want any really unusual comfort food that you've seen like, okay, I would, I would go, I would go with Oreos. You probably aren't stocking that in your general store, though.

[00:29:34] Annika Pasch: I would say the one that Chloe asked me a couple weeks ago was, she asked for candy at the start line, which, to be fair, is a simple carbohydrate and candy before a race is totally fine. So that's my plug. But no, in terms of I mean, if somebody had comfort food, I don't know if they've really told me about it. I'll give a shout-out to Paul as well, who just loves making pancakes and bread. So I don't know if that's his comfort food or if he just likes providing that comfort food for the athletes.

[00:30:01] Tom Kelly: Sometimes that goes really hand in hand. I'm a pancake guy too. Let's, let's, let's go up to race day. So it's competition day. Everybody's tense. How do you start the day? And then where are you during the competition?

[00:30:16] Annika Pasch: Yeah, it's I mean, depending on the, you know, the race. Is it a sprint, is it a relay, is it whatever. It varies a little bit, but the day usually would be spent again, if I ever need to carve out time in the morning to address anyone needing to get taped or just kind of like extra activation in the morning. I'll do that. I'll try to, like, check in and make sure I don't need to do that. But, the other staff, the wax technician group, the coaches, you know, they, they have like, a work schedule that they'll put out. And occasionally I'll help with the ski testing early. Early application ski testing. Obviously, I am not the person that needs to be making wax decisions. They know that. I know that. But, just being a set of legs to help ski around on skis. So I will sometimes leave early with the coaches if they are helping with ski testing. So then I'll be there a little bit before the athletes arrive. And then once the athletes arrive, usually I try to find them again. Just kind of a quick check-in of does anybody need anything? Do they not need anything? And then it's starting to gather all of the medical, you know, rehab, recovery, any of that type of equipment that we need to bring to the start area. And so we started also making like a warm recovery drink to have in the start area for post-race.

[00:31:32] Annika Pasch: So making sure I had that with me and just this big old Santa Claus sack that we would carry to the start and the finish area. So that's, you know, just got extra, it's got extra ammo in it. It's got kinesio tape. It had, you know, it has food, it has warm-up bands. It has my like small medical kit with medications or, you know, if anything random were to happen. But yeah. And then I'm just, I'm in the start or the finish area. Most races occasionally I'll go out on course if we're short a body or two, but just being there for start and finish is helpful because even I mean, we've as skiers or anyone that's done a long, hard activity, sometimes when you finish, you feel like you might pass out or you feel like something your body, you just like gave everything you have. And so sometimes just being there at the finish just to monitor how those guys are doing, I mean, 99% of the time they're fine. They just gotta, you know, you just got to wait. You've got to let it subside, let your body get a little bit of food and water in you, and then you're okay. But I mean, there's those times again, being prepared where somebody, if they start to crash the wrong direction of just knowing how to respond to it.

[00:32:35] Tom Kelly: How important is it for you to have that Nordic skiing background? I know you don't come from a background as a biathlete, but you know what they're going through. How important is that for you as athletic trainer?

[00:32:46] Annika Pasch: I think that huge I, I am so thankful that I had at least even I mean, I was an NCAA skier, but I was very average. I was not winning anything, we'll put it that way. But, just the continued myself enjoying endurance activities. I think that gave me a huge advantage to also just being more useful to the team in other aspects that maybe weren't necessarily medical. But again, understanding the sport personally and being able to, you know, when they're doing easier training days and I can go with them. It also just helps me. I got I get to know the athletes better too, and then I can speak their language. Quote unquote. And so, I mean, when I. No offense to the basketball team I worked with, but I was not a basketball player and so I had to learn all those. I mean, I was like, I know the basics of basketball, but I don't know what those plays are that you're calling. Sorry. Anyway. But no, I just am so thankful that I have that background. And I mean, obviously a huge credit to the fact that I competed in cross-country skiing. It's the only reason I would have done this job in the first place. I never would have looked at this job as an option, probably if it weren't for that.

[00:33:54] Tom Kelly: Yeah. I'm curious, has anyone taught you to shoot yet?

[00:33:58] Annika Pasch: Yes, I have had a couple lessons very, very all over the summer. I over the winter, I was like, nope, this is not the place to ask. I was like, they are way too focused. I do not want to be the person that breaks something. But no, over the summer, I mean, I talked to Matt Evans, our shooting coach, a couple of the female athletes just for size wise, and then obviously righty. I couldn't ask any of the lefty shooters. But yeah, I was able to do it a few times this summer, and it was. It's that that helped out a lot too, because even I, I the first few weeks of the World Cup, you know, somebody would ask me to grab their rifle for them. And I was like, what, what, what do I do? What do I do? How do I. I was like, what's the point? All I know is point it up. Like, don't don't point it horizontal. So so yes, my I wanted to know that as well, even just for safety. I mean, just being comfortable around those rifles and knowing what everything does and how it works. I mean that's huge. So yeah, I, I would love to actually try to ski with it on my back and go around and shoot. So yes.

[00:34:58] Tom Kelly: That's that's really cool. You know, I imagine that growing up as a Nordic skier, you were certainly aware of biathlon, but did you get a newfound appreciation for it last year, being on the tour to see those tens of thousands of people out along the track and really say, this is a pretty cool sport?

[00:35:14] Annika Pasch: Oh yeah, I, I have just.

[00:35:16] Annika Pasch: Been non-stop talking about it with all my friends that did Nordic skiing with me growing up and even family and I. Yeah, it was, it was incredible to just see this. I went to the Minneapolis World Cup when it was here, which was a really cool experience. I mean, that was kind of my only World Cup exposure that I've ever had before. Biathlon coming to actually be on the IBU Cup. And I mean, by the end of the season, I was like, this is so much more interesting. I mean, I'm completely converted biathlon fan because I watched all of the FIS races. I would watch World Cup Nordic races, you know, on my laptop. I watched all of it. I wasn't really paying attention to biathlon, but yeah, I was aware of it. But yeah, now that I have been in in the mix with those races, I'm like this. Yeah, this is way cooler.

[00:36:01] Tom Kelly: Yeah. Any other words of encouragement for those listeners who might be on the fence to get out and watch some biathlon this year?

[00:36:08] Annika Pasch: Obviously. Just go do it. Go to Lake Placid. You know, they have the IBU Cup races there. So there is something domestic coming up which. So plug for that. Like have somebody go try it. The other thing too, I think just growing up in the Twin Cities, I mean, I had a high school race at. I was at Camp Ripley or Fort Ripley, and I remember skiing through the range just being like, what is that? You know, I just see all these targets, and I had no idea what that was. So that was kind of my first, like, actually learning what biathlon was. But that was it. I never, you know, there's nothing really in the Twin Cities. That's a big exposure to try biathlon. And so it sounds like the Birkie might be trying to add stuff. So I don't know. I think people give it a try. If there is a learn how to do biathlon, it's not intimidating. I think it's super fun. You kind of, you know, you get a little video game, feel like you're a kid again.

[00:36:58] Tom Kelly: So yeah, the Birkie is putting in a range, which is really cool. Last question before we go to our on target section. You're heading to your first Olympics in Antholz. And the cool thing for biathlon this year is that the Olympics is being held in kind of the cathedral of the sport, and Antholz just an amazing place in the Dolomites. But what thoughts do you have as an athletic trainer in the medical coordinator as you go with the US Olympic Biathlon team to Antholz this February.

[00:37:30] Annika Pasch: I mean, it is incredible. Yes, I am super thankful that I get to go and I get to be part of it as just part of the staff. And so there's there is that excitement and that positivity towards it. But, I mean, we have already been having so many conversations about the preparation towards it in terms of how what can we do, what can we control to put the best team out there, put the best athletes out there, keep them functioning and safe. So there is a little, you know, there's that little bit of just planning. I mean there's a lot of bit, a lot a bit of work and planning that goes into it. So I think, I think it's going to be a whirlwind. I think we're going to have the pre-camp, we're going to be there, and then we're going to all of a sudden be in it. It's going to be racing and then bam, it's going to be over. I think it's just going to go. It's going to fly by because we're just going to take every day and just keep focusing on it. And then when it's all said and done, I think we're all just going to collapse on the ground mentally. So it's a lot of good and a lot of nerves, but channeling the nerves the right way.

[00:38:28] Tom Kelly: Yeah, well, it should be a great experience. Annika, thank you for sharing all of this. We're going to close it out with a few final questions in our on target section. And the first one we're going to talk about pets. Okay. We've all got pets. You've got a pet. Folks are not seeing the video that I'm seeing, but we've seen your pet in the background. Tell us about your pet.

[00:38:48] Annika Pasch: My pet is a six, six and a half year old black lab mix with a mastiff. So he is a large black lab, £90 dog. His name is Bucky. I … he was a dog. I got him during Covid, and, you know, he was almost a year old, and I. I grew up with, like, a £20 dog. So this jump to something that is £90, that when he stands up, you know, he's taller than me is just insane. I don't know what I was thinking, but, yeah, his his adopted name was Buckeye, and I'm sorry, anyone who has allegiance to Ohio State, but I just couldn't name him Buckeyes. So I was like, he's responding. He's he responds to Buckeye. Buckeye buck. So I kind of you know Buck Buckeye just shortened it made it easier. But yeah he's he's great. He's just the biggest kind of lazy guy. But he'll play fetch for hours. And then I've chaotically tried to teach him how to Skiddaw, which is great because. But if a squirrel runs across, he's going to go chase a squirrel and drag me with him. So that's why I do it when there's no one around.

[00:40:01] Tom Kelly: So, you know you've changed him from an Ohio State dog to a Wisconsin dog.

[00:40:05] Annika Pasch: I know.

[00:40:06] Tom Kelly: I know, okay. Sorry to bring that up. Are you do you FaceTime with him when you're on the road?

[00:40:11] Annika Pasch: I will try to. Yes. Yes. Yeah. He's. Yeah.

[00:40:14] Tom Kelly: Yeah I've tried to do that with, we used to take care of our grandson's cat, and we used to try to do that. You have done a lot of different sports. You've been involved with a lot of different sports. You hike, you run, you are a cross-country skier. What's the toughest thing that you've done?

[00:40:33] Annika Pasch: Oh, gosh. I mean, 20, 21, I did the Madison Ironman and that, I mean, when people ask me about it, I usually say the race wasn't necessarily the hardest thing. It was all the training that led up to it, because you just have to dedicate so much time and like more. I felt like, I mean, I was training more than I felt like I was in college when I was racing, skiing in college. And so but the race itself was real tough. I yeah, that was hard, but it was quite an experience for sure. And I'm thinking maybe I'll sign up for some sort of trail ultra something next summer in Utah. But we'll see. We'll see.

[00:41:15] Tom Kelly: You guys are crazy. I can't even conceive of this. But, yeah, I mean, the ultras out here in Utah are amazing. What's your favorite candy?

[00:41:26] Annika Pasch: Oh, gosh. Somebody probably told you about this. So I have had a mission in my life. We could call it, to find the best gummy peach ring that exists on the planet. And it's great, because now that I travel internationally, I can try international gummy peach rings and see if they're any good. And oddly enough, one of my favorites that I've found was in like a Marshalls TJ Maxx. Like, they have that section in their kitchen area where sometimes they randomly have candy, and I grabbed one just because if I see a new brand, I try it, and it was one of the best ones I've ever had. And I didn't write down the brand. So I need to maybe go back.

[00:42:08] Tom Kelly: Gotta do it again. And the problem at TJ Maxx and Marshalls is it's not going to be the same brand the next time, probably.

[00:42:15] Annika Pasch: Exactly. So I don't know if I'm ever going to find it again, but I gotta look, I gotta look, but I have tried to bad ones out there. There are. There are some bad ones.

[00:42:23] Tom Kelly: Do you find them as you traveled around last winter? Did you find them on the road in Europe?

[00:42:28] Annika Pasch: Yeah, I, I mean, I might say it wrong. Haribo. You know, Haribo. Haribo. The gummy bears. Yeah. I mean, they make a great one. That's that's a solid. If I would see that one all the time in the stores just because that's such a popular candy brand. So that one I would always grab if I saw it and then, oddly enough. So I mentioned, I think to you earlier, was I've been to Östersund before and I was in Östersund with USA hockey for a World Championships once, and I remember just walking around in the downtown area and there was like a chocolate candy shop that they had, and I went in there and all the candies begged and these little individual brown small bags of candy, you know, just like written, handwritten, like what it was on there. And they had about six different kinds of Swedish Fish, quote unquote. And then they had some peach-ringed, ringed flavored candy. And that was really good. So this first World Cup, I might have to go back to that store and look for it.

[00:43:23] Tom Kelly: Yeah. Post those all on your on your social channels. So going back to last year, you're touring with US Biathlon around Europe. You're going to some really cool new places for yourself. What's one thing you did or experience that had nothing to do with biathlon that stands in your memory?

[00:43:45] Annika Pasch: Oh gosh. The big one. The big, big, big one. That was a huge surprise to me. And I just I loved it because it gave me a chance to kind of just think about something else. Is that the all the countries? I don't know who started it. I should probably learn the history of this, but there is a international biathlon hockey team that plays every week or they try to play every week. So every new venue, someone, maybe someone who's, you know, a native of that country reaches out to a local hockey rink or hockey team so that we can play them. And so when I joined in January, Jani, our massage therapist, one of our physios, he told me about it because he'll play sometimes. And when I told him I was like, well, I started playing hockey, like I've been playing for like 5 or 6 years. Like this would be awesome. Like, do you think I could, I could join, I could play, and he was like, yeah, you should. So I when I went home after World Champs last year, I came back to Minnesota and I went to Play It Again Sports, and I created a whole second set. So I have two full sets of hockey gear, and one set is sitting over in Germany right now, and it probably smells terrible, but that's okay.

[00:44:51] Annika Pasch: And so I got to the last trimester last year, the, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Norway, we played we played a team and usually it's Monday or Tuesday night like before the races start. So we somebody organizes it and we go and we play a local team and just see what happens. Usually we ask them to bring a goalie. I don't think we have a goalie. I think we just kind of do it on our own, but it is a wide range of ability. I am the only female, so that was fun. A few times where the team that we played in Oslo was some I mean, that was a bunch of 25-year-old guys. They are really I mean, it was too fast for me. Like I had to say, I was like, all right, I'll go out for 30s guys. Then I'm off. Like, I don't want to get hurt. This is … this is intense. But it's awesome. And I hope I get to keep continuing to do it. So shout out to the IBU Hockey club or whatever, whatever we're supposed to call ourselves. I don't know.

[00:45:49] Tom Kelly: It's pretty cool. Is it check or no check?

[00:45:53] Annika Pasch: No check for what I could tell. But like I said, when we played that Norwegian team, they split us up. So they took their team. And then, you know, we kind of, you know, draw straws and mixed in. And then I think when they went against their own teammates, they would check each other. But they left us alone, thank God. I mean, I only had one bad run-in where a guy really just took me out. But it was it was accidental. He was turning the other direction and. Yeah. Yeah, but….

[00:46:17] Tom Kelly: You can get it back this year. Okay.

[00:46:19] Annika Pasch: Exactly.

[00:46:20] Tom Kelly: Last question. Describe biathlon in just one word. You got a year under your belt now heading out on the tour. What is biathlon in one word.

[00:46:33] Annika Pasch: One word. I don't want to say something boring, like exciting because.

[00:46:40] Tom Kelly: Oh, it'll be fine. We'll make it good.

[00:46:44] Annika Pasch: I would say welcoming.

[00:46:50] Tom Kelly: I love that that's a new one. No one's used that before.

[00:46:55] Annika Pasch: So I've never felt unwelcome.

[00:46:57] Tom Kelly: Awesome. Well, we welcome you to US Biathlon and welcome you to Heartbeat. It's been great to have you on here, Annika. I know you've got to get your bags packed and get over to the first World Cup, but we appreciate all you do. And thank you for joining us on Heartbeat.

[00:47:12] Annika Pasch: Thank you so much, I appreciate it.