[00:00:00] Tom Kelly: Jack Gierhart, thanks for joining us on Heartbeat again.

[00:00:03] Jack Gierhart: Thanks, Tom. Great to be here.

[00:00:04] Tom Kelly: You know the coolest thing? We're recording in the US Biathlon headquarters at Soldier Hollow. And I know you've had this headquarters now for about a year or so. And as I come into the office now, in recent months, things are starting to really perk up here. There's lots of activity here.

[00:00:22] Jack Gierhart: There absolutely is. We have pretty much our entire office here this week, except Tim Burke is not here, but everybody else is here. And we're really excited to have him, the coaches, the staff, communications, and then all the athletes are here. And, you know, we're so used to working off of phones, emails, Zooms, and it's great to be able to sit down and just have a quick conversation, get other people involved. And it's it's so productive. It's really nice to be in person.

[00:00:52] Tom Kelly: At the US Biathlon Annual Awards the other night at Soldier Hollow, it was really interesting to see the crowd. A lot of young athletes, a lot of youth and junior athletes there. But one of the things that I took away from it was that the biathlon family is really comfortable here in Utah and really taking advantage of the opportunity at this Olympic venue to pursue their sport.

[00:01:15] Jack Gierhart: Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head. It is a family, and this Soldier Hollow is really starting to feel like our home. I mean, we do a lot of work, as you know, out in Lake Placid, which is a phenomenal community as well that embraces the national team. But, you know, we have the youth, the kids that are in school here that are coming and experiencing biathlon for the first time. We've got a group from Alaska this week from the northeast. I mean, everybody comes here. It's well, it's in the West. It's a little more centralized. And there's just the I mean, as we've talked about before, the Olympic vibe is here. And I think that really helps generate this energy. And people are really excited to come.

[00:01:57] Tom Kelly: We just finished up three days of trials competitions coming up this week. We have camp continuing. We've got a meaty day. Lots of activities going on here right now. How important is this from an athletic perspective to be able to get everybody here, have trials events on these trails, and kind of get ready to launch the season.

[00:02:19] Jack Gierhart: It's really important. I mean, we've had 3 or 4 months of pretty much nonstop training. You know, we start in Bend in May. We move on to Lake Placid for June, big camp in June. Then a group goes to Europe. They come back. We've got July and August and then September in Lake Placid, and then come here towards the end. You know, we've got great altitude here, which helps prepare us for some of the venues in Europe and coming together as a team. You know, really strong training for three weeks. We got the competition in the middle. Everybody gets to see where they are. We had some great performances this past, past week, and we've got a really strong team that's headed to Europe for the preseason camp and the rest of the trials.

[00:03:05] Tom Kelly: And your next camp or your preseason camp is coming up, uh, just a little bit over a month now. And you're going to kick it off in Obertilliach, right?

[00:03:13] Jack Gierhart: That's correct. We have, probably I think it's like 10 or 14 days there right before the first World Cup, which the team will head over to Sweden, to Östersund.

[00:03:22] Tom Kelly: We're going to cover a lot of territory here. We're going to come and we're going to talk about team culture in a little bit. We had a great opening episode with Kelsey Dickinson, Dickinson, and Chloe Levins. We're going to talk about the new logo, which I am just loving. And everywhere you go here at Soldier Hollow, you're seeing it. But I wanted to start out and talk a little bit about some of the partnerships that you've forged now. And actually, I've got to ask you, how many years are you now into this endeavor here at US Biathlon?

[00:03:46] Jack Gierhart: This is basically the beginning of my fourth year. So three full years in. I remember my first trip was to the trials in October of 2022.

[00:03:56] Tom Kelly: And this has become kind of a home away from home now.

[00:03:58] Jack Gierhart: Right it is. I'm here once a month. I rent a place in the wintertime, and it's a great, great community to come to. I'm really lucky to be able to spend a lot of time here, get to know all the people at the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, our partners here at Soldier Hollow. And, you know, as the Olympic program is is gaining steam here. All the folks on the organizing committee, it's a great, great community.

[00:04:21] Tom Kelly: I want to talk about partnerships, and any successful endeavor, any successful sports team really can't do it alone. You really need partnerships. And you have a couple that I think really stand out, one with the University of Utah and one with Montana State. Uh, why don't you tell us about those and how they came into being and how important they are for your athletes?

[00:04:40] Jack Gierhart: Yeah, that's a great, great area, Tom, to focus on. So Montana State came through some work that a lot of this has been driven by Lowell Bailey, our high-performance director. We developed some relationships early on in Montana and Bozeman through crosscut and, the activities there. Jim Becker, who heads up the department at Montana State that we work with, is actually a master's biathlete, knows the sport, and he's got this department and that he runs at Montana State University, that we started to do some initial physiological and biometrics testing. They've got some great equipment there. They've got a great master's program. So he brought equipment, expertise, some really enthusiastic and energetic, master students, and then a passion for the sport. And you combined all those things. And that makes an incredible partnership. And it started out, I think, fairly small and worked on a few in a few areas, testing out and capturing, you know, some 3D motion capture of the athletes doing a lot of physiological biometric testing. And we've basically expanded that partnership over the last several years, integrating our devices and a lot of that technology that's really helping our athletes almost in real time, look at how they can improve their performance, both technically and tactically. There's so much data that's out there that we can get from IBU that we're capturing, and we're really seeing quite an impact on the performance of our athletes.

[00:06:22] Tom Kelly: Now you're a sport that has two distinctly different elements. You have the cross country skiing, you have the marksmanship in a program like this is does it favor one or the other, or are you able to see some benefits on both sides?

[00:06:35] Jack Gierhart: We're seeing benefits on both sides. We're working on ski technique and we're, you know, really impacting not only some of our veteran athletes, but some of the athletes that are coming in from the cross country community, uh, that are having access to this technology. And it's really, you know, I think a lot of people have access to the technology, but it's how they integrate the data and the analysis into the training programs. And that's, you know, you take the experts at with Jim Becker and his team at MSU, you take our coaches and then, you know, the person that drives a lot of our training programs, which is Tim Burke, we've got this incredible team of expertise that really knows how to to harvest this data and have a pretty profound impact on our athletes.

[00:07:21] Tom Kelly: You mentioned athletes coming over from cross country, and this has been kind of a little bit of a development strategy for you. And you are seeing athletes coming over from cross country. And is a program like this maybe a little bit enticing for them, because they can start to see the analytics of what they can do to improve themselves.

[00:07:39] Jack Gierhart: I absolutely think so. I know, there's obviously an incredible cross country program in this country with great clubs and great coaches. They come over to biathlon. We're giving them a slightly different perspective, and I think we have a lot of tools that some of the clubs don't have and are able to take it up to that next level, which, you know, a lot of them. It's interesting. You know, some athletes really dig into the technology and the data and want to understand it and want to analyze it with the coaches. And others are saying, you know, coach, just tell me what I need to do. And, you know, we have the people that are able to go both ways.

[00:08:14] Tom Kelly: Cool. We're going to have both Jim Becker and Annika Pash on Heartbeat sometime this fall. Tell us a little bit about Annika's program that's very much oriented towards wellness, which is super important coming out of the University of Utah.

[00:08:28] Jack Gierhart: Yeah, the University of Utah is something that's developed over the last two years and actually was spawned from the transfer of Brett Horsdal, who's our chief medical officer, head doctor who came over from HHS, uh, I believe in 2024. 24. Transferred over to the University of Utah. So he's been with us for a while. But as he came to the University of Utah and started working with the team there, as you know, that institution is extremely excited about Olympics and sports, and they just got behind him and what he was doing and really opened up a lot of doors, uh, and provided a lot of support. So his ability to support us has grown exponentially. And one of the areas is, we really started to focus on about a year and a half ago was how do we make reduce athlete illness? Because that's been the biggest impact on us. We have a we have much less depth in our team. And when I say depth, it's we just don't have as many athletes as the Norwegians or the Germans or the French do. So when one of our athletes has become sick and can't compete or is off a percentage or two, it has a profound impact on us. There's We don't have a bench that can step in and fill that like some of our competitors do. So this concept of minor illness prevention is incredibly important to us. So we started to talk about how do we do that? How do we keep our athletes on the racecourse more frequently? And besides being able and having boots on the ground with the athletes that are able to monitor things in real time and react immediately is really important.

[00:10:13] Jack Gierhart: And you would say, well, you know, you've got communications and stuff, but, you know, athletes waking up at six in the morning and not feeling well, that's, you know, 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning here. We're not going to get that immediate response. But having somebody on the ground that can respond and interface with those athletes right away is really important. And this is where Annika comes in. She's a certified athletic trainer with Brett and Lowell, and the team at University of Utah. We said, well, what would be a really critical role to fill to help us do this. We can't have a doctor on the road all the time, but we started it. We were looking at what some of the other NBS are doing. I think speed skating does this. Bobsled does this a little bit. This certified athletic trainer is a role that is diverse, but also, you know, can fill the shoes of a doctor and be a really good interface. And that's, you know, Annika started January of last year and she slipped right into her role. She's got an incredible sort of personality and character that fits with our team. She carries out her role great. You know her experience and skill set is excellent for us. But she also brings a lot of else to the table. She knows Nordic skiing. She's actually known Deidre Irwin for quite a while. So there were some connections here. And she is she has come on and had an incredible impact on the organization, the team, and the athletes. The athletes really appreciate our presence.

[00:11:46] Tom Kelly: You know, this is just anecdotal, I guess, but having myself worked in cross country for many years, I've seen the culture of wellness. And I mean these athletes and these coaches in particular, they just freak out about making sure that illness doesn't spread because it's such a performance impact. So it's interesting to see biathlon’s kind of making a little bit of a culture change to really respect this even more.

[00:12:12] Jack Gierhart: Yeah, absolutely. When I came into biathlon, I've learned a lot since I've been here. I came from sailing, I spent some time at fencing, and you would think at first glance that, oh, these are hardcore endurance athletes. They must have this really hearty, you know, immune system. But it's actually the opposite. It's very fragile because they are constantly pushing themselves to the edge and and you know, it's like like all people athletes will take a different approach to this. Some are very conscious of health and wellness and do a lot to, you know, from a, you know, cleanliness perspective or protection perspective, masking, all this kind of stuff. And some athletes are like, you know what, I'm just going to live the way I live. And finding this balance of how to as a, as a group with these, you know, diverse perspectives, how do you respect that? But also what's that, that common denominator that all the athletes can get behind, uh, and, and support one another and respect, you know, the position of others. So that's when you talk about, you know, minor illness prevention, finding that balance that everybody can buy into and get behind is really important. And Annika, you know, has been has been helping develop that.

[00:13:28] Tom Kelly: So I want to move into a different area that we've talked about a lot on this podcast, particularly with Sara Studebaker Hall. But, the organization has really stepped up in its women's initiative. So Women's Leadership Initiative, the women's coaching initiative. Talk about this in the context of maybe the greater strategy for the organization in the sport.

[00:13:50] Jack Gierhart: Well, you know, I think biathlon in general, you go and take a look on the international circuit. You know, obviously, from an athlete perspective, there's gender balance, which is awesome. I mean, I think it's a showcase for the athletes and support like that. On the staff coaching support side. It's not quite there. And, you know, we are obviously very conscious of that here in the United States and with Team USA. And one of the things we set out to do, and really started to feel it a couple of years ago, was, you know, how do we work to change that? And it's not something that's going to change by itself. It may be that it would over time, but we needed to accelerate that. And we needed to demonstrate to the athletes that were who think it's very important and to our community. We needed to be really diligent in putting a plan together to try to change that and increase the diversity and the staff and support and the coaching. We'd had a system of shadow coaching program for quite a while. But we needed to take it up to the next level.

[00:14:58] Jack Gierhart: We actually modeled it after what the ski team had done, and spoke, and connected a lot with some of their, their coaches, like Kristen Bourne, got some input from them. Kelsey Dickinson is involved in the women's, I think it's the Nordic Coaching Association. And so we got a lot of input from other organizations that had been, I think, successful in developing and expanding women's coaching and adding there. So we took some examples from them. We worked with them and we put together this women's coaching initiative last year, which was to be very diligent in selecting qualified applicants that we could put into key roles where they weren't just tagging along to learn, but actually part of the team. And we had eight women last year that participated from youth and junior events, national team training up through World Cup events, and we got some really good feedback on that. We were taking that feedback. We've put application; we open the applications up about a month ago for this coming season, and we've got slots, and we're looking forward to continuing that program.

[00:16:09] Tom Kelly: Cool. So, it's continuing this year and on to the future.

[00:16:12] Jack Gierhart: Absolutely, absolutely. We, you know, we're we're continuing to refine it and sort of mold the clay, if you will, on how we're how we're operating it and trying to put the the coaches that are coming in, the women that are coming in and areas that they want to be in. And one of the interesting elements here is that everybody thought, okay, there's going to be these great opportunities on the World Cup. And we do have those. But a lot of the women didn't necessarily want that. They wanted some areas where they could have maybe a much bigger role, or they wanted to be able to focus on the youth side or something. So we work really hard to understand what they're looking for and support them in that. So, and I think we got some really good feedback on that.

[00:16:55] Tom Kelly: Yeah, it's been a cool program, and I've loved talking about that on the Heartbeat podcast. I want to shift over to team culture. And a week ago, we had Kelsey Dickenson and Chloe Levinson to talk about the process that the team has undergone, really over about the last year or maybe a little bit longer than that. It was just about a year ago that the team got together at the preseason camp to really start this process. Give us a little of your thought process on how this went along, beginning at to the culmination of establishing these values?

[00:17:27] Jack Gierhart: Well, we talked about it as a, as a staff for quite a while. And, you know, it's interesting and listening to Chloe and Kelsey talk about it, you know, the athletes had been thinking about it as well. And I remember talking with Kelsey and Jake, and a couple of other athletes a year and a half ago or so, and it's like they were enthusiastic about trying to get this going. And we said, all right, well, let's see what we can put in place. I had some experience at sailing and at fencing, about developing, you know, climate and environments for sort of a pursuit of excellence. And, you know, how you create that in these organizations that have a lot of different stakeholders. So I tapped into an organization that I'd used before, and they really helped me prepare for a really collaborative activity and collaborative program to bring the athletes in, as I think, Chloe and Kelsey said it was really driven by them. And that's important because they're the ones that have to live by this. But the other important part is that the staff are involved and in vocal. What was great was we had we had us staff. We had all the athletes from, you know, quite a few different levels, IBU Cup and World Cup, and we had all of our European staff over there.

[00:18:49] Jack Gierhart: And you know, I heard Chloe and Kelsey talk about the involvement of the participants. And it was great to see over there, especially, you know, the Italians and the Germans and the Finns engaging in this as well. So everybody was buying in. They were seeing the, the, you know, the energy that was there. People were listening. And, so that really kicked it off. And I think that gave everybody confidence that they would be heard, that there was like actually going to be some progress here and some real productivity coming out of it. And this is not a, a project for us. This is going to be is part of the fabric of our organization. And we, you know, we started out with asking some really basic questions, which is, you know, what is the environment like when you're feeling at your best, when you're able to be successful? And then the other one was, how are you personally thinking and feeling when you're at your best? And we sort of started there, and from that developed these areas of, okay, how do we create that for the athletes, for the staff. And that's that's what led us to developing these values.

[00:20:00] Tom Kelly: I want to go back to a comment you made. It was definitely athlete-led, athlete-driven. But one of the things that did stand out to me in talking to Kelsey and Chloe, that they were very quick to talk about the role that the staff played in that and how important it was for everyone to be a part of this.

[00:20:16] Jack Gierhart: Yeah, absolutely. I think we talk a lot about trust within our organizations and within pretty much any organization. And you're able to get through challenging times and obstacles. Working as a team when you can trust each other and you have the same goal, and there's this trust. And I think trust is developed through really good communications, honesty. And then, you know, working from the same basis, and you're all in the same place and sort of operating under the same values. And that's why we had to bring everybody into that. You can't just have one, one stakeholder, one group that's saying, hey, we buy into this and everybody else doesn't, and you cannot take a group of values or elements that one person, one group developed and just assume everybody else is going to buy into it. It has to be this collective process. And that was what we worked really hard on. And seeing the athletes really drive that was fantastic.

[00:21:24] Tom Kelly: And those values are our respect, grit, and growth mindset.

[00:21:29] Jack Gierhart: That's right. And it's … they're pretty powerful. And, you know, I've heard you mention that you've heard of grit and at the Ski Team, and but these were things that we hadn't seen any of that. Right? We developed this on our own. And I think it's really interesting when you compare it to what other high-performing organizations are doing. And there are these common themes that rise up to the surface. And a couple of them, we, you know, we put in our own terms, but, they're the part that was really interesting was … we created the baseline of this in Vuokatti, and we all agreed, let's, let's see how this works through the season. And so we came back together in Lake Placid in June with some new athletes that had just come on the team that were there at the training camp. And we revisited things, we revisited what we talked about, and then we talked about what was our experience over the season. We said, did we miss anything? Did we do we want to add anything? Do we need to take anything away? And what we came out of it was we really cemented those three. It's like, you know what those are? Those are solid. We have a really good understanding of them. We saw them in practice during the season. And it really, I think, confirmed everybody's commitment that this is us. And that was, for me, really exciting. It was like we did some great work, and the process and the journey that we went on together was, was delivering for us.

[00:23:04] Tom Kelly: Jack, one more thing. We've had this great discussion of where you've come over the last year. Where are you going with the values program?

[00:23:12] Jack Gierhart: So the values program is, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, it's not a one and done. This is becoming the fabric of our organization. It's the foundation for this concept of a culture of excellence for us, as we develop the values and confirm them and identified how … hat do those mean to us? How do we act? What are the behaviors? It's like we decided, okay, we've got a good sense of these. We have an organization that sort of we people come in and they leave, and they're here for a while. There's always some sort of transition going on. So how do we make this part of our organization? How do we make these values stick? So we spent an afternoon with the whole group again and ideating about what are some ways that we can make this, these stick? How do we continue to make sure that they're integrated into our organization? Some of them were, yeah, we're going to work them into onboarding sessions with athletes and staff. There were ideas around, you know, athlete engagement, having, you know, events and game nights.

[00:24:21] Jack Gierhart: Recognizing behaviors that represent these values and sort of documenting that. We talked about ideas like having a team jingle, I think is what Campbell said. There's a we came up with about 200 ideas, and we're starting to sort of look at those, digest them a little bit, and begin to focus on a couple of them. And, I think this is going to be an ongoing process for us. As we … as our organization evolves, we're going to continually be identifying ways to make, as I said a little bit earlier, these values stick and make sure they're in the fabric of our organization. And that's what's really exciting. And to see the enthusiasm of the athletes as we went through that process. I think Kelsey and Chloe mentioned that. It's like everybody in the room was talking. So they're buying in. We're going to pick up this stuff. And it's going to be exciting. So you know when people start to see us in public, on television at events, you're going to see the representation and the manifestation of this.

[00:25:28] Tom Kelly: I love the jingle idea. And when we get Campbell on Heartbeat, I'm going to ask him that.

[00:25:33] Jack Gierhart: Absolutely.

[00:25:34] Tom Kelly: We're with Jack Gierheart. We're going to take a short break. And when we come back, we're going to talk about that cool new US Biathlon logo right here on Heartbeat. We're back on Heartbeat. My guest today is Jack Gierhart and Jack, one of the coolest things for me last week was coming down to Soldier Hollow. I knew the new logo had been published, but it's everywhere. It's on all the signs. It's just everywhere, and it's the coolest thing. So first of all, congratulations on that. What was the process that you went through to come up with a new logo? And I know this is not an easy task to take an organization with this much heritage and come up with a new look.

[00:26:17] Jack Gierhart: Yeah, it was quite a process. I believe the idea and the impetus came up probably two and a half years ago at a board meeting. Rachel Steer, our vice chair and an athlete and great, great member of our leadership team, identified that US Biathlon was starting sort of a new chapter. And it's like we need something to represent that. So let's create a new logo. And that's easy to say. And as you said, it's not always the easiest process. So we went through actually, it was about a year and a half process for us. And I, again, this was a project that involved all our key stakeholders, very much athlete-driven. We worked with one group in the fall summer and fall of 23. Yeah. 2023 I think that's right. And, you know, brought groups together. Ideated on what it should look like, what the elements were. Athletes were involved. Some staff were involved, evolved through a couple of different examples. Ended up with one in the winter of 2024. And I remember this vividly. It had been voted on by the board, approved by the board, athlete reps everybody. And there was always something in my mind that was like, this is it's okay. It's good. Everybody agrees. But it wasn't like, wow. And I remember having dinner with the athletes right before Antholz for the World Cup.

[00:28:00] Jack Gierhart: And Jake, Jake Brown came up to me and said, you know, is this are we really done with this? And as soon as he said that, it's like, no, we're not. And we said, all right, hit the pause button. We're starting over again. And one of our trustees, Justin Gold, who's a great guy, very sort of marketing oriented, introduced us to a firm that he'd worked with, Walden Hyde, and we started the process all again, and we actually took a different approach and really got into the sort of the philosophy of the organization, our values, our vision, and what we wanted this brand to represent and really where we were as an organization and where we were going. And I think, you know, you'll see that you see that in what we ended up with. We went through the same cycle. More different athletes got involved. And, we're very, I think, diligent in feedback and making sure everybody was on board with it. And if there was a question, we drilled down on it. It was very sort of a transparent process, very open. But everybody was being honest. And it's amazing how we sort of came together and, you know, there were just little things that changed. The logo at first was tilted a little bit, and while we were getting really close, and it was like something was wrong, and somebody said, hey, well, why don't we just straighten it out? And it was like, boom! Made all the difference.

[00:29:26] Jack Gierhart: So anyway, we got to the point and we finalized it, I think, back in the spring. So we had to hold on to it for quite a while. And but you're right, when we launched it, I will tell you, I've done this at US Sailing. We launched a new logo, and, you know, you heard what happened with Cracker Barrel, right? Recently. How it just demolished a corporate brand. So there was always this concern of, wow, what's going to be the reaction here? And I will tell you, it's been so positive and everybody's so enthusiastic. And I think a really big part has been the athletes have been so behind it. And when you say you're seeing it everywhere, our community, our athletes, coaches, SaraGol Donatello's done a great job with the launch, but everybody got behind it to make sure that, hey, we have our trials, we have this big event. This is going to be a showcase for us. Let's make sure it's everywhere. So there was, you know, dozens of people thinking about it. It was in their psyche. Everybody was waking up in the morning saying, okay, this is a big deal for us. How do we make sure that it's being presented in the right way?

[00:30:31] Tom Kelly: Yeah, for me, it was when it was on the sandwich boards coming into the parking lot. You know, those are just kind of functional things you put out. But somebody had thought to do that. I want to ask you about the insertion of the biathlon rifle into the logo. What was the evolution of that?

[00:30:45] Jack Gierhart: Well, when we went through the process, you know, one of the things that the designers asked us is, what do you what do you like in logos? What are some of the ones that you really respect and look up to? And we came up with, you know, a number of them, but one of the elements that seemed very consistent in them was this sort of reversed image that's somewhat hidden, but when you see it, you see it. And, you know, sometimes you look at it and it's like you don't really recognize it. But then once you do, it's like, wow, that's amazing. And, so that was one of the elements that we wanted to work into it. And, the, you know, I gotta hand it to the, the, the creative people at Walden High, they, they came up with that and it was like, that's it.

[00:31:30] Tom Kelly: I got to tell you a story. When I showed my wife last week, the logo for the first time, I didn't have one handy. So I grabbed my phone and I go to Spotify, and I showed her the podcast icon. So it's pretty teeny. And she's looking at it and I'm looking at it and she says, why are those, why are there those white bars in the you. And I said, oh, I've got to show her a bigger version. And I showed her a bigger version instantly. She said, wow. You know, it just just really popped out. I'm looking at one right now on a water bottle. And, you know, you would … you had talked about how, you know, you just kind of straightened it out at one point. It's I love these kind of marks. This is very modern. It's very distinctive. It's very clear. So I think you guys did a good job on it. Where can people get merchandise, by the way?

[00:32:18] Jack Gierhart: Well, we had some. We have some here at the trials at the at shoots and ski this weekend. We did a very short run of merch for this weekend. You're going to start to see more stuff on the website. And, actually, you know, I will say the logo was finished last December because it's on all the new team gear that's going to be unveiled in November, beginning of November. But they had to start to build that and design that last December. So we've actually had it in place for a while.

[00:32:49] Tom Kelly: That's really cool. So you will have merchandise on the website. We will.

[00:32:52] Jack Gierhart: Absolutely. We want as many people to be, uh, sporting our new logo as possible.

[00:32:58] Tom Kelly: So, I really appreciate your time as just one more question before we go to our on target. You have a lot of experience in the Olympic world. Several decades you've worked for sailing, for fencing, and now for biathlon. When you took this role over 3 or 4 years ago, you know, it was to just kind of help in the transition after Max. I'm going to just make a statement that you've picked up a real love for this sport, haven't you?

[00:33:24] Jack Gierhart: Absolutely. I mean, what's not to love about it? It's incredibly entertaining and captivating to watch. The community. And I said this, I think right off the bat, when I came here to my first Schutzenski in October of 2022. The community is so connected. You know, there's everybody has difference of opinions on how things get done, but we all know where we want to go. And that, I think, in the biathlon community is somewhat unique compared to other sports. You know, there's other sports have incredible diversity, and you know we have that as well. But everybody's on the same page of what we're trying to do. And that, I think, is, that's what makes it really enjoyable as a, as a person working here and in supporting and interfacing with all the stakeholders, it's like you can get people on board with things and it's maybe it's not my idea or staff's idea, but, you know, everybody's willing to talk about things and put things forward and have honest debates. And then we move forward. And that's, you know, from a, a person that's involved in sort of running these things on a day-to-day basis and working with a team that makes it easier.

[00:34:40] Tom Kelly: This will be your first Winter Olympics, working with an NGB going to Antholz this February, and what should be a spectacular show. I think one of the things that intrigues me about the Milan-Cortina Olympics is there's a lot of talk about how far everything is from each other, and that is a fact. But I don't think there's been a Games where so many of the winter sports are at their Super Bowl venue, their biggest venue, and that's for sure the case with biathlon, isn't it?

[00:35:10] Jack Gierhart: Absolutely. Antholz is one of the most renowned biathlon venues in the world. They've held the World Championships numerous times. We go there every year for the World Cup. The organizing committee that's there for the World Cups. They're professionals. I mean, that's what they do. And I think there's been no issues, discussions, questions about execution there. They got it. It's actually going to be probably I mean, security is always a big issue at the games. And that's sort of a somewhat of an unknown. But from an operating perspective and running the event, they did some incredible upgrades over the last year. And they'll actually be, I think, fewer spectators and fans just because again, of security. So it's going to be phenomenal. It will be absolutely phenomenal. The venue is sort of quintessential northern Italy. Austria is right there at the border. This up at the head of this valley with the lake there. And it's just phenomenal.

[00:36:09] Tom Kelly: For all of you listeners who are kind of on the fence as to whether or not you're going to go over to Milan Cortina, I will submit that of all of the mountain venues, this is the easiest one to get to. So think about it, Jack, thanks for joining us. We're going to wrap it up now with some fun questions with my little on target section. You know, you've kind of made your home here in Midway, especially in the wintertime. What's your what's a fun place for you to go here in the Midway Heber, Utah region?

[00:36:39] Jack Gierhart: Well, I have to say that, I'm learning a little bit about it each time I come here. And generally when I have a fun time, it's. I give John a call who's been here for a long time.

[00:36:50] Tom Kelly: By the way. That's dangerous sometimes, Jack ….

[00:36:53] Jack Gierhart: But he always takes me to some fun new, new place. So whether it's food or a place to drink, you know. … What is it? The Heber Valley Brewery.

[00:37:02] Tom Kelly: Yes.

[00:37:02] Jack Gierhart: Yeah. That I like that I actually went there on my own the other day and met some locals. So I know that's a very popular place.

[00:37:09] Tom Kelly: Every other Thursday come and join us.

[00:37:11] Jack Gierhart: And I've been there for a few of those. So that's, you know, I like diversity, and there's, there's some places I like to go to. And then John always seems to introduce me to something new.

[00:37:20] Tom Kelly: Cool. What's your favorite donut?

[00:37:22] Jack Gierhart: Favorite donut. So I'll have to say it might sound boring, but I like a glazed plain glazed because I think, you know, you talk about where do you find your best donuts? It's sort of the common denominator that you can tell what is a really good donut. If you a glazed donut in one place is a glazed donut at another, but you can tell the quality, the taste differences. So that's sort of what I would say.

[00:37:45] Tom Kelly: Have you been to Judy's?

[00:37:46] Jack Gierhart: I have, but they're no longer open. They closed.

[00:37:51] Tom Kelly: Oh, this is sad.

[00:37:52] Jack Gierhart: But I heard that the bakery, there's a new bakery in Midway that does cinnamon rolls. Yes. So I'm going to have to try that one.

[00:37:59] Tom Kelly: Did Chloe and Kelsey tell you about that? I heard you heard it on the podcast. You heard?

[00:38:04] Jack Gierhart: I also heard it from them at the team dinner the other night, too.

[00:38:07] Tom Kelly: Since that podcast launched last week, the sale of cinnamon buns at the Midway Bakery has just skyrocketed. What's your dream travel destination? If you could take, like, a two-week break from the whole routine, where are you going to go?

[00:38:22] Jack Gierhart: Well, there are two ways I look at vacations. One is with my family, and that's sort of family-oriented. But I think the best trip I ever took was I took a month and I did a trip down to Antarctica. We sailed down from Chile, and I spent three weeks down there backcountry skiing. So that was in the Southern hemisphere. I'd like to go do that in like Norway.

[00:38:45] Tom Kelly: How did you organize that?

[00:38:47] Jack Gierhart: There is a well-known ocean racer in, in the sailing community named Skip Novak, and he's got a company called Pelagic Expeditions that he's been running out of, uh, out of Chile and Argentina since the mid 90s. And I'd always dreamed of doing that. And at one point I said, all right, I talked to my family. I said, can I take a month off? And I did. No communications, no email. And I ended up on a boat with 13 people that I'd never met before and had the most incredible time, and I still keep in touch with them.

[00:39:21] Tom Kelly: Was your skiing in Antarctica? Was it alpine like or cross country?

[00:39:25] Jack Gierhart: It was. It was backcountry alpine ski touring.

[00:39:27] Tom Kelly: So you got some terrain in.

[00:39:29] Jack Gierhart: Yeah, I think we did, calculated like 32,000ft.

[00:39:35] Tom Kelly: Whew. That is amazing. I love to think about that, but that I could not do that anymore. So, yeah.

[00:39:41] Jack Gierhart: I know it took a lot out of me, but that was from a from a vacation or an adventure standpoint. That's that's sort of the ultimate to me. So I'd like to go to another place where I can have a similar experience, I think.

[00:39:55] Tom Kelly: Do you have a favorite lift served ski run here in Utah yet?

[00:40:00] Jack Gierhart: Not yet.

[00:40:01] Tom Kelly: We have to go out then. This winter.

[00:40:03] Jack Gierhart: We absolutely do. I'm open.

[00:40:05] Tom Kelly: Yeah. You'd be good on Stein's way. Last one. Looking ahead to Aunt Holt's Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics. Describe what that will be like in just one word.

[00:40:20] Jack Gierhart: One word.

[00:40:22] Tom Kelly: I know these are hard.

[00:40:24] Jack Gierhart: I think proud.

[00:40:26] Tom Kelly: Love it.

[00:40:27] Jack Gierhart: They the work that this team has done over the last three years. Regardless, we have high goals. Everybody's working really hard. But whatever happens, I think we're. I'm going to be incredibly proud of this team and our community of what we achieve.

[00:40:44] Tom Kelly: I love it. Jack Gierhart, thank you for joining us on Heartbeat. Good luck this season. We'll see you in adults.

[00:40:50] Jack Gierhart: Thank you. I hope to see you too, Tom.