‘It’s hard to believe it’s here’: Team Sask. Biathlete heading to Canada Winter Games in PEI

A group of biathletes from Saskatchewan is getting set for their first Canada Winter Games.

Saskatchewan’s contingent of over 200 athletes, competing in 20 different sports, is heading to Prince Edward Island this week with games set to begin Saturday.

Dawson Schigol is part of the team Saskatchewan’s biathlon contingent.

“My mom got me into cross country skiing, then we were watching the Olympics one day, she said you should try biathlon,” Schigol told CTV News.

From those beginnings as a young boy, he now joins a team of eight elite athletes who are part of the team heading to the Canada Winter Games.

Schigol along with Rhiann Arnold and Drayton Lonsberry are 17-years-old and from Saskatoon.

It’s their first time representing their province at the games. Schigol has eyed the competition up for a long time.

“It’s definitely a goal but it’s hard to believe it’s here so soon. I’ve always dreamed about it for the past five years of doing biathlon,” he says.

The games happen every four years and with age limitations, this is the only one this group will be attending so they have been preparing hard.

“I train about six days a week,” Arnold says.

That’s the amount of time they spend getting ready for a sport that isn’t as widely known as some other winter events at the games — something they’d like to change.

“It combines mental strength with the shooting and physical strength with the skiing and puts two opposites together and it’s a really fun challenging sport,” Schigol said.

It’s so intense and potentially dangerous, that their heart rate is monitored during training to ensure they’re calm enough after the ski portion to shoot the gun effectively and safely.

Their coach Doug Sylvester has taken a team to the games six times and despite COVID disruptions for the past few years, he says this crew is ready.

“This team promises to be a solid team. The athletes are pretty well matched. We’ll have quite an excellent performance at Canada Games,” he says.

This will be some of the most intense competition these athletes will face so he’s prepared them mentally and physically.

“In terms of dealing with the stress, I like to tell them to manage yourself, to think about what you have to do to make your experience as good as it can be,” the coach said.

The other variable the team is considering heavily heading into competition in PEI is the humidity.

“If the snow’s too warm it might get a little sticky, but right around minus 4 would be ideal,” he said.

Even with the adaptation needed to deal with adverse conditions, they’re hoping to finish in the middle or top of the pack.

For Schigol, that inspiration of watching Olympic biathlon on TV with his mom as a child is on his mind and he plans to work towards that goal once these games are done.