As it’s been almost a year since I last updated you, I think it’s high time for a slideshow of the year in review!
I post regular updates with photos on my Instagram account so make sure you follow me there for more frequent updates.
2021 World Championships in Slovenia were not my best…but it was as beautiful as always in the Triglav National Forest. (Photo: NordicFocus) 
Afterwards I enjoyed a magnificent week in Antholz with some members of our men’s team! 
At the next World Cup, Sean and Susan teamed up for a relay podium, and to celebrate we all jumped in the pond. 
Our women’s relay and mixed relay teams finished 6th in consecutive weekends, for the best finishes I’ve been a part of. 
Meanwhile, our staff (Fede and Gara) got into puzzling. 
Susan knit these beautiful “Silver” bibs for the top athletes in the unofficial 33+ age category!!! Jakov Fak (SLO) and Anais Bescond (FRA) were the winners. (Photo: NordicFocus) 
And voila, the 2020-21 season was over. (Photo: NordicFocus) 
When I got back to Lake Placid there was still plenty of snow for spring skiing. 
But eventually Erik and I escaped to sunny Florida. 
Erik kept the vacation mood going back Lake Placid with upscale homemade cocktails! 
I didn’t know whether I wanted to continue for another year or not, but it’s hard to say no to a spring skiing trip to Bend, Oregon! 
And that lead to another summer of hard work… 
I enjoyed relaxing on my deck every afternoon in between workouts. 
In July, Erik and I went camping at Meecham Lake, which is only 45 minutes away but felt like a big vacation. 
My teammates and I hiked a lot of mountains, rain or shine. 
Between camps, Erik and I visited my family in Maine and enjoyed a boat ride with one my best friends from college and her husband. I hadn’t seen her in ten years! 
I won both of our roller-ski trials races in early August, in spite of extreme heat and humidity which nearly prevented me from racing. 
One of my favorite summer excursions was when Erik and I took our bikes on the ferry to Vermont and then rode the Island Line Rail Trail all the way to Burlington. 
Celebrating the end of summer with one of Erik’s signature cocktails on the porch. 
I spent September in Europe at a training camp and tried “via ferrata” climbing for the first time! 
We participated in Italian roller-ski championships and they were really hard but I was proud of how I pushed myself. 
I took a couple days off training to drive to Munich and speak at the IBU President’s conference. Sometimes it is overwhelming to do my athlete job and my IBU Executive Board/Athlete Representative job but I like having a lot to do. 
We spent the last week of the camp in Austria, skiing on the Dachstein Glacier at over 3000m altitude. 
I flew straight from Europe to Arizona for a family gathering and short vacation in Sedona with Erik. It was worth crossing 9 time zones! 
Finally I made it back to Lake Placid– before my garden had frozen! 
After just two weeks in Lake Placid I flew to Utah for our next camp. I felt tired in the races but I moved up each day, from from 3-2-1, winning the final race. 
Here’s a picture of my last strength workout at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid. 
Perfect 10s…I set some personal-best shooting scores before I left for the winter, including 517 in the 30/30 test (30 prone shots 286 plus 30 standing shots 231). 
On November 10th I flew back to Europe. We spent our first two weeks on snow in Obertilliach, Austria. 
Our first World Cup of the winter was in Sweden, WITH spectators! Here I am, waiting for the relay hand off. I shot clean! (Photo: NordicFocus) 
In December in Le Grand Bornand, France, we had over 25,000 spectators each day and I was reminded of how much fun biathlon racing can be! (Photo: NordicFocus) 
I flew home to the US for one week at Christmas, split between Lake Placid and Rochester, NY where Erik’s family lives. I love how my view changes throughout the year. 
And now I’m already back in Antholz, Italy, my home-away-from-home, getting ready to race again!
CLARE EGAN 