As our Australian biathletes finish up their European training camp, we have to acknowledge the hard, hard work of our house parents. If it were not for these amazing individuals, a training camp and tour of this nature would not have been possible.

To put the house parents’ role in perspective, for a training camp that was held for across 9 weeks/63 days (including being away over the festive season), check out these interesting and fun facts:

• 17 number of athletes took part in the tour
• 1,260 dinners were prepared
• 189 litres of milk were consumed
• 300 packets of pasta were cooked    
• 135 RAT tests were administered
• In excess of 450kg of luggage was moved around between five different venues
• 30,000 rounds of ammunition were used
• 108 training sessions were held
• 7 racing events were attended

And we cannot even begin to count the number of visits to the supermarket our house parents made, the number of reminders to use the laundry and wash your clothes, the number of gloves and shoes they located owners for, the number of car trips made ferrying athletes and their gear back and forth to the range or the number of questions, messages and requests they have had to field from athlete family members back home. 

Nym McCann, Cheryl Wilby, Sarah Bradford and Greg Glanville, there are no words that can express the thanks the athletes, parents, Board members of Biathlon East Australia Board, Biathlon ACT, NSW Biathlon and Victorian Biathlon have for you; but we hope you know how deeply appreciative everyone is of all that you have done.  The success and future successes of our training camps overseas is made on the back of all your hard-work and commitment.