Christian and Scott Gow. Photo: Nordic Focus

 

ROB MURRAY: I’m speaking with local biathletes and brothers Christian and Scott Gow. First of all, I want to say congratulations. You’ve both qualified to race in Beijing. Are you both pretty excited for this upcoming journey?

CHRISTIAN GOW: Yeah, I’m really excited to go. It’s been obviously a goal of ours, especially since the last Olympic games, but to see that team announcement – everything is sinking in and feeling real, and I’m just super excited to go.

RM: You grew up as brothers and you’re both National and Olympic biathletes now. Were you both really into cross-country skiing and biathlon at a young age?

SCOTT GOW: Neither of us had ever cross-country skied before we tried biathlon. I think we were nine. We’d done downhill skiing, hockey, soccer and all the other common sports. But biathlon was totally new to us when we first discovered it.

RM: What made you try biathlon?

SG: It was kind of by chance. We were at a summer camp at Canada Olympic park back in, I think, 2001. We tried a whole range of sports – mountain biking, luge, a little bit of ski jumping, and biathlon happened to be one of the sports that we tried. There was a sign up sheet for a fall program, we both signed up, and then it just slowly grew from there.

RM: What made you both stick with it and get to a point where you’re now going to the Olympics to do it?

CG: Both of us just really fell in love with the sport right away. Actually, even when we signed up on that day, we did that independently of each other, like we didn’t know the other had done that. Then we told our parents, cue the fall program, and we really enjoyed that. I think the challenge of the sport was really enjoyable. It’s hard to know why something would just ignite that passion, but it just did for both of us. Our love of the sport only grew every single year and we wanted to compete at a high level right away. For me, one of the first things our coaches did was show us up poster of the best biathlete at the time. It was from the Olympics and I just was like, oh man, that’s what I want to do.

RM: With your brotherly relationship coming onto the National team, has it always been really supportive? Has there been a bit of competition there? Maybe a little bit of both?

SG: We’re competitive with each other but I wouldn’t say necessarily on race day. Like on the World Cup there’s a hundred or more men we’re racing against. I always tell people that until Christian and I are number one and two on the podium he’s not my only direct competitor that I’m trying to beat. There’s a ton of other guys that I can be better than, and if Christian beats me one day and I beat him the other I think we’re both happy for each other. In training we’re more competitive, where I want to beat Christian in a shooting drill or I want to beat him skiing, but in a healthy competitive sort of way.

RM: I’d imagine that brotherly relationship must also help when you’re going on the World Cup circuit, traveling to foreign countries for the first time, even going to the Olympics. You have somebody that you know and that you trust to be by your side.

CG: I think that being able to do this together, for me, has always been a source of comfort, and you have that familiarity with you wherever you go. Sometimes you’re on tour for really long periods of time and you’re homesick, so it’s really nice to have a family right there with you. It’s just really cool to share in all those experiences together as well.

RM: I believe you both live and train in Canmore for the most part?

SG: Yes. Canmore is amazing. We’ve been living there for 10 years. You grow to love it a little more every year. It’s perfect obviously for training, but even if you’re just an outdoorsy person…like, where I live, I just walk out the door and I can go for a run or a mountain bike ride or whatever. It’s just so convenient and easy, and for the most part quiet throughout the year.

RM: Do you each have any personal goals for these games coming up?

CG: The dream goal is to be on the podium at the games. That’s the big one and that’s what you dream of your whole career. I think that we’re both in the best place in our careers to make that happen.

Filed under: Canmore, Olympics