Date of Birth: 1/25/78
Height: 5’8” / 150 lbs.
Hometown/ Residence: Anchorage, AK
High School: Robert Service High School
College: University of Alaska, Anchorage
Parents: Paul and Bonnie Steer
Marital Status: Single
Hobbies: Hunting, Fishing, Adventure Sports
Boots: adidas Skis: Fischer
In grade school, Rachel Steer was always a child on the move. She would ride her bicycle to school, with the violin on one side, swim bag on the other, and her backpack filled with books on her back. This balanced load mirrored her life, a delicate balance between school, sports and music. It was not a big deal to her; she excelled in all.
Fast forward to 2005; Rachel continues balancing a variety of projects and interests, while training full time for the upcoming biathlon campaign. This past spring, during her
“vacation” from biathlon, she took a two-week kayak trip, did “lots of spring skiing” and made a trip to Denali National Park. Once back to training, as she says, “(doing) mostly the same stuff everybody has been doing—roller skiing, running, shooting,” she continues to mix in more activities, including classes at the University of Alaska – Anchorage.
Rachel enthusiastically recounts a training hike and a fishing trip early in the summer.
“We went on a fantastic hike up in Canada, and on our way back home, stopped to pick Morel mushrooms in a forest fire area (from the previous year). I thought it was a unique training weekend - to go on a good hike and then pick mushrooms in the burned forest.”
“I fished over 4 th of July and caught a ton of Red
Salmon. I also caught a King Salmon earlier.
The only thing I am missing (in the way of fishing) for the year is Halibut. When I caught the King
Salmon, we ate most of it fresh, because we were doing some entertaining that week. But when we came back from our 4 th of July trip, we had 20-something Red Salmon. We dedicated about 4 hours to vacuum packing the fish: clean the filets, seal them and put them in the freezer.
It was an Alaskan assembly line.”
Rachel gets the most out of being home in
Alaska and preparing for the Biathlon World Cup circuit half a world away. She trained mainly in
Europe after the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
After surveying the results and the high costs incurred, she decided to train at home in the spring of 2003. “By staying in Alaska, I knew that
I would have the opportunity to work with a coach (Jan Buren) who had worked with me
Rachel and her sister Becky after a successful day of fishing. Photo courtesy of Rachel Steer.

Rachel Steer when I was younger, go to college in Anchorage and be around my family. Looking at the pros and cons, it was overwhelming how obvious I wanted to stay in Alaska."
Her results illustrate the success of “homegrown” training in Alaska. In the last two years, Rachel Steer has gone from being just another World Cup competitor to a World Cup contender. Virtually every time she broke from the starting gate, Rachel had been battling for
World Cup Points and top 20 finishes. She has finished 36 th in the Overall World Cup in each of the past two years, amassing 101 points in 2004 and 123 in 2005. She had 13 top 30 finishes last season (compared to 10 in 2004), with three of these at the Biathlon World Championships.
The World Championships came in the middle of Steer’s brilliant run of 10 top 30 finishes in 12 starts, culminating with 12 th place (equaling her personal best World
Cup performance) in the World Cup Final
Mass Start in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
The competition in Khanty was another display of quiet resolve from the 27 yearold biathlete. She cleaned both prone stages for the first time in the season, to put herself solidly in the top 15 before the standing stage. Picking up one penalty in each visit to standing, she skied faster on each loop, and was in 8 th place with 800 meters to go. Although out kicked in the
Rachel in downhill tuck in at the snowy World Championships final 200 meters, she was closer to a top
10 finish than ever before. “I really wanted
10 th place today. They caught me on that last ramp. You know, I only have one speed. They had just a bit more.” Once again, Steer challenged the best women in the world, and served notice that they could be looking at her back in
2006.
Even with the excellent result in Russia, the World Championships were Rachel’s personal highlight of the season. “There were some tough races there, and other than the Individual race, I felt really good about them. On some of those loops, I never felt so in control; knowing that I could push hard here and make time on people there. I know that is an ability people like Björndalen have almost all of the time. My shooting was not incredibly solid there, but I did feel like my skiing came together at World Champs.”
At the same time, she ended the season short of her personal goals. Explaining, “I am still dealing with a real big feeling of disappointment. Basically, my goal was to make the
(Olympic) pre-qualification mark, even though I did not know what it was at the beginning of the season. I wanted to have that, to know exactly where I was at the beginning of the training year, to know that I could just focus on the Games. I continue to deal with disappointment of not making it.
There is a little bit of anger at myself, knowing how many times that just one more target would have done it for me. I remember so vividly in December I had a race where I hit 19 of 20 and I thought to myself that is going to come back to sting you later on. I just knew it.”
Even though she feels some personal disappointment over last season, Rachel’s career continues to trend upward. She attributes a lot of her success, not just to being in Alaska, but also to her coach. “Jan is really flexible, open minded and he has great ideas. We work well together. I train with Jan’s group, but still do more than half of my sessions alone. But when I

Rachel Steer train with the group, it is a pretty awesome group. It has all ages from high school to college and masters, a great group of people with a really positive attitude. All of us are working hard.
There are definitely athletes there who are better than me. “
Rachel made the 2002 Olympic Biathlon Team, and finished 31 st in the 15K Individual, but had hoped for more. Still, that result was better than any US woman four years earlier in
Nagano. With 17 of 20 shooting, one or 2 less penalties would have put her easily in the top 20.
Rachel’s attitude about training and disappointments, like Salt Lake and missing preselection for Torino, show a growing maturity, continued determination and a natural progression in both life and sports. As a youth, she was an All-American girl with good grades and a close-knit family. Rachel grew up sailing, skiing, swimming, hunting and doing just about anything that would get her out of doors and keep her active. Rachel has been a uniquely versatile athlete her entire life. She began competitive swimming at age 8 and continued into high school. Later, she also competed in track , cross-country skiing and triathlons. Rachel gravitated to Biathlon while attending high school in 1992.
Thirteen years after her first taste of biathlon, the Rachel Steer preparing for Torino is one of the top female biathletes in the world. It has been a long journey, but Rachel is not surprised it took so long.
"I first realized when I started in biathlon that if I ever made the big step to the top, it would take me a lot longer than some of these athletes who have this incredible amount of natural talent. Even if you have the shooting talent early on, you still need to develop the skiing talent to pair with it. I think that one of my strengths is that I have patience. I have patience enough to realize that success was not going to come to me really early."
Her approach to the Olympic year is simple. “Right now, I am not feeling the fear, that I did four years ago, I felt at this time--like I cannot believe it is coming so quickly. I am not prepared. Right now, I feel like training has gone really well and it is one of those “go for broke” years for me. What have I got to lose? I hope that I can keep that mentality throughout the season, because I know I am doing the work. The biggest thing that holds me back is my mind.”
Still, Rachel thinks about Torino
(the Cesana San Sicario venue specifically) and her experiences there last February at the pre-Olympic World Cup. The hallmark of the event was the lack of snow (other than manmade), a blazing sun, and temperatures that reached plus 10
Celsius, turning the manmade snow into slush. She placed a solid 21 st in the 15K Individual on a very warm February day.
Racing for three days with her long sleeves rolled up due to the warm temperatures, left a
Preparing to shoot on a warm winter day at Cesana San Sicario lasting impression and concern.
Rachel commented on the challenges that the 1700 meter high mountainside venue will present. “The heat…. I think that is going to be a real big challenge - probably the heat and the

Rachel Steer approach to the range. It is very challenging. I think about that approach almost daily when I am training. I know if thinking about it is helping me mentally prepare, then I will be prepared for it. But for the physical preparation part - I am not (training) at altitude so I will have to do that before the Games.”
She relishes the prospect of being a contender in Torino in 2006, but is philosophical when asked about what it will take to be on the podium there.
"A lot of luck… You can do all the work in the world and be the best biathlete in the world, but when it comes down to it, it takes a lot of luck to get on the podium (in Torino)."
If you look at Rachel Steer today, world-class biathlete, and Rachel Steer, youthful age group swimmer, there are many similarities. Regardless of the years in between, Rachel is devoted to and loves her sport. She is a determined and tenacious competitor. But at the same time, she is a multi-faceted vivacious, young woman, who loves the outdoors and thrives around her family and friends.
But in some ways, Rachel, with the model good looks, and the infectious smile never drifts far from sports…
Rachel battling in Hochfilzen
She recounts her first thoughts about being an Olympian, though not necessarily in biathlon, “We were driving home from swim practice when I was probably about 10 years old. I think I was telling my mom how this person who I swam with was always slacking off and got yelled at for playing or something instead of doing what we were supposed to do. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Well, I am going to train hard and I am going to the Olympics. …. I am going to go there.’ I just remember that so vividly. I did not say that out loud - just thought it.”
Rachel shoots during a snowstorm at the World Championships as officials struggle to keep the mats clear.

Rachel Steer
Rachel Steer’s Competitive Record
2002 Olympic Winter Games
31st Individual: 60th Sprint; 15th Relay
Biathlon World Championships
2005 Hochfilzen: 23rd Sprint;17th Pursuit; 20th Mass Start
2004 Oberhof: 20th Sprint; 34th Pursuit; 62nd Individual
2003 Khanty Mansiysk: 51st Sprint; 46th Pursuit
2001 Pokljuka: 27th Sprint; 23rd Pursuit; 71st Individual
2000 Holmenkollen: 50th Sprint; 34th Individual;
1999 Kontiolahti: 48th Sprint; 40th Pursuit; 12th Relay
Biathlon World Cups
23 Times in the Top 25
2005 Oslo: 25th Individual
Ostersund: 15th Sprint; 20th Pursuit
Cesana San Sicario: 21st Individual
Khanty Mansiysk: 24th Sprint; 12th Mass Start
2004 Ruhpolding: 27th Sprint; 28th Pursuit
Antholz: 29th Sprint
Lake Placid: 16th Sprint; 12th Pursuit
Fort Kent: 21st Pursuit; 29th Mass Start
Oslo: 14th Sprint; 16th Pursuit
2003 Osrblie: 31st Sprint; Lahti: 29th Sprint
Oslo: 37th Sprint; Ostersund: 28th Individual
My best trait is….
My smile
Characterize yourself in a few words….
Focused
If you could be world class in any other sport, it would be….
Triathlon
If I could buy any car, it would be.… a hybrid
My Dream vacation spot is….
in the Alaskan wilderness with excellent
fishing and my favorite people
During a season of traveling, the thing I miss the most is…. cooking
My favorite outfit is….
currently, a pair of AC/DC pants with flames
on them
For me, relaxation is….
a fun night hanging out with my family
If you opened my purse right now, you would find…. a calendar, my
glasses and wallet
My favorite movie is….
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
My favorite meal is….
Sushi
Very few people know that I like…. t o practice yoga
In the world of desserts, my #1 is.…
Tiramisu
At the end of the season, the first thing I do is….
Go spring skiing