Clare Egan ’10 Places Third in Biathlon World Cup

Clare Egan ’10, who represented the United States in the biathlon in the 2018 Olympics, ended the 2019 biathlon season with a third-place finish in the Biathlon World Cup in Oslo on March 24. It was her first trip to the podium in her career.

Egan, an accomplished Division III athlete at Wellesley, ran cross country and founded the Wellesley Club Nordic Ski Team. She completed her first biathlon, an event that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting, in 2013; this is her fifth World Cup season. Egan considered retiring from the sport after the 2018 Olympics, according to the Portland [Maine]Press Herald, but eventually opted to compete for another year. Her story, reported by Alex Azzi '15, was also posted on the website for NBC Sports.

“I decided that I wanted to do one more year, just for fun, just to see how much I could learn and how good a biathlete I could become,” she said during a press conference after the World Cup race, the Press Herald reported. This was Egan’s third top-10 finish this season. Her previous best was sixth in a competition held in December. She recorded the top eight results of her career this year and finished 18th in the overall standings.

A native of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Egan prepared for the competition with a new coach and different training regimen. “I skied much faster this year than I have in the past, and I think that was due to finally finding a good balance in my training, between working hard and resting,” she said. “I did not train more, but the quality was higher.”