Mainer Russell Currier To Compete In Winter Olympics

Russell Currier, 26,  of Stockholm Maine, is part of the U.S. Men’s Olympic Biathlon team, it was announced earlier this month!  The games will take place this February in Sochi, Russia.

If your not familiar with what the Biathlon is, well it takes a special person to compete in this particular sport.  It's a combination of cross country skiing and rifle shooting.  Just imagine cross country skiing for all that your worth across a grueling course and then holding your breath while trying to pinpoint a target.

Russell trained at the Maine WInter Sports Center in Caribou. According to an article on the WAGM TV website, Suzy Anderson of Anderson's Store in Stockholm said, "He is our hero. He is our Hometown Hero. He has worked very very hard for this.”

In Caribou this past Sunday, a fund raiser was held to help send Russell's parents to Sochi to see their son compete in the Winter Olympics.

The first event that Russell Currier will compete in is the Men's Sprint 10 kilometer which will happen on Saturday February 8th. The Winter Olympics can be seen on NBC TV, channel two here in Bangor.

Aroostook County, along with all of the rest of us Mainers wish Russell great success!

Notable former Maine Olympic athletes include Seth Wescott won gold at the 2006 and 2010 Olympic Games in the snowboard competition.  Julie Parisien competed as an Olympic skier ten years ago.  Then there was, Julia Clukey (luge); Anna Goodale (gold medalist rowing); Anna Willard Pierce (middle distance running); Bill Swift (baseball); Dan Bolduc (hockey); Ian Crocker (gold, silver and bronze medalist swimming); Jeff Turner (basketball); Joan Benoit (gold /first-ever women’s Olympic marathoner); Megan Sweeney (luge); and Rick DiPietro (ice hockey).