A 2015 graduate of St. Olaf College, Jake Brown was an All-American in cross country, track & field and Nordic skiing, and was a member of the 2013 NCAA Division III national championship men's cross country team, during his time on the Hill. Since graduating with a degree in biology, Brown has become a member of the U.S. Biathlon Team, competing at a variety of World Cup competitions across Europe. We caught up with Brown to learn more about his involvement with U.S. Biathlon and reflect on his time at St. Olaf.

OA: How did you get into biathlon after graduation?

JB: "The summer before my senior year at Olaf, I was scrolling through Fasterskier.com, a popular XC-ski news site, and saw that the U.S. Biathlon Team was having a "Talent Identification Camp." I so badly wanted to go, but I was all signed up to head to Norway for the St. Olaf - Snåsa summer exchange and to study at the University of Oslo ISS. Luckily for me, my senior ski season went well and when the camp was offered again the following year, I applied and was accepted to attend. A ski-racing rival of mine from the College of St. Scholastica had also been accepted to the camp, so a month after graduation we road-tripped out to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y. At the OTC, we were put through a series of tests: uphill running and rollerski time-trials, strength tests, and shooting tests. I had never shot before, besides once or twice at Boy Scout camp, but more than anything the coaches were simply evaluating if we had the desire, patience, and ability to learn. The test they weighted heavily was the uphill run test, meant to evaluate aerobic capacity: a relatively short (2.5km) but steep ascent up the downhill ski area at Whiteface Mountain. Little did they know that I was just coming off my senior track season at Olaf, and I set the record on the test. After that, they really wanted me to join the U.S. Biathlon Development program."

"I had previously committed to join Northern Michigan University's ski team for a year as a graduate student in exercise science (I had only ran cross country and track for my first two years of college, so I had a year of NCAA ski eligibility remaining), so I asked if I could delay the biathlon team's offer for a year. They agreed, and I made significant developments as a skier under Northern Michigan coach Sten Fjeldheim and with the NMU team. Then in the summer of 2016, I moved east and started training with the U.S. Biathlon Team."

OA: How would you explain biathlon to someone who knows nothing about it? What does it require to be successful at the highest level?

JB: "Originally developed as a military exercise in Scandinavia, biathlon combines two sports that really should never be combined: the heart-pounding, physically-demanding sport of cross-country skiing with the precision-focused sport of rifle shooting. A biathlete must ski a loop with a rifle on their back, then come into a shooting range and shoot five targets. For each miss, the biathlete is either assessed a time penalty or required to ski a 'penalty loop' of a certain distance (the type of penalty varies on the race) before venturing back on course. Each individual-style race (read: everything besides team relays) consists of either two or four shooting bouts, half of which must be completed in prone (or lying down position) and half in standing."

"To excel in biathlon, an athlete must be a world-class skier, be skilled in shooting, and have the mental tenacity to focus and execute a task under high-pressure and physical distress. I like to say that it combines physical aspects of running, mental aspects of golf, and the gamesmanship of the final possession in basketball."

OA: What is your training/competition schedule like?

JB: "Most people are surprised to hear that most of our intensive training occurs during the summer and fall. We begin training on May 1 for a season that begins around Thanksgiving. In a typical month U.S. Biathlon will host a two-week training camp, often in Lake Placid. For the other two weeks each month, we return to our homes, jobs, or club teams: I am lucky to be supported by a team called the Craftsbury Green Racing Project that works with the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont. This year the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) did not allow national sport governing bodies to host training camps for the most part, so I trained in Craftsbury with a few teammates for the entirety of the summer and fall."

"In November, we depart for Europe and the racing season begins just after Thanksgiving. The World Cup consists of 11 weeks of racing, spread out from Thanksgiving to the end of March. In the past I've come home for Christmas, but this year it will be one long 4.5-month Eurotrip."

OA: What are your favorite places you have been able to visit as part of U.S. Biathlon Team?

JB: "For a cross-country skier, it's hard to beat Norway, with it's endless cross-country ski trails and beautiful geography. For the most part, when we travel we are either racing or training at the venue or resting in the hotel, so unfortunately we don't really see the usual tourist sites. One exception is Pokljuka (Slovenia), where we stay in Bled right next to the famous lake with the church on an island. I also love the beautiful, sunny Tirol regions of Austria and Italy, and the moderate altitude there suits me well as an athlete."

OA: What does it mean to you to represent your country as a member of the U.S. Biathlon Team?

JB: "That's a good question. When we are on the road, it's easy to think of our team as any other team I've been a part of: a group of men and women competing against other teams. But when I step back, I'm very honored to represent my country, beyond just the results sheet. My hope is that I can represent the U.S. to other nations in a positive way, or a more human way, than they may get from watching the news or from popular culture."

OA: What do you remember about the 2013 men's cross country national championship meet and what made that team so successful?

JB: "Certainly we had a lot of talent, but as Herb Brooks famously said, you can't win on talent alone. That was a special year with a special group of guys. We had great leadership from our senior captains as well as from our coaches, who really gave us a sense of ownership over our work. Everyone, from Grant Wintheiser who won NCAAs the next year to our slowest guy on the JV team, respected one another for the work we each put in toward a common goal. We all wanted the team to be the best it could. We could joke around but, at the end of the day, each runner knew that everyone else wanted them to succeed."

OA: What are your other favorite memories from your time as a student-athlete at St. Olaf?

JB: "I'll never forget my first 'cross-campus' run with the XC team. Every Friday afternoon before a Saturday race, the team would run the exact same route with the same traditions. The run began with running by the football field and both the XC and football teams beginning with a clap, and then singing 'Um! Yah! Yah!'. I was like, "This is awesome.'"

"Other great memories include winning the intramural broomball championship with the ski team, cross country team precamps and all the traditions, great conversations in Bible study, and office hours with organic chemistry professor Wes Pearson."

OA: What was it like being a multi-sport student-athlete at St. Olaf? How did it prepare you for what you are doing now?

JB: "It was a blast. Honestly, I don't know what I would've done with myself if I wasn't a student-athlete. I probably would've joined choir or band; I've always thrived on having structure to my day. Now I often have to seek out that structure. That's why I enjoy working with the Craftsbury Outdoor Center - it adds purpose to my day when I'm not training."

"Being a student-athlete taught me to compartmentalize and prioritize my tasks. I believe that's very important for anyone who is working toward achieving a goal. You have to figure out what specific things you need to do in order to achieve your goals, and then do those things. Sometimes you don't have time for all of them, so you have to prioritize this lab over that easy training session, or this harder training session over that homework assignment, or sleep over everything. I always made sure to prioritize sleep."

OA: What were one or two of your favorite Phil Lundin-isms?

JB: "'We're not smart enough to have any secrets. Just chop wood, carry water.' - Phil's response to a reporter asking him what the secret was to our team's success."

"'Griff, let's go for a walk' - how Phil would end just about every pre-workout or pre-race talk."

OA: What are your goals for the future?

JB: "I'd like to compete at the Winter Olympics next year, that would be a neat experience. A dream goal would be to one day stand on a World Cup podium; my best World Cup finish is 30th, so I have a ways to go. My biggest goal is to never stop improving as a person, I want to always have something to work on. I think that's what I'm most thankful to have sport in my life for - I've learned so many humbling lessons, and it often takes those painful lessons to change yourself for the better. After biathlon, I'd like to find a career that allows me to make life better for others, perhaps in education, healthcare, or in the outdoor nonprofit sector."