MILAN (WFRV) – In 2022, Deedra Irwin put on a historic Olympic Biathlon performance 6,500 miles away from her hometown of Pulaski.

Irwin posted a 7th-place finish in the 15km individual race at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, the best-ever Olympic finish by any American in the event.

Four years later, Deedra Irwin returns to the same stage as a known commodity in the Nordic skiing world, with plenty of familiar experiences and faces.

Familial Love

When Irwin arrived in Beijing, she was just excited to make the team, and she even said she didn’t have many expectations, but now she’s trying to remember those feelings to help cope with the high emotions.

Irwin says it’s a little heavier this go-around in her second Olympics, because, unlike in 2022, there will be some familiar faces in the crowd—which is what she’s most excited about.

“I’m most looking forward to my family getting to watch me at these Olympics,” Irwin said. “They weren’t able to come to Beijing, so I’m super excited. I’ve been getting a lot of pictures of them boarding the plane today and they’re really excited to come over.”

She says when she was a really young runner in Pulaski, her tough-love mother gave her some of the best advice she’s ever gotten—hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. Her dad always gave her the ‘do your best, give it 100%.’

Irwin said the balance of both pieces of advice sticks with her, with a ‘tough love’ on one shoulder and the ‘softy’ side on the other.

Another big part of her support group is her fiancé, whom she met during the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, and he understands the training and the sacrifice, being an Alpine snowboarder. That story is almost too perfect.

“He’s been my rock,” Irwin said. “Our eyes locked at the opening ceremonies and it was love at first sight.”

Pulaski & Packers support

Irwin is a Pulaski High School alum, and before the Games, her alma mater gave her quite the remote send-off, with an assembly of musical performances from the band and orchestra, surrounding a larger-than-life cutout of her.

Irwin said she hasn’t lived in Pulaski for a while, but that it’s been cool seeing all of the support from her hometown.

“They’ve been huge supporters,” Irwin said. “I always have people from the area messaging me every year to wish me good luck. It’s been really cool to see the response in Pulaski, and the entire community following my entire journey.”

Irwin cited her Packers fandom and just growing up near Titletown as helping her not just see her dreams as a big picture but making them come true, saying that growing up near a historic and successful franchise allows people to dream big.

“You get to grow up in that presence of excellence,” Irwin said. “All of the Lombardi stuff we learned growing up, when they asked us to write about leadership, you pretty much chose a Packers coach and wrote about them in high school.”

The Packers noticed Irwin when she made her Olympic debut, as then-Team President/CEO Mark Murphy wrote her a personal letter, and the team sent her a customized Packers jersey. The season following her Olympic debut, she was invited to Lambeau Field by the organization.

“It’s been a really cool experience to be able to be seen as one of the great athletes coming out of the area,” Irwin said. “Anytime they send me a message, I’m super grateful that they’re watching out for local athletes and cheering us on.”

Camaraderie with her USA teammates

Irwin has a plethora of supporters, but one of her closest confidants has been Joanne Reid, her fellow teammate, whom she credited with getting her into the sport.

“Joanne was with me the whole way. She’s the one who got me into the sport and mentored me through the first four years,” Irwin said.

Irwin said the biathletes are not actually in the Olympic Village; they have their own little house, and she’s living with Joanne, too, who she’s traveled with for the past eight years.

“I think I’ve spent more Christmases with her than I have with my own family in the past eight years,” Irwin said. “It’s like having your best friend on the road.”

The camaraderie doesn’t just exist between Irwin and her close friend Joanne; it’s extended to some of the newer faces around the Biathlon house.

“We have a couple of teammates, I swear they’re like 10 years younger than me, I don’t even know what ‘Gen’ they are anymore, but they’re bringing in all this young energy,” Irwin said. “It’s been fun to see their chaotic energy running around the house.

Representing the Stars & Stripes with Sports & Service

Deedra Irwin is more than your typical athlete.

In March 2019, Irwin joined the Vermont Army National Guard, a decision she said at first was difficult to make, going to basic training in her mid-20s.

“They do all of the things you’re supposed to do at basic training, they strip you down of your personality, make you work as a team,” Irwin said. “You really have to become more than just yourself, you become part of a bigger & broader plan. It was really eye-opening for me.”

Irwin says it taught her resilience and perseverance, jokingly referring to the 4 a.m. wake up yells, which wasn’t easy, but it was important.

“I think I learned a lot about how to work as a team and succeed under pressure,” Irwin said. “I definitely brought that back to my athletic career.”

Joining the Vermont Army National Guard also gave Irwin a chance to be in the sport for longer, because she’s in the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, which allows her to represent her nation as an athlete and a soldier, which she takes great pride in.

“I’ve learned to appreciate being able to be somebody who represents the country on so many different levels as an Olympian, an athlete and as a soldier,” Irwin said. “I’m proud to represent my country and I’m proud to serve. Wearing the American flag is an incredible honor.”

The fundamentals of the Biathlon

Looking at the event she’s in, it’s grueling. She says one of the biggest challenges is the demanding fitness level.

“Luckily, I grew up running in Pulaski, so I had a lot of fitness when I learned how to Nordic Ski, but it took 15 years or so of Nordic ski experience to get as fast as I am today,” Irwin said. “We train about 600-750 hours a year just to cover our base volume for fitness.”

Those several hundred hours of fitness training don’t even cover the technique, because the biathlon isn’t just skiing, it’s shooting, which she didn’t start until she was 25 years old. She says the shooting is actually a little more of a level-playing field, but it’s still nothing to scoff at.

“I didn’t start shooting until I was 25 years old, and it took me 3-4 years to get proficient, and it’s taken me additional time to get consistently proficient,” Irwin said.

To her, neither shooting nor skiing is particularly ‘easier,’ but it’s about putting together those ‘perfect’ days by bringing both together, which is when the great results show.

Irwin says the sport’s taught her a lot about herself and life in general, specifically talking about the idea of perfection.

“There’s a certain personality of people who can do biathlon because it’s very hard to shoot 100% all of the time,” Irwin said. “I think athletes are always striving for a 100% perfect performance, and you just don’t get that in biathlon.”

Simply put—it’s really hard to be perfect.

“Even when you’re perfect, you can still find something or somewhere you could have found another second,” Irwin said. “Perfection doesn’t win races; you just have to perform your best. There’s a failure-to-success mindset with the biathlon.”

Expectations & Enthusiasm

Irwin says she’s quite familiar with the venue in Italy, because they come here often for World Cup competitions; however, it’s a little different seeing the Olympic Village, even though they’re staying elsewhere, so she and her teammates took a little trip over.

“We got to etch my face into a Coca-Cola can, check out the golden Corona bottles that we’re getting,” Irwin said.

Irwin’s 7th-place finish in 2022 is the best by any American ever in the Biathlon at the Olympics, and in her second go-around, she’s ready for the opportunity, citing her higher confidence and skill since that Olympic debut.

“This time, I definitely have more skill and confidence going into the races, and I would love to bring home a medal for my team,” Irwin said. “I think it’s going to be a really exciting Olympics for our team.”

Of course, Irwin wants to medal, as does every athlete at the Olympics, but she says she’s confident that even if she doesn’t, one of her American teammates will.

“If I’m not the one [on our tea] to medal, I’m sure somebody else will,” Irwin said. “I think we’re going to break records this time. I’ll be super pumped if one of my teammates does.”

Irwin says that on both the men’s and women’s side, they’re all working hard together to be a nation to fear in the biathlon, an event historically dominated by Norway, the former Soviet Union and Germany.

“We’ve always been seen as the underdog against some of the European nations,” Irwin said. “I think we’re all really pushing to show everybody that we hold a place among the top teams here.”

A Message to Pulaski & northeast Wisconsin

When it comes to the support from home, Irwin expressed heavy gratitude.

“Thanks for supporting me on this journey,” Irwin said. “I can hear them cheering from Wisconsin and even from the Chicago area.”

Irwin joked as well, of course, being a Packers fan, that she’ll let the Bears fans adopt her, because she loves the rivalry.

Deedra Irwin’s first event of the Olympics is the biathlon mixed relay 4x6km on Sunday, February 8. Her second is the women’s 15km individual on Wednesday, February 11.

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