The beginning of Jake Brown’s ’15 racing career did not hint at an Olympic future. In fact, it started with a last place finish.
“I remember in sixth grade I was dead last in my class in the 60 yard dash,” Brown said. “And a kid even beat me running backwards.”
Cut to the present day and 29-year-old Brown is on top of the U.S. Biathlon scene, racing on snow covered venues all across Europe, and most recently, the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games — where he finished first among American men in all three races.
How did a sorry sprinter find his way to the Olympics with skis on his feet and a gun across his back? The trail had many twists and turns.
Though Brown floundered over short distances, he had a knack for longer races like the mile run. After joining track in seventh grade, Brown found he was even able to stack up against high schoolers. Brown continued to improve and gain speed throughout high school, but it took plenty more pivoting to point himself in the direction of success.
Brown did just that in 2013 by transferring from Princeton to St. Olaf College for his junior year. His athletic impact was immediately felt in Northfield. That fall the St. Olaf men’s cross country team won the NCAA Division III Championship for the first time in school history, with Brown finishing second for the Oles and eighth in the nation.
Looking back on the transfer, Phil Lundin, coach of the 2013 team, had high praise for Brown. “It worked out splendidly for the cross country and track teams because he was obviously a huge talent besides being one hell of a guy,” Lundin said. “I’d have to say that, from a recruiting perspective, after 56 years of recruiting, he’s up there as one of the top guys I’ve been able to lure.”
Brown’s athletic drive expanded beyond running as well. Cross country skiing was popular in his family growing up and his return to the Midwest meant the opportunity for Brown to take his skiing to the collegiate level, though he didn’t break out in spectacular fashion. It took a slight change in course following graduation to set Brown up for a career in ski racing.
In 2015, U.S. Biathlon hosted a Talent ID camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., so Brown road tripped out east to see what he could do in the new sport. Biathlon is a unique discipline that marries the endurance of cross country skiing with the marksmanship of rifle shooting. Brown made quite an entrance to the biathlon scene by breaking the training camp’s uphill run time trial record, earning a spot on the development team.
Looking to improve his ski speed, Brown spent the following year skiing as a grad student at Northern Michigan University. The new team offered an opportunity to work with national champion level skiers and a chance for Brown to see what his legs could do with the right training.
What kept him racing? “There was always a piece in the back of my mind, and it wasn’t a question of whether I could make this into a career at all, it was more a question of what I could do,” Brown said.
Eventually he would do quite a lot in the world of biathlon, but he’d have to learn some marksmanship first. After gaining speed at Michigan, he joined the biathlon development team and spent two years being admittedly “pretty terrible” at shooting.
“I learned how to shoot in a couple weeks really. But then to actually understand how to do it consistently, how to do it well, how to do it with heart rate, and how to do it in a race was just a long process of figuring out the different components,” Brown said.
With repetition, things came together for Brown. He eventually moved to European competition and jumped from 100th place in the Biathlon World Cup in 2019 to 47th in 2021. Brown continued to build steam and hit his career best with a 12th place finish at the 2021 Biathlon World Championships.
Brown, who was never anticipating this international success, has worked to balance appreciating these victories while avoiding complacency.
“I’ve had these moments of, ‘Man I never thought I’d be here,’ and that’s really cool,” Brown said. “At the same time whenever I have those moments I have to remember that I want to stay hungry and go for the next thing. So it’s a balance.”
And despite leading the U.S. men with a 28th place finish in Beijing, Brown hasn’t dwelled on that achievement. He’s more focused on the team success that has eluded the U.S.
“If I had still gotten a 28th but my teammate had gotten a top ten, that would’ve been a way better Olympics for us than me being 28th and the top American,” said Brown. “I was definitely rooting for all of us to try to really punch one of those good races that can help biathlon get noticed and really help our sport in the U.S.”
After Beijing, the biathlon competition didn’t slow down and neither did Brown, as he returned to Europe to finish out the World Cup season. Multiple races each weekend makes for a grueling season, but repetition is a key to success in a sport that requires extreme accuracy from competitors.
“It’s a balance between doing the same thing every time like a golf shot, but also having your mind be open and kind of in tune with what’s going on both in your body and around, to be able to know when you need to make an adjustment from that normal rhythm,” Brown said.
Brown has never been one to shy away from those adjustments, both on and off the ski trail, as his Olympic journey wound through three colleges and three sports. Who knows just where the trail will lead the biathlete next?
