The euphoric crowd fades to a blur as Lincoln-Sudbury sophomore Alex Taylor focuses on her targets, gripping her rifle as the cool wind slaps her skin. After only starting the sport of biathlon two years ago, Taylor represented the United States at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in South Korea and the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships in Estonia.

Prior to biathlon, a sport that combines nordic skiing and rifle shooting, Taylor started cross country skiing for the Bill Koch League at Weston Ski Track in seventh grade. She became a competitive skier freshman year, racing for the Eastern Massachusetts Cross-Country Skiing Team (EMXC). In addition to EMXC, Taylor is also a member of the Harvard Sportsmen’s Club (HSC) Biathlon Team.

“My friend brought me to a biathlon practice in 2022 just to try it out, and I ended up loving the sport,” Taylor said. “I started training in biathlon during the summer of 2023, and had my first race at Summer Nationals.”

In late December of 2023, Taylor traveled to Minnesota for the U.S. Biathlon Team trials in Mt. Itasca. She was attempting to qualify for the World Junior Championships Team and the Youth Olympic Team.

In mid-January, Taylor flew to South Korea to compete in the Youth Olympics which were held from Jan. 19 to Feb. 1. When she wasn’t racing, Taylor was exploring Seoul, bonding with her teammates and meeting other athletes from all over the world.

“The Korean barbecue was really good,” Taylor said. “We stayed in the Olympic village, which was a really cool experience because we got to eat with all the other teams and sports. We actually beat the Canadians in charades one night. The food wasn’t amazing, we had the same meal [for all] three meals, every day.”

Taylor’s first race took place on the first day of the Youth Olympics. The race was 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) and she finished 56th in a field of over 95 skiers. Her second race was six kilometers (3.7 miles) and she earned 65th place in the world. Due to breathing issues, Taylor did not finish her third race.

“The snow was really good, pretty fast and the course was really fun,” Taylor said. “It had two main hills and then a downhill into the [shooting] range, which was a good recovery. The German team brought about 20 college students just to cheer, which was super cool.”

Overall, Taylor was grateful to be able to represent the United States at such a young age. The Youth Winter Olympics only occur every four years and athletes must be 15 to 18 years old in order to be eligible to compete.

“While I was psyched to be able to wear the stars and stripes, it was definitely a lot of pressure,” Taylor said. “The other athletes were amazing, and we had so much fun.”

In addition to the Youth Olympics, Taylor also raced in the IBU Youth & Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia. The championships were held from Feb. 23 to March 2.

“[The world championship] was definitely a different experience than Korea because we had a much larger team and we also had older athletes in the junior category,” Taylor said. “It’s really neat because in Europe, biathlon is a bigger sport than Nordic [skiing], so it was pretty exciting to be a part of something so large.”

Since Taylor is on the national biathlon team, she has automatically qualified for the U.S. Nordic Skiing Junior Nationals. She will be going to Lake Placid in New York on March 11, and will be representing Team New England.

“Qualifying for [Junior Nationals] was my original goal for the season before I decided to race biathlon,” Taylor said.