[A]s one of 327 million Americans, Vermonter Stan Dunklee can calculate the mathematical improbability of competing for the U.S. Olympic team.
“There are some 240 winter athletes,” he says. “If you look at the population of our country, the odds of someone making it are more than one in a million.”
So what are the chances that a pair of U.S. biathletes would grow up learning to ski together in the Northeast Kingdom hamlet of Craftsbury, population 1,206?
“Two from such a little town,” says Dunklee, proud father of one, “is astronomical.”
The fact both have parents who are former Olympians propels it into another galaxy.
Then again, Susan Dunklee, 31, of Barton and Emily Dreissigacker, 29, of Morrisville have company. Three of their Vermont teammates — Patrick Caldwell, 26, of the Upper Valley and cousin Sophie Caldwell, 27, of Peru, as well as Ryan Cochran-Siegle, 25, of Starksboro — also are following in their families’ ski tracks.
“It’s in the water,” jokes Patrick Caldwell’s father, Tim Caldwell, who competed in the Winter Games in 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984 and is the son of John Caldwell, a 1952 Olympian who literally wrote “The Cross-Country Ski Book.”
“Skiing is a big part of our lives,” says Tim Caldwell, now a lawyer in Lebanon, New Hampshire. “We live a mile from the Dartmouth Skiway. There was some gentle persuasion for everyone to learn.”
Cochran-Siegle, for his part, grew up with trails in his backyard — known in Richmond as Cochran’s Ski Area. His mother, Barbara Ann Cochran, was 9 when her parents bought the hillside property for their home in 1960. Some families might have put up a swing set. Hers installed a ski tow and floodlights, which helped propel her to a slalom gold medal at the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.
“Dad really believed for us to do the best we could we needed to ski more than just weekends,” Barbara Ann Cochran recalls. “Some people had farms, we had a rope tow. Dad would tell people you could put a rope tow in your backyard if you wanted to. To me, the lesson then was nothing was impossible.”
That said, she never pushed her son to succeed.
“I just tried to make skiing a heck of a lot of fun,” she says.
That sentiment is echoed by the parents of this year’s biathletes. Susan Dunklee’s father cross-country skied in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics.
“We experienced skiing as a family, but Susan was doing it without my help by her third birthday,” Stan Dunklee says. “That doesn’t happen unless you love it. It’s just part of her.”
Dreissigacker’s father, Dick Dreissigacker, was a rower at the 1972 Summer Games, and her mother, Judy Geer, took over the oars in 1976, 1980 and 1984.
“As athletes, we live an athletic lifestyle,” Geer says, “but as former Olympians, we definitely didn’t want to put any pressure on any of our kids.”
Having lived the hardships as well as the highs, the families even held back.
“I didn’t facilitate a lot of things that other parents would have,” Stan Dunklee says.
Although both families skied cross-country, for example, none of the parents had experience with the biathlon’s other focus — rifle marksmanship — that their daughters picked up after the sport’s U.S. association decided to recruit swift skiers to teach them how to shoot.
Crosshairs aside, these parents understand the larger target for which their children are aiming.
“The Olympics, competitively speaking, is just another race,” Geer says. “But it brings you this opportunity and responsibility to inspire people that you’ll have for the rest of your life.”
Geer and Dick Dreissigacker know firsthand. They run the nonprofit Craftsbury Outdoor Center, whose Green Racing Project boasts not only Susan Dunklee, Emily Dreissigacker and her sister, 2014 biathlete Hannah Dreissigacker, but also current Olympians Clare Egan, 30, Kaitlynn Miller, 26, Caitlin Patterson, 28, and Ida Sargent, 29.
“Part of having Olympians around is that kids think of them as normal people and that participating is much more possible,” Geer says. “You don’t have to be an Olympian to raise one. You just need to support your kids in following their passions.”
