For any young aspiring athlete who grows up in Australia, there is usually the dream of one day getting the chance to race for Australia at the Olympics.
Australian World Cup athlete Darcie Morton is putting everything into making this dream her reality.
Morton competes in the sport of Biathlon, which is a winter sport consisting of cross country skiing and rifle shooting.
To aim for such a high level in a winter
sport when coming from Australia is an incredible feat.
So, when a chance came for her to train at the 2026 Winter Olympics Games venue in Antholz, Italy, and with Finland’s World Cup team on a joint three-week preparatory camp with Poland, Latvia and Greenland, Morton jumped at the opportunity.
Morton has targeted this camp as an opportunity to train on the Olympic games shooting range and competition track, and undertake training at high intensity, high altitude and under pressure with Finland’s World Cup Women’s team, who is ranked sixth in
the world.
With an altitude of 1700m, Antholz is the highest of the World Cup ranges.
Due to this, other top biathlon nations including Germany and Italy are also training here in Antholz for the athletes to learn how to handle the elevation, the complexities of the Olympic range and like Morton, to ‘feel the Antholz Biathlon passion’.
The first week of the camp has involved daily complex shooting sessions with Finland and Poland with a focus of shooting with both high pulse and with speed.
This was combined with a high volume of endurance training sessions made up of skate and classic roller skiing and hiking up the Stalle and Furcia Passes in the Dolomite Mountains that border Italy and Austria.
The second and third weeks of the camp will include more high intensity sessions, both at and above threshold, as well as several
test races.
This type of training will help prepare Morton for the Loop One Biathlon Rollerski Festival in Munich city.
This festival is an invitational event based off athlete’s points and ranking on World Cup and IBU Cup.
Morton, along with teammate Phoenix Sparke, are the sole Australians invited
to participate.
Loop One will consist of 60 of the top athletes in the World contesting a Super Sprint on a 1.7km loop around the Olympic festival park in central Munich.
Four heats of 15 athletes shooting Prone, Prone, Standing, Standing over the 8.5km course will be conducted with the top three progressing automatically through to
the final.
Loop One serves as a launch for the
upcoming 2025/26 IBU World Cup season which begins in Östersund, Sweden, on December 29.
Morton was provided this opportunity through the collaborated support of a handful of local businesses/companies based both near her childhood home of Marlo, and her Australian training base of Mt Hotham, as well as European businesses.
