“This has always been the dream, the goal, the holy grail of my biathlon journey,” says Trevor Kiers. The biathlete from Sprucedale was named to Biathlon Canada’s Senior National Team this month.
Kiers has always been active—he participated in house league soccer in Huntsville and competed in almost every sport available at school. He was introduced to biathlon through the cadets program. “It’s a small program within cadets that it is very different, from level of competition, to the way the sport is run. At cadet biathlon competitions, you leave the rifle on the range, and you can miss every target and still do very well. In the real world, biathlon athletes carry their own rifles, and you need to hit 80 per cent or better to do well.”
Kiers began training recreationally with the cadets in 2014—skiing three to four times a week for a couple of hours and running for half an hour, which back then he thought was running for a long time.
After competing at the Cadet Nationals in 2014 in Martock, Nova Scotia—where he just missed the podium with two fourth-place individual finishes, as well as earning two silvers as part of a team—he realized that he wanted more of a challenge. On the bus ride home, he decided that he wanted to take his biathlon sport to the next level by doing it full-time. “That spring I bought my own rifle and started training most days. I trained on my own, with an affiliation with a club up in Timmins,” he said.
At first, Kiers trained from his home, where he made his own personal training grounds as best he could. He would roller ski up and down Highway 518 from Sprucedale to Bear Lake. “The locals would honk and say hello as they passed in their cars,” he said. He practiced his shooting on his acreage with a small set-up made with the assistance from Muskoka Millwrighting and Machining. “They were able to make me a fantastic target, which still sits at home, as I use it when I visit home.” He also put in hours of distance skiing on the trails at Arrowhead Provincial Park, including his favourite, the Lumby trail.
Kiers now trains in Canmore, Alberta full-time. “I’ve been here for the past three years and I have really grown to love it here. The high altitude is super awesome for training, and the area is littered with trails for running, mountain biking and adventuring,” he said. He has also spent time training in Whistler, BC, Valcartier, QC, Sjusjøen, Norway, and Zakopane, Poland.
Trevor Kiers in Canmore, Alberta (Photo: Noel Rogers)
His training regime is gruelling as he only gets one month off—April is his month to rest and recover to prepare for the upcoming year. The rest of the year, Kiers trains six days a week for a total of between 10 to 25 hours—twice a day on four of those days and longer, once-a-day workouts on two others. “Then the last day of that week we have off. I don’t have a daily life. Training is my daily life (and I love it!)—I wake up, eat, train, eat, nap, eat, train, eat, make dinner, eat dinner, then sleep.”
All of that hard work and dedication has taken him to the top—it had always been his dream to have a jacket with Canada on the back and to represent his country at an international race. “Some kids dream to go to the moon, my dream was to earn that jacket. Every intensity session I would be thinking about it, it was my motivation,” he said. As a kid from Sprucedale, attending Almaguin Highlands Secondary School, “I would go home, and split wood,” he added. “Now I’m a member of the National Biathlon Team, and I train nearly every day to become the best in the world!”
Trevor Kiers at a competition in Otepää, Estonia (Photo: Airat Aitniakov)
Every dream come true usually requires some sacrifice. “It has definitely taken some sacrifice to get here. I have sacrificed my social life, and more importantly my time and energy. I put everything into training and racing in the winter, I really don’t have time to do other things,” said Kiers. One big sacrifice has been financial: he only works part-time at Canadian Tire in Canmore when he is not training and most of his money goes to pay for racing expenses. “I have been able to put away a small amount each year, and I’ve got that invested for retirement, but I essentially spend all of my time in the spring, summer and fall working, and gaining the necessary funds to race in the winter, then I spend it all during the winter, bringing my finances back down to zero.”
Some sponsors, including several in Huntsville, have supported Kiers in his journey. Muskoka Millwrighting and Machining built him that target early in his biathlon career; The SportLab provides him with sport nutrition guidance and sport therapy when he is in Huntsville; Algonquin Outfitters has helped him acquire some of his gear; Centre Street Dental provides financial support as well as some minor dental work. “I am sponsored by Salomon, they provide me with skis, boots and bindings. Swix is my sponsor for poles. I also have a few private sponsors who provide me with financial support. Finally, the Government of Ontario helps me out with financial support.”
Trevor Kiers is a proud new member of Biathlon Canada’s Senior National Team (Photo: Anna Sellers)
Being able to compete at an elite level requires a disciplined mindset. “I would say, to be an elite athlete, you need to sorta be crazy! I love running long distances, I love crushing myself to the point that I want to sleep for a week. The sacrifices I have made, they are all due to my dedication to the sport, and my pursuit of excellence. There is definitely a certain amount of natural talent that is required, but skill development is huge, and it’s those sorts of things that we work on every day.”
He said it feels good to know that he and the rest of the national team has a huge amount of support from its head coach, shooting coach, assistance coach, strength-specific coach, massage therapist, sport psychologist, and team doctor, as well as an osteopath, a nutritionist, and a sport physiologist.
And now that he has achieved his goal of being on the national team—”the best-case scenario in Canada in terms of training teams,” he said—Kiers has had to realign his goals. He now has his sights set on winning. “I don’t want to just complete, I have the goal to win an international competition.”
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Thank you for an excellent article about Trevor. It describes him so well.
Trevor embodies the dedication, drive, attitude and toughness of an elite athlete. And he’s local!
If you ever want a humbling experience, go for a ski with him and try to keep him in sight for 100 metres. Congratulations Trevor. Such well-deserved success.