Biathlon

Canada will field one of the youngest biathlon teams in the world for the 2010 Olympics at Whistler Olympic Park in February.

Biathlon Canada named its four women and four men biathletes on Thursday in Canmore, Alta. 

Olympians Zina Kocher and Jean-Philippe Le Guellec will headline the eight-member roster. Each of the four women named to the team will compete in all of the events on the Olympic slate. Le Guellec will be the only man to compete in the individual competitions, and will join three other Canadians for the men's relay event.

Kocher, 27, of Red Deer, Alta., won a World Cup bronze medal three years ago. This year, she had a fourth place finish on the World Cup and has regularly placed in the top-15.

Kocher will be joined by three Olympic rookies on the women's team. Megan Imrie, 22, of Falcon Lake, Man., Megan Tandy, 21, of Prince George, B.C., and Rosanna Crawford, of Canmore, Alta., will round out the women's squad. The 21-year-old sister to Chandra Crawford, Olympic gold medallist in cross-country skiing, Rosanna grabbed the final spot on the team during Biathlon Canada's Olympic Trials earlier in January.

"As a team we have certainly come a long way since the 2006 Games, and with some of the strong results we've had over the last four years," said Kocher in a news release. "We now believe that Canadian biathletes can contend with the world's best."

Le Guellec, 24, of Shannon, Que. is competing in his second Olympics. He continues to knock on the door of the international podium after regularly cracking into the top 10 on the World Cup over the last two years. No Canadian male has ever won an Olympic medal in biathlon.

He will be joined on the men's relay team by two-time Olympian Robin Clegg, 32, of Ottawa, Marc-André Bédard, 23, of Valcartier, Que., and Brendan Green, 23, of Hay River, N.W.T.

Canada's biathletes will head to Mt. Washington, B.C. for a pre-Olympic training camp, February 1-8, 2010.