SOLDIER HOLLOW — Dan Campbell won't be going back to work at Einstein's coffee shop anytime soon.
The former University of Utah student and Minnesota resident will be racing in the Olympics come February after narrowly securing the fourth and final spot on the U.S. biathlon team during competitions Thursday.
"It feels real good, but it hasn't really sunk in," said Campbell, who is joined on the men's team by top biathletes Jeremy Teela, Jay Hakkinen and Lawton Redman, all of whom were favored to make the team.
Campbell, 23, has been training to make the team for seven years, and he had come to the Olympic trials with the modest goal of making the U.S. national team. He never expected to make the Olympics.
"I told my family not to come to the trials because they would make me too nervous," he said. "Just performing well at the trials makes me happy."
His coach, Piotr Bednarski, had faith Campbell would make the Olympic team, but he kept mum. "I told him it was much better going in as an underdog," he said, trying to take the pressure off in a grueling sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship.
Hakkinen, an Alaskan, is the only team member with previous Olympic experience — in 1998 in Nagano. Dan Westover, an alternate team member and former Olympian from Vermont, missed making the team by less than one point in combined scoring from four days of competition.
Midway's David Gieck, named another alternate member of the team, also missed the team by less than one point, the equivalent of one missed target over four days.
"I am proud of the way he competed," said U.S. national coach Algis Shalna. "One more target and he would be on the Olympic team."
The women's team will be comprised of former Olympians Kara Salmela from Minnesota and Midway's Kristina Sabasteanski, and newcomers Rachel Steer and Andrea Nahrgang, both top performers throughout the year who now live and train near Soldier Hollow.
Named as alternates were Jill Krause from Heber City and Stacey Wooley from New Hampshire.
"This has been the most stressful week of my life," said Steer, who won the overall competition far ahead of the pack.
Steer, 23, who has been training under Sweden National Team coach Wolfgang Pichler, is considered perhaps the best women's hope for an American medal in a sport where Americans have never won a medal in Olympic competition.
"It's not about winning there," Pichler reminder her about the trials. "It's about making the team."
Shalna, a former Soviet Olympian who has coached the American team for four Winter Games, is more hopeful for an Olympic medal than ever before, particularly on the men's side.
"I see how they ski, I see how they shoot, and I believe they can pull it off," he said.
The newly named Olympic biathlon team will compete in two World Cup competitions in Germany before returning to prepare for the Winter Games in mid-February.
E-MAIL: donna@desnews.com