MIDWAY, Utah — A major biathlon with dozens of nations participating will be held at the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center this weekend, including a competitor bringing some local flair.
Hundreds of athletes will compete in the BMW IBU World Cup, including Salt Lake City native Vincent Bonacci who calls Soldier Hollow his home course.
"My dad got me into Nordic skiing before I could remember. It was easier than a babysitter, putting all the kids on skis and having us scoot around on the snow," said Bonacci. "It just ended up working out, and I just haven't stopped yet."
Now 24 years old, Bonacci is a member of the U.S. Biathlon Team that will be competing this week.
"I did my first race at Soldier Hollow in December of 2006," recalled Vincent. "I was six years old ... I got last by a lot. I got a little better since then."
Bonacci trained and raced with the Utah Nordic Alliance through high school, but he took his training to the next level during the pandemic while a student at the University of Utah.
"I hate saying this, but I got really lucky in the COVID epidemic because I am terrible at online school," Vincent admitted. "I decided to take a break from school. I moved to Bozeman and started to try to ski professionally. That's when I really made a big step, and that was back in 2020, and it kind of just rolled the momentum from there."
Vincent competes mainly in Europe and competed in Oslo, Norway last week. But this weekend brings a taste of home cooking.
"It's awesome. It's kind of crazy, even today skiing around and being like this are all the guys that I used to watch on TV that I now race against, and now they're here in my spot," he said. "It would be like if you were to go to your high school gymnasium and a few NBA players were just playing there. It would be kind of a shock to the system. You would be like, wait a minute, this is my spot. It's bizarre in a great way."
Nordic skiing is the most popular winter sport in Europe, and the biggest stars are in Utah; so people from all over the world will be watching.
This weekend's event may be the biggest held at Soldier Hollow outside of the Olympic Games.
"I don't want to put any extra pressure on myself because it's like my home course, but i am excited to be in front off all the family and friends," said Vincent. "That is going to be the best part for me, is having all my family and friends out."
