Deedra Irwin. (@deedrablu on Instagram)
PULASKI, WI (WTAQ) — Once a student athlete at Pulaski High School, now an Olympian. A Northeast Wisconsin native is heading to northern Italy to compete in the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games.
Deedra Irwin was once a runner for Pulaski High School track and field; and at 16 years old she started Nordic skiing during the winter months. After graduating high school in 2010, she pursued Nordic skiing while at Michigan Technological University. Once out of college she became a professional Nordic skier, for a while.
“And right when I was thinking about retiring before the 2018 Olympics, one of my friends reached out and said, ‘why don’t you try biathlon?’ She was already on the team headed to the 2018 Olympics,” said Irwin. “And so I was like, okay, I’ll try it.”
While sports like skiing, hockey, curling etc. may seem more familiar, biathlon has been part of the Olympics since 1960.
“We combine Nordic skiing and precision rifle marksmanship. It’s a super exciting, very dynamic race in which you have to really push yourself to all of your endurance limits with Nordic skiing and then you have to come on to a range and have perfect focus and precision to hit all your targets,” Irwin described.
This isn’t Irwin’s first time at the winter Olympics. In fact, her seventh-place finish at the 2022 winter Olympics in Beijing was the best finish ever for an American in an individual biathlon event at the Olympics.
“I think my seventh place at the last Olympics was just so unique. I went in completely unranked and had a near perfect race for myself,” said Irwin. “It was a really incredible experience for me to see what my abilities are when I do have that perfect race. And it’s really helped build my confidence.”
But going into this Olympics, Irwin isn’t resting on her laurels.
We’re really focused on doing a bunch of altitude training because the Olympics is at altitude. So as much as we could this summer, I was on the road training at altitude and coming over to Europe to train at high altitude and at the range. I’ve been over here in Europe since early November, racing on the World Cup circuit, and we’re using all of these races over the past four seasons really to prepare for the Olympics.
Right now, Irwin is at a World Cup event in the Czech Republic. She says she wants to get into the top 30 after her race on Friday. After a few more races this weekend, she’s going to a training camp in northern Italy for a few weeks. Despite all this, she says the hardest part is making sure you qualify to complete in the Olympics.
“But once you make it, it’s really just an incredible experience to be able to, at least this time around for me, be able to celebrate it with my family and my friends and my community,” said Irwin.
The U.S. Biathlon Olympic Team has never won an Olympic medal, making it the only winter sport where the USA hasn’t medaled. Irwin says the teams goal is to change that.
The Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games opening ceremony is set for February 6. Several biathlon events will occur between February 8 – 21.
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