Minnesotan Margie Freed making her Olympic debut in biathlon

In one month, the Olympic torch will be lit in Italy for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Games. Minnesotans always have a strong showing at the Winter Olympics, and another athlete has just been added to the roster.

Margie Freed is an Apple Valley native. She's making her Olympic debut in biathlon.

Freed spoke to Minnesota Now host Nina Moini about getting ready for her first Olympic games.

The following has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

How did it feel when you first realized that you had qualified for the Olympics?

It was super exciting. I definitely knew I had a pretty good shot at making the team, but it was kind of a full-circle moment and good proof that all my hard work — especially in this past year — in the sport of biathlon paid off.

Tell us about the sport of biathlon.

Biathlon is a sport that combines skate cross-country skiing and precision rifle shooting. It's the biggest winter sport in Europe, so there's 10,000 fans at any given World Cup. The winner of a race is the person who skis and shoots the best on that day. So if someone skis really fast, but they miss all the targets, they don't really have a very good shot of winning. Or, if they are very slow on the tracks but hit all the targets, it's also not a good day. So you have to combine both skills.

Biathletes compete in all the different disciplines that biathlon offers. So there are individual races, there are sprint races and there's relays.

Your bio on the Team USA website says that you got into biathlon casually. How did you get into this sport?

I started skiing, just cross-country skiing, when I was in middle school, for Simley High School. Then, (I) went to East View High School and competed there. And then went to the University of Vermont, where I was also just skiing. I joined the Craftsbury Green Racing Project as a cross-country skier, which is a professional team in Vermont. And this professional team also has a biathlon team.

So some of my friends on this team said, ‘Hey come try shooting with us. I think you'd like it.’ And so I kind of just used that as a way to hang out with my friends when I was looking for something to do on any given afternoon. And slowly I built up the amount that I was practicing the shooting. I didn't fully transfer into biathlon until last year. So 2025 was my first full year as a biathlete.

What does this last month of training look like for you, physically and mentally?

Before the Olympic Games, we actually do have World Cup races, which are still at a high level. They're the races that athletes do all winter long, and they still count toward the final season points and everything. We got three more weekends of racing in Europe before heading over to Italy and racing there.

I've worked on a lot of visualization. That has been really helpful for the shooting aspect of things. So I'll picture what the target looks like, whether I'm like sitting down for a nap or before bed, and I'll think about that for a little bit.

Sometimes I'll even do what's called dry fire training, which is where we do rifle handling skills, but without actually using any live ammo or anything. And that is really helpful to get the process of taking the rifle off of our backs, because we ski with them — kind of like backpacks — and doing the manipulation there.

Team USA has never won an Olympic medal in biathlon. It's the only Winter Olympic sport in which the U.S. has not medaled. Do you think you're going to be the one to break that streak?

I definitely hope so. I think that I'm training well and set up well for the Olympic Games. But there's a lot of tough competitors out there. I think that it would be really cool to especially have a medal in a biathlon relay. It would be super sweet to share that experience with some others. But I think if anyone was close, it would be a win for the whole team.

Do you have personal goals at the games, besides medaling?

Going into this season, my goals were to be proud of myself and have fun. I've already accomplished that this season, and I look to keep improving there and keep having fun and keep doing things I can be proud of out on the racetrack.

I am very fortunate to have family and friends coming over to watch, and I'm excited to share that experience with them.

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