Hey everybody, it's Glenn Bond here, Nordic manager of Silver Star. Just what the doctor ordered — more iron in our diet.

To date, athletes who have trained at Silver Star have 48 medals. Today's medal surge comes from ... you guessed it ... The Norwegians. The men's biathlon team took home gold in the 4 x 7.5 kilometre relay. Another dominant performance by the Norwegians was followed by a great race for the Russians, who took home bronze.

Today's medals follow yesterday's women's 4x5 km relay, where Norway struck gold. Taking home the bronze was Finland. Incredible results for two teams who rave about the conditions.

Coaches and athletes are talking about the results from countries that trained at Silver Star leading into the Olympics. Martin Koukal from the Czech Republic said their third place medal in the relay yesterday was the best result ever for Czech in the relay and he feels the training at Silver Star made a difference. He will be talking to his coaches about coming back to the Silver Star, hopefully in November, for an early season training camp. Norway, Finland, Russia, Japan, Swiss, etc ... all feel the same way and many people are talking about how great the trails, snow conditions and facilities are at Silver Star.

The results show Silver Star Mountain Resort is top of the class in cross country skiing.

Today's medals come on the heels of yesterdays men's 4 x 10 km relay, where Norway took home the silver, thanks in large part to Petter Northug's amazing final leg of the race. The Czech Republic took home the bronze, lead by Martin Jaks, Lukas Bauer, Jiri Magal and Martin Kouka. While Russia is licking their wounds after being absolutely thrashed in men's hockey, their women's biathlon team garnered gold in the 4 x 6 km event. That comes on the heels of the Russian women's cross country sprint team's two bronze medals on Feb. 22.

Shortly after, the Norwegian men's team cross country sprint team won gold, while the Russian men's team took home the bronze.

While the Canadian men did not win a medal, they placed an impressive fourth in the team sprint.

Have a great day,

Glenn Bond,
Nordic manager,
Silver Star Mountain Resort

As expected, the Norwegian biathlon team are living up to their expectations. On Feb. 18, Emil Hegle Svendsen won gold in the Men's 20 km Individual event in a time of 48 minutes, 22.5 seconds. Teammate Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won silver with a time of 48:32. Congratulations!

Today's gold by Svendsen is his second medal of the game. He won silver in the Men's 10 km Sprint in a time of 24:20.

Rounding out the biathlon medal count is Tora Berger. The Norwegian biathlete won gold in the 15 km Individual event today in a time of 40:52:8.

While the Norwegian biathlon team has been dominating, their cross country team is also doing well. The Norwegian team trained at Silver Star last year and have two podium finishes so far. Marit Bjoergen won gold in the Ladies Individual Sprint Classic event and the 15 km Pursuit, which is split in a 7.5 km classic ski and another 7.5 km free ski. In addition, Petter Northug won bronze in the Men's Individual Sprint Classic event.

Continuing with cross country, Lucas Bauer of the Czech Republic won bronze in the Men's 15 km Free Cross Country event.

It's been an amazing time at the Olympics and we want to offer a big congratulations to all the athletes who trained at Silver Star, whether they've won medals or not. They are great ambassadors for the resort and speak very highly of Silver Star.

• Czech Republic – has a number of medals contenders – watch for Lukas Bauer – he is a threat in every race. He just won the Tour de Ski which is similar to the famous Tour de France.  

• Finland – expect two to six medals - Matti Heikkinen in the 15 km skate is a favourite to medal – watch him in the first xc ski event  

• Japan -  Solid team – would be a surprise if they have someone on the podium but they have has great training at Silver Star, so anything is possible  

• Australia – watch Esther Bottomley in the classic sprint – Silver Star is her second home, she spends time at Silver Star every year and she graced the cover of the Silver Star XC brochure in 08/09  

• USA - Garrott Kuzzy spent a month at Silver Star early season — watch him in the 15 km skate on February 15  

• Canada – of course starts their ski season at Silver Star every year, watch Devon Kershaw in the pursuit, Chandra Crawford in the Sprint, Sara Renner in the sprint and team sprint, Axel Harvey in to the 50 km classic, men’s relay, it will be exciting all the way through.  

In Biathlon, watch for:  

• Norway  - watch Halvard Hanevold, a double gold medalist in 2006 Olympics, the entire team has poduim results and will be a threat in every race.  

• Russia - Has a number of medal contenders, a very large team – Russia has the most XC skiers in the world and the pressure is high for results  

• Switzerland - Big guys, young team — expect them to fight for the podium, but they are underdogs.    

I will be at the Olympic Games from Feb. 13 to the 28 with accreditation through Atomic International race service. This accreditation will enable me to be behind the scene and right in the action. I will be helping the Atomic athletes from all nations test their skis and ensure the are confident with their equipment before they hit the start line. It's similar to being in the pit crew of NASCAR, everything happens so fast and it must be perfect.  

I will call results back to Silver Star with an update on athletes that trained at Silver Star and reached the podium.  

I will be staying in Whistler with the Atomic service team, consisting of 10 guys.  I am the only North America in this team — the rest come from Norway, Austria and Germany.   I am super excited to be part of such a historic event taking place in B.C. We offer some of the best skiing in the world, both nordic and alpine. It's great to have so many of the world's top athletes here to train and hopefully word spreads on what great conditions Silver Star offers. I have a front-row seat to the action and look forward to sharing those experience once the games begin.

Glenn Bond,
nordic manager,
Silver Star Mountain Resort