Dacks and Toga Active Life August Issue For Web

Clockwise from top left: The testing
begins with the athlete at rest. The
athlete does a few intervals running on
a treadmill, with the speed increasing
at each interval. Andrea monitors the
results. A triumphant Andrea.
The athlete runs a 2-minute
interval without the mouthpiece.
Those that
can do, Coach!
How a Great Biathlete Takes on the
Challenge of Retirement
By Jody Katz
andrea Henkel Burke’s athletic
resume is impressive.
It’s the result of many
years of hard work, focus
and a passion to succeed.
While some of our readers know her
race history, fewer may know what
made her dedicate such a large part
of her life to the sport of Nordic Skiing.
Her explanation was simple,
honest, and funny.
It all began with the Nordic Training
Program in Germany at the age of six
because Andrea admired the ski pole
with hanging medals that her sister
Manuela (3 years her senior) had hanging
over her bed. The young Andrea
wanted her own set of medals. Simple
as that. Growing up, Manuela’s no longer
used gear would become Andrea’s
and she was very supportive of Andrea’s
skiing—something that would continue
later on as she became Andrea’s biggest
fan. The two had a great family moment
that Andrea calls “a sister feeling” when
they both came back from the 2002
Olympics with gold medals.
Let’s take a good look at her resume.
It boasts 5 years competing on
Germany’s Junior National Team followed
by 16 on the National Team. It
shows that she was on four Olympic
Teams and won four Olympic medals—2
of them gold. It highlights her
participation in 12 World Championships
where she earned sixteen medals—including
8 gold medals—and
where she has 36 Biathlon World Cup
victories. So, what does an elite athlete
do when it’s time to hang up the
rifle and skies and move on to the next
phase of their life?
Well, for Andrea it was not a hard
transition. Like Forrest Gump deciding
he was tired from all the running,
she knew when it was time to
stop competing. As the senior racer on
the German team, she was over a decade
older than her closest-aged teammate—for
her a sure sign to retire in
2013. She had been Nordic training
for over three decades and it became
time to focus on how she could turn
all that experience, all that knowledge,
into a new career. She chose coaching,
training and metabolic testing, eventually
taking several training courses
for the Aeroscan ® testing system which
consists of several parts including the
Aeroman ® unit and the proprietary
Aeroscan ® software. To keep up to
date she communicates often with the
Aeroscan ® Team and the company’s
founder in Germany.
I had the opportunity to watch and
photograph Andrea while she gave a
Nordic skier an Aeroscan ® test. We
met at the beautiful Crowne Plaza Hotel
in Lake Placid because Andrea’s
two-building training/coaching/living
She was over a decade
older than her closest-aged
teammate—for her a sure
sign to retire in 2013.
facility was still being constructed and
she was waiting for training equipment
to arrive. The Aeroman ® testing
unit comes in a protective aluminum
briefcase. It is easily portable and is
about the size of a small garden watering
can. Andrea thinks it might be the
only one in the United States. When
compared to the large floor standing
units I have seen in the past, the Aeroman
® is smaller and far less ominous.
22 | DACKS & TOGA activelife PHOTOS: Aeroscan® testing photos by Jody Katz. All other photos provided.
DACKS & TOGA activelife | 23