CANMORE – When Emma Lunder was serving hot coffee at Starbucks in Canmore, the “elite athlete program” pin on her apron often drew the intrigue of customers.
She explained that she was a biathlete on the World Cup circuit, and without fail, customers would pull out smartphones and Google her name in front of her.
“Then they would show me a photo of myself and ask, ‘is this you?’, and I’m like, ‘yeah, that’s me,’” she said with a laugh.
Though, many probably never realized they were chatting to “one of the best biathletes Canada has seen.”
One of the anchors of Canada’s top biathlon team, especially for the past six years, it’s time for the 33-year-old, two-time Olympian to unload her rifle and hang up her skis in retirement.
During her strongest years in the sport, Lunder was on the verge of winning World Cup medals and gave it everything even when things were winding down.
“It felt like this was the right time to end it and just go from being an athlete to a spectator and cheering for the team from now on,” said Lunder.
“I know there’s the Olympics in 2026. I’d thought of it a lot. I think for myself, it was so cool to go to two Olympics, but it didn’t feel like I really needed a third.”
Lunder’s final time wearing an IBU World Cup bib was on March 22 in Oslo, Norway, where she finished 55th in the 10km pursuit. When she crossed the finish line, she was showered in champagne, and was ready for the next chapter in her career.
“I wasn’t reaching the performance benchmarks that I feel capable of, and there wasn’t really an answer why,” she said. “That’s a big part of it for me is. We as Biathlon Canada, put so much in, not just the time for training, but we're the only nation on the World Cup who are funding ourselves to be there and paying tour fees … which is just unfortunate.”
She added that it was different this time without her partner, Christian Gow, a former World Cup biathlete, not on the top circuit, too.
On top of things, she has been attending online courses for the University of Calgary and will attend the institute this fall.
According to the IBU, with 229 World Cup starts to her name, Lunder sits second all-time in Canada. She has only fewer starts than three-time Olympian Zina Lawson (Kocher), with 267.
Lunder started biathlon at the sea cadet’s in Vernon, B.C. after seeing her brother, Angus, trying it. The coach joked that little sister was a better shooter than her older sibling. Vernon had a small biathlon program, which Lunder’s mom, Kaarina, became a volunteer parent-coach and then an officer-coach for the program. Following a brief stint in Squamish, B.C., Lunder moved to Canmore to start training with the Rocky Mountain Racers.
She raced in her very first World Cup race in 2014. During the IBU Cup in Canmore in 2015, Lunder hit the podium at the international event, winning silver in front of the home crowd.
“I wouldn’t say I was fully committed to another 10 years of biathlon [in 2015] and I think having that podium and that success at home in front of the home crowds, really lit a fire for me,” she said.
On the World Cup circuit, there were 11 times Lunder finished inside the top-10 – five of which were in her best season of 2022-23. Her top placing was fourth place in the 7.5 kilometre sprint that year, where she shot clean and narrowly missed a bronze medal by 1.2 seconds.
A few months later at world championships, she would skate to seventh place in the mass start.
Her top single mixed relay result came in the 2019-20 season, where she and Gow finished fourth and were just four seconds away from a medal.
“I could see that the podium was possible,” she said. “At times, it stung a little bit that I couldn’t quite get there, but looking back on it, fourth in the world, that’s a pretty amazing feat that I can say I accomplished,” she said.
The budding sharpshooter represented Canada at 2018 PyeongChang and 2022 Beijing. Although her results were poorer than what she was capable of, especially in Beijing.
“That’s the one part of my career that never really clicked,” said Lunder.
“I think going into 2022, I was super excited. Again, thinking, ‘OK, this could be an opportunity for a really high end result’, and about a month before the games, I got super sick while we were in Europe and I … missed a ton of training and wasn’t really able to recover.
“Honestly, that was probably the most disappointing part of racing for me was sort of how things went in 2022, but also, it’s so out of your control as an athlete when you get sick.”
Coaching Lunder for the past six years, Justin Wadsworth called her the “most professional, hard working athlete I think I’ve ever worked with.”
“I really just appreciate Emma, too. For her, even when things got tougher and we had some challenges, she kept doing her very best right up until the end. It’s not the results at the end of the day, it’s the journey and her journey was something she can be really proud of,” said Wadsworth, who recently stepped down as the senior national head coach and high performance director at Biathlon Canada
Kerry Dankers, Biathlon Canada’s CEO, said Lunder has been one of the best biathletes Canada has seen.
“Through the years I have been working with Biathlon Canada I have had multiple people give me the feedback that Emma has been an awesome mentor for them, she goes out of her way to cheer on and help the younger athletes and she’s been a really strong leader on the athlete team,” Dankers said.
Taking the next generation of senior national team athletes under her wing, she felt as if she was “team mom” for a while.
“It’s so cool for me to see the next generation up and coming and I’m really excited and I’m hoping that maybe there’s some good results that can bring in some more funding and then we can have some World Cup medals, hopefully one day,” said Lunder.
Perhaps that biathlete is working at a coffee shop in Canmore now, being Googled by curious customers about their accomplishments in the sport.
