Charlie Akers

Charlie Akers
Full name	Charles Arthur Akers
Association	United States
birthday	July 12, 1939
place of birth	Rumford, Maine
Career
society	University of Maine US Army biathlon team
Admission to the national team	1962
Debut in the European Cup / IBU Cup	-
Debut in the World Cup	-
status	resigned
End of career	1964
World Cup balance
last change: April 29, 2010

Charles Arthur "Charlie" Akers (born July 12, 1939 in Rumford ) is a former American cross-country skier and biathlete .

Charlie Akers started cross-country skiing early on, back in the 1940s. He quickly became a dominant runner in inter-school competitions and achieved various victories in state-level competitions. When he attended the University of Maine from 1957, he started for the university's cross-country team and quickly developed into a winner in competitions between the universities. In 1959 and 1961 he won the major titles in the USA at the NCAA championships. By the success in 1959 he qualified for the eliminations ( Trials ) of the United States for the 1960 Winter Olympics from Squaw Valley. Thanks to his strong performance in the trials, he qualified for the games and took a semester off to prepare. Finally, Akers was used in the race over 15 kilometers, in which he was 50th of 54 runners, leaving almost only "exotic" from countries like Australia or South Korea behind.

Shortly before graduating from university, Akers received a letter from the commanding officer of the US Armed Forces' biathlon division asking to join them. He accepted the offer and completed his basic training at Fort Dix . After five weeks and a few complications - the fort's commanding officer was not privy to what was going on around the biathlon team - Akers was transferred to Anchorage , Alaska, and began his biathlon training at Fort Richardson . For the next three years he was often in Europe for training purposes. He quickly became one of the best biathletes in his country and qualified as the best of the trials for the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck . At the Games, he finished 16th, making him not only the best American, but also the best non-European. He reached the 28th running time, but was able to place better thanks to only two shooting errors. He had previously participated in the Biathlon World Championships in 1962 and 1963 .

After the Games, he was discharged from the army and settled in Palmer , Alaska . Here he became a member of the National Ski Patrol and achieved the highest possible position as a certified patrolman . Akers then became a teacher and finally a director until he left school in 1986 to become a bush pilot with the Alaska Mountain Air , which he remained until his retirement. He was inducted into the Maine Ski Hall of Fame for his services to cross-country skiing in Maine .

Web links

• Charlie Akers in the database of Olympedia.org (English)
• Portrait on the website of the Ski Museum of Maine ( Memento from March 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
• Image of the US biathlon team at the 1964 Olympics