Meet The Coaches

Emily Young has been involved in sport since a young age however, cross country skiing came later in her sporting career.  Emily’s main sport through high school, and into university, was wrestling and cross country running. She competed on a national and international level from 2005 to 2010. The love story between Emily and wrestling ended with a severe injury leading to multiple surgeries, a permanent injury and a sport change. It was in 2011 when her focus on running and triathlon moved to the forefront and her coaching and athletic career continued.  She began coaching intro to triathlon, intermediate triathlon, marathon and half marathon clinics through her job  (North Shore Athletics) in North Vancouver. She took a few NCCP community coaching / coaching athletes with a disability Triathlon certifications through CSI Pacific and worked alongside some incredible endurance running and swimming  mentors. This experience allowed her to form a foundation of communication, mostly directed towards adults (beginner and intermediate athletes) and helped her to become a confident, encouraging and helpful coach. This was all happening in conjunction with her studies at Douglas College in the Sports Science (kinesiology focus) diploma program.  This program helped her gain the knowledge of biomechanics, sports nutrition, sports psychology, anatomy and physiology along with other very applicable courses to help expand her scientific understanding of humans in sport. 

Her nordic journey from the athlete’s perspective began in 2014 and continued through to 2022 as Emily trained and competed for Hollyburn Nordic Club, Telemark Nordic ski Club and the Canadian National Para Nordic Biathlon and Cross Country Ski Team. Emily completed her Nordic career with 2 paralympic games, 4 world Championship and 9 years of racing on the World Cup circuit. She was grateful to have been coached by many incredible coaches such as Robin McKeever, Bjorn Taylor, John Jacques, Kaspar Wirz, and Kate Boyd, to name a few.  It was post career where Emily began the journey of coaching by taking many NCCP coaching courses, as well as the Learn to Compete dryland courses in Québec.  It was during the 2022/2023 season where Emily was recruited by with Nordiq Canada to assist with coaching at the National Prospects dry land Camp in Revelstoke BC and the Canadian Development Camp in Vernon BC.  Nordiq Canada recognized her potential and asked Emily to be Team Lead for for the Canadian team at the U20 World Junior Championships held in Whistler BC.  These experiences placed her in a very fortunate position to mentor with some very skilled and knowledgeable coaches from across the country.  Emily ended the season assisting the Canadian Para Nordic ski team at their World Cup series final at the 2002 Olympic venue in Soldier Hollow, Utah. Throughout the season of 2022/2023, Emily furthered her coaching education through the National Coaching Certification Program by completing additional courses to help her to better understand and support athletes and parents on and off the field of play.

Christopher (Chris) Halldorson has been cross country skiing since he was 2 years old, and began racing when he was 12. He found success in both cross country skiing and biathlon. He was named to the Canadian National Junior Team, and competed on the international level for 4 years. At the age of 20, he began coaching both cross country skiing and biathlon. In 2006, he was hired as the coach for Chelsea Nordiq, and served as head of the nordic club until 2010. Chris helped Chelsea Nordiq achieve Cross Country Canada’s AltaGas club coaching grant. In 2010, Chris moved from the national capital region to Vancouver in order to train as a naturopathic physician. During his naturopathic medical training, he volunteered his time with Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club, Cross Country BC and Biathlon BC. After the completion of his training in 2014, he moved to Kelowna where he immediately became involved with Telemark Nordic Ski Club, first as the biathlon coach, and then gradually assuming more and more roles as a cross country coach and program manager. From 2018-2019, Chris was named as the head coach of the national biathlon training centre in Canmore Alberta ( Biathlon Alberta Training Centre). During his tenure he initiated a cooperative partnership with the Alberta World Cup Academy, which has since grown into an integrated sports partnership between the two training centers promoting competitive racing for post-secondary students. Upon his return to Kelowna, Chris resumed his roles with Telemark Nordic Ski Club, and currently acts as Telemark Nordic Ski Club’s competitive and youth programs manager, as well as head biathlon coach. In addition to his work at the club level, Chris is actively coaching with Biathlon BC, Nordiq Canada and Cross Country BC at various training camps, and Biathlon Canada at the World Cup Level. Outside of coaching, Chris sits on the Board of Directors for Biathlon BC, helping to govern the provincial sports organization. He is the Biathlon BC’s provincial advisor for the BC Winter Games (BCWG).

Paul has been a volunteer coach with Telemark’s programs since 2008, and has worked with athletes of all ages during his time with the club.  He is certified at the Train to Train, Learn to Train, and Community Coach levels, and is a Coach Developer for Cross Country BC at both the Learn to Train and Community Coach contexts.  Through Cross Country BC’s Provincial Coaching Experience program, Paul has had the opportunity to work with the top BC athletes and coaches through many provincial training camps. He has also worked with the BC Ski Team in Europe.  Paul grew up racing whitewater slalom, and spent many years coaching in that sport during and after his competitive career.  Paul is currently an Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Chemistry at UBC’s Okanagan campus.  Paul is currently coaching in Telemark’s Train to Train program, and, if asked, would call them the bestest athletes ever.