Alaska’s Maxime Germain was named to the U.S. Olympic biathlon team to compete at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games. (Photo provided by U.S. Biathlon)
Alaska’s Maxime Germain has been named to the U.S. Olympic biathlon team and will compete at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games.
Germain, 24, who was born in Juneau and graduated from West Anchorage High School in 2019, will be making his Olympic debut.
“I am stoked to have qualified,” Germain said in a U.S. Biathlon release. “The goal is now to perform there! It is going to be my first Olympics, but it shouldn’t be any different from other racing. Same venue, same racing, different name!”
The announcement was made Sunday at the conclusion of the World Cup stop in France. He is currently 34th in World Cup rankings, the second-best American behind Olympic teammate Campbell Wright.
Advertisement
Germain has raced for the APU Nordic Ski Center and trained with the Anchorage Biathlon Club.
“Maxime has worked really hard throughout the off season, improving his mental game and bringing an overall level up to the World Cup this year,” U.S. Biathlon High Performance Director Lowell Bailey said in the release. “This showed right away at the first World Cup in Ostersund, where he proved he can be among the world’s fastest and best biathletes. Maxime will be a great addition to the U.S. Olympic team!”
Before coming to Anchorage, Germain grew up in Chamonix, France, and started biathlon there at age 13.
Germain is a member of Vermont Army National Guard as an aviation operations specialist and is studying to become a commercial pilot. Germain has trained with the National Guard Biathlon Team and races as part of the US Army World Class Athlete Program.
Germain joins Wright, Deedra Irwin and Margie Freed as the first four qualifiers for the 2026 Olympic Biathlon Team. The remaining members of the team will be announced on Jan. 6 following completion of the U.S. Biathlon Timed Trials.
Advertisement
The 2026 Winter Olympics run from Feb. 6-22 in Italy.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
Advertisement
This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
A new home under construction in Potter Valley in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
This June, two very different offers reach Alaska families, and both amount to the same thing: $10,000. The difference is everything.
Bill Walker, running for governor, would hand every eligible Alaskan a one-time $10,000 check and then end the Permanent Fund dividend for good. Ask one question: Where does his $10,000 come from?
It comes from the Permanent Fund, the people’s own money and the savings Alaskans built for their children. Walker would spend that endowment once to pay Alaskans to give up the yearly dividend forever.
Think about what that does. It cancels the annual check that gives a family a reason to keep an Alaska address and replaces it with a single payout. You hand people their own savings, call it a gift and cut the tie that held them here in the same motion. It is the oldest mistake in governing money: raid what you have saved to buy a moment’s applause and call the spending generosity.
Advertisement
A plan that spends the people’s savings to send the people away is not bold. It is foolish.
Now consider the other $10,000. Through Alaska Housing Finance Corp., the state offers families up to $10,000 to build a new, energy-efficient home. AHFC raids nothing. It earns its own way. Over the years, it has returned more than $2 billion to the state treasury, and it spends some of that income the way any good business does: to win a customer.
Here, the customer is an Alaskan who wants to own a home, put down roots and stay.
That is the oldest sound move in business: Invest a little of what you earn to bring in someone who stays. The homeowner remains, the community gains a family and the corporation keeps earning. The money spent comes back. A plan that puts earnings to work to bring people home is not charity. It is clever.
Same amount. Opposite source. Opposite wisdom. One spends savings; the other spends earnings. One pays Alaskans to leave; the other pays them to stay. One empties the state; the other fills it.
Advertisement
This Homeownership Month, the choice is the size of a single check, and the whole question is where the check comes from and what it asks of you. Ten thousand dollars of your own fund, to wave you goodbye. Or $10,000, earned and reinvested, to help you stay and build.
Evan Swensen is the publisher of Publication Consultants in Anchorage and the author of “What’s the Money For: A Permanent Fund Mortgage Proposal.”
• • •
The Anchorage Daily News welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.
