Rachel Steer is a straight shooter, which makes her a very good biathlete – and an honest one.

Steer, the best female biathlete in the United States, realizes the Olympic Winter Games are just 12 months away, but to be perfectly honest, she isn’t exactly counting down the days.

“Day in and day out, the Olympics are not on my mind,” Steer said. “I cannot allow myself to become obsessed with that event. I won’t be successful if all I think about is the Olympics.”

Instead, Steer, 23, immerses herself in her daily training routine, keeping the immediate focus on the remainder of what has been a “disappointing” World Cup season. On this day, the routine starts with a caribou snack before heading out to take advantage of the few hours of available daylight in her hometown of Anchorage, Alaska.

Steer is trying to fight off the winter doldrums from a frustrating season. She recently finished 23rd and 27th in her two events at the 2001 World Championships in Slovenia. The fact that she has won over 10 national junior and senior titles means nothing to her competitors on the rugged European circuit.

Biathlon is a uniquely demanding sport, combining the physical demands of cross-country skiing and mental concentration of precision rifle shooting. Steer probably could offer many excuses, not the least of which is the fact that she’s an American in a sport in which her country has never won an Olympic medal.

She isn’t blaming injuries or illness, bad wax or accusing biathlon gods of steering her rifle shots off target. “I just don’t think my body has responded to my training,” she said. “It’s totally my fault.”

Steer became a biathlete because her older brother’s high school coach happened to spot some natural talent in her when she was 12 years old. She was shooting regularly and becoming serious by age 14. Having never really planned on being here, Steer knows she has to be close to perfect in order to compete against the Europeans, many of whom have grown up on skis and grown out of well-funded national programs.

In other words, Steer knows how Angola feels when facing the USA’s Dream Team in basketball.

“In Germany and Norway, kids are shooting air rifles by the time they’re 10 or 11, if not sooner, and they have actual coaching at that age,” Steer said. “For me when I started it was more like, ‘Here are some bullets – don’t shoot anyone.’ ”

She hasn’t, and she’s managed to ascend to the top of her sport with relative ease. Still, as she readies herself to take on the world on home turf next February, Steer sounds a little like someone who wouldn’t mind if her anticipated 15 minutes of fame went about five. An “intrinsically motivated” person who is admittedly “too hard on myself,” Steer seeks her way out of difficult stretches by going back to what lured her in. She waits for some Alaska daylight and hits the trail, harder and longer this time.

“It’s a passion for the sport, that’s all,” Steer said. “To most people, biathlon is some complex sport – they don’t understand it. To me, it’s very simple. You’re out there on skis hunting for your food.”

An Olympic Moment with Rachel Steer

Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska

Age: 23

Olympic Experience: None. Steer was an alternate on the 1998 U.S. Olympic Team.

What’s the most unique aspect of your sport?
It’s a combination of excruciating physical endurance and a cerebral activity like shooting a gun.

Favorite Olympic sport?
I seem to like sports that my friends are in – Nordic combined, cross-country skiing. I became engrossed in watching curling in ’98. There’s something about watching people hurl a big rock down the ice.

Do you know all the words to The Star-Spangled Banner?
I do. When are you most happy?
When I’m surrounded by the people that love me and we’re all having a good time.

What makes a good friend?
I have to use my sister as a model because we are incredibly close. She’s my best friend.

What words or phrases do you overuse?
I say “can’t” too much.

My greatest achievement:
Is yet to come.

My biggest regret:
Sometimes I wonder if I should have gone to (college) longer than I did.

My most memorable birthday:
When I turned 19 at the 1997 World University Games, I won a silver medal in the sprint race.

Most people don’t know … how much I appreciate the support those close to me have given me. I’m very thankful for the people who love me unconditionally, no matter how well I do.

I can't live without … having a little time for myself each day.

I'm a closet fan of … The Food Network. I love to cook.

Most likely future "real job" … One of two things: I’ll either own a restaurant or a catering business or I’ll become a guide here in Alaska. It’s amazing and very rewarding to see how people react to seeing these places for the first time.

Favorite …
Movie: “The Big Blue”
TV show: Jeopardy.
Music: All kinds from classical to not-real-hard rock with some disco thrown in.
Books: Recently, I have read “The River Why” and “The Red Tent.”
Food: Seafood – salmon. And wild game like caribou and moose.
Holiday: Christmas because I’m always with a group of people that seems like family whether it is my family or friends. And Fourth of July because I get to spend it in Alaska where it’s 24 hours of sunlight.