MT BULLER has its very own ambassador for the sport of Biathlon – cross country skiing and shooting.

“It’s hard to explain the Buller Ambassadorship because my responsibilities are pretty similar to what they were beforehand,” Boris explained recently in an interview with Buller News.

“Being an active stakeholder in the mountain has always been a part of my life, but now it’s more public and I get to tell the story of being a little kid growing up on Mt Buller and chasing big dreams.

“Mt Buller has always been the home of champions and I hope to become one of the next.”

Boris has now competing in his chosen sport Biathlon for some years now and has climbed the word-wide rankings.

At the opening of the 2025 snow season Boris spent two days promoting the sport with visitors to the Alpine Central Sports Hall giving them a taste of laser shooting – the second component of this winter sport.

“We counted 236 people over the opening weekend come and try the laser shooting in the Alpine Central sports hall,” Boris said.

“We had a lot of interest in shooting and how it all comes together to make biathlon, and despite most people being out skiing on the amazing 37cm of snow over the weekend, we had the longest shooting time per person of any event that we have held.

“In previous years, we have topped 430 people over the weekend but this time things were much more relaxed and people took a huge interest in the upcoming 2026 Olympic Games in Milan,” he said.

Boris explained the demos involved a quick introduction to how the laser rifles work, how to aim and fire and a few hot tips along the way.

After that, people were free to shoot as much as they liked.

“We had a fair few people take an interest in joining the sport and we collected a few emails and phone numbers over the two days,” he said.

“We had 50 return shooters on day two and out of those five families seemed to take an interest in continuing these activities more regularly.”

Boris is extremely passionate about his sport and not only encourages others to take it up but also coordinates Buller Biathlon along with his very steady training regime.

Boris explained his training and what it involves: “We are out there most mornings from 7am, anyone can come and join me and have a shot (just email us at bullerbiathlon@gmail.com ) and we would love to see you out there!

“We are planning on a repeat of the MBRC fundraiser event this year and another ‘come and try’ over interschools.

“There are talks of holding an event on Bullers kids’ week as well.”

Despite all his hard training and efforts it has not always gone as planned when competing for Boris.

“I competed overseas (during our past summer) and had the most catastrophic season ever, however, despite the challenges I faced, I’ve pushed through those hard times and come out better than before,” he said.

“My Ranking went up during the first trimester but fell back to where it was last season.

“This was majorly disappointing but sometimes you need to fail hard to get better and if this journey was going to be easy then it probably wouldn’t be an interesting one.”

Buller News asked Boris if this sport was growing in strength and popularity and what are his future aims:

“Biathlon is included in the Winter Olympics and will be one of the biggest spectator sports there,” he believes.

“Right now, my points have not achieved me a spot on the team but the qualification game starts on 5 December and ends on 18 January (2026); there are 10 events that can get me a spot at the Olympics and I’m going to do everything that I can to get there.”

How far do you think your competitions will take you?: “To the moon and back,” Boris said.

“Biathlon is one of the most popular winter sports and arguably the hardest to succeed in.

“I hope to introduce it to Australia as my career goes on because I love what I do and I’m on my way to the top step by step.”

Boris said there are others that train and support biathlons.

“We have a few boys that train with me from Mt Buller and there are others from the mountains across Australia, but the main competitions are held in Europe and the stakes are much higher over there.

“For now, we are just a small part of the Biathlon World but hopefully one day we will get bigger and bigger,” Boris said.

Apart from his involvement in Biathlons, his training and helping out at his parents business on Buller – Duck Inn – Boris continues to study at university.

“I am at Victoria University studying business; balancing 20-32 hour training weeks with studying is tough, but not impossible,” he said.

“Looking after the Duck Inn is great fun and it’s great to get our guests up to enjoy the amazing snow here at Mt Buller.

“I’m always out there bright and early before the lifts open and our guests usually get special insights on the conditions each morning when I come back from training.