VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Photo Credit: Nordic Focus Photo Agency

Barton

Biathlon/Multi-sport

One of the most accomplished American females competing in biathlon, Susan Dunklee of Barton competed in three Winter Olympics and eight World Nordic Skiing Championships from 2012 to 2022. Dunklee was twice a silver medalist in the World Biathlon Championships, and in 2017 she was the first American woman ever to win an individual medal at either the Worlds or the Olympics. She would add another silver in the World Cup sprint in 2020.

Learning to ski at age two with her father, VSHOF inductee and Olympian, Stan, she first competed at age seven in a Bill Koch Youth Nordic Ski League. Dunklee attended St. Johnsbury Academy, where in addition to Nordic skiing she competed on the cross country running team for four years, winning the 2003 state title after finishing second in 2002. She was also on the track and field team for four years, winning a combined six state and New England individual crowns. 

Dunklee went on to Dartmouth College competing in cross country running, track and field and Nordic skiing, where she won all-American honors three times. She helped lead the Big Green to the 2007 NCAA team championship, its first in 30 years. 

At Dartmouth she took up biathlon, and in 2011 she made her debut on the World Cup biathlon circuit. She placed fifth in an event in Germany, tying the best-ever result for an American woman. Her first Olympic Games was in 2014 in Sochi where she finished as high as 11th skiing in six events including two relays. She also skied in four events in Pyeong Chang in 2018 and five more at Beijing in 2022. At the 2020 worlds she added another silver in the sprint.

The first Olympian from St. Johnsbury Academy, Dunklee, who also won several U.S. Biathlon national titles, retiring from competition at the end of the 2022 season. She now works full-time at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center training aspiring biathletes. 

Several times a Vermont Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association state athlete of the month, she was inducted into the VPA Hall of Fame in 2016. She joins in the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame her father, Stan, a 2022 inductee and her uncle Tony Robitaille, a boxer who was inducted in 2017.