PRESQUE ISLE, Maine - Five hundred of the world's top biathletes will converge on Aroostook County next February for an International Biathlon Union World Cup event.
Competitions will take place Feb. 11 to Feb. 14 of 2016, and will be held at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle.
Event Director Jane Towle says the economic impact will be in the millions of dollars. She says the budget for just hosting the event is $1 million.
"And that does not include, you know, a lot of the money that comes here from advertisers, from European spectators, families," Towle says. "Biathlon is the most popular winter sport in Europe."
This will be the eighth in a series of nine stops on the 2015-16 circuit, and the only one in the U.S.
