Since she’s become a world-class athlete, Deedra Irwin has grown used to giving interviews.
In the 2022 Olympics in China, Irwin took seventh place in the relatively obscure biathlon event, which was the best finish ever by an American. She will compete next month in the Olympics in Italy.
Reporters are calling frequently now, and Irwin is sometimes uncertain where to tell them her hometown is. The 33-year-old athlete often names the village of Pulaski, where she went to school. “When people don’t know Wisconsin, I say I grew up in Green Bay, because it’s where we went shopping, where church was, where everything was at,” Irwin told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
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But Rick Robaidek knows where Irwin is really from — Angelica, Wisconsin, population 1,822. “She lives up on Hillside,” Robaidek told WPR. “My mother’s house is two doors down from her (mom’s).”
Unwilling to concede Irwin to Pulaski or Green Bay, Robaidek hung a banner outside of his shop, R Pool Services, in 2022 that proudly declared: “Deedra Irwin’s Home Town.”
Irwin lives in Vermont now, where she is a staff sergeant in the Vermont Army National Guard and a member of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program. But her Wisconsin roots run deep.
“I have those loyal Angelica neighbor fans. I have to give them a shout out. They’re the ones that had to endure watching me run around our 6-mile block every day of the summer,” Irwin said.
Irwin grew up competing in track and field and dreamed of running in the Olympics. In high school, she started Nordic skiing as a way to stay fit in the off season. It wasn’t until she was 25 that she gave the biathlon a try.
The biathlon combines Nordic skiing and target shooting in an event that requires contrasting speed and endurance for the skiing, and a steady hand for the target shooting. “You’re not just going out there and seeing who’s the fittest person on the day,” Irwin said. “You’re also seeing who can be the most focused and precise shooter on the day too, which I think is why it’s such a unique and complicated sport.”
Deedra’s mom, Jennifer Irwin, says her daughter is a bit of a celebrity in both Angelica and Pulaski. After the 2022 Olympics, Jennifer recalled motorists sometimes slowing down to gawk at their house as they drove past.
“We’re a country block. We have 15, maybe 20 people who live on our road,” Jennifer said. “Pretty much everyone on the road knows who she is, because when she’s home she roller-skis on the road.”
Deedra was also celebrated in the annual Pulaski Polka Days parade in 2022, when she rode in the back of a pickup truck with an Olympic flag. “That was huge. You’re doing a sport in Europe — an obscure sport for us — and not understanding if people know who you are,” Jennifer said. “And then to see that response. And she went to all the local schools to talk to kids.”
Because of covid restrictions, the family wasn’t able to cheer Irwin on in person during the 2022 Olympics, Jennifer said. But Irwin’s parents and two brothers will all be at the 2026 Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Jennifer started looking for hotel rooms a year ago. “Not everyone was taking reservations that early,” she said. “To use the word ‘stressful’ is an understatement.”
The sign that Robaidek put up at his store in 2022 eventually got worn by the weather, and he took it down. But when he heard that Irwin would be returning to the Winter Olympics this year, he said he would have to put up another one.
“She’s a very nice person,” he said. “It’s just awesome that someone who lives next door to you is in the Olympics. What is that, one-in-a-billion odds?”
