Winter Youth Olympics debutant Edward Woodhouse-Bedak to compete in South Korea

A western Sydney winter Youth Olympic debutant is an El Jannah-loving teen who trains at Parramatta Park and will return to school just days after returning from South Korea.

North Rocks Youth Olympian Edward Woodhouse-Bedak will compete in Gangwon, South Korea.

It’s far removed from any alpine slopes but a North Rocks 16-year-old’s practice runs on the dry terrain at Parramatta Park have helped qualify him for the Youth Olympics in South Korea.

Edward Woodhouse-Bedak, who spends most Friday nights eating Lebanese charcoal chicken from Granville with his family, is making his Olympic foray in biathlon at Gangwon between January 19 and February 1.

Biathlon involves rifle shooting metal targets and cross country skiing with distances ranging from 1km sprints to long distances of 15km.

The Olympics will be the biggest challenge for The King’s School student who only started taking the sport seriously in 2023 and uses Parramatta Park as one of his training routes by using wheels on his skis.

“It’s definitely different because your body acclimatises differently as it would to a sort of a higher location,’’ he said from Obertilliach in Austria, where he has been based for two months before flying to South Korea next week.

North Rocks Youth Olympic team member Edward Woodhouse-Bedak will compete in Gangwon, South Korea.

The King’s student trains at his school, Parramatta Park and Newington Armoury.

“Up here, where I am at the moment, I think we’re about 1700m and the air’s a lot thinner so … it’s very, very different and there’s a difference in the humidity and the temperature as well.’’

Under the guidance of coach and former Olympian Cameron Morton, Woodhouse-Bedak has focused on improving the shooting discipline with training drills at the Anzac Rifle Range at Maroubra.

Skiing is his forte but he finds shooting “a little bit stressful”.

“I did have my skiing to fall back on but my shooting definitely did need some working on, and that’s been getting much, much better during my time over here,’’ the keen surfer and beach lover said.

He was crowned the NSW and Australian under-16s junior cross country skiing champion at Falls Creek in 2022 but is realistic to know he is relatively inexperienced compared with many rivals he is to face in South Korea.

Jenny Woodhouse, Simon Bedak, Edward Woodhouse-Bedak and The King's School teacher Jo Grinham.

“I’m definitely quite nervous with the upcoming event considering my lack of biathlon racing but I’ve done a couple of junior world cups, and those events are under-21s, and I’ve been racing them,’’ he said.

“What I’ve been trying to do is treat those races as I would the Youth Olympics and I think that really settles my nerves a bit.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to keep everything together when the day comes.’’

Being based in Austria has given Woodhouse-Bedak the chance to meet competitors where biathlon is a more popular sport – including Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova.

“They think Australians doing the sport is pretty cool because it’s a really out-of-the-blue country,’’ he said.

The teen’s mother Jenny Woodhouse is a nurse at Westmead Private Hospital and was raised on a cattle farm in Wagga where rifles were the tools of the trade, and comes from a family of keen skiers.

His dad, Simon Bedak, who “didn’t see the snow until I was 40” suggests his son also chose to pursue biathlon after his year 1 teacher Jo Grinham talked him into trying cross-country skiing in the under-7s team so The King’s could have the numbers to form a team and take on other schools.

The King's School teacher Jo Grinham with student Edward Woodhouse-Bedak when he was a youngster.

Woodhouse-Bedak is striving for success on the slopes as an adult but also has ambitious plans to and study psychology at university.

“My grand plan is to start up a whole heap of franchising therapy clinics,’’ he said.

For the immediate future, the Olympics will keep him busy.

And continuing the Woodhouse-Bedak family Friday night tradition at South St, Granville. (The chicken is from Hawa but El Jannah – even though it has become “franchisey” – always wins when it comes to aioli).