Hyncicova Finishes 10K Freestyle Race At Olympics

BOULDER — In what was her second race in three days, and third overall at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Colorado senior women's Nordic skier Petra Hyncicova competed on Thursday in the Ladies' 10K freestyle race at the Alpensia Cross-Country Centre in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Representing the Czech Republic, Hyncicova placed 60th out of 90 racers with a time of 29:09.9 in the 30-second interval start race.

Wearing bib No. 8, she started out at 4:48.9 in the first 1.6K of the race, which was mostly uphill. By the 6.2K mark, she was at 18:24.3, at the time ranking 61st in the field, but closed to 59th by the 8.4K mark at 25:09.0.

Racers did two laps on the 5K course, which had a mixture of "three or four tricky and quite demanding climbs," downslopes and portions through trees.

The weather conditions, which had been cold and freezing for most of the week, improved for the 10K race Thursday. Winds were calm and the temperatures were "not even at freezing point," according to the NBC broadcast. There were sunny skies and the broadcast said the air temperature was at 1 degree Celsius (33.8 Fahrenheit) with a 5KM wind speed (3.1 mph) from the south.

On Tuesday evening in an Instagram Live interview with Hyncicova on CU ski team account, she talked about the weather conditions.

"They canceled a lot of the alpine races, they postponed the snowboarders, postponed ski jumpers or Nordic combined, so for us they don't need to postpone it, we just have to go through and fight," Hyncicova said, "The cold and the wind is not funny and is not easy."

Hyncicova was originally scheduled for just three races at the Olympics, but said on Tuesday that she had been added to the start list for Thursday's freestyle race, which is her favorite of the cross country disciplines.

Her next race will now be on Sunday, Feb. 25, in the Ladies' 30K Classic mass start.

Fellow RMISA student-athlete Casey Wright, who skies collegiately at Alaska Anchorage, finished 81st in the 10K freestyle race Thursday. Wright is representing Australia.

Other Buffs In PyeongChang
Former CU women's Nordic skier, Joanne Reid who is competing in the biathlon for Team USA, placed 22nd with just one penalty in Thursday's women's 15K individual race.

It was a big rebound for Reid from her sprint race, according to a release from U.S. Biathlon. "In that event, Reid missed seven of 10 targets on the range. Today, she posted a career-best finish for any of her world cup or Olympic races," according to the release.

Reid told U.S. Biathlon, "There was a lot less wind today and it's a lot warmer which makes it easier on the hands for shooting. I've actually been shooting really well in practice so I thought if I can just execute that when I came in for each bout, I had a chance at doing fairly well."

Reid wasn't initially scheduled to start the race, but was inserted into the start list after teammate Maddie Phaneuf (Old Forge, N.Y.) woke up Thursday morning with a sore throat, according to the release.

"I'm really happy that I had a good race just because I took Maddie's spot here and I didn't want to go out there and have a bad day," said Reid. "She's really disappointed that she didn't get to race, so this one's for her."

There were 87 total competitors in the women's 15K individual race, that was originally supposed to run on Wednesday, but was postponed a day due to high winds.

Kendall Wesenberg, a 2012 graduate of the CU Leeds School of Business, is on the U.S. skeleton team. On Friday, Feb. 16 at 4:20 a.m. MT, the women's first heat of the skeleton opens the official competition with the medal round taking place on Saturday, Feb. 17. There are three heats of the women's races before the medal round.

Wiley Maple, whose father, Mike, helped lead the Buffs to two NCAA titles in the early 80s while his sister, Alex, also skied at CU on the club team, competed in the men's downhill race on Thursday. With Team USA, Maple finished in 30th place with a time of 1:43.78

Players Mentioned

Petra Hyncicova

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