Racing continued at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games earlier Tuesday (*or: late Monday in Alaska) with a 7.5-kilometer interval-start classic race. Neve Gerard (Mount Bachelor Ski Education Foundation) had the race of the day for the Americans, placing sixth, 12.8 seconds off the podium. Nelli-Lotta Karppelin of Finland won the girls race, while Jakob Elias Moch of Germany claimed his second medal in as many days by winning the boys race.
The lowest-placing American today was 19th, in a combined field of 155 athletes, bespeaking a strong day for the team as a whole.
On the girls side, Rose Horning (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) was 13th, 56.8 seconds back, and Sydney Drevlow (Loppet Nordic Racing) 19th, 1:11.3 back.
In the boys race, Benjamin Barbier (Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club) was 11th (+39.1), while yesterday’s hero, Tabor Greenberg (Green Mountain Valley School), was just behind in 12th (+42.2). Landon Wyatt (Bridger Ski Foundation) was 18th, 1:01.3 back in a tight field.
I don’t have too much drama to report from the split timing. Gerard was in seventh at 1.7km, up to sixth at 3.8km, up to fourth at 5.5km (but also only 0.7 seconds ahead of 6th), and settled into sixth by the finish. As those splits suggest, it was a tight race for fourth through seventh; Gerard was 1.7 seconds out of fourth at the finish, and just 0.2 seconds up on seventh. Drevlow started relatively fast before falling back a little; Horning started relatively slowly and worked into her race somewhat more. All three boys skied consistent races in a tight field.
Here is a gallery of photos of American athletes in this race that I could find on the YOG photo service wire. All photos here: © Olympic Information Services. Handout image supplied by OIS/IOC. If you use these for commercial purposes (as opposed to editorial purposes, as with this news site) the IOC will find you, and that’s not really a joke. Some footage from the end of the girls race can be seen in the above Instagram post; click here for a comparable post for the boys race.
Racing in Pyeongchang concludes on Thursday with a 4 x 5km mixed relay. It will be the first relay contested at the Winter Youth Olympic Games, which were first held in Seefeld in 2012.
— Gavin Kentch
