Welcome to The Home Team, VTDigger’s daily Olympic dispatch. Every morning, we’ll feature the highlights of Vermonters competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Check out our full list of Vermont athletes on Team USA, and meet author Kevin O’Connor in our Olympic preview podcast.
Friday, February 16
A day after winning gold in skiing’s giant slalom, Vermont-schooled Mikaela Shiffrin missed out on a second medal Friday by dragging while defending her 2014 title in the regular slalom.
The 22-year-old graduate of Burke Mountain Academy vomited violently before her first conservative run and couldn’t make up enough time in her cleaner second try, finishing just off the podium in fourth by 0.08 seconds.
“When you have two races in a row, it’s really important to keep that mental energy stable, and I didn’t really do that,” she told Vermonter Peggy Shinn, a writer for the U.S. Olympic Committee’s website. “I had too much of a peak yesterday and too much of a valley today.”
Shinn agrees: “It came down to nerves,” she emailed us, “and fatigue from yesterday’s emotional high.”
Shiffrin wants to be the first U.S. skier since 1952 Vermont Olympian Andrea Mead Lawrence to nab two same-games victories, and still could do so if she wins either next week’s downhill or alpine combined.
Diggins’ next shot
Stratton’s Jessie Diggins narrowly missed out on winning an Olympic medal three times this week. But for the 26-year-old, tomorrow is another day.
“To have three top-six finishes at the games in totally different events is like a dream come true for me,” Diggins tells TeamUSA.org. “That’s a really good feeling to know that you gave it everything that you had and more than you thought you could give. And yeah, of course you want to medal. But there are other things that are also really important besides the actual hardware.”
The U.S. cross-country women’s next chances to win their first-ever Olympic medal are the 4×5-kilometer relay Saturday and the team sprint Wednesday.
Biesemeyer hits ‘rock bottom’
University of Vermont graduate Tommy Biesemeyer, who sat out the 2014 Olympics with a knee injury, is sidelined again after hurting his right ankle this week.
Unlike Diggins, he’s not happy about it.
“It’s times like these where you’re supposed to be creating a puff piece,” Biesemeyer tell the Washington Post. “You’re supposed to say, ‘I’m going to fight. I’m going to come back stronger than ever.’ It’s bull. I hit rock bottom yesterday in my career.”
Biesemeyer isn’t bitter. The 29-year-old says he’s just being honest.
“When you hear about the Olympics, all you see is the success stories. And that’s not what it’s about in the bigger picture. For all the success stories, there are all the people that fell short that could have done it.”
Jacobellis misses medal by a hair
Stratton Mountain School graduate Lindsey Jacobellis was riding high toward an Olympics snowboard-cross gold medal in 2006, 2010 and 2014, only to falter just before the finish line.
Alas, the 32-year-old did so again Friday, winding up fourth by three-hundredths of a second.
“My friends kept telling me, ‘You could be chasing something that you never get, so why are you passing by all these things that you have achieved?” she says in an NBC video titled “Lindsey Jacobellis Used Sun, Surfing to Rediscover Herself.” “Look back and find the joy in that.”
Thursday, February 15
Shiffrin wins giant slalom gold
After nearly a week of wind delays, Vermont-schooled Mikaela Shiffrin blew away the competition Thursday to win a gold medal in her first 2018 Olympics race.
The 22-year-old graduate of Burke Mountain Academy needed only 2 minutes and 20.02 seconds to top the podium of alpine skiing’s giant slalom.
“Going into this Olympics, I thought, ‘Yeah, I could come away with multiple medals — I could also walk away with nothing,’” Shiffrin told the Washington Post. “And now I know that I have something, so that’s a really nice feeling.”
Shiffrin is scheduled to next compete Friday, when she defends her 2014 gold in regular slalom. She’ll sit out Saturday’s super-G to rest up for next week’s downhill and alpine combined. If she win again, she’ll be the first U.S. skier to nab two same-games victories since Vermonter Andrea Mead Lawrence in 1952.
Diggins almost medals a third time
For a third time, Stratton’s Jessie Diggins narrowly missed out on winning the U.S. women cross-country ski team’s first-ever Olympic medal. And for a third time, the 26-year-old continue is thrilled.
“I’ve had so many people go, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’” Diggins told TeamUSA.org after eluding bronze in Thursday’s 10-kilometer freestyle by 3.3 seconds. “I’m like, ‘Don’t be sorry. I’m proud of what I did today. To be that close and to be skiing with the best in the world … it’s so awesome.”
Men take alpine tumbles
University of Vermont graduate Tommy Biesemeyer, who sat out the 2014 Olympics with a knee injury, is sidelined again after hurting his right ankle Wednesday.
Biesemeyer found himself replaced in today’s downhill by fellow Green Mountain State teammate Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who himself is no stranger to spills. Cochran-Siegle crashed in his first Olympic race, Tuesday’s alpine combined, and sat out much time between 2013 and 2016 because of injuries.
The power of positive thinking
Barbara Ann Cochran, Cochran-Siegle’s mother and the 1972 slalom gold medalist, now coaches skiers on the mental side of their sport.
“Don’t worry about results,” she tells the Washington Post. “Get what I call the inner climate into a good place emotionally. That is when you start thinking, this is so much fun, I just love — and then you fill in the blank. And then, when they get into the start, if they can smile, that also helps to relieve that tension.”
Now for a second opinion …
You might think Stratton Mountain School graduate Lindsey Jacobellis would want to forget how she approached the snowboard-cross finish line and a gold medal at the 2006 Olympics, only to slip and wind up second. But her “mental coach” is urging her to remember.
“What you want athletes to do is say, ‘I’m afraid,’ ” Denise Shull, who also helps Wall Street traders and fund managers harness their emotions, tells the New York Times. “And if they say it, they can use it. If they try to set it aside, it’s lurking around them, interrupting what they normally know how to do.”
Wednesday, February 14
Will Vermont-schooled Mikaela Shiffrin ever shoot out of the 2018 Winter Olympics starting gate?
The sports world has spent weeks hailing the 22-year-old graduate of Burke Mountain Academy as a favorite to win multiple alpine skiing medals. Then 40-mph winds Sunday postponed her women’s giant slalom race to Wednesday, and similar gusts Tuesday blew her next event to Thursday.
“It is definitely unfortunate that we weren’t able to race,” Shiffrin tells Vermonter Peggy Shinn, a writer for the U.S. Olympic Committee’s website. “Weather delays and postponements are just the nature of an outdoor sport. We’ll continue to take it day by day.”
The last-minute changes have left reporters scrambling to fill results space with replacement content. Take the Washington Post’s “I’m Not Saying the Weather Is Inconvenient at These Olympics. I’m Saying It Blows.” Or CBS Sports’ “Twitter’s Not Sure If Mikaela Shiffrin Knows What ‘Netflix and Chill’ Means.” Or the American Jewish Forward’s “Is Olympic Skier Mikaela Shiffrin Jewish?”
(“The short answer: not really,” the latter story concludes.)
Diggins creeps closer to a medal
Stratton’s Jessie Diggins keeps narrowly missing out on winning the U.S. women cross-country ski team’s first-ever Olympic medal. So why does the 26-year-old continue to express joy about it?
After coming within 4.6 seconds of a bronze in Saturday’s 15-kilometer skiathlon, Diggins placed sixth in Tuesday’s sprint. Although she didn’t land on the podium, Diggins matched the best Olympic finish ever in the latter event by an American woman — a feat claimed by fellow Green Mountain State teammate Sophie Caldwell in 2014.
“Just making the final has been a huge step forward for me,” Diggins shared with TeamUSA.org’s Shinn. “If you had told me at the start of the year that I would make the Olympic classic sprint final, I would have been like, ‘Ha, that’s funny, good joke.’”
Diggins has another opportunity to medal Thursday in the 10-kilometer freestyle — a race in which she won silver at the 2015 world championships.
Tuesday, February 13
Clark snags crowd, if not medal
Photo by Sarah Brunson/U.S. Ski & Snowboard
Five-time Winter Games snowboarder Kelly Clark — who won gold in 2002 and bronze in 2010 and 2014 — narrowly missed nabbing a fourth medal at the women’s halfpipe finals televised Monday night. But the Vermont-schooled champion drew an Olympic-sized crowd to a viewing party at her family’s business, TC’s Restaurant in West Dover.
Back when Clark topped the podium in Salt Lake City, NBC’s Bob Costas announced how TC’s patrons were celebrating and suggested a round of drinks on the house. He didn’t know Vermont law prohibits such an offer, leaving the bartender to pay a $160 tab until the broadcaster picked it up on the air the next night.
Locals who gathered at the same spot 16 years later could see Costas’ check — now framed — along with the snowboard that swept Clark to victory. They also could speak with the athlete’s brother, Tim, who had reason to host Monday’s live-stream event rather than wait until television producers sliced, steamed and served up the South Korean competition as a primetime feast.
“She ends up calling me,” Tim Clark said of a sister who offers spoilers.
Weaving a Vermont connection
A Vermonter may not have won snowboarding’s halfpipe, but the state can claim a connection to a gold medal in the sport’s slopestyle competition. Heavy.com’s “5 Fast Facts” on California champion Jamie Anderson notes her mother owns the Weaving Dreams alpaca farm in Hartland.
“My mom has always loved Vermont and she’s been talking about it my whole life,” Anderson is quoted. “When she had the motivation to pick up and move and make the journey all the way across the country I was surprised, but I also 100 percent supported her to follow her heart and do what makes her happy.”
Vermonter amplifies his voice
Visitors to Pyeongchang’s skiing venues can hear public-address-system introductions, commentary and other information in both Korean and English. Vermonters there may recognize the man handling the latter language as East Thetford’s Peter Graves, who the Boston Globe calls “one of the most prominent voices in ski racing.”
“For me coming out of a small town in New England,” Graves is quoted this week in a Globe profile, “this has been a dream come true that I never, ever expected.”
Monday, February 12
Shiffrin sidelined by wind
The U.S. Olympic Committee’s website deemed it the “event to watch on Monday.” But television viewers who stayed up past midnight to witness Vermont-schooled Mikaela Shiffrin begin her much-anticipated medal campaign instead saw it all gone with the wind.
Shiffrin, a 22-year-old graduate of Burke Mountain Academy, found herself sidelined by 40-mph gusts that postponed the women’s giant slalom until Thursday.
“I’ll use this time to continue to train and refocus,” said Shiffrin, whose quest for three skiing golds has received plenty of national media attention, including this profile in the New York Times.
If she achieves the golden hat trick, Shiffrin will beat the nearly seven-decade-old U.S. record of the late Rutland-born champion Andrea Mead Lawrence, who grabbed two gold medals (and the cover of Time magazine) in 1952.
“A big learning experience”
The rest of the world may be talking about that shirtless Tongan skier, but Vermonters watching Friday’s opening ceremony may have noticed two flag bearers with state ties.
Connor Wilson, a 21-year-old University of Vermont freshman studying veterinary science, is the sole athlete representing his native South Africa.
And Arabella Ng, a 16-year-old student at Waitsfield’s Green Mountain Valley School, is the first snow-sports athlete ever to compete for Hong Kong — a feat she hadn’t even considered until six weeks ago.
“My mum woke me up just after Christmas and said, ‘Guess what, the Hong Kong Ski Association called at 4 a.m. and say you could qualify for Pyeongchang!’” she told the South China Morning Post. “My main goal is to use this as a big learning experience.”
VT Diggins breaks US record
A bit of bad news: Stratton’s Jessie Diggins came within 4.6 seconds Saturday of a medal. And the good: Her fifth place in the 15-kilometer cross-country skiathlon — just shy of a bronze in a race won in 40 minutes, 44.9 seconds — was the best-ever Winter Games finish by any American woman in her sport.
“Being seconds out of a medal is so exciting,” Diggins, 26, told the Washington Post, “because I know it’s possible.”
Other results
Emily Dreissigacker of Morrisville ranked 51st in the Women’s Biathlon, 7.5km Sprint, qualifying for the pursuit on the 12th. Clare Egan ranked 61st, and Susan Dunklee ranked 66th.
Dreissigacker competed in the 10km Biathlon Pursuit this morning, ending 47th and shooting 16 of 20.
Caitlin Patterson ranked 34th in the Women’s 15km Skiathlon. Patterson, in her first Olympics, ended the day 2nd on the US team, which may provide her with more start slots as the games continue.
Meet author Kevin O’Connor in our Olympic preview podcast:
