PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (BP) — Snowboarder Kelly Clark fell just short of adding to her Olympic medal collection, finishing fourth in the women’s halfpipe competition earlier this week.
Chloe Kim won gold for the U.S., while Clark’s best run of 83.50 couldn’t beat teammate Arielle Gold’s score of 85.75.
“I’m not done yet, but I don’t think that many people get to stay around long enough to see what their legacy could look like,” Clark, 34, said. “I’m extremely proud of these girls and I take a lot of pride in seeing them do well. It’s been great to be a part of it for so long.”
Competing in her fifth Olympics, Clark has three medals to her credit — gold in 2002 and bronze in 2010 and 2014. Her gold in Salt Lake City was the first ever gold medal for the United States in a snowboarding event.
Clark has hinted that this could be her last Olympics, and she’s pleased with what she has accomplished — especially in terms of her role as a snowboarding pioneer.
“If your dream only involves you, it’s too small of a dream,” she said. “I don’t want to get done snowboarding and just have a good string of competition results, medals, accomplishments. I want to look at a culture that’s better because I was a part of it.”
Meanwhile at the Olympics, Maame Biney, the 18-year-old short-track speed skater, didn’t advance past the quarterfinals in the 500-meter event. Her time of 44.772 seconds in the quarterfinals was well off her qualifying heat time of 43.665 seconds.
“I lost my rhythm throughout the whole race and I couldn’t find it again,” she said. “Over the next four years, I’m going to try to find that rhythm and just keep going.”
Biney still has the 1,500-meter race, but the 500 is her best event.
In hockey, Gigi Marvin scored a goal in the U.S. women’s 5-0 win over the Olympic Athletes from Russia Feb. 13. The U.S. team finished the preliminary round with a 2-1 record and advances to the semifinals.
On the men’s side, Noah Welch made a sliding empty net save early in the first U.S. men’s game against Slovenia, but the Americans couldn’t hold a 2-0 lead and fell 3-2 in overtime. However, the team faced Slovakia Thursday night (Feb. 15) and took a 2-1 victory, remaining alive in the competition and handing Slovakia its first loss.
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