Maame Biney’s medal hopes are over after 500m quarterfinal elimination
One of America’s favorite young Olympians is out of the medal race in speedskating.
Team USA has been on a feel-good roll during the first few days of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. The figure skaters medaled in the team event. (Bronze!) The snowboarders medaled in slopestyle (gold, gold) and half-pipe (gold, TBD). But another face of games will have to wait four more years before making more history than she already has. Maame Biney failed to qualify for the semifinals in the 500m short track race, her best event.
Biney posted the 10th highest time in the heats going into the quarterfinals. She skated against Fan Kexin of China, the Olympic Athlete From Russia Sofia Prosvirnova, and Han Yutong, also of China, all of whom were ranked considerably higher than her (5, 13 and 48 to Biney’s 135). Still, fans were optimistic, Biney could keep her magical run going. She started strong, but fairly quickly well behind and was never truly in a race that only rewards the top two finishers.
After the race, she was understandably upset and faulted a poor start that she never quite recovered from.
“I got bumped, and I don’t usually get bumped in the start,” Biney said, according to Yahoo! Sports. “It was a big shock to me. I need to figure out how to get my rhythm back.”
Per the Salt Lake Tribune, she added, “I feel like for more experienced racers, they get back in the rhythm very quickly, but since I’m so young and don’t have that much experience, I got to figure out how to get into that rhythm quickly.”
And: “It’s OK, I’ll be fine, um … I just have to wait four more years to get back onto this big stage. I can’t wait to get back.”
Biney is 18 years old, on an unbelievably run, winning the event at the U.S. trials to become the first black woman on a USA team speedskating team. It was her best event. Still, she’s young, and speedskating is not a sport that favors teenagers — at least not the way figure skating or increasingly snowboarding is known as a young athletes game. She has a long future in the sport and a fanbase that’s ready to cheer her on, whenever, wherever.
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Biney’s Olympics aren’t quite over either; she will skate in the 1500m on Saturday, giving her a chance to get back on the metaphorical horse of Olympic ice because starting her campaign back to the 500m in 2022.
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