U.S. speedskater Greta Myers made an early, surprising Milano Cortina Olympic Games debut Saturday within the 3,000 meters, discovering out some three hours earlier than the race was as a result of start.
Czechia’s Martina Sablikova announced she would not compete within the race, saying it was the “hardest sporting determination of her life.” Sablikova, who gained the gold medal on the 2010 Vancouver Video games, stated she feels “helpless” and “dissatisfied,” and apologized to everybody.
Myers was scheduled to look on the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics within the girls’s 1,500, because the U.S. didn’t qualify any skaters for the ladies’s long-distance races. Nonetheless, Myers’ instances had been quick sufficient to safe the primary alternate quota spot, NBC reported.
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The 21-year-old from Minnesota posted Saturday on her social media: “HEY! I will be racing the 3k in the present day!!!! Fairly surprising however I am so extremely grateful to have the chance to skate and provides it my perfect!! Let’s go!!!!!”
Myers completed Saturday’s race in twentieth place with a time of 4:13.46, properly out of medal rivalry. Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida, with an Olympic file 3:54.28 time, gained gold, with Norway’s Ragne Wiklund and Canada’s Valeria Maltais rounding up the rostrum.
After the race, Myers instructed NBC’s Lewis Johnson that it was “actually loopy” to search out out simply hours earlier than that she was making her Olympic debut.
“Once I first heard I used to be within the 3K, I had simply fallen throughout an effort at prime speeds, so I used to be just a little bit shaken up and pissed off from the autumn however after I actually processed it that I might be racing, I simply could not imagine it,” she stated.
Myers added, “Once I was strolling again to the locker room, I began tearing up just a little… I’ve simply been attempting to take all of it in. My physique is just not actually able to go but. Our crew pursuit race is in every week from in the present day, so we’re nonetheless coaching by means of so we could be actually robust on the 14th for the qualification spherical. I am unable to wait to indicate you all what I’ve.”
Myers will compete within the girls’s 1,500, girls’s 5,000 and girls’s Mass Begin.
