Jessica Yeaton has made her Winter Olympics bow in the women’s 7.5km + 7.5km Skiathlon in PyeongChang.
The cross country ski discipline is considered one of the more physically demanding events on the Winter Olympic schedule but Yeaton was all smiles after her taxing debut, having posted a 50th place effort behind fellow Aussie Barbara Jezersek in 39th.
Yeaton told reporters it was a “massive relief to get the ball rolling” after chalking-off her first of four events on a busy race schedule in Korea.
The 26 year-old described the experience of making her Olympic debut as “great” and is now looking ahead to her remaining events from the Alpensia Cross-Country Centre.
The gold medal was won by Swede Charlotte Kalla who covered the course in 40:44.9mins. The event was dominated by Scandinavians, with Norway’s Marit Bjoergen less than eight seconds behind in silver, with Finland’s Krista Parmakoski taking bronze.
Yeaton – who took up skiing after moving to Alaska with her family in her teenage years – qualified for PyeongChang off the back of a successful 2017/18 world cup season.
Outside of competition, Yeaton holds a degree in Exercise Science and is a trained barista who enjoys mountain biking in her free time.
