Teller crashes in early heat; finishes 28th

By USSA

ROSA KHUTOR, Russia -– John Teller of Mammoth Lakes skied strong in a competitive heat Thursday, but crashed during a pass attempt, finishing 28th in skicross at the Sochi Games.

Team USA’s sole skicross athlete was edged out of his heat by Jean Frederic Chapuis and Jonathan Midol of France, who went on to take gold and bronze, respectively. Arnaud Bovolenta rounded out the French sweep with the silver medal.

Teller spent most of the heat fighting from behind in third, trying to squeeze into the top two in order to advance to the next round. It the final banked turn he attempted a pass on the inside but slid out and did not finish the race.

“I would have liked to have a better start; it wasn’t the greatest. But you’ve got to try to refocus and work on getting into the top two positions so you can advance to the next round,” Teller said. “I was battling all the way down and trying to get up there, stuck in that third spot for most of the way. I set up the pass for the last bank and was running a really tight line. It’s tough to do in these soft conditions, so I spun out and that was the end of it.”