Not for those 44 seconds Tuesday night inside the Gangneung Ice Arena. Not for most of the two-and-a-half minutes she spoke about how rapidly her best event, the women’s 500 meters, was over before it even began. The 18-year-old U.S. short-track speedskating sensation just had experienced the cruel Olympic reminder so many have prior.
In a flash, the race many expected her to be an Olympic medal threat in, was suddenly four years from now.
Biney was not her usually self, not nervously answering questions or laughing at herself. Describing her last-place skate, she explained it simply: She got bumped mere seconds after the start, left in the wake of the three other skaters: Sofia Prosvirnova of the Olympic Athletes of Russia and China’s Fan Kexin and Han Yutong.