Press releases

Belarus’ speed skater Zueva fails to advance to Olympic Mass Start final

MINSK, 21 February (BelTA) - Belarusian speed skater Marina Zueva wrapped her Olympic campaign at the XXV Winter Olympic Games in Italy, 21 February, BelTA has learned.

Thirteen athletes took part in the first semifinal of the Mass Start race. Zueva did not score points at the intermediate splits and crossed the finish line in 11th place. The eight best advanced to the final. The decisive 16-lap race will start at 19.15 Minsk time, and the top eight from the second race will join the athletes who advanced past the first semifinal. гонки.

At the two previous Olympics, the Belarusian also competed for medals in this event finishing sixth in PyeongChang 2018 and seventh in Beijing 2022.

Earlier in Milan, the Belarusian speed skater finished sixth in the 5000m and 15h in the 3000m.

Belarusian Marina Zueva analyzes her race after missing Mass Start final

MINSK, 22 February (BelTA) - Belarusian speed skater Marina Zueva summed up her performance in the final race at the XXV Winter Olympic Games in Italy, BelTA learned from the press service of the NOC.

The Belarusian failed to reach the final of the Women's Mass Start over 16 laps, finishing 11th in the semifinal heat. Only the top eight advanced to the final. At the two previous Olympics, Zueva skated in the finals and finished in the top ten both times.

“I understood that one dash for the finish line would clearly not be enough for me to score points. I needed to do intermediate sprints, and not just one. I tried to dash at a slow speed, but my rivals would react to me as if to a red rag. It was like this at all World Cups: as soon as I accelerate, everyone starts to chase. If they hesitate behind for a couple of seconds, then you can create an advantage of five to ten meters. But in Milan, everyone reacted immediately, and I had spent energy on the acceleration,” the speed skater said.

Marina Zueva also noted that mass starts in Belarus and Russia are different. “Here, everything is different, with many accelerations and rearrangements. I partly lost that skill. It’s nice that I got the opportunity to skate this race, but I’m not satisfied with the result. That’s the nature of this discipline. I need to review the video, analyze everything, and figure out what the best options would have been. And next time, not make these mistakes. Then we’ll take some time off to rest and wait for news from the ISU on how to plan the calendar further. So far, we've only been allowed to compete in four tournaments.”