THUNDER BAY – A cross country skier with Thunder Bay ties didn’t win a medal in the men’s free sprint competition at the Olympic Games.
But 34th was pretty respectable for first-time Olympian Graham Ritchie.
The Parry Sound, Ont. native, who has spent the past five years skiing for the National Team Development Centre-Thunder Bay, was the top Canadian in the race, finishing the course in 2:55:04, 10.01 seconds behind first-place finisher Lucas Chanavat of France.
He missed qualifying for the quarterfinal round by six-tenths of a second.
The top 30 advanced.
Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo took gold in the event, with Italy’s Federico Pellegrino capturing silver and Russia’s Alexander Terentev making the podium in the bronze medal position.
