Park City’s Rosie Brennan Competes In First Race At 2022 Games

ZHANGJIAKOU, China — The Winter Games have been underway for the last two days.

Several athletes from Utah are competing in Beijing, including Park City native Rosie Brennan.

She skied her first race of the Games overnight — the Women’s Cross Country Skiathlon.

This is Brennan’s second Olympic Games, and with all the challenges and obstacles that have come with these unique games, she was just most anxious to get to that first starting line.

“It’s been interesting and it has been different,” Brennan said. “For Pyeongchang, I, my goal was just to make the team. And this year, I met the standard for qualifying in our first weekend of World Cup, so I’ve known for a while that I was going to be able to go, and so that really, you know, then changes your mindset to thinking about, like, how am I going to perform my best at the Games, instead of just get there.”

But throw in a lingering global pandemic, an international competition schedule thrown into upheaval, and preparing to perform hasn’t been exactly what Brennan had hoped.

“I made this whole great, perfect training and racing plan with my coach, only to have everything change every week,” she said. “So, you know, we’ve had to just kind of roll with the punches and navigate things as we go.”

Rolling and navigating — two skills not generally needed for cross-country skiing. But they have come in handy in some ways.

“The hopeful silver living about that is I haven’t really had time to get nervous for the races themselves. There’s like too many other things to worry about,” Brennan said. “So, I really think, you know, once we get to the start line, it’s going to be the best part because that’s the thing I am prepared for and I know how to do, so I’m really looking forward to getting to the start line.”

Brennan finished 14th out of 64 skiers in the skiathlon event, about three minutes behind the winner.

There are several other locals getting ready to compete still.