Olympic skeleton racer Austin Florian of Southington saved his best run for last on Friday and finished 12th in his first Olympic Games in Cortina, Italy.
After his fourth run on the Cortina Sliding Center track, Florian briefly moved into second place with a time of 56.51, his best time of the four runs. His top speed came on his final run when he was clocked at 76 mph.
His combined time for four runs was 3:46.59.
Matt Weston of Great Britain, last year’s world champion, won the gold medal (3:43.33) while Alex Jungk of Germany won the silver (3:44.21) and Christopher Grotheer of Germany was the bronze medalist (3:44.40).
Florian, a former All-American ski racer who began skiing at Mount Southington when he was a youngster, tried skeleton racing in 2014 in Lake Placid when he was in college at Clarkson. Florian, 31, works as an engineer.
He set two start records on his first two runs Thursday and came into the third round in 13th place.
He will compete again Sunday in the mixed team relay, which is making its debut at the Winter Olympics this year. Last year, he and women’s skeleton racer Mystique Ro won the world championship in the mixed team relay.
US women’s hockey wins again
The U.S. women’s ice hockey team continued its domination in the Olympics with a 6-0 victory over host Italy in the quarterfinals Friday.
The Americans, who have outscored their opponents 26-1 in the Olympics and have had four shutouts in the last four games, will play in the semifinals on Monday against an opponent to be determined.