February 04, 2017 (PyeongChang, Korea) – American Liz Stephen continued the USA’s stellar start to the PyeongChang World Cup Olympic test event with another podium finish claiming second in the women’s 7.5km C + 7.5km F Skiathlon on Saturday. Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk took home her 50th World Cup victory in dominant style with Japan’s Masako Ishida in third place at 1:14.8 behind.

The USA’s Caitlin Patterson was also on form claiming a remarkable 4th – just off the podium – while Liz Guiney continued to shine as well crossing the line in 13th – both career bests. Canada’s Annika Hicks was 26th while Sarah White finished 29th.

It was Stephen’s 6th individual World Cup podium. “It’s hard not to feel happy when you get a podium finish, however, I didn’t feel like I had as much energy as I wanted to have today, but it was enough to hold onto second today. I think I was feeling yesterday’s sprint race a bit, as I did twice as many rounds as I usually do, haha,” Stephen told Trax. Her second matched her performance in the 10k freestyle in Rybinsk, Russia two years ago.

“The courses are really hard, plenty of ups, downs, and flats! They are wide, well thought out, and fun to ski. I think this will be a really good venue for the Olympics and it has been really good to be able to ski some races before next year and get a lay of the land a bit too,” she added.

Kowalczyk attacked on the first climb during the classic leg and never looked back. She kept the hammer down and was never in danger of being caught. It was her first World Cup win since Szklarska Poreba in Poland in January 2014.

During the early going of the 7.5k classic leg, Stephen and Patterson were bouncing around in the latter half of the top 10. Stephen moved up to fifth at the exchange, still 12 seconds from the podium. In the skating leg, she moved up quickly and by the 10k mark, was in control of second and was never really challenged.

“It has been a long time since I have been on the World Cup podium. I had very good skis, both classic and skate. I was quite surprised to see how well I skated,” commented the Polish star.

Stephen is stoked with the Olympic venue and says she’s sleeping like a teenager despite being on the other side of the world. “The time difference has not been hard for me. I have been sleeping like a champion (like 9-11 hours/night) and like a teenager (until 9:30 or 10:30) every day. South Korea is a cool place. The people are happy and eager to help, and the sun has been shining a lot,” she quipped.

“Another day of great racing by all six USA athletes,” said Head Coach Chris Grover. “It was a small field so everyone knew it would be a rare opportunity to take some points and perhaps reach the podium. All six athletes really put together excellent races.”

One of those athletes was Guiney, who earned the World Cup trip based on her early season Continental Cup lead. “My goal today was just to ski my own race and stay relaxed, which can be tough in a mass start,” she said. “I was very happy with my race today – it’s definitely my best international finish ever. I felt strong in the classic leg, and was happy to hold my own in the skate leg, since skating tends to be my weaker discipline.”

Guiney joined other athletes in her praise of the Alpensia courses. “The courses here in South Korea are really cool – I like them a lot,” she said. “There aren’t really any long grueling climbs, except maybe one on the skate course, but they’re still difficult courses with lots of ups and downs. I like that the downhills are fast but many of the corners are banked and ski really well. They did a really good job with course design! Today it was overcast, but the first few days here were sunny and beautiful, and with nice snow, it’s been really good skiing all around.

Results here.