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Antoine appreciates his many fans

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Prairie du Chien’s Matt Antoine slides around a curve during his first run at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. (Photo by Getty Images)

Matt Antoine (far right), along with many other United States Olympic Team members from several sports, waves to those gathered for “The Today Show.” Matt was also interviewed on media night. (Photo by Mary Antoine)

 

Antoine finishes in 11th place in South Korea and

is enjoying the rest of the Olympics with family, friends

By Ted Pennekamp

 

Matt Antoine of Prairie du Chien finished 11th after the final men’s skeleton races at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. The final two runs for each competitor were held on Friday morning in South Korea, which was Thursday evening in the United States.

Antoine, 32, won a bronze medal at the 2014 Sochi, Russia Winter Olympics and has been the top slider for the United States ever since. He has received tremendous support from his hometown and hundreds of colorful Matt Antoine posters were displayed in the front windows of Prairie du Chien businesses since before the 2018 Winter Games began.

Antoine bested two sliders in Thursday evening’s opening run with a time of 50.91 seconds to put himself in ninth going into the fourth and final heat. He matched his fastest start of the four heats, 4.79, in the final run, but struggled on the way down the track, crossing the finish in 51.34 seconds, 14th best of the heat. Antoine’s four-run combined time of 3:24.39 placed him 11th overall.

“Third heat was good, it was definitely one of my better runs here,” Antoine said. “Going into today I was pretty far outside the medals, so it was really about putting together two solid runs. Fourth run, obviously not the way I wanted to end the race, but I’m alright with it.

“I’m looking at this right now as the whole of my career, the last 15-plus years, this is just one race; the result is what it is,” Antoine continued. “To be here, with my family here, everyone supporting me, that’s all I could have asked for.”

Though there was no medal for Antoine in his second Olympics, the people of Wisconsin and the Prairie du Chien area are proud of their hometown sports hero and inspired by how far he has gone in his sport.

Antoine has earned nine World Cup medals during a career in which he battled for a podium position each week during the skeleton season.

Antoine and his good friend, John Daly of Smithtown, N.Y., who finished 16th in PyeongChang, embraced at the finish after their final runs of this year’s Winter Games. Antoine and Daly have been teammates and best friends since entering the sport together over a decade ago.

“John and I said we would probably be a little bit emotional today,” Antoine said in a press conference following the skeleton competition. “We gave each other a hug at the top, told each other to enjoy one more run, and we had one more moment there at the bottom. To be able to spend my entire career sliding and competing with my best friend, that’s the greatest feeling. Those are the things you’re going to remember most when it’s all over. The results, they fade away. The crowds go home. The friendships that you have are the things you’re going to remember.”

Antoine, along with his mother, Mary, his brother Nick, and several other family members and friends, is now taking some time to unwind and enjoy the rest of the Olympic Games, before returning to the United States.

Antoine said he’s going to enjoy the next week in PyeongChang as a fan, and that he’s looking forward to going home at the conclusion of the games to a “golden retriever waiting for me that I want to spend some time with.”

Antoine was ranked eighth in the world following a World Cup season in which he had a high finish of seventh in Winterberg, Germany.

In an exclusive interview, Antoine said, “It’s not the season and the outcome I expected. I struggled all year to put down top results, things don’t always go according to plan though. I was fairly inconsistent with my four race runs and also never really seemed to find an optimal equipment setup. A tough result for sure, but that’s how sport is at times.

“I have no plans for the future yet and won’t be in a rush to decide anything,” he continued. “Right now I just want to take a little time to decompress and see where I’m at.

To all of his fans, Antoine said, “I really appreciate everyone’s support back home, it has meant the world to me. Good or bad results, everyone has always been behind me and that’s all I could ever ask. Thank you for always being a part of this journey!”

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