Teklemariam’s family was on hand for the competition. His mother, Yeshareg Demisse, runs The Nile restaurant near the VCU campus, which serves Ethiopian food.
This was the second Olympic Games for Teklemariam, who finished 83rd out of 99 competitors in 2006 with a time of 47:53.
Switzerland’s Dario Cologna finished in 33:36 to take home the gold medal.
Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer won the silver, finishing 24.6 seconds behind Cologna, and Czech skier Lukas Bauer won the bronze to go with the silver medal he won in the 15-kilometer classical style race in Turin.
Topping the list of United States finishers was James Southam in 48th place at 35:58.
Teklemariam struggled to qualify for the Vancouver Games, criss-crossing Europe on trains while building up enough points through qualifying races to punch his ticket. He said he had less training time than he did before the Turin Games four years ago.
As the last racer to qualify, Teklemariam was the final person out of the starting gates, right behind 95th-seeded Danny Silva of Portugal and Roberto Carcelen of Peru.
But Teklemariam made up ground, passing Silva early on and sticking with Carcelen for the second half of the event.
Teklemariam was not featured on NBC’s broadcast of the event, as he and the other late finishers crossed after the network had switched to local programming.
He said that his goal was to expose Ethiopia to skiing, something he’s made strides in during the past few years. When he arrived at the Vancouver airport last week, he was greeted by a large delegation of Ethiopians from the Vancouver area.
Teklemariam also carried the Ethiopian flag in the opening ceremonies as the nation’s lone representative.
