Smithtown's Daly happy with 17th-place finish in skeleton

Whatever Smithtown's John Daly was thinking as he approached his first Olympics, whatever expectations he had as he arrived in Vancouver, his 17th-place finish in the skeleton competition on Friday night and everything he experienced with it was "absolutely amazing."

"It just over shot anything I could have imagined," Daly said last night during a celebration with family and friends in Vancouver.

"Hey, I finished seventeenth at the Olympics. It's a heck of a lot better than watching it from my couch at home," Daly said. "It's really pumped me up to qualify for Sochi in four more years."

There is so much burned into his mind, but Daly, 24, won't ever forget the opening ceremonies, looking up and seeing his mother Bennarda, father James, brother James, sister Kristen, assorted aunts and uncles and friends in body paint, more than 30 in all.

"The feeling of amazement was so awesome, to look up there and see my family and friends," Daly said. "They were mostly from Long Island, and they were loud."

Canadian Jon Montgomery overtook reigning world champion Martins Dukurs of Latvia in the fourth and final heat to take the gold with a total time of 3:29.73.

Daly's total time was 3:34.01. He began Friday night in 18th position after his first two heats Thursday. He moved up to 17th after the third heat and made his best run of the competition in the fourth heat with a time of 53.05, slightly more than a second faster than his first heat time of 54:08.

That first run was the toughest. After getting off to a good start, he had to fight to save himself in curve 4. "That one was really nearly a wipeout," said Daly.

So, what did he learn?

"These guys at the top level, they are at the point of perfection," said Daly. "I'm going to take some time off now. But then I'll get into some sled testing and hopefully I'll be able to run a full World Cup season starting later this year."