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Family and friends turn out to support St. Louis area resident Ian Quinn in Beijing Olympics

Quinn competed in mass start speed skating.

ST. LOUIS — St. Louis was represented on the world stage in the Beijing Olympics, overnight Saturday. Friends and family turned out at Fenton Bar & Grill to watch Ian Quinn, 28, compete in a speedskating event at 1 a.m.

The full moon Friday in Fenton is the same one that shines down upon Beijing, China, half a world away. It’s not the only thing those two locations had in common, this weekend.

Quinn’s friends and family turned out to cheer him on in what’s known as the speed skating mass start event.

Quinn’s mother, Diana, said she was hopeful.

“Yes,” she said. “I think he’s a talented skater, and I think he’s got a shot at doing something special.”

RELATED: How did St. Louis native Ian Quinn do in Olympic speed skating?

In the end, Quinn would finish 13th - not well enough to move on to the finals. For Quinn’s friends and family, seeing him compete on a world stage was victory enough.

“I hope he’s happy with the outcome,” said Diana. “He should be happy to have had the opportunity and I’m proud he could represent us well.”

Nathan Johnston is Quinn’s former cross-country coach at Lutheran South High School.

“Just to be able to see somebody that you know compete at the highest level of sport is just absolutely incredible,” said Johnston.

The sun had barely risen, Saturday, at the Kirkwood ice rink, before children crowded the lobby while their parents struggled to dress them in hockey equipment. Quinn trained there before he moved to Utah, while he was still in high school. It serves as a pleasant reminder of what can lead to an adventure of Olympic proportions.

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