i'm going to go with cold. >> reporter: joanne reid you quickly learn after meeting her, has a great like any athlete at her level, when the competition starts, she is all business. reid, though, has a back story like few others in this sport. a cross-country skier in college, reid had decided to give up elite sports. but then her grandfather was diagnosed with alzheimer's, and as a precaution, weapons were removed from his home. including a biathlon rifle. it ended up in reid's hands, and so she thought she would give biathlon a try. >> two years and two months ago was my first. yeah. >> reporter: and here you are. >> and here i am. >> reporter: here she is. competing with a rifle inscribed with the lakota word for grandfather, competing in his honor. >> yeah. i had always wanted to do this for him. i'm not sure how much he understands right now. if he understands that i'm here. because of that. but i like to think somewhere -- somewhere in there, he knows. >> reporter: garvin thomas, nbc bay area news. >> you should be sure to follow along with garvin's coverage of the winter olympi

palo alto native and gun high school graduate joanne reid. it has been a roller coaster for reid, doing poorly in her first event, great in the second, then a rough go in the relay putting her team in a deficit they couldn't overcome. >> i'd like to think i went out there and gave it my best shot. that's what matters in the end. two years from now nobody is going to remember who shot what. oh, yeah, were you there in korea? oh, yeah, i was and it was awesome and we had a great time. >> reporter: also competing, in fact, just as we speak in the two women bob led is al na myers taylor, the first heat just finished. taylor is a two time olympic medalist and one of the favorites in this event. interestingly for folks back home taylor's husband nick is an alternate on the bobsled team this year. nick is also from hayward. we caught up with him not long ago to ask what this experience has been like. >> i think this is amazing. it's something that i've been working for a long time and probably the coolest thing for me is i was able to make the team w

. >> reporter: execute is just what palo alto's joanne reid did in the 15k individual event. reid had a disappointing finish in the sprint missing most targets and finishing second to last. overnight she turned in an amazing performance making 19 of 20 shots and finishing 22nd, just a few spots ahead of teammate -- or a few spots behind her teammate. reid only learned she was doing just hours before it started. >> i was actually the alternate in the event. i wasn't supposed to race it. because the race got moved, here i am. i didn't want to disappoint my roommate who really wanted to race. i wanted to shoot as well as i could for her. >> i don't know, i was hoping she was going to do well but this is just spectacular. it is so cool. >> reporter: now what's interesting you heard reid mention about the scheduling. the event was bumped by a day. that meant her parents, who had a flight out of pyeongchang today were on their way back and couldn't see her compete overnight and perhaps they've made it back and watching right now. good morning. >> good to know. how exciting for the

joanne reid finished in the biathlon mixed relay at 5:00 a.m.e didn't shoot very well putting the americans at a deficit the team couldn't overcome. around 4:00 a.m. elena meyers taylor set a track record in her first bobsled run. today's olympic action not over. >> fremont skater takes the ice tonight, our garvin thomas is live with what karen chen is saying ahead of her big moment. big time for her and for us as well. >> reporter: it certainly is, marcus. i've had the pleasure of interviewing karen chen half a dozen times over the past year. i think i'm in a pretty good place to know what she's feeling right now and i'm guessing nervous is near the top of that list. karen has told me in the past she has had problems with nerves leading up to big events but recently said she's made a big step in conquering that. what she's learned how to do is accept those nerves as a normal part of the process and not try and fight them. of course, the olympic schedule isn't helping karen at all, we are almost two weeks in and she is yet to compete. she has ha