Tucker Murphy, Bermuda's sole athlete at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, finished in 88th place in the 15-kilometre freestyle cross-country race yesterday afternoon.

Murphy, a Rhodes Scholar, beat skiers from Portugal, Peru, Ethiopia, Nepal, Ireland, Brazil and Iran in the field of 95 skiers.

Staged at Whistler Olympic Park, the race was won by Switzerland's Dario Cologna who collapsed across the finish line after completing the course in 33 minutes, 36.3 seconds, then stayed down for several seconds while catching his breath.

Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer won the silver, finishing 24.6 seconds behind Cologna. Czech skier Lukas Bauer was a further 11 seconds behind to collect a bronze medal to go with the silver he won in the 15-kilometre classical style race at the 2006 Turin Games.

Murphy finished in a time of 42:39.1 – just over nine minutes after the gold medal winner.

But while Murphy finished down the pack in yesterday's race, he helped Bermuda win the silver medal – in the style awards.

Last night the TV show Access Hollywood featured style awards for the Olympic teams and Bermuda's team, who all wore red Bermuda shorts at the Opening Ceremony on Friday night, came away with the silver. The gold went to the USA and the bronze to Germany.

Yesterday Bermuda Olympic Association president Judy Simons said she was proud of Murphy and the effort he gave.

"He is pretty tired now," said Simons shortly after the race.

"I have been talking to him and he is very happy about his race and his coach (Martin Bianchi from Argentina) is very pleased with his performance. He has done Bermuda extremely proud – he certainly has not disgraced himself. It was a pretty hilly course but he held his own extremely well and came in strong at the end. We are very pleased with him."

Simons said that Murphy will most likely stay for the rest of the Games. "He is planning on staying to carry the flag at the Closing Ceremony and he will be able to see other events."

Because of the bad weather last week which saw flights to and from Bermuda cancelled, Simons did not make Friday's night's Opening Ceremony and BOA general secretary Phillip Guishard was bumped from his flight. "Phillip only got in at one this morning," said Simons.

Bermuda's Chef de Mission, Carol Bromby, said last night: "The course was very exhausting. The guys left it all out there. Tucker is wiped out but he is pleased – he had a good race. The weather was cooler than it has been but there was no wind."

Bromby said that Murphy was looking forward to watching some of the other events now that his was over.

"He wants to enjoy the whole experience now," she added.

Bermuda's pairs skater Vanessa James and her partner Yannick Bonheur who represent France, were 15th after Sunday night's pairs short programme and were due to skate the long programme late last night. (see picture on Page 20).

Yesterday's winner of the cross-country race, Dario Cologna from Switzerland, said: "I ran an amazing race from the start to the finish and I felt very good. I am so happy. With this victory, my childhood dream came true. I had a good push at the end, but I tried not to push too hard at the start."