“The worst thing I could have done was panic and start screaming,” Renner said. “Luckily, I got a pole right away. It was a bit long, but it was manageable.”

American Kikkan Randall also was cleared Monday to compete after her hemoglobin suspension and teamed with Wendy Wagner to make the final in a surprise performance, earning the fifth and final spot out of the second semifinal.

They placed 10th — last — in the final.

Each female skier completed three laps of just more than 1.1 kilometers, while the men did three 1.2-kilometer loops.

The U.S. tandem of first-time Olympians Chris Cook and Andy Newell failed to make the men’s final after a seventh-place finish in the second semifinal. The top five from each heat advanced.

The Americans were expected to make the cut with Newell and Torin Koos as their skiers, but Koos is recovering from a respiratory problem that kept him from competing.

Koos, in his second Olympics, is planning to be ready for the individual sprint Feb. 22.

“Today is definitely a disappointment,” Newell said. “I think this is one of our good days and we had a chance for a medal today. Things didn’t really go our way and it was too much to make up on the last lap.”

Sergei Dolidovich of Belarus received a second five-day suspension before the race began after testing positive for high levels of hemoglobin and wasn’t able to start.

His teammate, Aleksandr Lasutkin, was one of four skiers cleared Monday to compete, but Dolidovich’s second failed test kept the tandem out of competition and Belarus didn’t have a replacement available.

Last week, a dozen skiers were given five-day suspensions for elevated levels of hemoglobin, the part of the red blood cell that can increase endurance. All of those scheduled to compete Tuesday had to be retested, but some put off their tests because they weren’t scheduled to compete Tuesday.