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U.S. trials drag on for skaters
By Maria Titze
Deseret News staff writer
U.S. short-track speedskating coach Susan Ellis figures the odds for the next day's races. Skater Ron Biondo watches TV in his hotel room. They've both been in Utah for more than a week for the Olympic team trials and have different ways to kill time between competition days.
"My movie bill is through the roof," said Biondo, a native of Broadview Heights, Ohio, currently in third in the men's standings.
Although short-track skaters will compete at the Delta Center during the Games in February, they are sharing the ice at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns this week with long-track skaters.
Last week, Biondo and his fellow competitors skated a nine-lap time trial and each of the individual events — the 500, 1000 and 1500-meter races — once. Thursday, after resting for three days while the long-track skaters competed, they skated a four-lap trial and the 1500-meter again.
It makes for a long competition; most World Cups are over in a weekend. But the trials mimic the pacing of the Olympic events, which Ellis said is good for the skaters.
But it's still a lot of waiting as the numbers trickle in.
"Oh, boy, all I do is sit in front of the computer at night and do math," Ellis said, "see what could happen, who has to do what to get in."
Sometimes without even glancing at a score card, Ellis can tell you where any individual skater has to place in the next race to have a hope at being on the U.S. Olympic team.
But you don't have to be a coach to know who has a lock on a place on the men's team. Seattle's Apolo Anton Ohno has won every heat of every race he's skated here since last Friday.
"I came here to do a job," to make the team, Ohno told reporters after another victory in the 1500-meter Thursday. "Any more than that is just bonus for me. I see this as an opportunity to prepare myself for the Olympics."
Ohno is trailed in the standings by Rusty Smith of Sunset Beach, Calif.; Biondo; Dan Weinstein of Chestnut Hill, Mass.; and Tommy O'Hare and J.P. Kepka, both of St. Louis, Mo.
The women's competition has been much less clear-cut. A disqualification for Amy Peterson of Maplewood, Min., and a crash by Allison Baver of Sinking Spring, Pa., Thursday opened the way for Erin Porter of Sarasota Springs, N.Y., to lead in the women's standings.
Caroline Hallisey of Natick, Mass., who was taken from the ice on a stretcher after a scary fall during a 1000-meter heat on Sunday, skated to a fourth-place position Thursday, despite another stumble in the 1500-meter final.
Hallisey, who said she only suffered a minor concussion Sunday, said the more recent fall might have even helped her overcome any lingering nervousness about another bad crash. "I just didn't want it to hurt as bad."
E-MAIL: mtitze@desnews.com
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December 21, 2001
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