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It's almost Canada's
By Stephen Speckman
Deseret News staff writer
KEARNS — It's almost Canada's for the taking, but Germany isn't ready yet to give up the gold to the current world-record holder in the women's 500 meters.
With a time of 37.30 seconds, Canada's Catriona Le May Doan set a new Olympic record Wednesday in the first race of a two-day competition. Right behind her at 37.34 was German skater Monique Garbrecht Enfeldt, who never expected such a fast race — her personal best until yesterday was 37.49.
Barring any mishaps, like teammate Jeremy Wotherspoon's falling in the first of two men's 500 races, Le May Doan is still the bankable one.
"She always seems to race better the second day," said husband Bart Doan, the head ice maker at the Calgary Olympic Oval. Even her competitors agree.
"I am sure that she'll perform much better tomorrow," said Garbrecht-Enfeldt.
It now seems more of a question of who will take silver and bronze.
The Netherlands' Andrea Nuyt and Russia's Svetlana Zhurova finished third and fourth, within 0.01 seconds of each other. Sabine Voelker may help Germany toward two medals in the 500 with a fast second time.
The U.S., however, could muster no better than a 17th place out of 31 skaters — and that was by the team's most unhealthy competitor.
Chris Witty, diagnosed with mononucleosis, felt good Wednesday but may still decide at the last minute to skip the second race.
Perhaps the best news for the United States is that Eli Ochowicz, an 18-year-old Wisconsin native living in Park City and one of the youngest long-track skaters in the Games, outskated two veteran Olympic teammates.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com
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February 14, 2002
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