|
 |
A cheeky bronze
By Jay Evensen
Deseret News Olympic specialist
With the Dutch brass band Kleintje Pils entertaining the crowd and with hundreds of orange-clad fans cheering their heroes, it probably should come as no surprise that the Netherlands took the gold and silver in the men's 1,000-meter race at the Utah Olympic Oval on Saturday.
And yet, this race was full of surprises.
Gerard Van Velde, a Dutch skater whose career has been less than spectacular, shattered the world record in the 15th pair of the day. His time, 1:07.18, was 54-hundredths of a second faster than the old record, set only two months ago at the same oval by Canada's Jeremy Wotherspoon, who was the favorite coming into the Olympics.
A car salesman when he isn't skating, Van Velde had never before won a medal in any international competition, even though he had competed in two previous Olympic Games.
He said he had no idea during his race that he was going faster than any other person ever had.
"I didn't think anything special," he said. "I didn't know I was going very fast. I only thought to myself, 'Keep skating.' At the finish line, it was incredible. I don't have any words for it."
His teammate, Jan Bos, won the silver medal with a time of 1:07.53. But the other surprise of the day was that U.S. skater Joey Cheek, a 22-year-old from Greensboro, N.C., won the bronze with a time of 1:07.61. He, also, had never won a medal in international competition.
"It was a solid time — the best I had ever done," he said. "But I thought there was no way it would hold up with all the guys coming up. I thought, OK, I've got fifth or sixth in the Olympics."
He had plenty of reason to feel that way. Not only was Canada's Wotherspoon yet to skate, but so was Casey FitzRandolph, the American skater who won a gold in the 500 meters earlier in the week. Both were considered odds-on favorites to win medals in the 1,000.
But FitzRandolph had to put a hand on the ice to steady himself going into the first turn of the last lap, and he ended up in seventh place. And Wotherspoon also lost his balance on the second to the last turn. He ended up 13th.
"When I looked up and saw that I came third, I was just shocked," Cheek said.
For Wotherspoon, the race marked the end to a disappointing Olympics. He was favored in the 500 meters but fell to the ice on his fourth step into the race. His slip in the 1,000, although not as catastrophic, meant the end to his medal hopes.
"Once you lose speed in a short race like the 1,000 meters, you can't build it back up," he said. "I want to go out and race as well as I'm capable of, and I disappointed myself today."
FitzRandolph, who is Wotherspoon's best friend, was not disappointed in his own performance.
"I have never been so relaxed for an Olympic race as I was today," he said. "I got my gold, so I just wanted to have fun with it today."
E-MAIL: even@desnews.com
|
|
February 17, 2002
|
