Three cities, three ovals, much drama

It's been said speedskaters are cheered for three years and 50 weeks only by their families and each other. This week, three countries went through the process of choosing those skaters who will be cheered on by the sports world as a whole in February 2002. It's a journey which goes across two continents and is filled with surprises, beginnings and sad endings.

Our first stop is Kearns, Utah, where the home team, and a sizzling hot one at that, eschewed their traditional format of picking national champions for this year and decided over a five-day period whom to send to defend the country's honor in its franchise Olympic event (when speedskating wins more medals for your nation than any other sport in winter Olympic history, you can make that boast). Like in Canada, those who had won a world cup medal had already pre-qualified and did not skate this past week. Examples were Casey Fitzrandolph (500 and 1,000); Jennifer Rodriguez (1,000 and 1,500m) and Derek Parra (men's 1500).

Tuesday saw Rodriguez win the first of two 500m races, coming within .04 of her American record, while Greensboro, NC native Joe Cheek aimed to be the top American male sprinter in Fitzrandolph's absence doing likewise on his gender's 500. Witty's runnerup spot to J-Rod on the 500 was salved by her victory on the kilometer. But the major surprise was turned in by Cheek, who became just the third human to skate less than 68 seconds on the 1,000, eclipsing Fitzrandolph's American record of 1:08.06 with an astounding 1:07.98.

Wednesday saw Witty, Rodriguez, Becky Sundstrom and Amy Sannes qualify for the national Olympic team on the 500. Later on that day, Cheek, Carpenter and Marc Pelchat joined Fitzrandolph on the men's side with Cheek breaking Fitzrandolph's other national record in the process. The metric mile races (only one for women and men, so it was a do or die setting) saw the same three women join Rodriguez in February. Her fiance, however, was a different tale altogether.

KC Boutiette made quite the splash in 1994 as one of the first athletes from inline skating to try out (and succeed) in making the Olympic team. He had easily qualified for both Lillehammer and Nagano and was aiming to make this his third (and possibly last) Olympics, now at the age of 31. But, his career never took off the way some had hoped; he was the first speedskater to set a world record on klapskates in 1997, but he was never able to improve upon a 4th place finish in the 1997 world all around championships in terms of international world championship/Olympic competition (he was fifth in Nagano in 1998 on the 1,500) and was gradually surpassed on the depth chart on his favorite distance by Parra. He also had to contend with a very painful back injury which had flared up this week.

So he faced the real prospect of elimination from the 1,500 and, bad back and all, he gave it his best shot. Cheek continued his monster roll by nabbing first, with Pearson second and John Paul Shilling third. Only the top four (Parra had already punched his 1,500 ticket) would go, and Boutiette finished .01 behind Shilling. It appears that the pioneer of the inline skating invasion of long track speedskating has skated his last meters in an Olympic setting. But, the one thing, which needs to be said is this; his success brought Rodriguez, Parra and Cheek, inliners all, to the sport, which has given the national long-track program a much needed shot in the arm -- and skates. That will be his legacy, and for that, speedskating fans here should be grateful.

Everyone took a breather Thursday, so Friday and Saturday would wrap the process up; Friday saw a second set of 1,000m races, the women's 3,000 and men's 5,000. Cheek made his first Olympic team, along with Kip Carpenter and Nick Pearson on the 1,000. Sannes and Sundstrom (as expected), joined Witty and Rodriguez on the women's 1,000. The women's 3,000 and men's 5,000 were, instead of Olympic qualification races, were for spots on the world cup team for the Heerenveen, Netherlands world cup of January 11-13. Rodriguez and Catherine Raney, who eventually won the former event, had pre-stamped their tickets. Joining them would be Ann Driscoll and newcomer Kristine Holzer. On the men's 5,000, Boutiette, Parra and Jondon Trevena had already sewed up spots for that January weekend. Joining them would be the winner of the latter race, Shilling.

Saturday was the final day of the trials with the two longest distances, the women's 5,000 and men's 10,000. Neither national record survived the day, with Rodriguez and Jason Hedstrand the new record-setters. All in all, a healthy competition and the home team looks to make quite the impact in February at their house.

Our next stop is Calgary, Canada, where the Canadian Single Distance Championships suffered a major hit in terms of talent, since here, as in Kearns for the American Olympic trials, if you win a medal on the world cup circuit and/or skate under the qualifying time for a particular race, you don't have to skate the trials. Such was the case with Catriona Lemay Doan, pre-qualified at 500 and 1,000 meters, along with world record holder Jeremy Wotherspoon and current world sprints champion Mike Ireland, who also got free passes at those same distances.

Canada's selection began last Monday and ended on Friday. Unlike the Dutch, the winners of these races would automatically punch their tickets to the Games. A maximum of eight men and eight women would be chosen here, and anyone not qualified this past weekend would race at a Canada Cup meet this coming weekend at the Olympic Oval.

Winners on the first stage of the qualification were Susan Auch (qualifying for her fifth and final Olympics on both the 500 and 1,000, the latter race only having THREE skaters total); Cindy Klassen (3,000 and 5,000m, in which she became just the fourth woman in history to go under seven minutes on the latter race); Dustin Molicki (who qualified for a trifecta on the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 setting a national record on the latter); Patrick Bouchard (men's 500) and Kevin Marshall (men's 1,000).

We end in the birthplace of speedskating, the Netherlands, who concluded four days worth of trials for their road trip to Kearns, Utah in the beginning of February. Their governing body of the sport, based on a number of criteria, pre-selected skaters based on their performances on the world cup circuit and national championship competitions over the past year. That narrows the field for everyone else who attempts to qualify. But, what happens when those preselected have a bad day here and now?

Then it gets very, very interesting...

The first set of races last Thursday for the Dutch at Ijsstadion Thialf in Heerenveen would be the women's 500 (a two-race tournament) and men's 5,000. On the former, Andrea Nuyt and Marianne Timmer had been pre-chosen on the basis of their success not only this season, but at the end of last season as well. Neither disappointed the sparse crowd (which could be attributed to a 6PM local time start, and there would be just 90 minutes of racing or so) by finishing first and second (each skater starts on both lanes, inner and outer, and the times are added up cumulatively).

The men's 5,000 would be quite the different tale. Preselected here were Gianni Romme, Rintje Ritsma, Bob deJong and Carl Verheijen, for just three spots on the Olympic team. Romme's win streak on this distance ended abruptly and spectacularly when not only Jochem Uytdehaage outdid him, but so did Verheijen (2nd), deJong (3rd) and Ritsma (4th), finishing 8.12 seconds back in fifth. So the current Olympic champion on the five-kilometer and who will seek to extend his unbeaten streak on the world cup 5K January 13, will not defend that title on February 9, the day of the Olympic 5,000. But, as this goes to press, Romme's coach and commercial team made noises about going to court to put Romme on the 5,000m team at the expense of Ritsma (since he finished 4th). This is a developing story and will surely continue going into the new year.

Friday's races were two men's 500m races and women's 3,000. Jan Bos, Gerard van Velde and Erben Wennemars were preselected by the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Schaatsenrijders Bond, or KNSB. And for the second consecutive opening race, the trio didn't let anyone crash this party, as they finished 1-2-3 to secure their tickets for Salt Lake City on that distance. But, it was the second-longest distance, like Thursday, which led to fireworks.

The women's 3,000 selectees were Renate Groenewold, Barbara deLoor, Tonny deJong and Wieteke Cramer would vie for three spots. In the field of 14 skaters was someone who had only four weeks prior, began training in long track, Greta Smit. She is a marathon skater, which means she raced regularly on outdoor ovals where the race distance was 100 kilometers or so. She was the female runner-up of the 1997 Elfstedentocht, a race contested just 15 times this past century, where 16,000 skaters have the go-ahead to race on ice which has to be thick enough over a near 150-mile long route for the race to even get approved.

She skated in the fourth of seven pairs and took the lead with a personal best by a little over 14 seconds. So afterward, when the selected-by-the-KNSB began their 3K treks, none of them could beat Smit, and the trials had their first upset, out of left field winner. Smit also qualified for the 5,000 meter race on Saturday. So she, deJong (2nd) and Groenewold (3rd) would represent the Dutch on the 3000. Quite the way to end day two.

Saturday was the women's and men's 1,000, along with the women's 5,000. Nuyt and Timmer, on the basis of their 1,000's throughout the calendar year, were preselected before the Trials. But, there was a difference -- one spot was open, so someone else could have a chance to make the team without being "selected," and veteran Annamarie Thomas was that someone, finishing second to Nuyt. Timmer, the reigning Olympic champion, earned the chance to defend that gold by coming in third.

Bos and van Velde were preselected for the men's kilometer, with the same proviso as the women -- an unselected skater, possibly two, could make the team on this distance. Bos won the 1,000, with Wennemars second (he did not have a chance to skate the 1,000 four years ago in Nagano, Japan as he was injured in the 1998 Olympic 500m race a few days earlier.) and van Velde third. All qualified for Salt Lake City, with the possibility of a fourth skater to be added after next month's Heerenveen world cup.

So the women's 5,000 was in-between both of these races. Would Smit, who would skate a marathon race on this coming Wednesday, be able to build on her Olympic resume? Groenewold, deJong and Cramer were preselected by the KNSB for the 5,000; could they keep Smit out of the picture? No. Smit not only wins her second Olympic ticket, but sets a national record on the 5,000 by over a second. Marja Vis pulls off a stunning surprise by finishing second, and deJong was the only one of the "selected"' to make the team, finishing third. Groenewold didn't start and Cramer wound up eighth.

Sunday was the men's and women's 1,500 and men's 10,000. Groenewold, deLoor and DeJong would have to try to recover from the prior day's disappointment and focus on the metric mile. Four spots were available on this distance. It was Thomas, however, who reached back into her past and rediscovered her winning touch, capturing the 1,500 while deJong, Timmer (who will now defend her 1998 gold on this distance as well) and Groenewold followed her in second, third, and fourth, respectively.

The men's 1,500 had the most number of world-class skaters, over a half-dozen, realistically, and of these, Rintje Ritsma, Ids Postma (silver medallist from Nagano), Wennemars all were selected beforehand, with world record holder Jakko Jan Leeuwangh also in the mix. Four spots were open, and when the smoke cleared, it was Postma who won the race, with unselected Bos in second, Ritsma third, in the only distance he qualified for in what will possibly be his last shot at Olympic gold. They made the Olympic team on that distance, and the fourth spot will be determined in a skate-off at the Heerenveen World Cup between Uytdeghaage (4th), Martin Hersman (5th) and Wennemars (6th). Wennemars and Hersman will skate in the world cup 1,500 January 11. Uytdehaage's metric mile will be skated out of competition that same day against a "decent opponent" to be determined.

So the 10,000 would close things out and drama deluxe. Romme, Verheijen, deJong and Uytdehaage would skate for just three spots. Would Romme be completely shut out of February's happenings? Not if he could help it, and help his cause he did, since even though he didn't win the 10,000 (Bob deJong got the duke in that race, Uytdehaage second), he was 1.01 seconds faster than Verheijen for the third and final spot.

There may be some tweaking of the lineup, especially on the women's 500 and 1,000, as there may be a spot or two to fill, but that is just conjecture at this point.

Next weekend, the top five stories in speedskating in 2001, a recap of the short track trials of ours, a stupefying TV programming decision by the U.S. Olympic Committee with regard to the long track trials in Kearns, plus more results from Olympic selection events as they occur.

May everyone have a terrific Christmas/Boxing Day/Kwanzaa.