SPEEDSKATING: Year In Review (Part 1 of 2)

So there I was, on the weekend before Christmas; the speedskating world had gone dark for the holiday. The next competitions would be the Dutch and American allround championships on New Year’s Eve weekend, and I had column-block, as it were. I was going to let you know of the travail I’m having with trying to secure tickets for the 2002 Winter Olympics when I decided I was going to write the following week’s column ahead of time, a year-in-review piece which would hopefully get the creative juices flowing for this week’s column.

As it turned out, once I started writing it, I didn’t stop for another three hours. I now have more than enough material to make this a two-part column. A lot happened in speedskating in calendar year 2000, and it’ll take two columns to do it justice. So from the home office in Philadelphia, PA, but with 1/1000th of the pretension of Mr. Letterman’s similar ranking of things, presenting Part 1 of the top 10 speedskating stories of 2000 in ascending order.

#10. Meltdown in Milwaukee

In truth, the seeds for this were sewn three weeks earlier in Calgary, Canada, at the North American Qualifier for the world allround championships. Out of the nine available spots for the first men’s allround championship races on US soil in 68 years (and first for the women since 1994 in Butte, Montana), Americans nabbed only three. Even skating on home ice at the Pettit National Ice Center, KC Boutiette, Derek Parra nor Jennifer Rodriguez, the lone American female skater cracked the top dozen. Not since 1994 had any American qualified for the top 12 in each gender (skaters skate three races and the top six after the second distance of each gender, the men’s 5000 and women’s 3000, and the next highest ranking six after 1500 meters, qualify for the final distances, men’s 10,000 and women’s 5000, respectively).

It stood, from any angle, as a team which was exposed on its home turf to be not ready for prime time. It was a resounding setback that could not be pinned on those who made their championships debut straight out of the junior ranks. It served as a wake-up call to US Speedskating, the national governing body of the sport here, that they seriously need to get their act together - soon. For a World Single Distance Championship, and an Olympics - both in America not too far away now - beckon.

#9. Witty’s Two-Fer

The beginning of the 1999-2000 season did not start off very promising for one-half of America’s two-person sprint team (for all intents), but by the time the World Cup tour made a rare stop in Butte, Chris Witty was in near-peak form, setting an outdoor world best on the 1000 meters, then secured bronze medals in February at the World Sprint Championships in Seoul and in March at the World Single Distance Championships (furthermore known as WSD) in Nagano, Japan. She made history in July as Witty became just the 8th athlete in modern Olympic history to compete in both the Winter and Summer Games. She finished 5th in the cycling 500m time trial in Sydney.

#8. 3=1; First Time Since ‘81

It was almost as if Gianni Romme, Ids Postma and Rintje Ritsma never left home. Skating in front of what was a predominantly Dutch crowd (up to 80% of the Pettit ticket holders for the February 4-5 allround worlds were non-American), they accomplished the first sweep of the men’s overall medals since the Norwegians last pulled it off 19 years earlier. It was the strongest statement yet that there is only one superpower in men’s allround speedskating, and everyone else has to settle for the leftovers. Yet that wasn’t the single biggest story to come out of Milwaukee that weekend . . .

#7. Revenge of the German Geezers? Hardly.

Sounds like the title of a bad horror film, but farthest from it. Both are in their early 30's. Both are women. Both enjoyed immense success in 2000. All-universe allrounder Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann captured two more World Cup points titles, became the all-time World Cup career medal winner and won the WSD 5000m crown. She reset world records on the 5000 (twice) and came within 52/100ths of a second of breaking the 4-minute barrier on the 3000 January 30 in, where else, Calgary.

The other German woman is Monique Garbrecht, who liked winning 500 and 1000m prizes in twos - she won both world cup sprint season points titles, she swept the sprint races at WSD and successfully defended her world sprints title. Both proved beyond doubt there is life after 30 in speedskating.

#6. Casey Gate

Unfortunately, for the other half of America’s sprint team, Casey Fitzrandolph had a year he’d just as soon forget. He cracked his sternum in a Christmas Day 1999 accident in which his car hit a patch of ice and skidded into a ditch. He was forced to withdraw from the US sprint championships two weeks later, which sent two allrounders, winner Nick Pearson and runner-up Joe Cheek to Seoul for the world sprints. For reasons known only to US Speedskating, they decided to play hardball with their best male sprinter of the past five years. Fitzrandolph was denied the chance to compete, even after it was revealed Cheek sent a letter to USS saying he would gladly participate in a skate-off with Fitzrandolph for the 2nd spot a week before the world sprints. That request was denied as well.

It was a public relations disaster for USS, who willingly and without remorse played Russian roulette with the number of skaters that they could send for this February’s world sprints in Hamar, Norway. Luckily, Cheek and Pearson eked into the top 20, thus securing a third men’s skater for the American team.

Next week, the top 5 speedskating stories of 2000, a recap of the weekend in speedskating and Five Questions which may define the sport in 2001. Have a great holiday.