Two races don’t make an Olympics, but there’s rather a noticeable trend developing in speedskating at the Utah Olympic Oval: in-house upsets.
Saturday it was unheralded Dutchman Jochem Uytdehaage knocking off heralded teammates Carl Verheijen and Bob de Jong for the gold medal in the men’s 5,000.
Sunday it was German veteran Claudia Pechstein tugging the rug out from under heavily favored younger teammate Anni Friesinger in the women’s 3,000-meter race, adding a sixth Olympic medal–the third gold–and a world record to her impressive collection of awards.
Oh, and that world record? That was supposed to have been Friesinger’s too.
Not that Pechstein much cares.
“We are competitors,” she said. “I’m happy about my race and I’m glad I’m the one who won the gold medal.”
If that sounds the least bit chilly, it’s because the German women are not the best of friends.
Call it culture clash.
Pechstein, among the last products of the old East German sports machine, lives by a serious work ethic.
Friesinger is a free-wheeling Bavarian who doesn’t mind posing for magazine photos while most of her clothes are elsewhere.
They seldom meet for coffee after practice.
And that bit of underlying tension made for an interesting afternoon at the oval.
Canadian Kristina Groves was leading the competition when Friesinger, skating in a pair with American hope Jennifer Rodriguez, stepped to the line.
And for a while, it looked as if Friesinger, 25, might skate her world record and haul Rodriguez into a medal at the same time.
With three laps left around the 400-meter track, both were skating a record pace.
Then Rodriguez fell off it and, with a lap left, so did Friesinger, finishing with an Olympic-record time of 3 minutes 59.39 seconds–and leaving the door wide open for Pechstein.
Rodriguez finished in 4:04.99, a U.S. record, and moved into second behind Friesinger. That, however, was very temporary.
Tonny de Jong of the Netherlands–no relation to Bob–and Maki Tabata of Japan, the next pair, beat Rodriguez. Then Pechstein and Canadian Cindy Klassen beat everybody else.
Pechstein, who will turn 30 during these Games, set a fast pace and maintained it all the way, finishing in 3:57.70, beating her own former record of 3:59.26 set last year at the Olympic rink in Calgary.
Klassen, who practices on that Calgary rink, pushed Pechstein hard most of the way and also beat the German’s old record, finishing in 3:58.97, which would have been good for the silver medal had not Renate Groenewold of the Netherlands skated a 3:58.94 in the final pair.
“Today maybe it was an advantage to skate after Anni,” Pechstein said. “But it really doesn’t matter [who goes first]; you just have to be in top shape. I earned my medal, but I think it was to my advantage that Anni was the favorite and everybody was predicting a world record for her. When I saw she couldn’t beat my old record, I thought I might have a good race.
“Then I was surprised by Cindy. I didn’t expect her to be so strong, so I had to sprint the last two laps.”
Rodriguez, who’d surprisingly finished fourth in this race four years ago at Nagano, Japan, settled for seventh this time around.
“She went out hard and tried to win a medal,” coach Tom Cushman said. “She just couldn’t do it.”
Right, said Rodriguez.
“I went out fast, but then I just died at the end,” she said0.
“My legs were exploding. I skated a good time. I just wish I could have done a little better at the end.”
