Docter Isn’t Merely Blowing Smoke Now

To earn a place on her fourth Olympic speedskating team, Mary Docter tried a different approach from the one she used four years ago. She trained.

It worked. Docter, 30, was third Friday night in the second of two 1,500-meter races in the U.S. trials at the Wisconsin Olympic Ice Rink and finished second overall to Bonnie Blair of Champaign, Ill. Tara Laszlo of St. Paul, Minn., was second Friday night and third overall.

As many as four women could represent the United States in the 1,500 in February at Albertville, France, but only the first three from the trials are guaranteed berths on the team.

In 1988, Docter came out of retirement, leaving her job as a waitress in her hometown of Madison, Wis., to compete in the trials. With little training, she made the team in the 3,000 and 5,000, which said more about the depth in U.S. women’s speedskating than it did about Docter.

“I was going out every night, drinking lots of beer and smoking,” she said at the time. “My mom and dad were going nutso, thinking I was a loser.”

Asked if she was going to Olympics at Calgary, to seek vindication for her disappointing performances in 1984, she said: “No, this is my vacation. I’m going to meet a lot of beautiful men.”

There is no official record of her results in that pursuit, but she didn’t do very well on the ice, finishing 19th in the 3,000 and 11th in the 5,000.

After one of those races, she appeared indignant when addressing reporters.

“You’ve been saying I’ve been drinking, that I’ve been taking drugs, that I’m promiscuous, that I’m a loser,” she said.

Then she smiled and said: “I’m not a loser.”

But it was a different Docter at the trials this year. She said that she is in better condition than she has been since 1980, which she proved last weekend when she had the fastest time in the 1,500 and the 3,000. But skating head-to-head against Blair in the 1,500 Friday night, she faltered.

“I was kind of psyched out,” Docter said. “I see Bonnie Blair as the speed-skating goddess. When I get on the line, I feel hopeless. It’s stupid. I’ve got to work through this problem, because she can be beaten.”

Docter said that she hopes to improve her powers of positive thinking before the Olympics, but she already seems to have made some strides. She said there was little doubt in her mind that she would at least make the team in the 1,500, the 3,000 or the 5,000, perhaps all three. She will skate her second and final 3,000 tonight and a lone 5,000 Sunday night.

Notes

In the men’s 1,500 meters, Eric Flaim of Pembroke, Mass., finished first overall. Also earning places on the U.S. Olympic team were runner-up Brian Wanek of Mequon, Mass., and Chris Shelley of Waltham, Mass. A provisional Olympian is fourth-place Nathaniel Mills of Northfield, Ill. Mills’ sister, Phoebe, won a bronze medal in gymnastics at the 1988 Summer Olympics . . . The only speedskater besides Mary Docter to earn berths on four Olympic teams is Nancy Swider-Peltz of Wheaton, Ill., who is trying to make it a fifth time.

After the third of four 500s Friday night, Bonnie Blair of Champaign, Ill., Peggy Clasen of Roseville, Minn., Dan Jansen of Greenfield, Wis., and Nick Thometz of Seattle are virtually guaranteed Olympic berths. Blair, the 1988 Olympic champion, finished her 500 in 40.92 seconds, almost 2 1/2 seconds faster than Clasen’s second-place time . . . The start of the competition was delayed for 1 hour 45 minutes, first because of snow and sleet and then because of a malfunctioning Zamboni.