LILLEHAMMER / ’94 WINTER OLYMPICS : Short-Track Skaters Win Their Protest

The four women of the U.S. 3,000-meter short-track speedskating team were in their Olympic Amphitheatre locker room late Tuesday, crying over the injustice of their fourth-place finish, when their coach, Jack Mortell, rushed in and said perhaps the sweetest words they will ever hear in their athletic careers.

“Fix your hair,” he said, “you got a medal.”

Mortell protested immediately after the race because a Chinese woman, who was not skating at the time, stepped in front of American Nikki Ziegelmeyer, who was, and caused her to fall. But when the officials results were posted and China was listed as second and the United States as fourth, the U.S. women assumed Mortell’s pleas had failed.

“I thought I was going to cry for the rest of my life,” Ziegelmeyer said.

Then came the news from Mortell that China had been disqualified and the U.S. women would be awarded the bronze medal, reserving them a place on the podium with first-place South Korea and second-place Canada.

“We all had to go back to the mirror and dry our tears,” said Cathy Turner, whose bronze was her third medal in the last two Olympics. She was one of three members of this year’s 3,000-meter relay team, along with Ziegelmeyer and Amy Peterson, who earned a silver medal in that race two years ago at Albertville, France, where she also won a gold medal in the individual 500 meters.

These U.S. women are becoming accustomed to reprieves.

Without Turner, who took a year off to become the first speedskater to tour as a headliner with the Ice Capades, they failed last year to qualify for the Olympic 3,000-meter relay here. But only a few days before the Winter Olympics began, they were informed that three teams ahead of them--Australia, Japan and North Korea--had withdrawn, giving them a berth.

Turner and Peterson already were here to compete in individual events, but Ziegelmeyer and the fourth relay-team member, Karen Cashman, had resigned themselves to training at the U.S. Olympic Committee’s education center in Marquette, Mich., for next month’s World Championships.