LILLEHAMMER / ’94 WINTER OLYMPICS : Blair’s Latest Performance Is a Treasure : Women’s speedskating: The American wins 1,000 meters for second gold medal of these Games and fifth overall, becoming all-time leader among U.S. women.

She was 19 when she finished eighth in the 500 meters of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

Speedskater Bonnie Blair cocked her head in recollection Wednesday night, smiled and said: “At that time, at that age, I thought I had won. I thought finishing eighth was a victory in itself.”

She is 29 now and has experienced the real thing more often than any other U.S. woman Olympian.

Blair blasted into history by winning the 1,000 meters Wednesday night with her fastest time since the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

She set an Olympic Hall record of 1 minute 18.74 seconds, the only skater in the field of 36 to beat 1:20.

Anke Baier of Germany was second at 1:20.12 and Qiaobo Ye of China was third at 1:20.22.

Blair said she will skate through the World Championships in her new hometown of Milwaukee next February but insisted this was her last Olympic race.

“Four more years? I’m too old for that,” she said.

If so, she goes out with five golds, one more than diver Pat McCormick, sprinter Evelyn Ashford and swimmer Janet Evans.

And she goes out with six medals in all, a Winter Games high for a U.S. woman and second overall to swimmer Shirley Babashoff, who won two golds and six silvers.

“I’ve gone beyond anything I’ve ever dreamt about,” Blair said. “Maybe in time I’ll realize exactly what all this means, but right now all I can think about is the enjoyment I’ve experienced participating in the Olympics.

“I mean, it seems like the Olympics have always got me going no matter what kind of year I’ve had. I’m sad to know this was my last race, but I certainly have a lot of good memories.”

Tough, durable and seemingly immune to pressure, Blair fought off tears on the victory stand, then let them flow while hugging her mother, Evelyn, 73.

She later donned the gold cap that distinguished the Blair Bunch, her 60-strong cheering section of family and friends, and held up a large U.S. flag while skating a victory lap with Olympic mascots Haakon and Kristin.

Susan Auch of Canada, who finished eighth and has been competing against Blair since before Sarajevo, said of her friend and rival:

“The big part of it is thinking anything is possible. I mean, I knew Bonnie when she wasn’t very good. That may be hard to believe, but it’s been a long haul.

“She’s worked hard and never quit on herself, and a big part of it, too, is she’s followed guys like Nick (Thometz, now her coach) and Dan (Jansen) and skates very much like a guy. She’s very strong, very powerful.

“What can you say? She’s definitely special, incredibly talented. I don’t think anybody compares with her. She’s dominated the sprints for almost a decade and could probably continue as long as she wants.”

Even Ye, a rival on and off the ice, offered grudging admiration.

“It seems like she comes on in the Olympic years,” she said in English. “She’s really strong this year. Nobody can beat her in the 500 and 1,000. To win five golds is very good, I have to say. I wish I could get one gold.”

Ye finished second to Blair in both the 1,000 and 500 of the 1992 Olympics, only 0.02 back in the 1,000.

However, knee surgery last August cost her a chance for gold, Ye said.

At 29, she said this was her last race, and she couldn’t stop the tears.

“I cry because I couldn’t do my best, and that makes me sad,” she said. “I still have pain. I couldn’t control my knee well enough to keep a low position.”

Six years ago, at the World Sprints before the Calgary Olympics, Ye failed a doping test and returned to China, she said later, in humiliation, contending a Chinese doctor had given her a mixture of herbs and mushrooms to control a skin problem and she was not aware that it contained banned substances.

Suspicions persisted, however, and Blair, uncharacteristically, has not let it rest, often saying she can only do her best “no matter what others put in their bodies.”

Ye, training recently in Wisconsin, said of Blair, “I don’t like her anymore. I don’t like such people. I made a mistake that wasn’t mine. She shouldn’t belittle me. I belittle myself enough by remembering.”

Against this tense background, Blair and Ye were paired in the second twosome Wednesday.

Blair, however, said she was relaxed and confident from the start and raced from a perspective of “never having feared anything or anyone.” She also said she benefited from having to chase Ye, on the inside lane, for most of the first lap.

“That’s always good for me,” she said. “It makes me realize there’s more involved than the clock.”

Blair and Ye shook hands and put arms around each other on the victory stand, but exchanged neither greetings nor glances while icily sitting beside one another during a subsequent news conference.

Asked to review her Olympic moments, Blair cited the awe of her debut in Sarajevo, a world-record 500 in Calgary that she considers the most special of the golds, two victories in Albertville after she had been skating poorly, and two more in Hamar as the culmination of another up-and-down year.

“The Norwegian fans are absolutely fabulous, and this arena is terrific,” she said. “The Olympics are unique. I hope to always be involved in some way. It will be hard to stay away.”

Harder yet to forget her. You can look it up.