LILLEHAMMER / ’94 WINTER OLYMPICS : NOTEBOOK : Blair’s Goal-Setting Is the ‘Usual’ Secret to Golden Success

On the day after she became the most decorated U.S. woman Olympian, with five gold medals and six medals overall, speedskater Bonnie Blair was asked if there were unexplored secrets to her success.

She laughed, shook her head and said, “Just the usual.”

The usual, she said, included an easy grasp of technique, a willingness to pay the price in training and a consistent mental approach.

“No matter what the competition or what the training, I’ve always tried to find a goal and better it,” she said.

“Going to the line (in the 1,000 meters), I heard the announcer say I held the track record (established in December) and I was determined to beat it (and did). You have to have a goal or you’re not going anywhere.”

Blair will compete through the World Championships in Milwaukee next February. She will stay in Europe after the Olympics for World Cup races in Germany and Holland, but her next major goal is a subsequent meet in Calgary, where she will attempt to break her 500-meter world record of 39.1, set in the 1988 Olympics.

“I’ve been looking to get in the 38s,” she said. “The Calgary ice is very fast. I think I can do it.”

Blair said the realization that the 1,000 was her last Olympic race hit her hardest on the victory stand when it came to her that she would never hear the national anthem again in the same context.

“It was an emotional moment and very, very difficult,” she said.

Blair wore her two most recently earned gold medals for photographers Thursday. Two of her other Olympic medals are in a vault in Champaign, Ill., and the two others are in a vault in Milwaukee.

“Some day I hope to be able to insure them and display them safely,” she said. “There is something to be said for looking at them and holding them.”