Homeland Hero

It’s hard maneuvering with a nation’s hopes on your shoulders, so Japanese speedskater Hiroyasu Shimizu got rid of his burden as fast as he could here Tuesday, in the most expedient way he could think of.

He won the men’s 500-meter race at the M-Wave.

In Olympic-record time.

Before a flag-waving crowd of expectant Japanese fans.

Before his country’s emperor-in-waiting.

And before anyone could ask, “What happened, Hiro?”

“There was tremendous pressure,” Shimizu said of the expectations. “About a week ago, I started to feel uneasiness. I started to worry, ‘What if I do not achieve what everyone expects?’ ”

And after he had won the first half of the race Monday, in Olympic-record time, the expectations probably doubled.

Skating last on the program, Shimizu dealt with them promptly Tuesday, firing off to a furious start, then maintaining the pace and finishing in 35.59 seconds, 17/100ths of a second faster than he had sprinted Monday. He buried his face in his hands when his time was announced, picked up one Japanese flag, then another and skated them around before the appreciative fans, who happily waved Rising Suns back at him, and at Crown Prince Naruhito, who had watched the race from a seat on the front straightaway.

“My dream to be the Olympic champion has finally come true,” Shimizu said.

His gold medal was the first of these Games for host Japan and the country’s first in speedskating.

With his combined time of 71.35, Shimizu didn’t leave much for anyone else, but Canada took most of what there was, finishing second through fifth. Jeremy Wotherspoon took the silver medal, Kevin Overland the bronze, and brothers Sylvain and Patrick Bouchard were fourth and fifth.

That left sixth place for American Casey FitzRandolph, who had started the second round in third place. He couldn’t duplicate his smooth performance of a day earlier.

At that, however, FitzRandolph was luckier than Dutchman Erben Wennemars, who suffered a dislocated left shoulder in a nasty spill with Grunde Njos of Norway. As the pair came around the last turn, Njos, skating in the inside lane, lost his footing and slid in front of Wennemars, who fell hard and was carried under the protective padding at the edge of the rink.

That happened two pairs before FitzRandolph was due up, and when he and Korean Lee Kyu Hyuk went to the starting line, they couldn’t hold still.

FitzRandolph first drew a warning from starter Stan Strzykalski when his skate blade touched the starting line, then he was called for a false start. When they tried again, Lee was charged with a false start. Two false starts and you’re out, so neither could afford to anticipate the start again.

“By the time we went back to the line for the fourth time, I could feel myself just shaking,” FitzRandolph said. “That’s four times to sit there and ask yourself to be ready. You sit there one-tenth [of a second] too long and that’s the race.”

FitzRandolph, of Verona, Wis., said it had occurred to him earlier in the day that he could be the first American to win a medal in these Games but that prospect, unlike Shimizu, did not weigh heavily on him.

“I wasn’t thinking of that when I was going to the line,” he said. “I was thinking about what I had to do and try and get that done.”

And what he was trying to get done was not merely third place.

“I was thinking win,” he said. “I think the worst thing a guy can do is think, ‘I gotta hold onto the bronze.’ You go into it looking at it that way and you’re sure to slide down. I’m disappointed but not crushed. . . . I would have ideally liked to do a little bit better, especially after [Monday], but considering everything, I know now, going into next year, that I can skate with these guys on clapskates.”

Clapskates, new this season, allow a skater to lift his heels while keeping the skate blades on the ice but require technique adjustments that FitzRandolph had trouble making.

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MEDALISTS

Speedskating: Men’s 500 Meters

Gold: Hiroyasu Shimizu, Japan

Silver: Jeremy Wotherspoon, Canada

Bronze: Kevin Overland, Canada