Bringing Home the Gold Never Routine for Blair

It’s never routine, she said, the gold medal around her neck, her eyes moistening.

Bonnie Blair, at Hamar, Norway, had just won her fourth gold medal--for the women’s 500-meter speedskating event--in three Winter Olympic Games, and shook her head when asked afterward if it was beginning to feel routine.

It was her third consecutive gold in the same event. No other speedskater had won at the same distance in three straight Olympics. Only one other athlete, Norway’s Sonja Henie, had ever won the same individual event in three consecutive Winter Games.

“It’s never routine, let me tell you,” said Blair, 29.

“Once you think it’s routine, that’s when it’s going to be taken away from you quicker than you can think. It was very special to be up there [on the victory stand], seeing my family and hearing the national anthem.”

About 60 relatives and friends wore T-shirts saying: “Go, Bonnie, Gold!”

Four days later, Blair moved to the top of the list in the Olympic record book.

With another gold in the 1,000-meter event, her fifth, she went ahead of diver Pat McCormick, sprinter Evelyn Ashford and swimmer Janet Evans, all U.S. women with four gold medals.

Also on this date: In 1955, Johnny Longden rode Swaps to victory in the Santa Anita Derby. In 1954, in a verdict Times boxing writer Cal Whorton called “the worst decision in modern ring history,” Los Angeles welterweight Art Aragon was given a split decision over Chuck Davey, and a crowd of 10,400 at the Olympic Auditorium nearly turned riotous. State Athletic Commission members met hastily at ringside and suspended the two who’d voted for Aragon, judge Joe Stone and referee Mushy Callahan. . . . In 1962, Jess Mortensen, who had coached USC to five straight NCAA track championships, died at 54. . . . In 1983, pitcher Fernando Valenzuela took the Dodgers to arbitration and won-- spectacularly. Arbitrator Tom Roberts ruled in favor of Valenzuela and his request for a $1-million salary. The Dodgers had offered $750,000.