A Cold, Gold War Among Teammates

Two races don’t make an Olympics but there’s a noticeable trend developing in speedskating at the Utah Olympic Oval: in-house upsets.

Saturday, it was unheralded Dutchman Jochem Uytdehaage knocking off his heralded teammates Carl Verheijen and Bob de Jong for the gold medal in the men’s 5,000.

Sunday, it was German veteran Claudia Pechstein tugging the rug out from under heavily favored younger teammate Anni Friesinger in the women’s 3,000-meter race, adding a sixth Olympic medal--third gold--and a world record to her impressive collection of awards. Oh, and that world record? That was supposed to have been Friesinger’s too.

Not that Pechstein much cared.

“We are competitors,” she said. “I’m happy about my race and I’m glad I’m the one who won the gold medal.”

If that sounds the least bit chilly, it’s because the German women are not the best of friends. Call it culture clash. Pechstein, among the last products of the old East German sports machine, lives by a serious work ethic. Friesinger is a free-wheeling Bavarian who doesn’t mind posing for magazine photos while most of her clothes are elsewhere. They seldom meet for coffee after practice.

And that bit of tension made for an interesting afternoon.

Canadian Kristina Groves was leading the competition when Friesinger, skating in a pair with American hope Jennifer Rodriguez, stepped to the line. And for a while, it looked as if Friesinger, 25, might skate her world record, and haul Rodriguez into a medal at the same time. With three laps left around the 400-meter track, both were skating a world-record pace. Then Rodriguez fell off it, and, with a lap left, so did Friesinger, finishing with an Olympic-record time of 3 minutes 59.39 seconds, and leaving the door open for Pechstein.

Rodriguez finished in 4:04.99, a U.S. record, and moved into second, behind Friesinger. That, however, was a temporary thing.

Tonny de Jong of the Netherlands--no relation to Bob--and Maki Tabata of Japan, the next pair, both beat Rodriguez, then Pechstein and Canadian Cindy Klassen beat everybody else.

Pechstein, who will turn 30 during these Games, set a fast pace and maintained it all the way, finishing in 3:57.70, beating her own record of 3:59.26 set last year at the Olympic rink in Calgary. Klassen, who practices on that Calgary rink, pushed Pechstein hard most of the way and also beat the German’s old record, finishing in 3:58.97, which would have been good for the silver medal, had not Renate Groenewold of the Netherlands skated a 3:58:94 in the final pair.

“Today, maybe it was an advantage to skate after Anni,” Pechstein said, “but it really doesn’t matter [who goes first], you just have to be in top shape. I think I earned my medal but I think it was my advantage that Anni was the favorite and everybody was predicting a world record for her. When I saw she couldn’t beat my old record, I thought I might have a good race.”