Gold Is a Perfect Fitz

By MIKE KUPPER

Feb. 13, 2002 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

KEARNS, Utah —

Casey FitzRandolph didn’t skate as fast Tuesday as he had Monday in the men’s 500 at the Utah Olympic Oval, but it didn’t matter.

Neither did Hiroyasu Shimizu.

So, by a margin that he wouldn’t have wanted to cut any closer, .03 of a second, the veteran sprinter from Verona, Wis., made his first Olympic medal a gold one. It was America’s first in men’s speedskating since Dan Jansen won his final race at Lillehammer in 1994, and the first in the 500 since Eric Heiden’s in 1980.

And rounding out a day of good fortune for the U.S. team, Olympic rookie Kip Carpenter, another Wisconsinite, won a bronze.

FitzRandolph finished with a two-race time of 69.23 seconds to 69.26 for Shimizu, who won the 500 at Nagano and holds the world record in the event. Carpenter’s third-place time was 69.47.

Considering that FitzRandolph, Shimizu and Carpenter were 1-2-3 after the first half of the two-day race, it sounds as though Tuesday’s skating was nothing more than a rerun. In fact, it was anything but.

On a day when most of the 33 other skaters bettered their first-skate times, the medalists all failed to match their Monday efforts. FitzRandolph, in fact, was beaten by Carpenter when they were paired in the final race of the day.

“When I crossed the line, I didn’t know if I’d won,” FitzRandolph, 27, said. “I could hear the people cheering, but I didn’t know if they were cheering for Kip and the bronze or me and the silver....”

They were cheering for FitzRandolph and gold--as well as Carpenter and the bronze--but if FitzRandolph hadn’t hustled along at the end, he might have had to settle for silver.

“I didn’t have a very good race,” he said. “Kip is known for his slow starts and he was kicking my butt at the start. When I saw my opener [the first 100 meters], I knew I had to get on it, that I couldn’t coast through this race and win a gold medal. I was just trying to stay with it mentally. Luckily, I came out of it with .03 to spare.”

Luckily for him, as well, Shimizu was unable to make good on a vow to better his Monday time, posting a 34.65-second run, compared with Monday’s 34.61.

Even so, Shimizu’s run was the second-fastest of the day. Had it been the fastest, he’d now have a pair of gold medals.

“I feel a little bit of regret,” he said, not the least bit consoled by silver. “I could have done better. The difference might have been [small], but that was the difference between winning and not winning. Defeat is still defeat.”

And victory is still victory, and it all came down to the last two pairs of the day, a little more than a minute’s worth of skating.

Shimizu, skating with Canadian Mike Ireland in the second-to-last pair, had a .19-second deficit to make up, and because times were running faster, many were looking to Shimizu for a fast run, maybe a record run. When he didn’t get it, and indeed was slower than he had been Monday, the predominantly U.S. crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Still, the Americans had to skate in the final pair, and as cozy as that sounds, it’s not always a desirable thing. It’s bad, for instance, when one skater falls. It’s worse when one falls and takes out the other. It’s worst of all when they’re teammates.

“The last 24 hours had not been too relaxing and my nerves were acting up before the race,” FitzRandolph said.

Added Carpenter, “I was ready to race again after [Monday’s] race

So, two nervous skaters went to the line, one of them--FitzRandolph--who had false-started, then fallen from third to sixth in somewhat similar circumstances four years ago at Nagano.

“One of my challenges was to put that out of my mind,” he said.

Carpenter’s surprisingly fast start was enough to get FitzRandolph focused again.

“Four years ago, I knew I had to skate the race of my life, times two,” he said. “This time, because I skate fast every day, I knew I had to skate a good race, times two. I felt like I could skate fast enough to win.”

And so he did, but just barely. His 34.81 was .39 slower than his Monday time, .02 slower than Carpenter’s time, and was good enough only for a tie for sixth-fastest of the day.

Still, good enough was good enough, and now FitzRandolph, who learned to skate on the rink once used by Heiden, his inspiration, knows what it’s like to be a gold-medal Olympian.

“Too many things are going through my mind and not sticking around long enough for me to grasp them,” he said. “I realize that I’ve just won the gold medal, but in terms of the last 22 years--that has not sunk in yet.”

It was 22 years ago, when he was 5, that FitzRandolph decided to become an Olympic champion.

“I was playing hockey in 1980 when Eric Heiden won his five gold medals and apparently that impressed me more than our [Miracle on Ice] hockey team,” FitzRandolph recalled. “I told everyone I was going to do what Eric did. Obviously, that’s not going to happen.”

Still, a gold medal commands some respect, and FitzRandolph’s was worth a hug from Heiden, the U.S. team physician who was rinkside.

“It’s been 22 long years,” FitzRandolph said, “but I couldn’t have written a better script since watching Eric in 1980.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Medal Watch

With nine medals through four days of competition, the United States seems well on its way to establishing records for medals won in the Winter Olympics. A look at how they are progressing at Salt Lake, compared to their previous highs:

2002 *Record

Gold 3 6

Silver 4 6

Bronze 2 4

Total 9 13

* Individual records established at different Games. The U.S. record for gold medals was set at the 1932 Lake Placid Games and equaled at Lake Placid in 1980, Lillehammer in 1994 and Nagano in 1998; the mark for silvers was set at Oslo in 1952; the most bronze medals were won at Innsbruck in 1976 and equaled at Nagano; the overall record of 13 medals was set at Lillehammer and equaled at Nagano.

Source: The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics.

THE 500 CLUB

The United States, breaking a 22-year drought, has won 14 Olympic medals in men’s 500-meter speedskating, including six gold medals:

1924: Charles Jewtraw GOLD

1932: John Shea GOLD

1936: Leo Freisinger BRONZE

1948: Ken Bartholemew SILVER

Robert Fitzgerald SILVER

1952: Kenneth Henry GOLD

Don McDermott SILVER

1960: William Disney SILVER

1964: Terry McDermott GOLD