This Pair of Golds Is Not Pairs Gold

It was speedskating, not figure skating, so the gold medal Catriona LeMay Doan won for Canada in the women’s 500 meters Thursday at the Utah Olympic oval was not up for debate.

“Catriona is the boss of the 500,” German runner-up Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt said.

Champion too, for the second time in two Olympics. Pouncing from the start, the woman known as “the Cat” around hometown Saskatoon skated a slower time than she had in Wednesday’s first heat and still made the most of it, beating Garbrecht-Enfeldt by 0.15 of a second in the final run of the day.

“I wasn’t really thinking about the time,” LeMay Doan said. “I knew with about 50 meters to go it was enough. It wasn’t good, but it was enough.”

Actually, it wasn’t all that bad, but LeMay Doan is the world-record holder in the event, so she has high standards.

In winning her third Olympic medal--besides gold in the 500 at Nagano, she won a bronze in the 1,000--she skated her race in 37.45 seconds, which combined with her Olympic-record 37.30 Wednesday gave her a total time of 74.75.

Garbrecht-Enfeldt, who made a move on the Canadian about halfway through the race, couldn’t come up with a finishing kick and wound up with times of 37.60 and 74.94. She now has a pair of widely separated medals for her trophy case. She was third 10 years ago in the 1,000 at Albertville, France.

Her German teammate, Sabine Voelker, was third.

Happy as she was to win representing Canada, LeMay Doan said the continuing controversy surrounding Canadian pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier had no bearing on her performance.

“I felt the pressure, but not about that,” she said. “You imagine [winning] sometimes too much and you get ahead of yourself. I knew I had to go out and skate a normal, regular race.

“Jamie and David have handled their situation with nothing but class--we’ve always been a classy team--and I hope my medal serves as a source of re-encouragement for Canadian people, but I don’t think one medal ever makes up for another one.

“I’m just happy to have won this one. Monique really pushed me.”

American skaters were out of the running before Thursday’s race began, the fastest, Chris Witty, starting at a deficit of more than a second--huge in this race. Witty, in fact, considered taking the day off to rest up for Sunday’s 1,000, her strongest event.

The silver medalist in the 1,000 at Nagano, she has mononucleosis and has experienced stamina problems.

She opted for more speed work, though, and rewarded herself with a personal-record-tying time of 38.36, jumping up from 17th at the halfway point to 14th in the final standings.

“I was quite pleased,” she said, “considering I didn’t have a lot of time to do speed work this week.... It’s been tough because every day is a different story. One day I feel tired, the next day I feel great. I felt pretty good this morning so I thought I’d race today.”

Becky Sundstrom was the next-highest American, finishing 20th, and Elli Ochowicz was 22nd. Amy Sannes fell 100 meters into the race and did not finish.