Speedskater Blair Is Taking It Slow

Bonnie Blair is glad her speedskating career ended before the clap-skate era dawned in 1998 and skaters had to adapt to the new gear, in which the heel of the blade isn’t attached to the boot and the toe is attached with a hinge.

“I have a pair of the clap skates,” Blair said, “but I’ve never lit it up.”

Blair lit up three Olympics with triumphant performances--and the exuberance of the “Blair Bunch,” the friends and relatives who followed her to every competition and unabashedly roared. She gave them plenty to cheer about: Blair was the first American to win six medals in the Winter Olympics and the first American woman to win five gold medals in Winter or Summer Games.

Now 37, Blair skates at a slower speed, with her two young children. She and her husband, Dave Cruikshank, have a 3-year-old son, Grant, and a 11/2-year-old daughter, Blair. They have a home near Milwaukee but spent most of the fall and winter in a rented condominium not far from the Olympic Oval in Kearns, Utah, while Cruikshank tried one last time to win an Olympic berth using the relatively new skates.

He didn’t make the team, but Blair considers him a winner, anyway.

“He went 36.01, which was his fastest time ever,” she said. “To be able to go faster than he’s ever gone....I’m very proud of him.

“He’s never gotten as much out of the clap skates as he could have.... I don’t think I would have been as patient going through the change with the skates.”

Still in demand as a corporate spokeswoman, Blair attended the Games on behalf of various companies and was among the final torchbearers who carried the Olympic flame into Rice-Eccles Stadium for the opening ceremony last week.

She acknowledged being “very envious and jealous” of skaters on the current U.S. team because they’re competing at home, which she never got to do.

Blair’s Olympic career began in 1984 at Sarajevo, where she finished eighth in the 500. She also competed at the 1988 Calgary Games, where she won gold in the 500 and bronze in the 1,000, at the 1992 Albertville Games, where she won gold in the 500 and 1,000, and at the 1994 Lillehammer Games, where she won gold in the 500 and 1,000.

She retired after Lillehammer but says she has no regrets. “Yes, I miss it,” she said, “but I’m happy with my life now.”

As a member of the board of directors of U.S. Speedskating, Blair remains involved in the sport. She welcomes the influx of former in-line skaters such as Jennifer Rodriguez and Derek Parra into speedskating and isn’t surprised at their rapid success.

“For them, the transition to clap skates was easier than everybody else,” she said. “They’re already used to making changes.... Someone like my husband or Cory Carpenter [who didn’t make the team either], who has been around forever, it was hardest for them.”

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Helene Elliott