Rodriguez Can Bronze Skates

The Olympics finally got to see highly touted German speedskater Anni Friesinger at her best Wednesday, and Jennifer Rodriguez kept the American medals train chugging along.

Friesinger, after finishing out of the medals in the women’s 3,000 and 1,000, was untouchable in her specialty, winning the 1,500 meters in world-record time, 1 minute 54.02 seconds, .36 of a second faster than she had skated the distance last March at the Olympic rink in Calgary.

Teammate Sabine Voelker paid her third visit to the podium, matching her second-place finish in the 1,000 and bettering her third in the 500. Rodriguez’s visit to the medal stand was a return engagement too. She also had been third in the 1,000.

Rodriguez’s bronze gave the American long-track team eight medals--one more than traditional power Germany--in as many races, tying the U.S. record set in 1980 at Lake Placid.

“But five of those were Eric Heiden’s,” Rodriguez pointed out of the Lake Placid haul. “This is a little different. We’ve just been rolling down the races and it’s very exciting.”

Indeed it is different, six skaters having provided the bounty this time around.

This, however, may be where it all ends for the American long-trackers. Remaining are the distance events, the men’s 10,000 Friday and the women’s 5,000 Saturday. No American has won a medal in the men’s long race since Heiden’s gold in 1980, and the closest the U.S. ever got to one in the women’s 5,000 was a seventh-place finish by Kirstin Holum four years ago in Nagano. The distance races traditionally belong to the Dutch men and the German women.

For the longest time Wednesday, though, it looked as if the Americans might sneak through with more than the bronze.

Skating in the last pair of the slower first set, Chris Witty, surprise winner of Sunday’s 1,000, surprised again, this time with an Olympic-record run of 1:55.71, which moved her into the lead.

And there she stayed until Friesinger, who is unbeaten in the 1,500 in World Cup racing this season, emphatically bumped her to second.

“When you have won all the other races, for sure, you have to hope you don’t lose the most important one,” Friesinger said. “I knew that I was capable of winning a medal in each of these events, but my 3K did not begin so well and I missed the podium [with a fourth-place finish]. The 1,000, I also missed the podium [finishing fifth].

“I saw yesterday with the boys [the men skated their 1,500 Tuesday] that you have to open fast but at half power.... Then at the end, I just broke out.”

Voelker skated two pairs after Friesinger and bumped Witty to third, then along came Rodriguez and Canada’s Cindy Klassen in the last pair, both with better times.

“The 1,000 meters was very painful, but this race is the most pain I’ve ever had,” said Witty, who learned she had mononucleosis a month before the Games began. “I had to go sit for a while. I couldn’t see straight. My head was pounding.”

For Rodriguez, who was at least slightly disappointed with her bronze in the 1,000, having slipped in the first turn, this one was well received.

“Going into my race, I knew I had to have a good opener and a good 700 [meters] without using too much energy. I might have hesitated or slacked off a little bit too much on the second lap, but I don’t care. I got a medal.... I’ve got two medals and I’m done.”

Amy Sannes (eighth) and Becky Sundstrom (13th) also skated for the U.S.