Dutchman Flies to Record

The Derek and Jochem show became a solo act Friday.

In their two previous speedskating races, Derek Parra of San Bernardino and Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands took turns winning in world-record time, Uytdehaage the 5,000-meter event, Parra the 1,500. Each finished second in the race he didn’t win.

Friday, they were paired in the 10,000, the longest Olympic race, 25 laps around the 400-meter track--but not for long.

Skating a world-record time of 12 minutes 58.92 seconds--and becoming the first to break the 13-minute mark--Uytdehaage finished nearly a lap ahead of Parra.

“I knew he’d be the one to beat,” an exhausted Parra said later. “I was hoping I could hang on with him, have him pull me to a medal. But I just didn’t have it today and he did....When he went, I couldn’t go with him.”

So Parra, with his 13:33.44, settled for 13th in the 16-skater field, the other medals going to Gianni Romme of the Netherlands and Lasse Saetre of Norway. Romme, the defending Olympic champion and world-record holder before the race, finished second in 13:10.03, Saetre third in 13:16.92.

“This was an almost perfect race,” Uytdehaage said. “In that near-13 minutes, there were so many thoughts in my head, ‘Stay alert, stay in the right rhythm, keep your breath under control.’ ... It felt like dancing on the straights.”

It felt like torture to Parra.

“I fell apart pretty bad,” he said. “I had a couple of days after the 1,500 when I was exhausted from doing TV shows and TV shows, but that goes with the territory. I wasn’t technically sound, not too efficient in the first part, then I started fatiguing.... About midway through, I got hot. I really overheated and couldn’t concentrate anymore.”

So why, with gold and silver already to his credit, did Parra choose to skate the most grueling race of the Games, a race he had skated only twice previously this season?

“Heck, it’s the Olympics,” he said. “I’ve trained for I don’t know how many years to race in the Olympics, and regardless if I get 20th, last, first or whatever, I just want to be in the race, be an Olympian. Competing is the most important thing....The 10K really isn’t my specialty. I wanted to finish on a good note [and] I skated my personal best [in the event]--I can’t complain.”

As an indication of how far speedskating has advanced in recent years, what with hinge-bladed clapskates and indoor rinks, Parra’s 13th-place time was nearly a minute faster than the world-record 14:28.13 Eric Heiden skated in winning the gold at Lake Placid in 1980.

At nearly 32, Parra isn’t figuring on another Olympics, but he might not be done with skating. He has been thinking about professional marathon skating in Holland.

“I haven’t been approached by anybody but, yeah, if they come up and talk to me and we can work it out,” he said. “And my wife [Tiffany] says it’s OK. I have to ask her, you know. She’s the boss.”

Marathon races typically are 30- or 40-kilometer events, much longer than the Olympic 10,000.

“But it’s pack-style,” Parra said. “You don’t have inner and outer lanes. It’s easier in pack-style. I raced inlines [roller skates]--we’d skate 100K in a pack. It’s completely different. You can jump in back of a group if you’re tired, recover, then go back to the front. I’ve won 100Ks, ultra-marathons, 50Ks on inline skates.”

And two Olympic medals, a gold and a silver, on speedskates.