Tucker Fredricks looking for near-perfection in Vancouver

Passing through the Richmond Olympic Oval underbelly, fresh off the morning’s work and a day away from the demands of near-perfection, Tucker Fredricks couldn’t quite wrap his knit cap-covered head around the space between then and now.

“It’s a long story,” Fredricks said after a moment of contemplation Sunday.

And not wholly because it bridges a literal half-a-world-wide gap between Turin, Italy, and the outskirts of Vancouver, Canada. But centrally the journey of the U.S.’s top sprinter was simple and jarring, involving one immediate hard turn in 2006 that brought him to the 500-meter race Monday and a realistic medal chance.

Those Winter Games in ’06 were a calamity, Fredricks’ 25th-place finish a sinkhole in his memory banks. Immediate course correction left the Janesville, Wis., native as the fourth-ranked 500-meter racer in World Cup standings entering the 2010 Games.

“I’m here for a purpose, I have reason to be here,” Fredricks said. “I don’t know -- I just see things clearly now, I guess. How hard I had to train and do things right. In Torino, I just didn’t see that. I just, like, was there. It just feels right now.”

It has to be, actually, if he’s to stand a chance. The 500-meter distance already eliminates any room for error. With two heats combining to determine the medalists Monday, repeat perfection is required. And it also happens to be, according to U.S. Coach Ryan Shimabukuro, “the most competitive field I’ve seen ever.”

So what Fredricks concedes is a more mature approach at its core is essentially mandatory. Even just a week before the race, he and Shimabukuro dissected film of Fredricks’ performances from last season’s World Cup events, all in an effort to fine-tune his footwork and make subtle changes in the run-up to Monday’s races.

“Every turn setup, every stroke has to be almost perfect,” Fredricks said. “You have to have two amazing races to podium.”

Said Shimabukuro: “He’s really focused on how he needs to be feeling and staying consistent within his routine. He’s coming around at the right time.”

As cloying as redemptive story lines can be at any Olympics, the failures of four years ago appear to be a blind spot now.

“I wasn’t even close last time -- I can’t even make up for that,” Fredricks said, laughing. “That was horrible. I wasn’t prepared. This is a new Olympics. It’s totally different.”

He was a bit glum after a workout last week about a lack of snap in his legs, then seemed more cheerful some days later.

On Sunday, he left the ice without much distance left to cover. There is little to be unsure about when you’ve changed nothing about a mature, consistent approach that changed everything.

“It wasn’t amazing out there, but usually if it is amazing, the next day I don’t race well,” Fredricks said. “So I think I’m right where I need to be.”

bchamilton@tribune.com