Race broke Chad Hedrick’s heart but not his dignity

They talk about training years for one event, working a lifetime for one race, throwing their entire being into one moment.

Olympians always say this, but they usually say it with the cool detachment of someone who understands there will always be a tomorrow.

On a raw Saturday night at the Richmond Olympic oval, Chad Hedrick meant it.

Before the final race of his celebrated career, he collapsed under the weight of it.

Before a 1,500-meter race that he had a chance to win, he lost it.

Hedrick began crying in the locker room. After lacing up his skates and taking the ice, he began crying again.

“I saw him with tears in his eyes,” U.S. Coach Derek Parra said. “I said, ‘Stop crying and focus on your technique.’ ”

Hedrick, 32, tried but couldn’t. He started slow, lost his rhythm, chopped through the ice and never found his glide.

On the scoreboard, the times seemed ridiculously slow for a skater ranked third in the world in this event.

On the ice, his movements seemed surprisingly stilted for a four-time Olympic medalist.

When he finished, the hush was audible, his hands clutched his head, his grimace showed his pain.

“I panicked,” he said.

Panicked right into sixth place, more than a second behind eventual winner Mark Tuitert of the Netherlands.

Panicked at the blades of fellow American and rival Shani Davis, the enigmatic skater who finished second.

“I was a wreck,” Hedrick said.

It was like ending a career by shanking a game-winning field goal in the final seconds of a Super Bowl. It was like ending a fairy tale with no happily, no ever, and no after.

“I felt like I had trained 30 years for one race,” he said, his short black hair still messy, his heavy eyes still red.

“This was going to be that dream finish. This was going to be a storybook ending.”

He paused. “But I couldn’t do it.”

Or did he?

In facing the world’s media afterward to acknowledge his frailty and admit his failings, Hedrick did something that few Olympians ever really do.

He became a human. He became one of us. He may not have gone higher or faster here, but he certainly became stronger.

“I came up short, and I’m man enough to admit it,” he said.

He was more than man enough, and here are some other things you should know about Chad Hedrick.

His 11-month-old daughter, Hadley, took her first steps at these Olympics. She also said “Da-da” for the first time. Married less than two years ago, Hedrick said that these Olympics marked the first time his priorities were truly focused.

“I’ve been a proud member of the U.S. team for eight years now, and we always think it’s about you, but really, it’s about you and your friends and your family,” he said. “It’s about me giving everyone else a show.”

Moments after your career ends in a smoldering heap is a difficult time to offer Olympic perspective, but Hedrick had finally found his groove.

“It’s not about you, it’s about the 300 million people watching you, that’s where the pride is,” he said.

It was this perspective that ultimately pummeled him.

He thought about it too much. He felt it too deeply.

“Hasn’t anybody here ever started crying hysterically because there was just so much emotion going on in their lives at the time?” Parra asked. “When everything comes down to one moment in your life, that happens.”

Hedrick has gold, silver and bronze medal from the 2006 Games in Turin. He has a bronze medal from the 1,000 meters here. His Olympic cupboard is full.

But in baring his soul Saturday night, giving the world a glimpse into the tortured heart of a champion, he added another triumph.

“This is tough to swallow,” he said. “I used my heart, not my technique, and that doesn’t work. I wasted a lot of energy, a lot of emotion.”

Contrast him with Davis, the most distant of Olympians, so removed that he doesn’t even belong to the U.S. speedskating team. He plays by his own rules, from coaches to equipment to sponsors, because he feels like he’s never been treated fairly.

“I knew what I had to do, but I couldn’t man up and do it,” said Davis, 27, gracious in defeat.

But at least he has tomorrow, as Davis said he will continue his search for the celebrated 1,500 gold medal in the Olympics in 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

For Hedrick, this is it, and while we have no trouble saying farewell to these fleeting Olympians, it is instructive to note that they don’t have it so easy. Turns out, for Hedrick this wasn’t just a skate, it was a long and painful goodbye, but only by showing us his humanity could we appreciate his strength.

“The race doesn’t define me, I’m bigger than the race,” he said.

No, it didn’t. Yes, he is.

bill.plaschke@latimes.com

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