TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/022492/0224994.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 7.3 KB | 153 lines

                                                                                1992 WINTER OLYMPICS, Page 54

Blades of Gold


In a flurry of second chances, America's Bonnie Blair grabs two
golds while Dan Jansen comes up just short

By PAUL A. WITTEMAN/ALBERTVILLE


    Athletes rarely get second chances. Normally they can
hold on to their moment of glory only briefly before someone
younger, stronger and faster grabs it away. But last week at the
speed-skating oval in Albertville, several leading contestants
had a chance to relive events from the Calgary Olympics four
years ago. Some hoped to repeat their success; others sought to
redeem their failures.

    The races took place under conditions far different from
those in Calgary's stunning indoor oval, which is every speed
skater's picture of paradise. In Albertville, days of driving
rain that left the ice bumpy alternated with sunny ones that
left it slushy. World records? Personal bests? This track was
about survival, not records, and woe to the skater unable to
block out the noise of the TGV supertrain from Lyons rushing by
on tracks 600 ft. from the north curve.

    First to survive was German librarian Gunda Niemann, who
had finished seventh in the event at Calgary. Niemann carries
not a teddy bear but a judo doll to each competition, and it
brought her luck. She shot from the starting line faster than
countrywoman Heike Warnicke and won the 3,000 m going away by
a comfortable three seconds. Back in the pack, but victorious
in a different sort of race, with no finish line, was American
Mary Docter. She caused a pre-Olympic sensation with the
admission that she was battling an addiction to drugs and
alcohol. Docter finished clear-eyed, 15th and slightly
disappointed. "In 1988 I didn't train hardly at all, and I
finished 19th," she said.

    Finishing anywhere but first would have been a
disappointment for sprinter Bonnie Blair, who captivated
audiences in 1988 with her killer starts and unabashed tears of
joy on the medal stand after her 500-m victory. After that she
struggled and ranked only fifth overall at last year's world
championships. "I just didn't feel comfortable on my skates,"
Blair said. By Albertville, she had regained form and
confidence, though, and seemed once again invulnerable.

    At least that is how her principal rival, a Chinese pixie
with a Peter Pan haircut, saw it. Ye Qiaobo had expected to
challenge Blair in Calgary but had tested positive for steroids
and was sent home in disgrace. Ye was banned for 15 months and
vilified in the Chinese press for bringing disgrace on her
family and country. Aggrieved, Ye tried to point out that it was
not she but the team doctor who was the culprit. "I hate him
very much," she said. The hate turned to vindication when team
officials admitted that it was he, not she, who was responsible.

    Encouraged by hundreds of fan letters, Ye decided to give
her sport another try. "I am a little flower that must open,"
she said, unfolding her fingers like petals. Ye spent endless
hours in front of a VCR, trying to learn the secret of Blair's
near flawless technique, and in the process developed an awe of
her rival's abilities. Skating three pairs ahead of Bonnie, Ye
got off to her trademark slow start in the 500. Then on the
backstretch as she accelerated, Ye claims she was obstructed on
the lane changeover by the Soviet skater against whom she was
paired. Ye nonetheless finished strongly, and her clocking of
40.51 was flashing in first place on the electronic timer when
Blair set the toe of her left blade into the ice 10 minutes
later.

    Blair wins races in the first 100 m, and she was .24 sec.
ahead of Ye's pace when the edges of her blades bit into the
first turn. On the backstretch, an army of Blair's supporters
were in full cry as she passed. "I didn't hear them," she said.
When she broke the electronic finish line, Blair was .18 sec.
front of Ye and had the gold. Asked about the jockeying for
position and the refusal of race officials to allow her a rerun,
Ye blinked and graciously said, "It is a pity."

    Ye's silver was the first winter medal for her country,
and she had another chance for gold in the 1,000. As did Blair,
who treated the intervening 1,500-m race as training, easing up
for the last 400 m. In that race, German Jacqueline Boerner
edged teammate Niemann for the gold, completing a comeback
almost as dramatic as Ye's. While training on her bike outside
Berlin in August 1990, Boerner was struck -- deliberately, she
claims -- by a driver behind the wheel of a Trabant, the
flimsiest vehicle on four wheels. "If it had been a real car,
I wouldn't be here," she can now joke. But even Trabants are
tougher than bikes, and Boerner broke an ankle and tore
ligaments in her knee, which sent her to a hospital for months.

    For Blair, her final race offered a chance to better
Calgary, where she won a bronze in the 1,000. This time at the
Albertville track, Bonnie skated first, posting a 1:21.9 for Ye
to top. With no repeat of the jostling during the lane
changeover, Ye surged toward the finish line and vindication.
When she lifted her head to the scoreboard, the Chinese skater
had certainly achieved that. But by the incomprehensibly slim
margin of .02 sec., less than the blink of an eye, Blair had won
a second gold medal, making her the first American woman to take
home three gold medals from the Winter Games.

    America's Dan Jansen had the most emotion-laden second
chance at Albertville. On the morning of the 500-m race at
Calgary, Jansen's older sister had died of leukemia. Favored to
win, he had planned to dedicate the gold medal to her, but fell
on the first turn. Later, in the 1,000 m, he fell again.
Despair is too mild a word to describe the look on his face as
he lifted himself from the ice. Four years later, a still
introverted Jansen and his protective family assert that Calgary
no longer haunts him. "There are other things in his life now,"
says his brother Michael. "He's married, and he's not as
serious." Coming into the Albertville Games, Jansen was in the
best shape of his life, buoyed by the enthusiasm and
whipcracking of a new coach, Peter Mueller.

    The day of the 500-m race broke gray and rainy once again,
making the oval slow and sloppy. When Jansen hit the first
curve, spectators who remembered the disaster in Calgary held
their breath. In a flash he was through safely, drove down the
backstretch into the far curve and finished in 37.46. But he
knew immediately that the time probably wouldn't be good enough.
It was not. In the next race Japan's Junichi Inoue hit the
finish line in 37.26. And then Jansen's longtime rival and
closest friend among the competitors, Uwe-Jens Mey, topped Inoue
with a time of 37.14, capturing the gold for Germany and
repeating his victory at Calgary. Said Mey after the race:
"Maybe his nerves didn't hold out as much as he imagined. The
Olympics don't obey normal rules." Later Japan's Toshiyuki
Kuroiwa came within .04 sec. of stealing Mey's medal, and that
pushed Jansen to fourth. The American has another chance for a
medal in the 1,000-m race. "I'll be O.K.," he said. But unless
he finds a place on the victory stand this week, Jansen will not
be among those who reaped their second chance at Albertville.