Turin – As he begins his hunt for five Olympic gold medals, Chad Hedrick is in the perfect place – a little nook he has worked months to reach.
He’s in the heads of his ice enemies.
The brash long tracker, who racks up world records with a blend of brute strength and intimidation, skated over to his Dutch rivals at practice this week. He flashed his Texas grin. He extended his glad hand. But the men from the Netherlands refused to shake it.
“They,” Hedrick said later with a smirk, “are putting the ball in my court.
“They started some games.”
On Saturday, Hedrick skates the 5,000 meters at Oval Lingotto, offering Team USA a chance at its first taste of Italian gold and unleashing what Hedrick expects to be his own medals feast. Standing in his path will be Dutch skater Sven Kramer, the world record holder at that distance.
You can almost hear Hedrick grinding his teeth in preparation.
“They make me out to be a bad boy (in the Netherlands),” Hedrick said. “They call me ‘the loudmouth Texan’ because I’m confident in what I do. And why shouldn’t I be? I have a lot of pride. I put my whole life aside for this sport, which I love.
“They know I can’t read their language. So a lot of the things they put in the paper, I don’t ever know. But I have some best friends and they translate it for me, and sometimes it’s not very nice.”
Like on Jan. 1 – the morning after Hedrick broke the world 10,000-meter record at the U.S. Olympic trials in Kearns, Utah. The ice conditions were slick. The Dutch observers argued that a normal surface would have slowed Hedrick by eight to 10 seconds. And they wrote that fact into yet another newspaper diss – a line that Hedrick relayed Wednesday.
“Somebody said it should have been a women’s world record,” Hedrick said with a laugh. “I don’t think that’s very nice. So we’re trying to even the score.”
Hedrick also holds a world-best time in the 1,500 meters and he is expected to sniff for medals in the team pursuit as well as the 1,000 meters – a race currently owned by teammate Shani Davis.
A self-proclaimed loner on the ice, Davis said he’s had no rude run-ins this week with the Dutch skaters. But he can understand how Hedrick has burrowed into the consciousness of an entire land, a place where speedskating is pure passion.
“Chad is such a big threat to them in everything,” Davis said. “Not only can he skate a 10,000, he can skate a 1,000. He can skate every distance well. And a lot of (Dutch) people, this is their thing.”
Bill Briggs can be reached at 303-810-1720 or bbriggs@denverpost.com.
