Turin – His five golds never came. But with a silver medal in the 10,000-meter final Friday, Chad Hedrick became the most decorated American at the Turin Olympics.
Hedrick completed his Italian medal collection – gold in the 5,000 meters, bronze in the 1,500 meters – with a punishing skate on exhausted legs and some mental trickery.
Bob de Jong, of the Netherlands, won gold. Skating an early heat, de Jong blasted through his 25 laps in 13 minutes, 1.57 seconds – a stunning time on Turin’s slow ice, seven seconds off the world mark. Racing in the final heat, Hedrick soon realized he was “skating for the silver medal.”
“I wasn’t going to lay down for anybody. I could have quit with 10 laps to go. I was tired,” Hedrick said. “But I was going to prove to everybody how big my heart is.”
After four Olympic events, Hedrick spent Wednesday and Thursday “laying around, eating a lot of food,” he said, in an effort to recharge his energy and soothe his tired legs.
By today, with Shani Davis done for the Games – and watching from the stands – Hedrick needed only to glance at the outside lane to stoke his Texas fire. Wearing an orange body suit, The Netherlands’ Carl Verheijen took his spot at the start line.
Verheijen had once swiped something precious from Hedrick – his brief world record in the 10,000 meters. Hedrick ultimately snatched the record back at the U.S. Olympic speedskating trials Dec. 31cq. In the World Of Hedrick, though, that kind of on-ice thievery is reason to rumble.
Hedrick rocketed out of the start, staying ahead of de Jong’s pace for nine laps. Then, with 12 laps to go, he lost his edge. Verheijen, once lagging by half a lap, began creeping closer, causing Dutch fans to erupt in cheers every time he flew by.
Watching giant TV screens at the end of each straightaway, Hedrick could see his rival gaining. He instantly came up with a two-part plan.
“I decided with six laps to go that the best way for me to do it … was just to rest, get my breath and let him catch me. And hopefully,” Hedrick said, “as soon as he catches me, he’ll think he has me.”
With four laps to go, Verheijen was just one body length away. With three laps remaining, Hedrick shoved the pain in his legs out of his head and sprinted has hard as he could, once around. His lap time at 9,200 meters was 31.01 seconds – his fastest split since the eighth lap of the race.
Silver was his after Hedrick finished in 13 minutes 5.40 seconds. Verheijen took bronze.
“I’m happy that while he was racing, he was thinking of me,” Verheijen said. “He has an attitude with the media that we are not used to having. He brings something American, something new in this sport.”
For Hedrick and Davis, it’s now back to the World Cup tour. But before exiting his Olympic moment, Hedrick revealed that he plans to skate for the Americans at the 2010 Winter Games.
“You guys haven’t seen the last of Shani and I. We’re going to be in Vancouver, leading a new group of U.S. skaters,” Hedrick said. “Everything is going to be fine (between us). We’re just competitors. We get along perfectly.”
Staff writer Bill Briggs can be reached at 303-820-1720 or bbriggs@denverpost.com
