Rules leave uncertainty in speedskating team pursuit selection

An update to the Shani Davis team pursuit situation now that U.S. Speedskating officials have taken a closer look at their 2010 Olympic selection rules:

Even if Davis is offered one of the five team pursuit spots on the World Cup circuit today and declines it, that does not definitively rule him out of skating team pursuit at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The U.S. Speedskating rules say the four Olympic team pursuit members may or may not be from the five team pursuit members selected for the fall World Cup events.

There appears to be a Catch-22 in the situation, though.

The rules also say the Olympic team pursuit members will be chosen, in part, based on performances in the fall World Cups.

If Davis chooses not to skate pursuit on the fall World Cups, he would have no such performances as selection criteria.

Forget all these scenarios. The best thing for everyone involved would be for U.S. Speedskating and Davis to give a definitive yes or no about team pursuit today and not leave uncertainty that could cause a repeat of the 2006 Olympic controversy on this very issue.

-- Philip Hersh

Controversy shouldn't pursue Shani Davis again

Shani Davis skating to second place in the 1,500 meters Saturday in the U.S. World Cup team selection meet.  He has made the team in two events already. (Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)

By Philip Hersh

MILWAUKEE -- The only question left for Olympic speedskating champion Shani Davis of Chicago to answer at the long track World Cup team selection meet that ends Sunday is the one that led to an enormous controversy at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

And that is whether he wants to be considered for the team pursuit event at the 2010 Olympics.

Davis, 27, who has shown again the last four days that he is the country's preeminent speedskater, must tell U.S. Speedskating officials Sunday whether he wants to be in the five-man pool for the team pursuit, four of whom will be selected for the 2010 Olympics in the event. (Three skate in the race.)

Saturday, after he finished second to Chad Hedrick in the 1,500 meters by 2/100ths of a second, Davis was asked what he intented to tell U.S. Speedskating about his interest in the team pursuit.

"We'll just have to see,'' Davis said.  "I can't predict the future.''

That seemed to sound like a no, but one thing is certain: No matter what Davis decides, the current U.S. Speedskating leadership won't hang him out to dry the way their predecessors did in 2006.  Instead, they intend to make a public statement of support for his choice.

Although Davis told the federation well before the 2006 Olympics began that he did not want to skate the pursuit, preferring to concenrate on his individual events, its officials never corrected reports that he had chosen to withdraw at the last minute.  That left him open to a firestorm of criticism, especially when Hedrick accused Davis of betrayal for not skating the pursuit, saying Davis' decision cost Hedrick and the U.S. team a gold medal.

Hedrick would like Davis to on the pursuit team next February but he too will simply accept whatever Davis prefers to do.

"I would love for him to be part of it,'' Hedrick said.  "If he wants to, we're going to have a great team.  If he doesn't, we're still going to have some great skaters to fill that spot.

"There would be nothing better than for him to want to be a part of it.  Gold medals are hard enough to win, and we've got one sitting right in front of us.''

The way both skated Saturday, either could wind up with gold in the 1,500.  And the third finisher, Trevor Marsicano, could make it a U.S. sweep in Vancouver.

Hedrick won in one minute, 44.47 seconds, shaving 1/100th from the Pettit Center track record Davis set a year ago.  Davis clocked 1:44.49.  Both were well under the time of 1:46:17 in which Davis won the event in the 2009 World Single Distance Championships last March on the 2010 Olympic oval, where the ice conditions are similar to here.

"That's a big message we're delivering to the whole world by skating 1:44s in October,'' Davis said.

And the effect of that message on the U.S. skaters' rivals?

 "I think they are going to be pretty scared,'' Davis said.  ``In all fairness, I think they are going to be pretty afraid.''

Davis won Thursday's 5,000 against Hedrick by 2/100ths of a second.  Davis also finished third in the 500 and won the first of the two races in the 1,000.  The world team meet finishes Sunday with the second 1,000 (the winner is based on the better of the two times) and the 10,000.  Davis has qualified for the World Cup team in the 500 and 1,500 and is a lock to make it in the 1,000 and the 5,000/10,000 combo.

Each country gets Olympic spots based on results in the five World Cup meets this fall.

"I'm stronger and faster than I have ever been in my life,'' Davis said.

That says something for a guy who has won Olympic gold and silver medals, world all-around and sprint titles, world single distance titles and set multiple world records.

To Hedrick, beating Davis also said something.

"To beat a guy of that stature, who was so consistent last year. . . . I'm trying to work my way back to the top, and that's a big step for me,'' Hedrick said.

Hedrick won a medal of each color at the 2006 Olympics.  He was third and Davis second in the Olympic 1,500, but their achievements were subsumed in the controversy Hedrick started.

"I think it would be a great story for him and I to enjoy (the 2010 Olympics),'' Hedrick said.  ``I feel like last time we worked so hard for America to be proud of us and everything happened and it went south from there.  I hope everyone enjoys it a little more than they did last time.''

Davis agreed.

"I would love to enjoy an Olympics,'' Davis said.  ``One out of my three would be nice.''

In 2002, Davis' selection to the Olympic short track team was mired in controversy that also was not of his doing. He did not compete in those Winter Games.

"Let's just say I haven't had the best Olympics, having fun-wise,'' Davis said.  ``Every day, I'm having more and more fun.  I enjoy the level of competition and going out there trying to be the best I can be.''

He is already the sport's gold standard.

-- Philip Hersh

U.S. Speedskating feels the pinch of Dutch bank's bankruptcy [updated]

U.S. Speedskating, the sport's governing body in this country, is looking for new backing less than four months away from the Vancouver Olympics after a Dutch court declared one of the U.S. team's prime sponsors bankrupt earlier this week.

DSB Bank, based in the Netherlands, was thrown into bankruptcy on Monday, ending its financial support of U.S. speedskaters. In an unusual step, U.S. Speedskating issued a news release today announcing it would have a budget shortfall of more than $300,000 because DSB Bank is no longer able to provide funding. As a result, U.S. Speedskating Executive Director Bob Crowley and the organization's board are working on a new financial plan for the remainder of the 2009-10 season.

"DSB Bank has been an excellent partner for US Speedskating and has allowed us to provide excellent service for our athletes,” Brad Goskowicz, U.S. Speedskating's president, said in a statement. "It is our mission to ensure our U.S. Speedskating Olympic Team has everything they need to be successful and we will continue toward that end. The impact will be seriously felt and we will be seeking additional sponsor opportunities."

The organization also said that sponsorship money had dropped significantly during the last two years of economic uncertainty. But Crowley is hopeful about attracting new financial partners.

"There are very attractive sponsorship opportunities now available,” Crowley said, “and this is a great opportunity for a company to attach themselves, at a very low cost, to the sport that is projected to win a record number of Olympic medals.”

U.S. Speedskating is proceeding with its scheduled events, including the national championships, American Cup series and the U.S. World Cup/Olympic-qualifying event that began today in Milwaukee. 

Updated:

The U.S. Olympic Committee has been in contact with U.S. Speedskating officials about the budget shortfall caused by DSB Bank's bankruptcy, according to USOC spokesman Bob Condron.

"Mike English, our Chief of Sport Performance, and Alan Ashley, our Team Leader for Winter Olympic Sports, spoke to Bob Crowley about the situation, and Alan is going to meet with Bob this weekend at the Trials to try and understand the impact on U.S. Speedskating," Condron said in an e-mail.

"We'll make some decisions after that."

-- Helene Elliott

Carson's Maria Garcia successfully switches tracks

Maria Garcia of Carson, a member of the U.S. short-track speedskating team at the Turin Olympics and part of the successful program of the Southern California Speed Skating Assn., missed a chance to qualify for the Vancouver Games when she fell hard during the Olympic trials earlier this month in Marquette, Mich.

But that didn't end Garcia's Olympic hopes. She switched to long-track skating even though she had no experience with that discipline and, remarkably, qualified to compete in the 500-meter event at an Olympic qualifying event in late October in Milwaukee. She might also try to get a qualifying time in the 1,000.

"Why not!? My love of sport is through the journey," she said of making the switch. "Life will always continue on. Qualifying for the long-track Olympic trials is just as possible as it is impossible. I may come nowhere close, but it will be pure joy every step of the way. That's what sports and life should be about, always looking and rising to your next challenge."

We'll follow Maria's rerouted journey in the coming weeks.

-- Helene Elliott

Photo: Maria Garcia. Credit: Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press

U.S. Olympic media summit: Time to turn off the cynicism

Reporting from Chicago -- Sometimes we cynical journalists (redundant, I know) moan and roll our eyes when TV networks air those up-close-and-personal features that focus on the incredible obstacles athletes have overcome to reach the Olympics.

But after speaking to some of the prospective Vancouver Olympians who are attending this week's U.S. Olympic media summit, it's clear that many truly have endured truly horrific injuries and personal tragedies that have shaped them, made them stronger and helped them rise above average. 

For example: Emily Cook, a freestyle aerials skier from Belmont, Mass. Two weeks after she made the 2002 Olympic team she took a horrible fall in a training jump at Lake Placid, N.Y., suffering a dislocation, torn ligament and fracture in her left leg and fracture and torn ligament in her right leg. "I watched the Salt Lake City Games from a wheelchair," she said.

After more than 2 1/2 years of painful rehabilitation that began with merely taking steps in a pool, she came back to qualify for the 2006 Turin team and finish 19th overall. "I had unfinished business and I was going to do everything in my power to get back," she said, matter-of-factly.

Speedskater Trevor Marsicano cuts to golden heart of the matter

World champion Trevor Marsicano is flanked by Canada's Denny Morrison, left, the silver medalist, and Chicago's Shani Davis, the bronze medalist, in Friday's 1,000 meters. (AP / The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

By Philip Hersh

RICHMOND, Canada -- Three quick items from the World Single Distance Speedskating Championships (after all, this is about going fast):

1) New U.S. long track speedskating star Trevor Marsicano suffered a frightening injury as a 15-year-old short tracker in 2004. Marsicano said the inside of his right thigh was slashed so deeply by another skater's blade that he could see the bone.  He was told the cut caused him to lose half the blood volume in his body.

"I was able to skate again in three months, but it took me a full year to get back to 100 percent physically and mentally,'' Marsicano said.

Marsicano said that was not a factor in his decision to give up short track after the 2007 season.

"I went on from there (the injury) to skate at the 2006 Olympic trials in short track (where he finished 12th),'' Marsicano noted. 

The switch in emphasis owed more to his success in the World Junior All-Around Championships in long track, where he won the 3,000 meters and finished third overall.

How much has he improved in the last year?  Marsicano did not even compete in the 1,000 meters in 2008, and he won the event Friday at the World Single Distance Championships at the 2010 Olympic oval.  He won a bronze medal in the 5,000 later Friday ("I just hoped to make the top six'') and had won a silver in the 1,500 Thursday.

"The credit belongs to my coach, Paul Marchese,'' Mariscano said. "He has been my coach for six years and he was able to get me back up there (after the injury).''

They have had a long-distance relationship since last summer. Marchese lives in upstate New York, and Marsicano left there to train at the Pettit Center in Milwaukee when he decided to concentrate on long track.

"That was the closest (long track) place to home,'' Marsicano said of the reason for his move.

2) Chad Hedrick left for his home outside Houston as quickly as he could after finishing fourth Thursday in the 1,500 meters. Hedrick's wife, Lynsey, is expecting the couple's first child, a daughter whom they have named Hadley, and labor is to be induced by Monday at the latest. "It's a lot bigger event than all this stuff right now,'' Hedrick said, referring to the skating competition. After two down years, the 2006 Olympic champion at 5,000 meters has showed signs this season of regaining Olympic medal-contending form.

3) I am just going to throw this out there for you to mull over:  Above the urinals at the 2010 Olympic speedskating oval in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond are signs reading, "Non Potable Water.  Do Not Drink.'' There are no such signs over the sinks.

Marsicano makes last lap a swift one

RICHMOND, Canada  -- Fast-rising U.S. speed skater Trevor Marsicano upset Shani Davis to win the 1,000 meters at the World Single Distance Championships today at the 2010 Winter Olympic oval.

Marsicano, 19, put together a stunning last lap to win in 1 minute, 8.96 seconds.  Denny Morrison of Canada was second in 1:09, with Davis third in 1:09.02.

Davis, who occasionally trains with Marsicano in Milwaukee, had won the 1,000 the past two years.

Marsicano, of Ballston Spa, N.Y., was second in Thursday’s 1,500, his first world championship medal.  Last week in Salt Lake City, he briefly set a world record of 1:06.88 in the 1,000, only to have Davis break it minutes later with a 1:06:42.

Heading into the final 400 meters here, Davis, skating in the last of 12 pairs, had been nearly 3/10ths of a second faster than Marsicano, who skated in the sixth pair.

-- Philip Hersh

Speedskater Shani Davis: two days, two world records

Fast.

That's the athletic essence of Chicago speedskater Shani Davis.

So the Olympic champion wasted no time in taking advantage of what is considered the fastest ice in the world, at the 2002 Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City.

In less than 24 hours at the World Cup final, Davis set world records in two long-track events.

This afternoon, he covered 1,000 meters in 1 minute, 06.42 seconds, breaking the mark of 1:06.88 set by teammate Trevor Marsicano earlier in the competition. Finland's Pekka Koskela had set the previous record, 1:07, on the same rink Nov. 10, 2007.

Friday, Davis won the 1,500 in 1:41.80, lowering the record of 1:42.01 set by Canada's Denny Morrison at Calgary last March.

"I'm speechless at this point,'' said U.S. head sprint coach Ryan Shimabukuro.  Davis "needed a really perfect race like yesterday,  and he executed flawlessly. He made perfect splits and just crushed the world record."

Davis also won the 2008-09 World Cup season titles at both distances. He now has set six world records at the two distances -- two in the 1,000, four in the 1,500 -- during his career, but never before two in the same competition.

"It really hurt my feelings last year when I lost the [1,000] world record,'' Davis said today. "But now my name's back on the board so every time I come back here, I can look up and see my name again.''

Davis and Marsicano finished 1-2 in both the 1,000 and 1,500, giving a boost to U.S. speedskating 11 months before the 2010 Olympics.  They both are expected to compete at next week's World Single Distance Championships, the test event for the 2010 rink in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond.

Davis, the 2009 world sprints champion, also placed eighth in Friday's 500 with a personal best time of 34.78.

"Sometimes you’re lucky and everything falls in place,''  Davis said after Friday's world record. "It’s a roll of the dice, and I was able to roll a seven when I needed to.''       

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Shani Davis greets the crowd today in Salt Lake City, where he set a second world record in the World Cup final. Credit: Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press

Figure skating's long night, Sasha's goal not gold, bob(sledd)ing and weaving...and more

Seattle natives Apolo Anton Ohno, right, and J.R. Celski crash.  (AP / Jeff Roberson)

A few of the pithiest quotes I’ve heard in recent weeks and some of my pithy (I hope) opinions, as well.

"It rains so much we have to do some kind of indoor stuff," Olympic gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno, explaining why the nation’s top two short-track male speedskaters, he and J.R. Celski, come from Seattle.

And second prize is one winter trip to Sofia, Bulgaria: Several U.S. figure skaters have made their second trip in a row to Sofia for the World Junior Championships. The event wound up back in Sofia this week after organizational problems forced the International Skating Union to move it from the original site: Ostrava, Czech Republic. Among the double trippers: Adam Rippon, 19, of Scranton, Pa., a runaway winner (nearly 19 points) of a second straight junior world title Thursday with a total score, 222.0, that makes him the 10th best performer in the world on any level this season.

"When I first came out this year, I could see what I was doing, and that actually made it a little harder.  I was driving by seeing and not by feel," U.S. bobsledder Steve Holcomb, who won a two-man bronze medal Sunday at the World Championships, on the surgery (implantable collamer lens) that he said improved his vision from 20/500 to 20/20 in 10 minutes.

Not a Nordic power yet: Lest anyone get carried away by the five medals U.S. athletes have won at the Nordic ski world championships, look at the results of everyone but the four medalists. Only one cross-country skier other than silver medalist Kikkan Randall has made the top 10 (a fourth by Kris Freeman); the relays finished 13th (men) and 14th (women) in fields of 15 entries each; and the leading men’s ski jumper (only one event contested so far) was 48th.

"I stripped my suit all the way down to my ankles," said U.S. Nordic combined skier Bill Demong on the futile search for his numbered bib before the jumping phase of Thursday’s team event at the Nordic worlds. After he (and thus the team) was disqualified, Demong found the bib had slid into his boot.

Third time's the charm? Jeremy Bloom was a terrific kick returner (led Big 12 in return yards in 2004) who was cut by the Eagles in 2007 and the Steelers in 2008. He was a terrific moguls skier (world champion in 2003) who finished ninth and sixth in his two Winter Olympic appearances. With the 2010 Olympics in mind, Bloom returned to World Cup competition last month after a three-year absence, but he is, unsurprisingly, not back in good enough form to be on the U.S. team for next week’s Freestyle World Championships on the 1998 Olympic hill in Japan.

"I wasn’t trying just to get an A on a paper. I was trying to have the best paper ever written," U.S. high hurdler Lolo Jones on why she didn’t run conservatively in the Olympic final, when she was a prohibitive favorite but finished seventh after stumbling over the penultimate barrier.

How to kill a sport in several easy lessons: Scheduled ending times for the upcoming World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles, another stroke of genius by the International Skating Union.  Tuesday, March 24, pairs short program, 11:40 p.m; Wednesday, March 25, pairs free skate, 11 p.m.; Friday, March 27, free dance, 11 p.m. Hey, ISU numbskulls: That’s 2 a.m. on the East Coast of Canada and the United States and even late in Los Angeles, given its notorious traffic at all hours. Maybe if the ISU limited the fields (there may be 50 men singles skaters, about half of whom need double runners), the program would end at a reasonable hour.

"I’m definitely not coming back because I feel like I need an Olympic gold. I would be coming back because I feel like I have more to give," Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen on why she is considering a return to competitive skating.

Burning up the track at both ends: U.S. track cyclist Taylor Phinney, 18, recently won the pursuit and kilometer events at a World Cup meet in Copenhagen, which the French sports newspaper L'Equipe compared to a runner winning the steeplechase and 400 meters. Olympic kilometer champion Florian Rousseau of France called Phinney's achievement unique, in that the kilo takes explosiveness and power, while the pursuit, four times as long, demands endurance. Phinney was seventh in pursuit at the Olympics, where he was two years younger than any of the other seven finalists.

"I've changed the word from 'expectations' to 'belief'; people expect me to do so well because they believe that I can,'' Katherine Reutter of Champaign, the leading woman on the U.S. short track team headed to Vienna for next week's world championships, on how working with a sports psychologist has helped her handle pressure created by her international success this season.

-- Philip Hersh

Now it's on to Vancouver

Welcome back to the LAT Olympics blog as it shifts from the Beijing Summer Games of last August to the Vancouver Winter Games, set for Feb. 12-28 of next year. Instead of Ticket to Beijing, it now is Ticket to Vancouver.

We will be posting throughout the year on Olympic news, but particularly as it relates to the Vancouver Games.  All of the Beijing posts can be accessed through the "Beijing Games" category link in the right rail of the blog.

Many of our Summer Games bloggers will be back for the Winter Games, including LAT columnist Helene Elliott and Philip Hersh, a veteran of Olympics coverage who writes for the LAT and the Chicago Tribune.

Many of the features created for Beijing will still be accessible, including photo galleries and videos.

Though we will be updating the look of this blog as we go, you can catch Olympic news right here. That will include blogging from the World Figure Skating Championships next month by LAT staff from Staples Center.

-- Debbie Goffa

Photo: Last week the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games cauldron burned brightly at Canada Olympic Park,  marking the one-year countdown to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Credit: Jeff McIntosh / Associated Press