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Summer fling leaves medal hopes on thin ice
For skater/cyclist Chris Witty, the day becomes a waiting game.
By JOHN ROMANO
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 17, 2000
BANKSTOWN, Australia -- History is not always old and staid. Sometimes it can be a moving target.
Chris Witty bumped into it Saturday and then waited expectantly to see if history would wobble and fall.
The 25-year-old Wisconsin native was attempting to do what no other American woman has done. A two-time medal winner in speed skating at Nagano in 1998, Witty was going for a cycling medal to complete a rare Winter/Summer combo of medals.
When she stepped off her bicycle around 7:30 p.m. Australian time, she had set an Olympic record in the 500 meter time trial and had the time to beat with 13 competitors to follow.
"It won't last," Witty said, eyeing her time of 35.230 seconds on the scoreboard at the Dunc Grey Velodrome. "The French girl and the Germans and the Chinese can beat that. I'm just hoping to slip in with a bronze."
Witty has not turned her heart over to cycling. She enjoys it, she occasionally embraces it, but she remains devoted to speed skating, her first love. So what does that make cycling?
"I don't know. I guess it's my fling," she said. "I'm cheating."
And as such, she will not draw attention to herself. Witty even refuses to watch the scoreboard as the other cyclists compete. Too many others still have to ride, and she would be a basket case waiting to see if her time held up.
But then the crowd roars, and Witty instinctively glances toward the flashing numbers above her: China's Wang Ya has just moved ahead of her.
"Oh, well," she saidwith a shrug. "I had that Olympic record for, what, five minutes?"
This does not come as a surprise to Witty. Although she began cycling 10 years ago as a way to cross-train for skating, she has devoted a fraction of the time normally needed to be an elite rider.
She tried four years ago to give both sports equal attention and discovered it would not work. She was an alternate on the cycling team in Atlanta in 1996, but felt burned out by the time she began preparing for Nagano. A gold medal favorite, Witty settled for a silver at 1,500 meters and a bronze at 1,000.
She promised herself she would not try competitive cycling again until after the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002.
But as 2000 approached, Witty had an idea. Instead of training full time in cycling, what if she focused on one event? She had had success in the 500-meter time trial, and it was a new Olympic sport for 2000. She earned a spot on the Olympic team in the spring and took one month off from speed skating to prepare for the Summer Games.
As Witty discusses this on the interior of the track, a Shania Twain song begins to scream over the sound system, and the crowd rises to its feet. Local favorite Michelle Ferris is being strapped onto her bike, and Australian flags are being waved in the bleachers.
Witty pauses to watch Ferris race.
And to watch Ferris beat her.
She turns her head and tries to grimace, but a forlorn smile comes out instead. Someone suggests she still is in contention for the bronze with five riders to go, but Witty's skepticism shows.
"(Felicia) Ballanger still has to go," she said. "And the Germans."
Regardless of how it turns out, Witty insists, she will not be disappointed. She had her best-ever time and figures she got the most out of an abbreviated training schedule. She is asked what she might be capable of doing if she devoted herself to cycling full time.
"I have no idea," Witty said. "Maybe after Salt Lake I'll take a year or two off to take cycling more seriously."
The crowd lets Witty know someone else has set a first-lap split time that could challenge the lead. She looks up in time to see China's Cuihua Jiang has moved into third.
History, it seems, has moved on by.
Witty purses her lips, and a soft sound escapes as she exhales.
Ballanger rides next and wins the gold medal, moving Witty into fifth place in her first Summer competition.
She tugs at the zipper on her warmup jacket and again insists she is not disappointed. This was all for fun, she said. She plans on remaining in Australia for 10 days -- maybe do some in-line skating -- and then return to her new residence in Park City, Utah, to begin training for 2002.
And after that?
"Maybe I'll go for the luge and archery," Witty said, smiling. "And I can always fall back on curling."
Double duty
Chris Witty is one of nine Americans to have competed in the Winter and Summer Olympics. More than half of the group doubled in speed skating and cycling. Eddie Eagan, who won gold in the bobsled and boxing, is the only American to have medals from both Games. Witty missed joining Eagan by about a half-second Saturday. Here are the nine dual-seasons Olympians in chronological order:
ATHLETE -WINTER SPORT -- GAMES -SUMMER SPORT -GAMES
Eddie Eagan -Bobsled-'32 -Boxing-'20
Art Longsjo -Speed skating -'56 -Cycling -'56
Arnold Uhrlass -Speed skating -'60 -Cycling-'64
Willie Davenport -Bobsled -'80 -Track/field -- '64/'68/'72/'76
Connie Carpenter-Phinney -Speed skating -'72 -Cycling -'84
Dave Gilman -Luge -'84 -Canoe/kayak -'76/'80/'84/'88
Connie Paraskevin-Young -Speed skating -'80/'84 -Cycling -'88/'92/'96
Willie Gault -Bobsled -'88 -Track/field -'80
Chris Witty -Speed skating -'94/'98 -Cycling -'00
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