|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Now it's sticky rubber stuff that only was approved for use in the Olympics the night before competition began.
Put together the clapskate and the sticky rubber stuff and a fast ice surface and the adrenaline of skating in the Winter Games and the result is what happened Sunday in Japan: World records were obliterated.
Three skaters broke the mark in the men's 5,000-meter race, with the winner -- Gianni Romme of the Netherlands -- simply wiping it out.
When the competition began, Romme held the world record with a time of 6:30.63.
But under the Olympic spotlight, he skated 6:22.20 in the M-Wave, where the ice surface had been praised as fast, though nobody thought that fast.
Romme flew around the track, accelerating as the race went on. With his Dutch countrymen cheering his every turn, Romme had four 400-meter split times lower than 30 seconds, and only two above 31 -- and those were a paltry 31.10 and 31.06. This was a monumental effort that prompted questions about where times could go now that the clapskate is being used worldwide.
"I said before I skated that I could go 6:27, but I skated 6:22," Romme said. "I don't know when the end is. I didn't expect that I would skate this time."
Thing is, Romme put his mark on the board after two other skaters had already broken his previous world record.
Romme's friend and countryman, Rintje Ritsma, skated 6:28.24, and Bart Veldkamp, the only Olympic athlete from Belgium and a former member of the Netherland's team, also bettered the world mark by skating 6:28.31.
Personal bests fell like snow as well. Eighteen of the 32 skaters bettered their top times, including U.S. skaters David Tamburrino and K.C. Boutiette.
Boutiette actually set a new U.S. record, breaking his mark by skating 6:39.67. But the fastest time in American history was only good enough for 14th place in the Olympics.
Boutiette was not disappointed. He knows he's stronger at shorter distances.
"My goal is the 1,500," he said. "I skated good, the best I could, but my goal wasn't to get a medal. If I would have gotten a medal it would have been a fluke. I'm a 1,500 skater."
All told, five skaters broke the Olympic mark of 6:34.96, held by Norway's Johan Olav Koss, who won three gold medals in Lillehammer in 1994.
But that was before the invention of the clapskate, which has a hinge that allows it to release from the back of the boot. And Boutiette said the clapskate was the sole reason the marks were so low.
"Koss went 6:34, and you're not going to see that again in regular skates," Boutiette said. "Not to take anything away from what those guys did, but Koss in clapskates would have gone just as fast."
Then there was the matter of the sticky rubber stuff, which is actually a silicon compound developed at a Netherlands university. Dutch skaters placed it on their legs in a zig-zag fashion, the idea that it would break wind resistance. U.S. coach Gerard Kemkers said he learned about the goop before the Olympics and searched the internet for information. He found the sticky stuff sliced one-half second per lap off the time.
U.S. skaters wore outfits with a line sewn into their clothes, but apparently the Dutch sticky stuff was more effective. Romme called it gum, and it was like gum. Easily applied, easily peeled off.
"Maybe it helped out," Romme said. "But to me the most important thing was very good skating."
And the fast ice. And the clapskate. And, apparently, goop.