Wotherspoon clinches Olympic spot in 500 metres
The announcer voice’s began to rise as the blurred red/grey streak flashed across the finish line in the first heat and the clock froze at 34.70 seconds.“Jeremy Wotherspoon,’’ he boomed, “back on top, No. 1 ...”
No story tugs so persuasively, so insistently, at the emotional psyche as a faltering idol redeemed.
No swoon for The Spoon.
Jeremy Wotherspoon is officially back on course.
“I know after the (fall World Cup) trials, when I was struggling, there were people wondering ‘Will he snap out of it?’,” admitted the all-time winningest World Cup long-tracker, having assured himself at least the opportunity for a whiz-bang end to a decorated skating career. “But I don’t feel relieved today, no. I wasn’t anxious, panicky. I wasn’t overly stressed. Just the normal, day-to-day amount.
“It’s just nice to know I’m going back to another Olympics.”
After weeks of uncertainty, Wotherspoon cemented his place at a ‘hometown’ Winter Games, at his favourite distance, by winning the two-race 500 metres at the Canadian Olympic long-track speed skating trials in a cumulative time of 69.10 — 15/100ths of a second in front of the evergreen Mike Ireland, also set to compete in his fourth Games.
Now 33, and set to retire after this season — whether that be in the wake or Vancouver or later, following the World Cup tour — the quest of Wotherspoon to qualify for Vancouver became not only a tale of resurrection, but also of nostalgia.
“I was thinking today, this is going to be one of my last major competitions in Calgary, if not the last,” he mused. “Some training races, lesser races, but not on the same level as trials or World Cups. I’ve really enjoyed competing here through the years.
“So I wanted to focus on what I had to do in the race, but I also wanted to stay in the moment, to take it all in.”
With his Olympic aspirations on the line, the 500-metre silver medallist at Nagano 11 years ago roared out to the lead in the first leg, then held up well enough to finish just 1/10th of a second behind Ireland in Round 2 and nail down the title in style.
“The start didn’t go well in either race,” Wotherspoon griped softly. “I think I have a couple of reasons why but I’ll have to look at the video.
“I don’t think I got into the ice, didn’t get the push, I wanted to.
“The good thing is that there’s things I can identify to work on to improve, to get faster. There’s a lot more I can see getting out of myself.”
Oh, there was always the chance to qualify in the 1,000, of course, but the 500 and Jeremy Wotherspoon are synonymous; they just, well, go together, like Larry Bird and a jumper from the corner of the parquet, or Nolan Ryan and a belt-high 3-2 fastball to work out of a jam. The Red Deer Rocket still holds the world record in the distance, at 34.03, set what seems a lifetime ago, Nov. 7, 2007, at Salt Lake.
Kyle Parrott of Manitoba and Edmonton’s Jamie Gregg rounded out the men’s top four, and both could also be B.C.-bound. The Olympic long-track team — including as many as 10 women and eight men — will be officially announced Jan. 4.
The women’s 500 trials, meanwhile, offered up some surprises Sunday. The winner, Christine Nesbitt, in a combined 77.10, could hardly be termed an eyebrow-raiser, but the runner-up, 20-year-old Calgarian Anastasia Bucsis, certainly elicited a few gasps.
“I brought Anastasia along with me,” Nesbitt said, protege in tow, reaching the interview area. “She’s going to need the practice.”
Only a couple months ago, Bucsis shocked everyone, herself included, by making the World Cup team. And now, in short order, she’s off to Vancouver to compete in her first Olympic Games. Quite the little social climber.
“I honestly don’t know how I feel, yet,” she admitted. “I’m in shock. Complete shock. I’m ecstatic. I just finished crying with my mom. If you’d asked me six months ago if this could happen, I’d have laughed and rolled my eyes.
“It’s not the fastest I’ve skated, but under the circumstances, with the extra pressure, I’d say they were two of the best races.
“I’m on Cloud 9.”
Nesbitt, the prohibitive favourite in the women’s 1,000 as the Games near, actually seemed prouder of Bucsis’s afternoon than her own.
“We need to work on our 500 so to see her and Tamara (both make it) is really exciting.”
Winnipeg’s Shannon Rempel placed third with an accumulative 77.70 and St. Albert, Alta.’s Tamara Oudenaarden fourth in 77.77.
With all due respect to the startling Bucsis and the rest the ladies, however, the skater of the moment, as he has been so often in the past dozen or so years, turned out to be the Wotherspoon.
He may have seemed nonplussed by how far he’d travelled since the fall World Cup trials, since the whispering and wondering had begun to catch fire, but his training partners were overjoyed for the acknowledged leader of the group, slapping him on the back in congratulation.
“A four-time Olympian ... but the first time in my home country. The athletes I’ve talked to say it’ll be the experience of a lifetime. Whether it’ll be the experience of my lifetime, I can’t say. It’s not like there’s a pattern or a formula involved.”
Whatever awaits the now four-time Olympian in Richmond, B.C., five weeks from now, in the glare of the world’s gaze, is anyone’s guess.
