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Tuesday, September 19
Witty takes latest turn on a bike
Associated Press
PARK CITY, Utah -- In her Olympic dreams, speedskater Chris
Witty usually hears the rhythmic click and scratch of blades
gliding over a frozen rink.
|  | | Chris Witty is just the ninth American to compete in the Summer and Winter Olympics. |
At the Sydney Olympics, she'll also hear the hum of bicycle
tires over a wooden track. It's a sound that could vault her into a
rare group of Olympians.
Witty, who won two speedskating medals at the 1998 Nagano Winter
Games, is pursuing a rare Olympic double in Sydney as a member of
the United States cycling team.
Racing in the women's 500-meter time trial, she's trying to
become the second U.S. athlete, and the first American woman, to
win medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
"I'm hoping I can squeak past a few people," said Witty, 25.
"I'd love to get gold. Anything can happen at the Olympics. People
can come out of nowhere."
Worldwide, only three athletes have won medals in both the
Summer and Winter Olympics. Witty is the ninth American named to
compete in both games.
"It's a real motivator," Witty said. "I'm the ninth ever?
That in itself is special."
Speedskating and cycling are complementary. Speedskaters train
on bikes during the summer to work out their hamstrings, calves and
cardiovascular systems.
But make no mistake. Although Witty wants to win in Sydney,
she's a speedskater first. Focused on the 2002 Winter Olympics, she
continues to train with the U.S. speedskating team in Park City.
As for cycling?
"It's good practice," she said. "There's going to be a lot of
pressure in Salt Lake, so going to Sydney will be one more
experience to have under my belt."
Witty already can draw on her Nagano experience.
"Going to Japan, I was a medal favorite, and that's totally
different than going without expectations," she said. "I know
what it's going to be like in Sydney with the media, the outside
pressure and the amount of excitement on the day of the event."
As a teen-ager growing up in West Allis, Wis., Witty and her
speedskating buddies traveled to velodromes in nearby Kenosha and
Northbrook, Ill., twice a week for training races.
She found she could ride as well as she skated.
"It was fun," said Witty, a junior national cycling champion.
"That's how I got started in cycling. Eventually, people started
saying, 'Hey, you're getting pretty good at this."'
After Witty won a speedskating silver medal in the 1,000 meters
at Nagano and a bronze in the 1,500, she decided to spend the next
summer racing on a bicycle.
The result: first place in the 500-meter time trial at nationals
and fourth at the 1998 world championships.
"She's very talented," said Des Dickie, coach of the American
cycling sprinters. "She's an elite athlete and she knows what it
takes to produce world-class results."
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“ |
If you can (compete
in Summer and Winter), why not do it? If you had the opportunity, why would you pass it
up? ” |
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— Chris Witty |
However, the grueling pace in 1998 took its toll. After the
cycling schedule, Witty took a few weeks off and was back with the
speedskaters at the end of September.
By March 1999, she was exhausted.
"It was very stressful," she recalled. "The mental part of it
was hardest, although it's physical too. When you race year-round,
you don't have a lot of time to do a lot of speed training."
This time, she doesn't plan to rejoin the speedskaters until
December. Still, the summer offers no less of a challenge.
So far, Witty has cycled at World Cup races in Moscow and Mexico
City. Next week, she's going with the speedskaters to Calgary,
Canada, for two weeks of skating training.
In early August, she'll head to Colorado Springs for U.S.
Cycling's weeklong sprinters camp, and later in the month, the U.S.
cycling nationals. The U.S. Olympic team will be in Australia for
another week of training before the Games begin in mid-September.
Witty admits she'll never fully develop as a cyclist because she
can't devote herself full time to the sport.
And while she's a possible medal contender in Sydney, Witty
considers herself an underdog. Four-time world sprint champion
Felicia Ballanger of France is among the gold medal favorites.
Whatever happens, Witty expects to become a more-rounded
athlete.
"If you can, why not do it? If you had the opportunity, why
would you pass it up?" she asked.
"Plus," she added with a laugh, "it's good training for
speedskating."
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ALSO SEE
Athletes who've competed in Summer and Winter Olympics
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