RICHMOND, B.C. — Canadian speedskater Christine Nesbitt has been virtually automatic in the 1,000 metres this season. Money in the bank.
So when the home team needed a boost in the wake of Denny Morrison’s disappointing 13th in the men’s 1,000 on Wednesday, the Canadians looked to their big gun, their ace in the hole.
“We needed to go get the big one, a gold medal, to set the stage for the rest of the team,” her coach Marcel Lacroix admitted.
Nesbitt is no stranger to pressure, which has been building ever since she won the world championships last spring.
She stepped up to the challenge each time.
As Nesbitt piled up her World Cup victories, it was clear she had elevated her game for this season.
The stage was set for Thursday.
When the gun sounded, however, the strategy suddenly went south.
A small slip at the start, a wave of panic, and all of a sudden Nesbitt was fighting demons.
“Oh no, I’m not on a good race,” she thought.
“I’m not going to be on the podium even.”
But Nesbitt fought back from the brink in a tension-filled race at the Richmond Olympic Oval, using a draft from race pair Monique Angermuller to sling past the German and close out her skate in one minute 16.56 seconds, two-hundredths of a second better than Dutchwoman Annette Gerritsen with one pair left.
Convinced her time wouldn’t hold up, Nesbitt circled the ice cooling down, frustration on her face, while Margot Boer of the Netherlands and Kristina Groves of Ottawa decided her fate. Boer faded to sixth while Groves could only come within six one-hundredths of Dutchwoman Laurine van Riessen’s 1:16.72 for third, leaving Nesbitt stunned, unsure how to celebrate gold, even as she circled the ice before an ecstatic crowd.
She sought out her family, got a big hug and kiss from her boyfriend, Dutch speedskater Simon Kuipers, and looked sheepish as Lacroix and others encouraged her to celebrate.
“I feel like this is so weird,” Nesbitt said. “It doesn’t feel like it just happened, like I don’t feel I just won Olympic gold.”
She did, and now the long-track team is really rolling at the Olympics.
Nesbitt’s medal is the second for the speedskaters.
Groves missed making it three in agonizing fashion. Perhaps it was karma catching up with the 33-year-old, who squeezed out a bronze in the 3,000 by three one-hundredths of a second last Sunday.
“I saw the four in brackets right away and was kind of like, ’Darn,”’ said Groves. “I didn’t realize until I saw the time that it was as close as it was. I did the best I could and, for me in the 1,000, that was a great result.”
The same can be said for Nesbitt, even though the relentless self-critic was loath to admit it and acted more like she had missed the podium entirely, rather than stand atop it.
She called her skate “probably my worst 1,000 of the season,” and the flower ceremony was barely over before she was thinking about ways to improve for the 1,500 on Sunday, an event in which she and Groves will be leading contenders with two victories each on the World Cup circuit.
Even when she wins, Nesbitt is never satisfied, and through her eyes, Thursday’s performance left a lot to be desired, no matter the final result.
“It wasn’t pretty, I know it wasn’t pretty and I’ve skated a lot better 1,000s this year so it’s hard for me not to be critical because that’s how I’ve improved,” said Nesbitt.
“I’m always looking at my races and wanting to improve all the time, and I wanted to improve so I could win the Olympics.
“Because I’ve just been practising it so much, it’s only natural for me to want to criticize everything I do in skating. Once I get over that, I’m going to be happy.”
Nesbitt’s approach to racing is meticulous. A step-by-step plan for her 1,000 at the world championships was jotted down on a piece of paper, detailing what she should be doing at various points of her 2 1/2 laps.
A strong performance in the women’s 500 on Tuesday — she was 10th in an event she uses as a warm-up — showed Nesbitt was on form and gave her some experience with how to deal with the roaring ovations the oval crowds have given each Canadian.
Yet still she didn’t feel at her best Thursday morning, and her Olympic dream very nearly turned into an Olympic nightmare.
“Oh, I was really nervous,” Nesbitt said. “I don’t really know, as soon as the gun went off instead of skating I just kind of panicked off the start. I had a slip after two or three steps, I wasn’t quite right and I think sometimes when you start off a race like that, especially a sprint, it’s hard to get out of that. ...
“(But) I’ve had races where I panic off the start like that,” Nesbitt added. “I think that’s why I was still able to skate a pretty good last lap, because I’ve been there before and I’ve been able to still finish strong. I used those experiences to finish this race.”
The day didn’t finish as well for the other Canadians involved.
Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg finished 21st in 1:18.174 while Olympic rookie Brittany Schussler, also of Winnipeg, was 25th in 1:18.31
Rempel, in particular, was left bitterly disappointed by her finish, a nominal improvement over her 22nd-place finish in the 500. She was at a loss to explain her poor skating this season — she was never close to the World Cup podium after reaching it for four times the previous campaign.
“That’s the problem, I don’t really know what happened all season,” said Rempel, at times on the verge of tears. “This is the year it counted and it didn’t come together. ...
“I don’t know. I’ve tried different things all season and I’m just not sure. I’m going to keep skating though. This is a bad way to end it and I never planned on finishing after this season anyway.”
Notes: The Zamboni from Calgary was covered up with Vancouver 2010 markings after arriving at the oval plain white. It again teamed with an Olympia unit, which received some on-ice adjustments from chief ice-maker Mark Messer. ... South Korea’s Kim You-Lim lost an edge heading into a turn and fell, smashing her mouth on the ice as she slid into the padded barrier. She got up on her own, a hand covering her mouth. ... Several skaters were left suffering after their race. Australia’s Sophie Muir and Germany’s Jenny Wolf both were left hunched over, clutching their legs after crossing the line, getting some assistance to come off the ice. “I’m a sprinter,” said Wolf. “I like to race 100 metres and this is 10 times as long, it’s too long for me.”