PUTTIN' ON THE FITZ U.S. EARNS 1ST 500-METER SPEEDSKATING GOLD SINCE '80.Byline: Paul Oberjuerge Staff Writer KEARNS, Utah Kearns was named after Utah's U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns 1862-1918. It is a census-designated place (CDP) and township in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. The population was 33,659, at the 2000 census. - Casey FitzRandolph Casey J. FitzRandolph (born January 21 1975 in Verona, Wisconsin) is an American speedskater. In 1997, FitzRandolph won the bronze medal at the World Sprint Championships in Hamar. He won another bronze medal in 2001 at the World Single Distance Championships on the 500 m. was a 5-year-old in Wisconsin watching the Lake Placid Lake Placid, village (1990 pop. 2,485), Essex co., NE N.Y.; settled 1850, inc. 1900. In the Adirondack Mts. at an altitude of 1,800 ft (549 m), the village surrounds Mirror Lake. It is a famous resort and sports center. Winter Olympics on television when his sports future veered in a new direction. ``I was playing hockey in 1980 when Eric Heiden Eric Arthur Heiden (born June 14 1958 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American former long track speed skater who won all the men's speed skating races, and thus an unprecedented five gold medals, and set 4 Olympic records and 1 world record at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake won five gold medals,'' said FitzRandolph, referring to the speedskating legend, ``and apparently he impressed me more than than the (Miracle on Ice The "Miracle on Ice" is the popular nickname for the men's ice hockey game in the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, in which a team of amateur and collegiate players from the United States beat the long-dominant and heavily-favored Soviet Union, in a match held on February 22, 1980, at ) hockey team, because I dropped my hockey skates and got the long ones.'' Twenty-two years later, FitzRandolph became the first American First American may refer to:
The 1-3 U.S. finish gives it three medals at the speedskating venue, at least two more than optimists might have hoped at this stage before these Games opened. FitzRandolph seemed almost overwhelmed by his victory, a mild upset aided by the Day 1 spill of friendly rival Jeremy Wotherspoon in the two-day event. ``Too many things going through my mind and they're not sticking around long enough to grasp any of them,'' FitzRandolph said. ``It's not sunk in in its entirety.'' FitzRandolph, 27, was slower than Shimizu on Tuesday, but he had a big enough lead from the previous day to win on aggregate time by .03 seconds (69.23 to 69.26). ``I feel like I was lucky,'' FitzRandolph conceded. ``Three-hundredths is not a lot of time. It's not just my effort; I had some help from upstairs, too.'' FitzRandolph was a disappointing sixth at Nagano in 1998, when he was adjusting to the new ``clap'' skates, in which a spring-loaded blade is attached to the boot, allowing the blade to remain on the ice longer and generate more speed. On Monday, he showed he is fully acclimated, charging to an Olympic record of 34.42 seconds (Shimizu's world mark is 34.32) and allowing him to be slightly conservative on the second day. He got off to a sluggish start in his event-ending skate with Carpenter, ``and then I knew I had to drop the hammer and go for it,'' FitzRandolph said. He almost fell in the third turn, putting his hand down to the ice to steady himself, then beat Carpenter to the finish line. Carpenter, a 21-year-old from Michigan, was an even bigger surprise on the podium, to everyone but himself. ``I had a confidence inside that when the day came, I would have the best day of my life, and I did,'' Carpenter said. FitzRandolph and Carpenter admitted to a serious case of overnight nerves after grabbing the first and third positions on the first day. Carpenter said he slept only three hours and was distracted by roommate FitzRandolph's insistence on watching hunting programming on TV. Carpenter said they worked together in the final, pushing and pulling each other to a maximum performance. ``Either I'll drag him to gold, or he will drag me to the bronze,'' Carpenter said, ``and that's how it worked out.'' Shimizu, gold medalist at Nagano, was disappointed at his close second. ``Defeat is still defeat,'' he said. ``It is not victory.'' He said he has been bothered by a lower-back injury. The event was the first of three at the Utah Olympic Oval that did not produce a world record. The track has turned out to be fast because of its construction and altitude - at 4,625 feet, its the highest enclosed rink in the world. FitzRandolph and Carpenter said Americans should not be surprised their speedskaters are bringing home precious medals. ``This American team has so much heart,'' Carpenter said. ``We don't have much depth, but the guys we have are strong and are real fighters.'' ``Speedskating is not an easy sport,'' FitzRandolph said. ``It takes a commitment from a lot of people, including your family. ``Luckily, we've had some great role models in Eric (Heiden) and D.J. (Dan Jansen), I think we've had pretty good results considering the number of speedskaters in America.'' TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. - 3 to 4 p.m.: men's biathlon biathlon (bīăth`lŏn), sport in which cross-country skiers race across hilly terrain, occasionally stopping to shoot with rifles at sets of fixed targets. The biathlon features the 10-km (6. : 10K sprint. 7:30 to 8 p.m.: women's speedskating: 500 meters. 8 to 8:30 p.m.: women's luge luge (l  zh), a type of small sled on which one or two persons, lying face up, slide feet first down snowy hillsides or down steeply banked, curving, iced chutes similar to those used in ; men's short-track speedskating: 1,000 meters. 8:30 to 11 p.m.: men's skiing: combined; ski jumping: K120 individual; women's short-track speedskating: 1,500 meters. 11:35 p.m. to 1:05 a.m.: Day 6 highlights. MSNBC MSNBC Microsoft/National Broadcasting Company - 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: women's hockey. 12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.: women's biathlon: 7.5K sprint; 1:45 p.m. to 3 p.m.: men's curling: U.S. vs. Germany. CNBC CNBC Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (artificial intelligence) CNBC Consumer News and Business Channel CNBC Congress of National Black Churches, Inc. - 3 to 8:15 p.m.: men's hockey. 8:15 to 9 p.m.: men's curling: U.S. vs. Norway. SALT LAKE CITY WEATHER Partly cloudy High: 34 Low: 17 CAPTION(S): photo, 3 boxes Photo: (color) Gold medalist Casey FitzRandolph carries a U.S. flag during his victory lap Tuesday. Dusan Vranic/Associated Press Box: (1) TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS (see text) (2) SALT LAKE CITY WEATHER (see text) (3) MEDAL COUNT |
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