Paul Oberjuerge: 1,500 Showdown
I'm getting ready for the speedskate 1,500 meters, and I'm looking forward to it. This from a guy who can go, oh, three years and 11 months without paying much attention to the sport.
We've got four American gold-medalists in this race, including the IE's own Derek Parra, Sudanese orphan benefactor Joey Cheek and the two guys who have almost reached "This town ain't big enough for the both of us" territory, Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis.
It's set up to be a classic. Dutch fans probably already are over at the Oval Lingotto raising a racket. And not just because they think one of their guys could and should win.
In 2002, Derek Parra shocked just about everyone when he won the gold in this race and set a world record. Shani Davis broke that world record just last year ... and then Chad Hedrick broke it again in November. Both of those record-breaking runs coming on the same rink in Utah where Parra set his record, a rink the Dutch mock as being unrealistically quick -- at altitude, and impeccably groomed, maybe with Teflon.
Parra, the kid (well, he's 35 now) from San Bernardino, probably is a bit too far past his prime, and lugging around too much mental baggage, to get a medal here. But he's in a perfect position to do so. He races in the third-to-last pairing (with a good Canadian skater, Steven Elm), meaning he'll have a real clear idea of how fast he has to go to get on the podium.
It gets even better. In the second-to-last pair is Hedrick, who I'm thinking will just tear it up after his normally slow start.
And in the final group? None other than Davis, with whom Hedrick is sorta fueding -- though not to the extent some journalists would have you think. The problem is these guys both plan on winning a couple of the same events, which is going to create some tension, and Davis wouldn't come out to play on team pursuit, costing Hedrick a medal, maybe a gold.
Parra is Our Guy, and we'll watch him closely, but for the generic fan, Hedrick vs. Davis couldn't be better unless they BOTH were in the last heat.
The 1,500 is the sort of no-man's-land between each Man Who Would Be King's realm. Hedrick won the 5,000 on Day 1 of the Games, and Davis was a burned-out 11th. Davis won the 1,000 and Hedrick was a not-quite-quick-enough fifth.
The 1,500? Just right. Can Davis hold on to his pace long enough? Can Hedrick run him (and the field) down in the final lap?
Honest, I'm excited.
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