Coach Sends Kramer On Embarrassing Wrong Turn, RICHMOND, British Columbia � Sven Kramer peeled off his racing glasses and hurled them onto the infield, just as he had thrown away a Winter Olympic gold medal and nearly half a million dollars a couple of minutes earlier.
"What did you do?" he screamed in Dutch as he skated past coach Gerard Kemkers, who stood with his head in his hands, unable to comprehend the biggest moment of sporting stupidity that we will see at these Games. Olympic history is littered with athletes who have blown their shot at glory through lack of preparation, failure to handle pressure, or plain bad luck. For Dutch speedskater Kramer, his chance to enter the history books crashed around his ears because of a split-second mental meltdown, the most basic of sporting errors.
"It sucks," Kramer said. "I can't believe it. I don't usually want to blame anyone else, but this time I can't do anything else."
With eight laps to go in the men's 10,000 meters, a lung-bursting 25-lap slog that is sometimes tedious but a feat of titanic endurance nonetheless, Kramer had his second gold of the Games all wrapped up. Cruising along the back straight, he had, at least in skating terms, time to stop for a cup of tea and a chat with coach Kemkers before clinching his spot atop the podium.
But then a single point of Kemkers' finger and a cry of "inside lane" directed the skater to the inner course when he should have switched to the outer, providing one of the most surreal moments of the past nine days.
"It is the worst moment of my career," said Kemkers, who was the United States' speedskating coach and was based in Milwaukee from 1994 to 1998. "My world collapsed."
Perhaps Kramer and Kempers can find solace by talking to Lindsey Jacobellis, the American snowboard-cross racer who flung away victory by showboating toward the end of her event four years ago, www.akaske.com Link
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