If ever there was a blunder of Olympic proportions, this was it.
Sven Kramer lost the gold medal Tuesday when coach Gerard Kemkers sent him the wrong way on a changeover during the 25 laps of the 10,000-meter speedskating race – a mistake so elementary, it defies belief.
“It is a disastrous error,” said Kemkers, still in shock because his faulty instructions had Kramer disqualified and moved Lee Seung-hoon of South Korea from silver to gold.
“This is unprecedented in an Olympic Games,” said U.S. coach Derek Parra.
Kramer had not lost a 10,000 in three years, making him the prohibitive favorite to win – until the inexplicable happened.
Every lap, a skater moves from the outside lane to the inside lane, or vice versa, for a changeover to make sure everybody skates the same distance.
Almost never is there a problem. But sometimes the skater can get into such a zone of focus on his style and pace that the mind becomes blurred.
“You are thinking a lot of things in your race. It is a mental fight for 25 laps,” said defending champion Bob de Jong, who won bronze because of Kramer’s disqualification.
“Sometimes you’re coming out and looking for good ice, you might go either tight on the track or wide on the track to get better ice. And it’s at that time you think – ‘OK, where did I just come from?’”
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