Last place turns to bronze for Baver, U.S. speedskaters

VANCOUVER - Allison Baver and two U.S. teammates had their yellow-helmeted heads down as the three other entrants in last night's women's 3,000-meter relay final crossed the finish line.

The last U.S. skater, Katherine Reutter, was still a half-lap away.

"All our hard work," Baver, a Berks County resident, thought, "and we're going to finish off the podium."

But this is short-track speedskating, the chaotic roller derby of Olympic competition. A few minutes later, the Americans, despite having finished eight-plus seconds behind the eventual-champion Chinese's world-record time, had earned a bronze medal and were jubilantly carrying a U.S. flag around the Pacific Coliseum ice.

Apparent gold medalist South Korea was disqualified minutes after the event's conclusion for impeding a Chinese skater late in the race. Canada, much to the delight of a crowd as raucous as the race itself, took the silver.

"On the World Cup circuit this year, everything has happened," said Alyson Dudek, when asked whether the U.S. medal were in any way tainted. "We've gotten gold. We've gotten silver. We've fallen. We fell twice in one relay. And it's happened to all the other teams."

For Baver, 29, the result – her first medal in her third Olympics – was poetic justice.

Earlier yesterday, she had been disqualified from the 1,000 for illegally bumping a competitor.

Now, soon to be in possession of the medal she dreamed about through a lengthy rehabilitation, Baver said she might turn her Olympic focus to long-track skating, a decision made easier by the 2009 collision that broke her leg.

"To me, this is like a dream," the Sinking Spring resident said. "It's not real yet. To not only be at an Olympics, but to come home with a medal. That's something not many U.S. relay skaters have done."

The last relay medal for U.S. women was a bronze in 1994.

The judges in blazers, ties, and skates huddled. As the Canadian crowd whooped and the blue-uniformed Koreans hugged, Baver, Reutter, Dudek, and Lana Gehring got word from the U.S. coach the judges were reviewing the results.

"I didn't want to get my hopes up," Baver said, "because he could have ruled the other way too."

A judge told the South Korean and Chinese coaches of his decision. A Korean skater had clipped the skates of a Chinese woman just after a late switch. In a short-track relay, the competitors move in and out of the race regularly.

The Korean coach fumed, pounding a fist angrily on the sideboards as the official tried to explain the ruling.

Meanwhile, the Korean skaters roamed the ice with baffled looks on their faces, as if seeking out someone who could tell them this nightmare hadn't really happened.

Later, muttering to themselves and crying, they stormed past reporters.

Meanwhile, their bizarre good fortune was beginning to sink in among the Americans.

"Katherine was like, 'No. No.' She was in disbelief about us getting the bronze," said Baver, whose family had front-row seats. "But I'm like, 'No, we did it. We did win the bronze.' It was amazing."

With the Chinese and South Koreans, the world's two top-ranked teams, exchanging the lead through most of the race, the U.S. team kept slipping farther back.

With 11 laps remaining in the 30-lap event, it was nearly hopelessly out of contention.

"We just kept telling each other to go as fast as we could, because you never know what can happen in our sport," Reutter said.

The Asian celebration was in full swing when Reutter came across the finish, the U.S. time of 4 minutes, 14.081 seconds not only far behind China's world-record 4:06.610, but much slower than third-place Canada's 4.09.137.

Soon, though, they were on the podium, receiving flowers, waving to the crowd. The official ceremony is tomorrow in downtown Vancouver.