The main story: Kramer takes 5,000 meters
The Dutch speedskater's time broke the Olympic mark, and wiped away the subplots in the race.
RICHMOND, Canada - The Olympic Oval crowd, two-thirds in Dutch orange, shook like Jell-O. And with each lunging stride Sven Kramer took, all the interesting subplots in yesterday's men's 5,000 meters melted away like Vancouver's snow.
The Dutch speedskater's Olympic-record, gold medal-winning performance in the 2010 Winter Olympics' first ice event made most everything else that happened insignificant:
The enmity that once existed between American entrants Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick; the fact that Davis and Kramer, the world's best, were paired; Davis' recent dissing of his federation; and the historic rivalry between the Netherlands and the U.S.
If there was an interesting sidebar to Kramer's dominance, it was that Davis and Hedrick, the latter the gold-medalist in this event four years ago at Turin, Italy, finished 12th and 11th, respectively, a shaky beginning for Americans in a sport that has yielded them more winter medals than any other.
Kramer's time of 6:14.60 broke the Olympic mark of countryman Jochem Uytdehaage, set at Salt Lake City's lofty altitude in 2002. The Richmond oval is at sea-level. A silver medalist at Turin, he also holds the world record at the distance (6:03.32).
"I started fast," said Kramer, who criticized the building's air-conditioning system, "but I was dying at the end. It was probably my hardest and best race ever."
Lee Seung-Hoon of South Korea (6:16.95) took the silver medal and Russia's Ivan Skobrev (6:18.05) the bronze.
To be fair, the 5,000 is Davis' weakest event and Kramer's best. The Chicago native, his sport's first African-American star, is the world's best sprinter and middle-distance skater. As confident as Davis is in those events, he never envisioned himself beating the flying Dutchman at 5,000.
"I was really happy to be paired with Sven, because he's the best skater in the world at that distance and it made me really reach deep into myself to go so fast at the beginning," Davis said. "It's just quite the experience. It's very good for me."
The two were matched in the 11th of the event's 14 two-man pairings. Davis started fast, took a brief lead and then, as the race progressed and the noisy Dutch fans grew increasingly avid, he fell further and further behind the man who is a matinee idol in his speedskating-crazed nation.
"It just goes to show he has the heart of a champion. He had a whole bunch of sharpshooters behind him [in the 11th and 12th pairings]," Davis said. "He went out there and did his thing."
The often controversial Davis irked Hedrick when he refused to skate in the pursuit event at Turin. The two feuded publicly for years, but both claim they've since mended fences. And even though Davis came away from Italy with a gold medal four years ago, he hinted that he didn't enjoy himself.
"This time, I'm having a lot of fun," he said. "I'm enjoying myself, I'm happy for my competitors. I greeted everyone out there who made the podium or had a personal best."
Earlier this week, about the same time he told reporters here that he didn't need USA Speedskating to be successful, Davis was having a premonition that he and Kramer would be pitted against each other in the opening event.
"I told myself 'I'm probably going to get paired with Sven,' " he said. "And then they came up to me and said, 'You're paired with the Big Dog.' I'm like, 'Sven? OK. That's OK, I guess. What can I do about it?' "