Olympics Individual Time Trial
By Karen Kurreck

report filed October 2000, Sydney, Australia

I am writing this in the airport and my Olypmic experience is now over. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it has been a life long goal for me to be here and just to make the team was a personal accomplishment and took a tremendous amount of physical and emotional energy. There have been obstacles of various degrees to face almost daily for the last 8 years. On the other hand, the Olympics is really just a series of bike races (with a lot of media hype) and I come to bike races to win or at least to feel that I rode to the best of my ability. In that sense, the Games were a disappointment.

      The TT course was mostly the same as the road course expect we skipped the main climb and there were some extra turns added in the middle section in Centennial Park. We did 2 laps of 15km each. All TTs are hard, because you are going flat out on whatever the course deals you, but this one was much more technical that any Worlds TT I have ever seen or done. THere were a total of 60 turns! It was definitely a power course, not a "rhythm" course. You were constantly either turning and acccelerating or climbing or descending. It was not really a hilly course, but there was only a couple of km that were actually flat. THere was a long (2km or so) false flat/uphill section each lap that really sapped your energy. I tend to be more of a rhythm TT rider and prefer flatter courses so it was not particularly suited to me, but it was still most definitely a time trial and the strongest riders on the day took home the medals.

      Each country had to qualify 1 or 2 spots to enter a rider and every rider was one of the top 2 time trialists of her country so in short, everyone here is good!! To achieve a result at the Olympic Games, everything, both physical and mental has to be right and that just wasn't the case for me on Saturday. I knew going in that I would need an awesome ride just to crack the top 10 and the ride of my life (the 2nd one!) to medal. I ended up finishing 16th place. Times were very closely grouped from about 10th to 20th and I was sort of in the middle of that group, but I was a long way from the medals - I was about 2 1/2 min behind Leontin Van Moorsal who took her 3rd Gold and 4th medal of the Games and about 1:40 behind Bronze medalist Jeannie Longo who, at age 42, collected yet another Olympic medal. Mari Holden did the USA proud with the ride of her life and a Silver medal. Defending Olympic champ, Zulfia Zabirova finished 12th. Australia's Anna Wilson finished 4th for the 2nd time this week.

      Our race was over in the morning, so Sat. afternoon and SUnday were really the first time I could get out and see the sights of Sydney and watch some other events without worrying about tiring out my legs. People who competed earlier on had a lot more time for this! I heard the bars and night clubs of Sydney have been rather full with Olympic athletes no longer in training! When Mari and I went to the cafeteria for breakfast at 5:45AM before the race, there were a few other women time trialists there and the rest were mostly people all decked out from a night on the town who were just coming home. We rode the bus with a Romanian coach who reeked of alcohol from 3 rows away!

      I watched the men's TT for awhile and cheered for Lance and Tyler on their first lap. In the evening, I got a ticket to the track and field events. I got to see the Olympic Stadium for the first time and watched the finals in the men's 4x100 relay, women's 1500m, men's 5k, women's high jump and javelin throw. It was fun to be able to be part of the excitlement but as a relaxed spectator!

      Yesterday I went with my family and friends to the Aquarium in Sydney which was really neat. In the evening was the closing ceremonies. 110,000 spectators filled the stands and tickets ranged from about $150 to close to $1000. I've never been to a Superbow, but from what I hear, the Closing ceremonies of the Olympics are like a Superbowl halftime show times about 10. Most of you probably watched it on TV so I won't go into all the details. The athletes all marched in together with all the countries mixed together. Most teams wore casual attire (sweatsuits etc) instead of the official marching uniforms of the opening ceremonies. It was pretty cool to walk in and hear the tremendous roar of the crowd. THe Americans seemed to be spread out all over the field in small groups of athletes from the same sport. Many of the other countries, especially the smaller ones tended to stay together. In fact, judging from this and also life in the Village, it seemed to me that in general, the US team had less interaction with each other across different sports than other countries.

      We were all given a disposable flash camera as we walked in and the whole ceremony was a big photo opportunity. I felt kind of bad for this Chinese basketball player who must have been over 7 feet tall. Everyone wanted to take their picture with him. He put up with it, but he must have felt a little bit like a freak. Some of the gymnasts barely came up to his waist! It was also the beginning (or middle) of a big party for many athletes. I walked in next to a Danish handball player who had a gold medal around her neck (all the medalists wore their medals), a bottle of champagne in one hand and a cigarette in the other!!

      This was my first (and last!) Olympics so I have nothing to compare it to, but Samarach, IOC president, declared it the best Olympics ever to a huge cheer from the Aussies. It seemed to me that others who have been to multiple Olympics agreed. THe Aussies really know how to have a good time and make people feel welcome in their country and it really came through the last 2 weeks. I think a huge part of the success was due to the 50,000 volunteers that kept everything going. They all seemed happy and honored to be doing what they were doing even if some of the jobs couldn't have been much fun. They were cheerful even at the end.