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Beth Heiden was less fortunate in the 1500 meters. She had won the World Championship in 1979 and the event was one of her best, but a series of irritants nagged her. It was snowing, for one thing, and she was slated to go first, something skaters hate to do. The ice is always colder—and therefore slower—before it is worked over by the competitors. Worse, the first racer out on the course has to set her own pace. Still, these were all minor annoyances compared to the fact that she had sprained her ankle the previous weekend. Oddly, the ankle did not bother her when she skated, but it did hurt when she ran, and that was just about as bad. Skaters run before a race to loosen their muscles, a vital part of their preparation.
Heiden got a good start, but she obviously was beginning to fade in the final third of the race. Her stroking, normally so brisk and efficient, seemed choppy and strained. It was like watching a finely tuned machine run out of lubricant and start to seize up. When it was over, she said she had expected to finish about sixth. Then she added in her chirpy little kid's voice: "You can get pretty nervous thinking about what people expect. But then you say, 'Hey, it's only two and a half minutes out of my life.' " The next day, Heiden spent 43.18 sec. of her life and came in seventh in the 500-meters. The race was won by East Germany's Karin Enke, 18, the sport's newest sensation, who finished in 41.78 sec. and broke the Olympic record by .98 sec. In second place was America's Leah Poulos Mueller.
While the Heidens were warmed by pre-Games publicity, the U.S. hockey team went about its training in cold anonymity. But then the team began to play at Lake Placid and suddenly people started to take notice: the young squad was the most promising ever to represent the U.S. in the Olympics, although it performed with maddening inconsistency.
The team is coached by Herb Brooks, who directed the University of Minnesota to the National Championship last year, and who, understandably, chose for his traveling 16 players who came from the state of Minnesota. The next largest contingent—six—came from Massachusetts, the other main center of hockey in the country.
Brooks once said his team played "sophisticated pond hockey." Whatever its name, the style of the Americans is oddly schizophrenic. They ride players into the boards and forecheck —an oafish game. On offense, on the other hand, they strive —when they can remember their orders—to practice pinpoint passing. The weakness of this hybrid approach showed up in a big game against the Czechs. With a one-man advantage after a Czech penalty, the Americans got too clever by half: they fecklessly passed the puck back and forth for 1 min. 40 sec., until time ran out. All the while, Brooks was screaming, "Shoot! Shoooot!"
As the game went on, the Americans settled down and shot plenty. At times they moved the puck in precise and genteel patterns, but they were not above reverting to type and giving an opponent a good old American elbow. Most important of all, perhaps, the emotional U.S. players performed at a level that surprised even them, to say nothing of the favored Czechs, who were thoroughly beaten.