Skater Kramer blames Coach Kemkers
Sven Kramer peeled off his racing glasses angrily and threw them onto the field.
“What did you do?” he screamed in Dutch as he skated past his coach Gerard Kemkers, who stood with his head in his hands, unable to understand the biggest moment of sporting stupidity that we will witness at these Games.
History of Olympics have a lot of embarassing moments like athletes who have blown a shot at victory because of lack of training, unable to handle pressure or just having a bad luck. The story of Kramer having a split-second mental meltdown just added to the list of humiliating moments of any athlete’s life.
“It sucks,” Kramer said. “I can’t believe it. I don’t usually want to blame anyone else, but this time I can’t do anything else.”
Kramer had his second gold of the Games all wrapped up. Cruising along the back straight, he had, at least in skating terms, time to stop for a chat with coach Kemkers before closing his spot atop the podium, but then Kramer’s error was when he entered the inside lane that will direct the skater to the inner course when he should have switched to the outer, providing one of the most unbelievable moments of the past nine days.
Coach Kemker’s was equally devastated. “It is the worst moment of my career,” Kemkers said. Screwing up a game for an athlete is a way big deal for them. Chad Hedrick from USA team attested to that.
Jokes will be made out of it. Hedrick has experieced similar fate in a world championship event in 2006. “To be the fastest guy out there and not leave with the gold medal is pretty tough to swallow.”
Kramer, who completed the course and finished 7.57 seconds ahead of South Korea’s Lee Seung-hoon – but saw Lee awarded gold when he was disqualified was no laughing matter for the mad athlete. Kramer blames his coach for not coaching the right direction.
Meanwhile Ivan Skobrev of Russia who skated with Kramer and won the silver medal claimed that it is the athlete’s responsibility to negotiate the correct course “It is not only about how strong you are,” Skobrev said. “It is how your head is in the race. He made a mistake. That’s his fault.”
Kramer knows it. He just doesn’t want to admit it. Who would want to anyways?
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