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Kearns • Before John-Henry Krueger toed his blades to the starting line on the ice inside the Utah Olympic Oval Saturday evening, he jogged casual laps around the track surrounding the rink. Calmly, he dodged loitering spectators awaiting the next race, utilizing that short timeframe to map out how he could find his way onto the podium.
"You know who you're racing 15 minutes before the race, and that's only 15 minutes of strategy," said Krueger. "You can only strategize so much, because the human factor is so unpredictable."
The human factor in fact played a role on the very last lap of the men's 1,500-meter final in this ISU short-track World Cup stop in Kearns. As the 21-year-old Krueger desperately sought for a way back into the top three, an accidental slip paved the way. South Korea's Sin Da Woon lost control around the final turn on the last lap, sliding out of the pack and allowing Krueger to take his place in third place.
"The ice is really fast here," Krueger said. "Fastest on the planet."
This time, the home-ice advantage played to the Americans' favor. Krueger won his 14th career short-track World Cup medal, finishing third behind Canada's Samuel Girard and Hungary's Shaolin Sandor Liu. Krueger's bronze is his seventh on the World Cup circuit and third World Cup medal ever earned on the ice at the Utah Olympic Oval.
The U.S. short-track up-and-comer made good on his first A-final appearance of the young World Cup season. Facing a pack of six skaters that included past world champions and Olympic gold medalists, Krueger's bronze had a sprinkling of luck, but also proved he's on the right track after a frustrating World Cup campaign a year ago that featured only a bronze medal in the team relay.
"I try to expect a medal every World Cup," he said. "I have the potential to do it, I've done it before in previous World Cup seasons. I don't feel special about this medal, it's something I need to keep on doing consistently."
Two-time Olympic medalist Katherine Reutter earned her second-consecutive fifth-place finish in a women's 1,000-meter World Cup final. A week ago in Calgary, her legs didn't have the juice to get her into striking distance. On Saturday night, Reutter slid out early in the finale and was forced to finish the race far away from the pack.
The 28-year-old, who recently returned to competitive speedskating after a five-year hiatus, rewrote a bit of U.S. history in her 1,000 semifinal race. Reutter broke her own American record set during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, by skating a 1:28.762.
Reutter reflected on her younger years in the sport, saying that early on in her career, she was stuck on fourth-place finishes, on the outside looking in. Then, one weekend, she earned her first bronze. And that's when it all clicked.
"The way I'm looking at it is, I'm taking my medicine, and it tastes really bad," she said. "But it's going to work. If you keep taking the medicine, it's going to get better."
Twitter: @chriskamrani —
2016 ISU short-track World Cup
Utah Olympic Oval, Kearns
Men's 1,500-meter final
1. Samuel Girard, CAN, 2:11.620
2. Shaolin Sandor Liu, HUN, 2:11.807
3. John-Henry Krueger, USA, 2:11.898
Women's 1,500-meter final
1. Minjeong Choi, KOR, 2:44.320 (Choi set new world record (2:14.354) in semifinal)
2. Marianne St.-Gelais, CAN, 2:44.386
3. Marie-Eve Drolet, CAN, 2:45.233
Men's 1,000-meter final
1. Kyoungwon Lim, KOR, 1:22.989
2. Daeheon Hwang, KOR, 1:23.078
3. Thibaut Fauconnet, FRA, 1:23.187
Women's 1,000-meter final
1. Jiyoo Kim, KOR, 1:29.786
2. Suzanne Schulting, NED, 1:29.882
3. Zsofia Konya, HUN, 1:30.146
Sunday World Cup schedule
Day 3 • Semifinals, finals, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.