Kearns • Mitch Whitmore briefly lowered his head to look down at the pavement, his legs pushing down on the pedals of his bike as he rode through part of America’s most rugged and picturesque terrain near Yellowstone National Park in Montana.
What he missed, however, was the rider in front of his group stood up on his bike, causing a chain reaction that resulted in Whitmore crashing and flipping directly over his handlebars. He suffered a fractured left wrist and got back on the bike with some gnarly road rash. But he finished the U.S. Speedskating bike camp in August.
“Camp was great,” he deadpanned after Day 1 of the 2017 ISU long track World Cup at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns.
Whitmore dealt with intense pain around his tailbone when he returned home. The two-time Olympic long-track skater couldn’t get off the start lines in training without enduring episodes of serious discomfort. What originally was thought of as a bruised tailbone actually was an injury that featured five fractures in five different places.
His prescription for the most untimely of freak accidents? Rest.
Which put Friday’s top-10 finish into perspective for the soon-to-be 28-year-old American who has aspirations for a third Olympics appearance this February in PyeongChang, South Korea. Whitmore finished eighth overall in the men’s 500-meter final Friday. He feels to be on the right track. Six weeks after the wreck, he was limited. When he’d lace up his skates, he’d purposely put on shorts so he wouldn’t tempt himself to go fast on the ice.
Whitmore pulled a hamstring in the middle of World Cup season a couple of years back, an injury that sidelined him for a while. But the crash in Montana put a fright into him.
“This one was tough because it’s an Olympic season,” he said, “and you want everything to be perfect.”
Beneath the rink in Kearns, Whitmore peeked around reporters to look at the live TV shot to check in where he finished in the first final of the weekend. He thought his time of 34.38 seconds would have resulted in a better finish, but it’s a step in the right direction. Getting off the start line was tough returning from the injury, but it’s been improving, he said.
“It’s completely healed,” he said about his injury. “It’s just [about] regaining the same strength that I had before and the same fitness for finishing in the 1,000 meters. Still a work in progress, but I think with two months [before the Olympics] that’s plenty of time to get it done.”
The only other American to qualify for the 500-meter final Friday was Olympian Brittany Bowe, who missed last week’s World Cup stop in Calgary due to illness. Bowe struggled back on home ice, finishing 13th out of 20 in the 500-meter final.
“I mean this past year hasn’t been exactly what I’ve wanted it to be,” she said, “but I got off the line as best I could.”
Bowe said she’s recovered from the illness but needs more time to find ideal fitness.
“It’s going to take a little while to get the body and the strength back,” she said. “We are where we are today.”
Day 2 of the World Cup continues Saturday with the second 500-meter final as well as the 1,500-meter final and mass start final.