Gale, Parra begin trek to defend gold

NEW YORK – Her face an inch above the ice, Tristan Gale hurtles headfirst down an undulating ice path. The sled has no brakes, so she guides it with subtle movements of her shoulders and knees, like the Alpine skier she used to be.

Americans won three golds on Feb. 20, 2002, at the Salt Lake City Olympics, the most for a U.S. contingent in one day at any Winter Games. Gale won in the women’s skeleton debut, along with Jimmy Shea (skeleton) and Apolo Anton Ohno (speedskating).

Her sport is similar to luge, except competitors travel at 80 mph face first on their belly instead of feet first on their back.

Is that really an advantage?

“People are like, ‘There’s no way that can be good for you,’ ” Gale said. “When lugers lose their head because of the G-forces in the corner, they lose it back and can’t see where they’re going. I know exactly what I’m looking at – pretty ice.”

Gale, who recently joined Olympic speedskating gold medalist Derek Parra on a media blitz in Manhattan, hopes to defend her skeleton gold at the Turin Games in February.

The World Cup series in skeleton and speedskating were to begin this weekend in Calgary, Alberta. Speedskating qualifying wraps up Dec. 11 in Turin, while skeleton qualifying ends in mid-January.

The 25-year-old Gale has bulked up to 120 pounds on her 5-foot-2 frame, hoping the extra weight will give her an edge in the five-event World Cup series. Only two of the top four Americans in skeleton will make the Olympic team, based on World Cup series points.

She’s vying for a spot against teammates Katie Uhlaender, Katie Koczynski and rookie Lyndsie Peterson. World Cup champion Noelle Pikus-Pace broke her right leg when she was hit by a four-man bobsled last month at Calgary Olympic Park.

Gale has crashed only twice in a sport she took up in 1998 in Salt Lake City, where her family settled when she was 9. Her parents were married on skis, and she was an Alpine skier in high school until she started dating a bobsledder.

“The worst thing is just getting the courage up to go the first time,” she said. “Once you do, especially when you’re sliding six days a week, it seems normal that you throw yourself down an ice hill.”

Her first crash came at 18, her rookie year of learning how to negotiate an 80-pound sled.

“I thought I was so hot,” Gale said. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve never been in a situation like this before, and I don’t exactly know how to get out of it.’ I had to take what came, which was a flip out of curve six in Park City (Utah).”

Her other crash came two years ago in her first run in Latvia, when she dumped it before hitting the hard curve.

“All of a sudden you’re on your back and your sled is going down,” she said. “There’s nothing worse. ‘Yep, gold medalist right here, walking to the finish line.’ “

Parra remembers the emotion of standing on the podium after winning gold in the 1,500 meters. He’d gone to the 1998 Nagano Games, only to be bumped a day before his race. A late entry by a foreign competitor put him outside the top 32 qualifiers by a few hundredths of a second.

“I was devastated,” Parra said. “I thought about stopping.”

But the kid from San Bernardino, Calif., who won races for free Cokes at the local roller rink, excelled at pro inline skating and switched to speedskating in 1996, not easily deterred.

His disappointment propelled him to train harder, and he was moved by getting the chance to carry in the World Trade Center flag before the 2002 opening ceremony.

“It was a spiritual experience,” he said. “I was definitely inspired that night.”

On the first day of the Salt Lake City Games, he set a world record and won silver in the 5,000, an event in which he didn’t expect to place in the top 10.

Ten days later, he won gold in his specialty, the 1,500. In a black leather jacket with tears running down his face, Parra raised his arms in triumph on the podium.

“As they played the national anthem, I was singing it and all of a sudden someone down in the crowd started to sing it and it just grew. You ever see rain coming at you? It was like you could hear the volume increase and see the people’s mouths starting to move and spread throughout the whole awards plaza.

“I closed my eyes for a second and started seeing all the faces of everyone who was ever a part of my journey.”

To repeat that feeling, he needs to qualify in his middle-distance events. Parra, 35, is up against younger teammates Shani Davis, Chad Hedrick and Joey Cheek.

“As far as long track, we have a lot of depth on the men’s side,” he said.