Athlete profile: Chris Witty

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

A writer once described Bonnie Blair as American "as peanut butter and jelly"...then Chris Witty is as American as steak and eggs and in the 1,000 meters in Nagano, Witty could feast on a gold medal...Witty takes boxing classes, sports a nose ring and a Fightin' Irish ("not Notre Dame") tattoo...the 1996 World Sprint champion and third at the 1997 World Sprints, Witty differs from Blair in more than personality...while Blair was a perfect technician, using high-temp strokes and fast starts, Witty powers her way through the race with her long strides...while Blair was a pure sprinter, Witty considers herself a middle distance skater...a medal threat in the 1,500m and to a lesser extent, the 500m, Witty is considered the favorite to succeed Blair as the Olympic gold medalist in the 1,000 meters...in November at a World Cup in Calgary, Alberta, Witty blistered the 1,000 meter world record that had been set the day before by Canada's Catriona LeMay-Doan...Witty skated 1:15.43 as she, LeMay-Doan and Germany's Franziska Schenk all passed under the famed 1:16 barrier...prior to clap skates, the previous record of 1:17.65 set at the 1988 Olympics by East Germany's Christa Rothenburger had stood unchallenged for a decade...Witty's time was three-and-a-half seconds faster than her pre-clap skate record..."It was such a pure sport before," says Witty. "Now we've gone to mechanics. World records are almost irrelevant this year"...besides clap skates, Witty made another adjustment this year -- she decided to devalue the 500 and put added emphasis on the 1,500 meters...to that end, Witty left US sprint coach Guy Thibault (GHEE tee-BOH) last summer for all-around coach Gerhard Kemkers (GAIR-hard KEM-kers)..."She's awfully strong," says Kemkers, a long-time member of the Dutch national team. "In the weight room, she's impressing. She's keeping up with my guys for example. So she had the strength and the power. I'm working a little bit with her on some improvements in the technique and we're working a little bit on the endurance part of it so we shift the focus a little bit to the 1,500m but power-wise she's amazing"...under Kemkers, Witty -- an admitted junk food junkie -- has watched her diet...the youngest of four children -- the three older ones, boys -- Witty from the beginning would, according to family members, "out-boy the boys"...Witty first started skating at age nine -- on a flooded, frigid baseball diamond near Milwaukee's County Stadium, and from the very first day she sported her blue-collar attitude on the white ice..."She had on two pair of jeans, one with a hole in this knee, the other one had a hole in that knee so between them she had both knees covered," remembers her mother, Dianne, of Chris' first race. "All gloves, brother's hand-me-down skates, little old hat on and she's ready to go. We get over there and here's some of these girls, you know, the cute little skates with the pom-poms and everything's matching and everything is just cutesy-cutesy, and here's her. She skates off and she wins"...Witty was given her first new pair of skates by an anonymous donor...she and brother Mike saved money from paper routes and other jobs to attend junior camps in skating and their other sport, cycling, in Colorado Springs and Butte, Montana -- sometimes flying, sometimes taking the Greyhound Bus..."I remember one year, Mike worked, and we had an unemployment check," says Dianne, remember when her husband, Walter, was out of work when his company went out of business. "We pooled our money and bought the two of them a one-way bus ticket to Colorado Springs. We had no idea how they were going to get home. We would worry about that later. They ended up making the cycling team, going all over the country and Canada that summer and coming home on the train"...at age 18, Witty was good enough to make the 1994 Olympic team, overcoming an early season back injury...inside the Viking Ship in Hamar, Witty struggled to 23rd place as Blair won the last of her five gold medals..."It was awesome," Dianne remembers. "It was Bonnie's party, you know. And it was like, it was a good experience for her. This is her fun Olympics, let her go and have a good time"...for Witty, following Blair has been a godsend -- not a burden..."We used to travel to Europe when we were on teams and stuff and she was always early to bed, eat right, great training, where I was this punk little kid coming along and I'd goof around and stay out late and that wasn't the best thing so I've learned a lot from her"...in the off-season, Witty focuses her training around cycling...a member of several world junior teams, Witty was an alternate on the 1996 US Olympic cycling team...Eric Heiden competed in the Tour de France, speed skating Olympic medalist Connie Paraskevin-Young skated at the 1980 Lake Placid and 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and cycled at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and the East German Christa Luding (née Rothenburger) won gold in speed skating at the 1988 Calgary Olympics and silver (by a spoke length) at the 1988 Seoul Games...it was Paraskevin-Young who outraced Witty in the match sprint to win the 1996 Olympic Trials..."I hope to get back into it again," says Witty. "It's tough because skating keeps me so busy but now that the Olympics are alternating, it makes it that much easier. So hopefully, after this winter, I'll be fine"...Witty also dabbles in the bass guitar...besides Mike, Chris' older brothers are Clint and Brian...