Athlete profile: Keiji Shirahata

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

Athlete notes

Keiji Shirahata is probably the only real Japanese threat in the 5,000m and 10,000m competitions...his skating is described as "rhythmical"...while his Dutch rivals like Bob de Jong or Rintje Ritsma use big strides to thrust themselves forward, Shirahata, with much shorter legs than most Europeans or Americans, uses shorter but quicker strides...because of his great stamina, Shirahata has a reputation to catch the paired skater from behind even if he falls far back in the first half of the long distance races...his secret weapon toward Nagano is the low oxygen room...to build up even better endurance, Shirahata and some other Japanese long distance skaters trains in a low oxygen environment without traveling to the mountains...a house near the M-Wave does not look any different form outside, but inside there is equipment that will make a 15 square foot room into a high land...the room is filled with low oxygen air - technically, 15.4 percent oxygen, which is the same percentage of oxygen as at a 2,500-meter altitude...Shirahata trains in this room 10 hours a day for a period of time before major competitions...using the stationary bike, he trains about 40 minutes before going to sleep...Shirahata plans to use the room right before the Olympics for eight days...Shirahata's short stride does not fit the characteristics of the clap skates as well as a taller skater like Ritsma, but he says he is not concerned, "I made a pair of skates with some carbon material at the bottom that cuts some of the weight off of the skates"...US speed skating team director Nick Thometz says Shirahata is a medal favorite in 5,000m and 10,000m..."He seems to be adjusting to the clap skates well, even when he seemed to be struggling, I think he was experimenting with the skates, going with a little longer strides than he usually does"...Shirahata has come on superbly since 1994, when he failed to make the Japanese team in Lillehammer...