PYEONGCHANG, South Korea _ Despite missing out on a chance to become the oldest woman to win a gold medal at the Winter Games, seven-time Olympian Claudia Pechstein of Germany isn't yet ready to hang up her speedskates.
Pechstein, who was six days short of her 46th birthday on Friday when she faded and finished a distant eighth in the women's 5,000-meter race with a time of 7:05.43, said she intends to continue competing through the 2022 Beijing Games. "Why not?" she said, laughing.
Why not, indeed. Pechstein, who has won five gold medals, two silvers and two bronzes and set the Olympic record in the 5,000 since 2002, said she had been training well before Friday's 12 {-lap race. In addition, she has had success on the Gangneung Oval, having won a silver medal here last year in a World Cup 5,000-meter race to become the oldest women's speedskater to win a World Cup medal.
"The lap times up to six, seven laps were OK. I don't know why, now, it's not possible to make much more pressure," said Pechstein, who missed the 2010 Winter Games while serving a two-year ban for irregularities in her blood profile, a ban she has continued to fight to get overturned. "Normally in training I have no problems. I can go 10, 15 laps with really good lap times. I don't know why now. But the next chance is in four years to get the medal at the Olympics."
The winner on Friday was Esmee Visser of the Netherlands, who was 4 years old when Pechstein won her first medal at the 1992 Albertville Games. Visser's winning time was 6 minutes, 50.23 seconds, allowing her to end the two-Olympics winning streak of Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic. Sablikova was second in 6:51.85, with Natalia Voronina of the Olympic Athletes from Russia third in 6:53.98. Visser, 22 years and 20 days old, is the second-youngest winner of this event; Pechstein was the youngest, three days past her 22nd birthday, when she triumphed at Lillehammer in 1994.
The lone American entrant, Carlijn Schoutens, was 11th with a time of 7:13.28.
Pechstein, who finished ninth in the 3,000 last Saturday, was asked if she ever feels her age. She seemed to think it was a ridiculous question.
"No, no, no, no. Not yet," she said. "I don't think about my age. You?"
Many of the rest of us do, though.
