Cumming man skates in the Olympics

TORIN, Italy - A Cumming man saw a dream come true Wednesday as he appeared in the Olympics, but he won't be bringing a medal home.

One teammate didn't show up, another couldn't keep up. And not even Chad Hedrick could do it alone. Already the owner of one gold medal, Hedrick was hoping to get started on another Wednesday in the two-day team pursuit.

But the Americans were eliminated in the quarterfinals, dashing Hedrick's hope of matching Eric Heiden's record five gold medals in a Winter Olympics.

"The five medals isn't a big thing," Hedrick said. "The most important thing for me right now is to go out and have fun. Things could be a lot worse right now."

Shani Davis skipped the pursuit to concentrate on his individual races, leaving Hedrick as the strongest skater on the three-man team.

"I can't think what might have been with Shani there," Hedrick said. "We had a team with good skaters. ... They all went out there and gave their hearts and tried their best.

"There's no one to blame."

Hedrick, KC Boutiette and Charles Ryan Leveille (who lists his hometown as Cumming, but now lives in Park City, Utah) lost to the Italian team of Matteo Anesi, Stefano Donagrandi and Enrico Fabris by nearly a half-second after leading through the first four laps.

Boutiette couldn't keep up with his younger teammates, lagging about 10 feet behind when Leveille and Hedrick were first across the finish line. The Italians crossed together, giving them the victory on home ice.

A team wins when its third skater crosses the line.

Leveille led the U.S. around the oval on the last lap, with Hedrick nearly overrunning him and pushing on his younger teammate's backside. Boutiette had no chance to make up the gap.

"When it gets to a certain point, your body does give out. I'm not a young buck anymore," the 35-year-old skater said. "I gave it my all."

Afterward, both Hedrick and Boutiette second-guessed the U.S. strategy of having Boutiette bring up the rear.

"If I would have been the back, with the energy I had left, I probably could have gone through more laps when the race was done," Hedrick said. "The strategy we set out backfired on us. We expected KC to be able to stay in there and KC expected to stay. It wasn't in the cards."

Hedrick, who won the 5,000 meters, was clearly frustrated, smacking his hands together on the cooldown lap and yelling in disgust.

"Our best bet would have been to have Chad in the back," Boutiette said. "It was kind of unfortunate he was in front of me because I knew once he starts pushing, I could be in trouble."

Hedrick had said Davis' presence would have meant "a pretty sure gold." But he never asked Davis to participate, saying, "It wasn't any of my business."

Hedrick said he has no problems with Davis, then added, "Every chance to represent your country and show what your country can do, I think you should take it. Other people may think differently."

The United States saved Hedrick for the eight-lap quarterfinals, using Derek Parra, Clay Mull and Leveille in the preliminary time trial, where they finished next-to-last among eight teams.

Against Italy, Hedrick skated the opening lap, giving the Americans an early lead before turning it over to Boutiette and Leveille for their turns at pulling the team along in their draft.

Next up for Hedrick and Davis is a showdown in the 1,000 Saturday.

"I'm going to bounce back and prove to everybody what I can do," Hedrick said. "You may beat Chad Hedrick once, but you're not going to beat him twice."