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MARTIN ROGERS
2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games

Olympic speedskater Joey Mantia displays poise, even after crushing disappointment

American speedskater Joey Mantia

GANGNEUNG, South Korea – About 45 minutes after the end of the mass start speedskating event Saturday night, there were three men wearing medals around their necks, grinning on the infield of the Gangneung Olympic Oval. My friend wasn’t among them.

Just like he had the previous night in the 1,000-meter event, American long tracker Joey Mantia crossed the line in the worst place in sports, one far more painful than dead last. He went over in fourth, behind Lee Seung-Hoon (South Korea), Bart Swings (Belgium) and Koen Verweij (Netherlands) -- the three men who were smiling and laughing and snapping selfies with volunteers.

Mass start is a convoluted event with a weird points system, so the official record will say Mantia finished ninth, but the fact is that if he’d been able to overhaul Verweij and clinch third, he would have been the bronze medalist.

This was the one he wanted and felt like he had a real shot, especially after winning the world championship a year earlier. Instead, all that effort, those early mornings and hours of toil, the sacrifices of fun and money and a normal life --  there is no medal with a ribbon tied to it for validation.

That will have to come from elsewhere, most likely from within. He will have to move on because, shoot, that’s just the way of the world. It moves quicker than ever, even something so timeless as the Olympics. Before Verweij had stepped off the infield, the oval was being ripped up and repurposed, competitive padding pulled down and the Pyeongchang 2018 dragged off. Before long, the venue will be turned into some kind of refrigeration or storage center. At the rate the volunteers were going, there might be boxes piled up there tomorrow.

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Soon, Mantia will be back at his home near Salt Lake City, with a decision to make. Four more years or time to move on? Early indications are that he’ll be back. After all, what could stoke the fires more than coming so close? Twice.

He’s a fairly new friend but a good one, funny as hell and not afraid to deliver witty abuse by text message. My son has never met Mantia but likes sending him funny video messages and, while I’m in a job where I’m paid to be neutral, there was no chance of that during this competition.

There are questions -- there always are when the result doesn’t go the way you wanted. Would it have been different if fellow American Brian Hansen had gotten through his heat and been available to draft off? Or if Mantia’s semifinal had been a little easier and smoother? Or if his legs hadn’t started cramping late? We’ll never know, and in any case, that’s for him to think about, not me.

I think only of how it’s been a privilege to get an inside look at the process, the obsession that goes into chasing success, to hear of the moments of doubt and those of optimism, to get to know an athlete who is dedicated entirely to his craft but hasn’t lost sight of how to be a quality human being.

He spoke afterward in the media zone, and you could see the disappointment, but he’s a professional and struck the right notes of perspective and circumspection. He’s handled himself admirably, and when it would have been easy to get frustrated with Team USA's continued struggles to reach the Olympic podium and the whole Shani Davis sideshow, he didn’t.

Not everyone gets to win an Olympic medal, however much you want them to. Someone has to finish fourth, every time. Too bad they don’t hand out the hardware for being a classy individual, because Mantia would be top of the podium.

 

 

 

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